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Great pic as usual! I believe that first car was known as one of the “Crusader” cars CN purchased from a US road.
Another wonderful ‘color’ capture from the good old days Mr. Mooney! I remember when Terra Transport started to bring in the bright green containers and when new, they certainly brightened up the otherwise dull and faded boxcars. At the end, most trains were all container, except for the coach(s) added to the mixed between Bishops Falls and Corner Brook which sometimes ran with no freight cars and was pure passenger! – Ken
The passenger car on the head end ( although running backwards) is indeed from the Reading Railroad Crusader train. CN purchased the cars in 1962.
Two of the train’s original five cars survive. An observation car is in the collection of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg, Pennsylvania. The other observation was in service as part of the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train in Washington state until 2007, and is now part of the passenger car fleet of Iowa Pacific Holdings.
Nice picture Mr. Mooney ! Very much like the cab unit in CN colour, the B unit in VIA paint, and silver ex-Reading Crusader observation coach. CN acquired a Crusader set from Reading Railway for equipping a fast Montreal-Quebec City train , called the Champlain (I think). The train set did a round trip each day, and with a coach observation car on each end, only the power had to be turned at each terminal. This equipment was transferred to Toronto and the set broken up , and cars were used on Southwestern Ontario passenger trains (as in this picture) and on CN’s summertime Fri nb Muskoka Special.
Thanks for all the comments. This is much appreciated!! Okay. “Crusader”. I had better add that to my notes.
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CN initially dubbed the set the “Champlain” and used it Montreal-Quebec service. By the 1970s the cars were Toronto-based and were generally integrated with the rest of the corridor fleet. CN also had baggage car 9646 painted silver with a black band to match these cars.
VIA operated the cars well into 1982, but never repainted any of them.
Thanks, Jakob. I do have some pics with one of these cars on other passenger trains going thru Bayview. Usually on the tail end, going west.
The ex Reading RR observation cars were still being used when I hired on in 1981. I had the pleasure of working as a brakeman on these cars in Southwestern Ontario. Sadly the observation cars were removed from for safety reasons. Unlike the CP/VIA dome observation cars, the ex Crusader cars did not have a door at both ends of the coach to offer escape in case of an accident so they were taken out of service, but the regular coaches soldiered on a few more years.