Canadian Railroads > Please Tell Me About This Gem

Roger Puta shot Canadian Pacific 6 in August 1978. Jerry LaBoda's Passenger Car Photo Index site has nothing. I love information to write a really good caption.


Thanks,
Marty Bernard

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These numbered business cars were originally "Cape" series solarium-buffet-lounge with four bedrooms and one compartment. There is a photo and floor plan of Cape Churchill on this "Old Time Trains" page.

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_rolling/four.htm

Cape Race, as car 13, was purchased by the Upper Canada Railway Society and is presently at the railway museum in Toronto.

http://www.trha.ca/trha/canadian-pacific-cape-race/

My first thought was that the photo was taken in Winnipeg with the (Royal) Alexandra Hotel in the background. But that hotel was closed in 1967 and demolished in 1971. Perhaps it is Calgary where there was an Alexandra hotel that looks like the one in the photo.

http://cdm280501.cdmhost.com/cdm/ref/collection/p280501coll15/id/3342

The freight building in the background does make me think this is Calgary but I do not recall what the buildings in the background were along 9th Avenue. IIRC the Concert Hall was built somewhere around this area [corner of 9th Ave and 1st Str SE] so it could be this photo is before the demolition of the pre-existing buildings.

The Concert Hall was opened in September 1985 according to what I've looked up so this enhances my belief this is in Calgary. I think those buildings might have been a little east of where the Jack Singer Concert Hall was built.

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/17 08:14 by rschonfelder.

DrawingroomA- Thank you for sharing your "extra" photos. I really enjoyed these cars. wag216

Didn't a car like this provide food service on the Alouette or Red Wing?

As a side note, a sister car, business car #4 is in Revelstoke at the Railway Museum there. It was built in 1929 as a solarium lounge car named the "River Humber". In 1941 it was redesigned as a cape car named the "Cape Ray". In 1963 it became a business car and was used by the Division Superintendent for Revelstoke until 1992.