Nostalgia & History > The Original Six

In Canada, the term ‘The Original Six’ usually refers to the six teams that made up the National Hockey League until the 1967 Expansion. These six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

With all those cities easily reachable overnight or even on a daytime trip.....railways were the usual means of transportation for the teams.

Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson***-Saint-Constant, Quebec has a nice display depicting overnight travel by the Montreal Canadiens in a typical CPR 12 Sec 1 DR Sleeper Neville from that era:

(***Delson, Quebec is named for the Delaware and Hudson Railway....and the junction between the CPR and the D&H route to New York State. The D&H was actually known as the Napiervile Jct Rwy in Canada)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/17 02:58 by ghCBNS.

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Excellent.  Most games in the Canadian cities were held on Saturday night for "Hockey  Night in Canada."  If the Wings (who have won the most Stanley Cups of any American team) were in Montreal, they would board the train following the game for the trip to Detroit for  a re-match with the hated Habs on Sunday at Olympia.  The Canadiens would do the same. Each team had their own sleeping car. The great Ted Lindsay has told stories  of players for their respective teams refusing to enter the dining car if members of their hated rivals were there. When the Canadiens would go by train to Chicago after a Saturday night game, they would at times arrive late in the afternoon and get a police escort from the Loop out to the Stadium. Skip to today where the Wings have their own plane and teams are seen in pre game warm up chatting away with their opponents. How times have changed. 

Also interesting they screwed up the Leaf's logo. That design wasn't used until 1967 (their last Cup), well after they stopped traveling by train on a regular basis. The Bruins logo also has the wrong colors. The "B" was yellow back in the day.  (and you thought railfans were obsessive). 

thanks for posting these great pics and info...........

66

And the sections were assigned how?

nice post !

The lower berth cost a bit more than an upper berth.  The upper berth passenger is assigned the backwards sofa seat and the lower berth passenger is assigned the forward facing sofa seat for daytime travel.  Not an issue when a couple or family traveling together has both the upper and lower berths assigned.  Here is a photo taken earlier this month of an open section on a former Canadian Pacific "Manor" series Budd built sleeper, now in VIA Rail Canada service on Train 2 the "Canadian" March 7 2017 

 

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Time for another visit to Exporail . . . I had missed this!

BuddPullman Wrote:
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> The lower berth cost a bit more than an upper
> berth.  The upper berth passenger is assigned the
> backwards sofa seat and the lower berth passenger
> is assigned the forward facing sofa seat for
> daytime travel.  Not an issue when a couple or
> family traveling together has both the upper and
> lower berths assigned.  Here is a photo taken
> earlier this month of an open section on a former
> Canadian Pacific "Manor" series Budd built
> sleeper, now in VIA Rail Canada service on Train 2
> the "Canadian" March 7 2017 
>
>  
Don't forget this car was a charter and not for the use of anyone just the team.  I was asking specifically about Les Canadiens.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Time for another visit to Exporail . . . I had
> missed this!

And very convenient to reach too! AMT has a train on weekdays from downtown to Saint-Constant at 9:30 and a return at 1:15pm…giving about 3 hrs on-site.

Gocha.

​This looks to be a beautiful display of a heavyweight Pullman as dipicted in the photos above. Here in Sacramento we have former Canadian National Pullman, Saint Hyacinthe at the California State RR Museum on display.  It is always great to see a railcar preserved for the public to see and enjoy.


4489 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BuddPullman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The lower berth cost a bit more than an upper
> > berth.  The upper berth passenger is assigned
> the
> > backwards sofa seat and the lower berth
> passenger
> > is assigned the forward facing sofa seat for
> > daytime travel.  Not an issue when a couple or
> > family traveling together has both the upper
> and
> > lower berths assigned.  Here is a photo taken
> > earlier this month of an open section on a
> former
> > Canadian Pacific "Manor" series Budd built
> > sleeper, now in VIA Rail Canada service on Train
> 2
> > the "Canadian" March 7 2017 
> >
> >  
> Don't forget this car was a charter and not for
> the use of anyone just the team.  I was asking
> specifically about Les Canadiens.

ghCBNS Wrote:
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> And very convenient to reach too! AMT has a train on weekdays from downtown to Saint-Constant at 9:30 and a return at 1:15pm.

I usually stop on my way back to the states via car, but the AMT station is just a short walk from the museum.

It looks like they used the current day (at time of making the sign) logos for all teams rather than back in the day ones.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Also interesting they screwed up the Leaf's logo.
> That design wasn't used until 1967 (their last
> Cup), well after they stopped traveling by train
> on a regular basis. The Bruins logo also has the
> wrong colors. The "B" was yellow back in the day.
>  (and you thought railfans were obsessive). 

I think some where I have an Official Guide that shows a CN-GTW train from Montreal to Chicago on several Staurday nights during the Hockey Season, apparently run after Chicago at Montreal games to take the teams to Montreal at Chicago Games on Sunday.

Living here in ChicagoLand, home of the NEW Hockey Town USA, I immediately thought of the title as referring to the NHL.  Great story and pictures.

WrongMain Wrote:
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> Living here in ChicagoLand, home of the NEW Hockey
> Town USA, I immediately thought of the title as
> referring to the NHL.  Great story and pictures.

#GoHawks!

looking at that diamond green upholstery on board the "neville" my back began to itch immediately.

Jamie Yeager
Santa Fe, NM

I remember those days. The Bruins and Canadiens at times fought on the train to and from Boston and Montreal.