Canadian Pacific Railway

Budd Stainless Steel Equipment

Modifications and re-assignments

Don Thomas

Skyline dome cars

Skyline parlor cars. Four cars modified from regular Skylines replacing 26 seats with 19 loose chairs.

Car 510 modified in 1966, others in 1968.

Buffet-Parlor

100 series coaches modified to Buffet-Parlor Cars 6620-6624,
with small service pantry and 40 loose chairs in two rooms,
smoking and no smoking.

6620 mod. 1963 6621-6624 mod. 1968

Assignment of modified Budd stainless steel equipment.

(a) Montreal-Ottawa trains (via Vankleek Hill, excluding transcontinental trains). 232-235 used one consist Ottawa-Montreal-Ottawa, while 233-234 used one consist Montreal-Ottawa-Montreal. 232 and 233 operated on similar times, as did 234 and 235.

In April 1964 trains 233-234 were renamed The Rideau and equipped with parlor car 6620 and a Skyline car (not equipped for parlor service). It retained this configuration until October 1969. (I presume other cars in the 6620-24 series may have been used on this train after they were converted for parlor service in 1965.)

Trains 232-235 were discontinued in October 1965 and reinstated in April 1966. It now carried Skyline 510 equipped with 19 parlor chairs, which was their only regular parlor equipment. (I presume other parlor-equipped Skylines may have been used on this train after they were converted to parlor service in 1968.)

In October 1969 trains 232-233-234-235 were rescheduled to be operated by a single consist making two round trips daily. This consist included a Skyline parlor. The consist was called The Rideau when running as trains 233-234, and The Alouette when running as trains 232-235. The service was discontinued in July 1970.

(b) Montreal-Toronto train 21 Royal York and Toronto-Montreal train 22 Chateau Champlain. Four 100-series coaches were converted to buffet parlor cars 6621-6624 for this service. They also carried a Skyline car which was presumably equipped for dining and lounge service in the vestibule end. After this train was discontinued in January 1966, the parlor cars were transferred to the Montreal-Quebec trains.

(c) Montreal-Quebec trains. These were pool trains including CN cars until October 1965. Until April 1970 there were two trains per day each way, protected by three consists that rotated through each schedule. The base consists therefore had to be identical, with extra cars when needed.

In 1959 each consist was equipped with one of the 6600-series parlor, in addition to other CP and CN parlor cars. (CN cars were removed when the Pool service terminated in October 1965.) These remained assigned until 1966 when they were replaced by cars in the 6620-series.

Note: 6600-6602 converted 1959 from lightweight coaches 2289-2291.

In October 1968 full dining and parlor cars were replaced on the Quebec trains by parlor-equipped Skyline cars. These included cars 505 and 515, and one other which has not been identified.

Montreal-Quebec trains were rescheduled in April 1970 to allow two consists to protect the service, still using a parlor-equipped Skyline.