I see from the latest news from Rapido that the CNR FP9A units will be released soon, September 2013, at long last.
For years I have been collecting the various CNR passenger cars in Rapido’s CN Intercontinental livery,
I only purchased these passenger cars in the hope that eventually I would be able to collect the whole train.
Only now (soon) will Rapido be releasing the appropriate FP9 locomotives for this CN passenger train.
However, Rapido still has not released an Observation or other rear end coach for this train.
It sure seems strange that Rapido releases the CPR Canadian passenger train with the appropriate engines before they finished with the CN Intercontinental.
As luck would have it I found a picture of one of CN’s Observation cars and it is almost a copy of lthe HO Business Car that Kato released a few years ago.
The Kato car will make a suitable stand in for a proper tail end car until such time that Rapido, if they do, release their tail end Observation car.
CN did buy some of the Milwaukee’s Observation cars but I am looking for those with the old Green, Yellow and Black livery. So for some these cars have been released by Walthers for the later trains
Did the Super Continental even have an observation car back then? I am suspecting that the ex-Milw cars may have been the only observations the CN had…
The Super Continental did not normally have any special tail end car. Just one of the sleepers, I believe. The observation cars Burrard and the Bedford were indeed ordered at the same time, but for other service. You would have needed at least 7 or 8 to outfit the “Super”.
No doubt sometimes a CN official would tack his business car on the rear, the most likely time you might see a classic tail end car.
The missing car is the diner, which Rapido does plan to make eventually to complete the set.
They never wore that paint scheme. They weren’t acquired until around 1964, so only would have ever worn black and grey in CN service.
The SuperContinental (not InterContinental) would have normally not had an observation car.
The open-platform “observation” cars like the Bedford and Burrard were company business (private) cars; not general service sleeper-observations for regular trains.