DAR411585

Dominion Atlantic Railway Crew Car No. 411585

Built in July 1907 by CPR's Angus shops as a wooden 100 series suburban railway car, numbered 141, it was converted to a work car in July 1952 and renumbered 411585, one of three boarding cars, along with 411577 and 411588 which had been suburban coaches on the parent CPR. In 1973, 4115858 was chosen by Canadian Pacific to convert to an 1880s historic coach for the CBC Television series, The National Dream.(1) At first, another crew car, No. 411588 was selected for the film work, however as it was entering the Windsor Yard in a freight train bound for Truro and beyond, the end sill was pulled out, sending the car back to Kentville for scrapping. As a result Work Car No. 411585 was sent in it's place from Kentville along with No. 411577. 411585 was restored with car 411577 providing spare parts. The cars had been only moderately modified externally for work service, mainly by having some windows blanked out with plywood.(2). The restored car was was given its old passenger car number. It was painted to stand in for a much older style of 1880s coaches(3) but the car's four-wheel trucks, wooden truss rod construction and open vestibules provided a good match for the television series, pulled by a vintage CPR 0-4-0 from the New Brunswick Norton Chipman Line. After the television series, CPR ran the car in a historic train until 1980 when it was acquired by the Calgary Heritage Park in 1980s where it operates on excursions in the heritage park.

References and Footnotes

(1) Canadian Trackside Guide 2006, Bytown Railway Society, p. 3-34 (2) Jim O'Donnell, posting to DAR DPI Forum Thu Feb 24, 2011 (3) John Riddell, Canadian Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Morning Sun Books, p. 5 (Includes a very good colour photograph of No. 141 in its movie paint scheme)

External Links

Heritage Toronto website "The National Dream"