Canadian Railroads > Trans-Canada Air Lines Timetable 1963

No....it's actually Canadian National's 'Inter-city' schedules and covered a full page in the Trans-Canada Air Lines 1963 Timetable. And as TCA (now Air Canada) was a subsidiary of Canadian National Railways.....I guess it was appropriate the schedules were included just in case your Viscount or Vanguard was grounded you knew you had other options!

And if you go way back to TCA's early years in 1940......”Direct Connection is made for passengers from the Maritime Provinces at St Hubert Airport (Montreal) from Canadian National Railways “Ocean Limited” to Trip No 11 for Ottawa and Toronto. The “Ocean Limited” will stop at the airport to discharge through passengers”

If you continued into Montreal on the Ocean Limited and connected to Ottawa.....you would arrive at Noon or be in Toronto at 5:15pm. Flying would have you in Ottawa at 10am or Toronto at 11:25am.

(**St. Hubert Airport is located along CN's mainline,10 miles east of Montreal. YUL Airport that VIA stops near today is in Dorval 12 miles west)

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And in this Canadian Pacific Railway 1960 Timetable......you were given the option to exchange your railway ticket for a Canadian Pacific Airlines 'Convair' flight between Calgary-Cranbrook-Castlegar instead of taking the train through the Crowsnest Pass. That CPR Timetable also had ads for the new DC-8 Jet Empresses and Empress Liners.

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Wow, what a great post Gary

The ad for jet service in the CPR timetable reminded me that these DC-8s were not CPA's first jets. They were however the first jets in regular service for CPA.  Here is an ad from the CPR train time table dated September 28, 1952 promoting a service that was to start sometime in 1953.  Following British Overseas Airways Corporation B.O.A.C. (now British Airways) lead CPA ordered 2 de Havilland Comet 1As to be used on their Hawaii-Australia service. Due to the Comets limited range, they were to be based in Australia and were to connect with the new Super DC-6 Vancouver-Hawaii service. 

**On a side note the cover the cover uses two different fonts for "Canadian Pacific", the only time table cover to do so.**

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

 

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The next time table is Canadian Pacific Airlines December 15, 1952 issue advertising both the Vancouver-Hawaii with Super DC-6s (commencing Jan. 2, 1953) and the Hawaii-Australia service that was to begin on March 14, 1953.  On March 3, 1953 CPA's Comet 1A "Empress of Hawaii" crashed on takeoff while on its delivery flight to Australia.  That night in Karachi, Pakistan the crew of five along with six employees of de Havilland were killed. This was the first fatal jetliner crash and resulted in CPA's cancellation of the other Comet on order.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

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Thanks for posting those Gerry.....they're great!

I love looking at old railway timetables.  Thanks, Gerry.

That is a superb photo of CP's Empress of Canada. I have a soft spot for that ship. Although I didn't sail on the ship, it was the first ocean liner I toured. It was during embarkation of the Empress's last crossing from Montreal to Liverpool in November 1971. Many will remember that Carnival Cruises bought that Empress as their first ship and named it the Mardi Gras.

CP Air named many of their aeroplanes Empresses. A few times my wife and I flew home from Vancouver (after a Toronto-Vancouver trip on The Canadian I should add) on a CP Empress plane. One of the 747s was named Empress of Canada.

It was impressive that at one time people could travel a substantial part of the planet on Canadian Pacific.  As recently as the 1970s it was possible to do so to a certain extent. In 1972 we went from Toronto to Vancouver on The Canadian, then an eight-day cruise to Alaska and back on the Princess Patricia, then the  Princess of Vancouver ferry to Nanaimo, the CPR RDC to Victoria, a night at the Empress Hotel, and finally the Princess Marguerite ferry to Seattle. I quipped that in almost a fortnight we stepped off Canadian Pacific property only for two short taxi rides.

Canadian Pacific Airways never flew the Comet (shown in the advertisements). They were to have been the third Comet operator had not the first of their order crashed prior to delivery on March 3rd, 1953. This accident was followed in quick succession by three further Comet accidents that grounded the aircraft until 1958. In 1959 CP committed to the DC-8 for their initial jet fleet.
 

GN1969 Wrote:
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> Canadian Pacific Airways never flew the Comet
> (shown in the advertisements). They were to have
> been the third Comet operator had not the first of
> their order crashed prior to delivery on March
> 3rd, 1953. This accident was followed in quick
> succession by three further Comet accidents that
> grounded the aircraft until 1958. In 1959 CP
> committed to the DC-8 for their initial jet
> fleet.
The ad was printed before the jets were placed in service.  This service was to start March 14th as indicated by the footnote at the bottom right side of the page.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

ghCBNS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No....it's actually Canadian National's
> 'Inter-city' schedules and covered a full page in
> the Trans-Canada Air Lines 1963 Timetable. And as
> TCA (now Air Canada) was a subsidiary of Canadian
> National Railways.....I guess it was appropriate
> the schedules were included just in case your
> Viscount or Vanguard was grounded you knew you had
> other options!
>
> And if you go way back to TCA's early years in
> 1940......”Direct Connection is made for
> passengers from the Maritime Provinces at St
> Hubert Airport (Montreal) from Canadian National
> Railways “Ocean Limited” to Trip No 11 for
> Ottawa and Toronto. The “Ocean Limited” will
> stop at the airport to discharge through
> passengers”
>
> If you continued into Montreal on the Ocean
> Limited and connected to Ottawa.....you would
> arrive at Noon or be in Toronto at 5:15pm. Flying
> would have you in Ottawa at 10am or Toronto at
> 11:25am.
>
> (**St. Hubert Airport is located along CN's
> mainline,10 miles east of Montreal. YUL Airport
> that VIA stops near today is in Dorval 12 miles
> west)

Loving the posts, old timetables like these really interest me, so thanks for sharing. I hope you don't mind me asking what may be a question with an answer as obvious as I think - but am I reading the timetable wrongly or were Toronto/Montreal trains really taking 6.75/7.5 hours city-to-city in 1963, I thought the norm was 5.5 hours just before the Rapido service commenced?

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Hexagon789 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Loving the posts, old timetables like these really
> interest me, so thanks for sharing. I hope you
> don't mind me asking what may be a question with
> an answer as obvious as I think - but am I reading
> the timetable wrongly or were Toronto/Montreal
> trains really taking 6.75/7.5 hours city-to-city
> in 1963, I thought the norm was 5.5 hours just
> before the Rapido service commenced?
>
> Posted from Android

Yes they were taking 6 1/2 hrs +. Here's the full Mont-Tor timetable for summer 1963 and remember there were Pool Trains then....jointly operated by CN and CP

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That's excellent, thank you very much.

Shows how much the Rapidos sped things up really.

Don't suppose you know if it was it just the extra stops that made the pool trains slower or were speeds lower too?

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