November 1968 The lounge car on the International was ex-Nickle Plate. Parlors between Toronto and Montreal were rebuilt modernized heavyweights with 6-wheel trucks.
Thanks Dave- Thought perhaps it was mid to late fifties and some steam involved but not in '68.
CN sure gave passenger service a good go of it and tried to revitalize it all in the 60’s. At least they tried and over a considerable time but in the end it was not to be. CP tried into the later 50’s but soon gave up and never came close to CN, except for “The Canadian”.
The Truro-Sydney segment also lost passenger service, and the Bretton Island portion is even threatened with rail abandonment.
Midland Mike- well geez, thats not good. This is short sighted in todays world.
I guess since the Sydney steel mills and nearby coal mines shut down, there is not much traffic on Cape Breton Island. VIA ran a weekly tour train on the line in the early 2000s, but it only lasted a few years. I rode it in 2001.
Thanks for the information…I was there in the summer of 2008. Still it seems short sighted to tear out rails these days anywhere because you just never know, things can turn on a dime. Once its gone its pretty much gone along with the past and the future. I live in the far north of Saskatchewan now since '08 and there is talk of the demise of the former CN line up to Churchill…the native folk may buy it as they did with the line to Lynn Lake. Interesting.
I have been to Nova Scotia a half dozen times. When I first went in 1979, the mainland was practically ringed by tracks, and the Cape Breton Island line was busy. So much has been lost, and I also hope they cane save the rest.
Now, not only does Neewfoundland not have any rail serice, but also PEI. When they built the causeway, stupid not to restore rail. Economic development would be helped greatly.
Thanks for the new round of observation car experiences. I believe George Pins former PRR 120 was featured in the episode of ‘Great Railway Journeys of the World’ titled ‘Coast to Coast’. Ludovic Kennedy rode the car, attached to the Broadway Limited, from NYC to Harrisburg where it was detatched for a dinner with Mr. Pins and Rogers Whitaker. Mr. Kennedy seemed unmoved by the open platform experience, although he conceded it might have been due to poor roadbed conditions of that era (circa 1979 or '80).
Edit - ‘Coast to Coast’ part I can be found online here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXp-AD6xMY
–Reed
DaveK and Miningman, I got this from my brother-in-law “Big B” who was darn-near a regular commuter to Newfoundland for a number of years and a big Newfoundland Railway fan, so take it for what it’s worth.
“B” told me that in the late 80’s the Province of Newfoundland was presented with a choice from the Canadian government. They could keep a revitalized Newfoundland Railway or they could have the Trans-Canada Highway, they couldn’t have both. As the railroad never made any money, except during World War Two, it was an easy but sad choice, the Railway had to go.
Courtesy of “Big B” I’ve got a fine collection of Newfoundland Railway books, probably the only such collection in Virginia. I’m also looking at a photo on the wall as we speak of the “Newfie Bullet” rolling through St. John’s Bowring Park.
We’ve been to Newfoundland twice, last time was 1997. I picked up a Newfoundland Railway “Gone But Not Forgotten” sweatshirt which has (ahem) shrunk over the years.
Lady Firestorm’s mother is a Newfoundland native, by the way. “The SENIOR British colony!” as she proudly put it! And as she once said “I am NOT a Canadian, I’m a NEWFOUNDLANDER!”
Ever hear the joke about how “fast” the “Newfie Bullet” ran? A woman on the train yelled to the conductor “Mr. Conductor! I’m going into labor!” “Missus, if you knew your time was comin’ why’d you get on the train?”
“When I got on the train I wasn’t pregnant!”
And Redwards, have you ever read Ludovic Kennedy’s “Pursuit,” the story of the hunt for and sinking of the Bismarck? Magnificent and melancholy. Mr. Kennedy was there on HMS Tartar as a young officer, but not there at the finish, Tartar having had to break off to refuel.
Yes sir, a fantastic book. I enjoyed reading about battleships almost as much as trains in my formative years.
–Reed
The Trans Canada Highway was completed by 1971. I drove it across Newfoundland in 1982. I think the cross island “Bullet” was gone by then, but there was still some local and St Johns commuter service. I am guessing he might have been talking about upgrades to the TCH in the late 80’s.
Pretty much. When we were there in 1992 the portion of the Trans-Canada from St. Johns to Placentia was unpaved. Smooth and easy to ride on, but dirt surfaced just the same. When we came back five years later in 1997 it had been paved. What it was like in the rest of “The Rock” I don’t know, we didn’t tour any further than the Avalon Penninsula.
Oh, my lord. We took a family vacation to Newfoundland in 1968, in a two-year-old Lincoln Continental, going across on the ferry to Sydney and then up the west coast from Corner Brook to L’Anse aux Meadows (which was still holes in the ground at that early time). We had Goodyear Double Eagle tires (those tire-within-a tire things, if I recall correctly) so there were no flats – but when we got down to Corner Brook again, you couldn’t tell the color of the car. Took more than 20 minutes to wash it, too. Gave me some insight into American driving in the era before the Good Roads movement gained traction.
On the other hand, that was when much of the narrow gauge was still working, including Geeps with those funky outside frames. I remember paralleling a passenger train at night – headlight beam out front and rows of cheerily lit windows, almost like an illustration out of a children’s book. (I also remember some ‘neighborhood kids’ putting rocks on the track to hear the explosions when a locomotive ran over them). Hard to believe all that is gone.
I don’t remember any unpaved sections in 1982. Placentia is off the TCH. I noticed on my Rand-McNally that the section from St John’s to the Placentia turn-off is now an expressway.
OK, my memory might be shaky on this one. It was probably the section after you turned off the TCH to get to Placentia. I sure know it was a dirt road all right, at least in 1992. In 1997, hard-surface. Hardly matters at any rate, it’s there, the railroad’s gone. But not forgotten!