Canadian Railroads > Passenger cars @ Vancouver, BC, January 1979

Several vintage, stored, passenger cars were spotted at the CP yard in Vancouver in January 1979:

Victoria Pacific 'parlour' car - Craigflower
A CP passenger car (unable to spot number)
CP Riverton

Any additional spotting information regarding these cars is greatly appreciated

Happy New Year

Jonathan Fischer
West Seattle, WA

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Victoria Pacific was a tourist operation which operated briefly on CN trackage around Victoria BC in the 1970's. The "Craigflower" is an ex-CP "Cape" solarium-lounge-sleeper (bedrooms). The streamlined car is a CP 2100 or 2200 coach. The sleepers are CP "R" series sleepers, these were rebuilt from N and other series 12 and 1 sleepers. Many of these were sold or scrapped after Expo 67.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> Victoria Pacific was a tourist operation which
> operated briefly on CN trackage around Victoria BC
> in the 1970's. The "Craigflower" is an ex-CP
> "Cape" solarium-lounge-sleeper (bedrooms). The
> streamlined car is a CP 2100 or 2200 coach. The
> sleepers are CP "R" series sleepers, these were
> rebuilt from N and other series 12 and 1 sleepers.
> Many of these were sold or scrapped after Expo 67.

The streamlined car is a 22XX series.

JFArrFan Wrote:
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> Several vintage, stored, passenger cars were
> spotted at the CP yard in Vancouver in January
> 1979:
>
> Victoria Pacific 'parlour' car - Craigflower
> A CP passenger car (unable to spot number)
> CP Riverton
>
> Any additional spotting information regarding
> these cars is greatly appreciated

Craigflower and Riverton passed into the collection of the National Railway Historical Society, B.C. Chapter, one of whose principals had been the main player in the Victoria Pacific operation.

Craigflower had started life in May 1929 as CP buffet-lounge-solarium River Clare, had sleeping accommodation added and the buffet removed in 1943 and was renamed Cape Clare, in 1945 being renamed Cape Hurd. In 1963 it became official car CP 14.  It was renamed Craigflower in preservation (the name has Victoria connotations) but later regained its original name of River Clare.

Riverton also dated to 1929, starting as a CP 8-1-2 sleeper of that name. It retained that name and configuration throughout its service life and preservation.

Most of the NRHS-BC equipment was bought by the Heber Valley Railroad in 2019. I don't know if River Clare was among that group, but Riverton definitely was not. It and two other cars were purchased by CP for either parts or restoration, but eventually all three were scrapped after useful parts were salvaged.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/22 00:09 by railsmith.

Thank you for the helpful information

Jonathan Fischer
West Seattle, WA