Caption:

Curious how fifties mainline classics find their way to remote rails.....

Deep into the east St. Lawrence north shore,

Cartier steam generator car #899 ( NSC built ) is coupled to the

Cartier Railway business car #847, a Budd 1949 built for NYC five bedroom – buffet – round end observation ex NYC #10560 BABBLING BROOK resides at the Cartier Railway shop – one of two ex NYC Brook series cars owned the Cartier,

at Port Cartier, P.Q. ex CPR ' Seaview ' June 7, 1981 Kodak Tri X negative by S.Danko

what's interesting: four of the seven ex NYC Brook series cars at one time or another were owned and operated in Canada by three owners.

and surprise ! , the eighteen Budd built ' Park ' cars, assigned to ' The Canadian ' and ' Dominion ' were not the last CPR purchase of round end observation cars.

in 1948 – 1949 Budd built for NYC seven "BROOK" series classics, the four NYC ' Brook ' cars acquired 1959 by the CPR :

Babbling Brook 10560 to CPR ' Seaview' ; to Cartier business car #847; to several private owners, and restored by current owner Webb Rail LLC as the 'Babbling Brook'

Fall Brook 10562; to CPR ' Eastview'; to United Railway Supply Montreal in 1969; fire damaged currently for sale by Ozark Mountain Railcar

Plum Brook 10563; to CPR 'Riverview'; to Cartier business car #846; to private owner (Bill Gray)

Singing Brook 10564 (10630); to CPR ' Mountain View '; to ACR #551 ' Canyon View '; to West Texas and Buffalo Steamship and Railway Company 'Dagny Taggart'

In their seven year regular service CPR career two View cars each were assigned to Pool Trains 21 and 22 between Montreal and Toronto, and the other two View cars to the Pool Trains 33 and 34 between Ottawa and Toronto ( via the Havelock Sub). Initially, the Montreal View cars operated through to Hamilton with two other sleepers on No. 321, returning on No. 328. By 1966 all those trains were canceled and/or replaced by RDC's with the View cars in storage / for sale.

Three of the four CPR View cars had standard size windows in the round end observation, except: ex NYC Singing Brook 10564 (10630), with sisters ex NYC Sunrise Brook 10565 (10631) [ 1964 to private (Jones Properties) to NdeM] and Wingate 10566 (10632) [ to Gateway Rail] all built with extra high observation end windows, the three high windowed Brook series originally assigned to NYC's St.Louis to New York 'Southwestern Limited'

The four standard observation windowed Brook's ( three purchased by CPR), including Bonnie Brook 10561 (10670) [sold 1964 to private party; to New Orleans NRHS], were assigned to NYC's premier "New England States" and 'Ohio State Limited ' service.....and by 1957 all those NYC trains canceled / replaced.

It was great to see, through the eighties – nineties, the extra high observation windowed ex CPR 'Mountain View' nee NYC 'Singing Brook' on the Algoma Central as their #551 'Canyon View'.

Really amazing that all seven of the NYC Brook observation classics survive today.

sdfourty