The Canadian

craig72x

New member
Hi all.

I want to run The Canadian in TRS 2006.

Can anyone tell me how the consist was made up, EG which locomotive was used and the order of the coaches?

Thanks for any help.

Craig. :cool:
 
Depends on the era, the time of year and the location. The Canadian prior to 1980s would split off (I think in Sudbury) with half continuing to Toronto and the remainder to Montreal. The prairies typically saw long streams of sleepers and the mountain regions saw long streams of day coaches but Via changed the schedules and most of the mountains were traveled at night for a while then the switched again but I don't remember when.

During off season times the canadian is operated with only a few cars.

in the 60s and 70s the typical consist was as follows:
- For the Winter months:
-- F9a, f9b, Dormatory, 2 day coaches, Dome car, 2 cars that turned into sleepers (don't remember the name of them but they had curtains to separate the compartments for the aisle), Dining Car, 3 compartments cars, followed by the "Park" observation car.

- For peak Summer Months:
- F9a, 2 or 3 F9b, F9a, Baggage (sometimes 2 but rarely), Dormatory, up to 6 day coach, Dome car, up to 6 of the convertable sleepers, Dining Car, as many as 8 compartment cars followed by the Park car.

After 1978 when Via took over the consist was modified significantly with the addition of more dome cars scattered through the consist with 2 being the norm in winter and up to 5 in peak season. In the early 80s, via started the transfer from CP lines to CN lines and introduced a mix of motive consists using both CP and CN passenger power and on occasion used freight units and added a steam generator car behind the units. Toward the later 80s and early 90s they retired the old F9 units and switched to modern units but I can not remember the classification of them - I lost interest in passenger service after Via took over - they really killed rail travel in Canada

Via was able to operate more dome cars in the consist because almost all other passenger trains which used them were cut significantly and no longer warrented their use. For a while during the transition period, it was not uncommon to see ex CN passenger equipment thrown in to the mix to fill out the trains while Via upgraded / repaired the Canadians aging equipment.

On occasion, in extreme winter conditions on the Prairies it was not uncommon for the Canadian to be outfitted with extremely short trains running in sections because the steam line would freeze up on long trains. Also during extreme cold, it was often necessary to operate at speeds not exceeding 30mph to prevent the axle mounted generators from breaking due to ice build-up.

Hope this helps a bit. I will try to look up the car designations later unfortunately it is time to leave for work.

Have Fun

Bricey
 
Hi Bricey.

Many thanks for your helpful and informative advice. Makes interesting reading.

Unfortunately I don’t have all the coaches you mentioned. If your interested I have decided to make the consist as follows:

Loco: LNER Mallard. (I like the mallard & it looks good).

Coaches:

1 baggage car, 1 Post Office car, 3 Day Cars, 1 Buffet car, 3 Sleeper Cars and the observation car.

I know it not accurate, but I think it looks good running on the Razor Back line.

Once again, thanks for your help.
 
If you have TRS2006 then you should already have the Canadian, at least the early diesel version, it's part of the Toronto Raillands route.

Hi all.

I want to run The Canadian in TRS 2006.

Can anyone tell me how the consist was made up, EG which locomotive was used and the order of the coaches?

Thanks for any help.

Craig. :cool:
 
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