Canadian Railroads > Monochrome Monday - CP RDCs at Rigaud in the 70s

This one is sketchy in terms of what I know about the subject. After a day trip to Montreal, the return to Ottawa brought us through Rigaud in the twilight, at 1900 on Saturday, April 16, 1977. Even with Tri-X, the fabulously fast but grainy film in the camera, I was at 1/30 and f1.8, wide open on the Pentax. The quartet of RDCs had RDC-5 9300 on the east end of the consist. To be honest, I don't know what service these provided; I thought Rigaud was served by the conventional commuter equipment, but I welcome any clarification. Bruce Chapman would have told me at the time; I took no notes. Sigh.
Fred

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Considering the conditions, this is an "A+" photo.
Bob

They provided commuter service to and from Windsor St. (Montreal)

Before the bi-level cars were delivered in the early 1970's, RDC's were used on the mid-day commuter trains between downtown Montreal and Vaudreuil-Dorion because they did not have to be turned on the loop before returning to Montreal.(also they didn't require a fireman or a second trainman of consists of three cars or less) The 9300 appears to be one of the CP RDC's where the baggage section had been converted to passenger accommodation. As I recall, this conversion included standee railings and side mounted seating like a bus.

As time progressed, the RDC's were used on other commuter schedules out of Montreal and the RDC trains grew to be very large. Apparently, the longer the RDC consist, the less efficient they became in terms of fuel consumption and the air brake system. They created a lot of exhaust and I recall train watching at Dorval and watching a black cloud progressing westward behind the distinctive gyra-light headlight on the RDC's.

The commuter trains to Rigaud served a very specialized market, being the upscale community of Hudson, where many of the old money business executives of Montreal lived a semi-rural lifestyle.

As a very junior office worker at the CP headquarters, I commuted one station west. CP issued bus ticket style discount tickets to employees. One evening, I sat in the last car of a departing commuter train. The car was a heavyweight long distance coach, with a smoking lounge included with the mens washroom. The lounge was filled with cigar smoking "captains of industry", some of them CP executives. In a style typical of CP, I was politely told to find somewhere else to sit because they were engaged in a card game.Keep in mind that CP had a strict "no games of chance" policy, posted in every washroom.

That card game lasted for decades, and many others were politely told to find somewhere else to sit.

  
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 10:07 by eminence_grise.

The card game like many other things on the railroad was governed by the IAD ( it all depends) rule. I witnessed it many times in the steam locomotive cabs when the 4 men in the cab limit was not enforced so a visiting VIP could ride along. Happens all the time.

   Ross Rowland 

Great photo Fred.  Luckily I took notes and will save you from the wrath of LBC. ;>)  As a matter of fact Bruce droped by last night but I digress.

From the timetable for that was valid April 16, 1977, your train would be RDC295 which departed Montréal's Windsor Station at 16:10 and arrived in Rigaud at !7:35.  I beleive the set stayed over in order to cover the next day's departure.  There would be another RDC arriving later that night also laying over to Sunday.  This is what took place when convenional trains took over from the RDCs on these runs. 

Here's 9300's history from CPRDieselRoster.com.   Built by Budd as a RDC-2 (CPR 9102) in Sept, 1955. Converted to a RDC-5 at Angus Shops in April, 1974 (CP Rail 9300)  Sold to VIA in 1982, out-shopped at a RDC-1, (VIA 6146) in Dec of 1982.  Wrecked at Wessex siding north of Carstairs, AB on March 23, 1983 sadly with a loss of the engineman and 4 passengers..

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

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Thanks, Gerry! There's always someone who can fill in the gap, and if it's schedules, it's you. For some reason the Quote function doesn't seem to be working right now.
Fred

And DDC denoted Double Deck Cars, aks Gallery Cars, aka the 900's.