A Montreal tourist streetcar at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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M.T.C. 1
Observation streetcar, manufactured in 1905 by Mpntreal Street Railway in Montréal (Québec)

One of the most popular tourist attractions during the summer in Montreal was a ride on one of the Montreal Tramway Company's open-top observation streetcars, affectionately known as the P'tits chars en or "Golden chariots". Four examples of these charming streetcars were built in Montreal, the first two at the Hochelaga worrkshops, the last two of the Youvile Shops.

Number 1, whih as its number indicates, was the first of its kind (build in 1905), offered a pleasant tour around the "two mountains", Mount Royal and Westmount, delighting both Montrealers and tourists,. It faithfully returned almost every summer, until the constant decrease in the use of rail led to its withdrrawal around 1958.

A heavy-duty train snowplow, at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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Rotary Snowplow CNR 55361

Built in 1928, a Canadian invention, this snowplow was equipped with a boiler that powered its massive rotating blades. Crews used two or three steam locomotives to push it.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign... At the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

A tank car for carrying liquids by rail, at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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Procor Ltd (UTLX 11204)
Tank car, manufactured in 1916 by Canadian Car & Foundry in Ville St-Pierre (Québec)

Liquid shipments have always psed certain problems. Alcohol distillers and wine producers used hogsheads for their bulk products. However, as oil production devleoped in the United States, there was a need for a new typoe of car: the tank car. The first tank cars were actually flat cars on which one or two hogsheads, or sixty wooden barrels, were placed in a vertical psoition. Leaks,\ and evaporation were the two flaws of this system. An American oil prospector, Evans W. Shippen, responded by buildng a small-scale model of a prototypical car equipped with a horizontal iron tank. In 1862, he presented his idea to Thomas A Scott, chairman of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Scott was not convinced and the idea was dropped. The definitive concept was implemnted in 1869, at the time of the apearance of the first piplelines. A steel tank equipped with an expansion dome was placed horizaontally on a frame with trucks.

The inside of a diesel-electric locomotive, at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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C.N.R 9400
Diesel-electric locomotive FA-1 MR-16 manufactured in 1950 by Montreal Locomotive Works in Montréal (Québec)

CNR 9400 is the first streamlined diesel-electric locomotive built by a Canadian company, the Montreal Locomotive Works. The switch to the FA-1 model (F for "Freight", A for units with control cabs) in 1950 signalled the definitive end of the Motnreal Locomotiv Works' production of steam locomotives for the Candian standard-gauge tracks. The comapyny's pwerful new locomotives were used successfully to pull freight trains throughout Canada, and also occasionally, to haul passenger trains. CNR 9400 was withdrawn in 1968 after only 18 years of service.

Th FA-1s, and the FA-2s thaqt follwed were used throught eastern Canada by the country's two major railway companies, the Candian Pacific and the Candiaan National Railways.

A classic train caboose, at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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C.N.R 78214
Caboose manufactured in 1939 by Canadian National in Division London (Ontario)

An end car, usually known as the caboose, was generally attached to freight trains. It was used as both mobile home and workspace by railway employees such as the conductor and rear breakman. Cabooses were progressively withdrawn in the late 1980s with the advent of new computerized detection systems. This caboose was withdrawin in 1988.

The caboose -- also known by its Canadian nickname, Van -- served as an oveservaton post from which to keep an eye on axle boxes (in case of overheating), and to monnitor the air brake system. Secondarily, it was alsp used as an office space by freight train crews.

A McLauglin-Buick «Century» track inspection car, at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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C.P.R. M-235
Track inspection car - McLauglin-Buick «Century» - manufactured in 1939 by General Motors in Oshawa (Ontario)

This Buick Century was the property of Dr H.A. Beatty, brother of the CPR's president, Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty. Dr Beatty was chief medical officer for the Candian Pacific and lived in Toronto. In 1947, he donated the car to the company, which made it over into track inspection vehicle M-135. The original chassis was replaced by a customized frame that includes an autonomous turntable, two railway axles, and flanged wheels that were 30 inches in diameter in the front and 31 inches in the back. The original spring suspension was replaced by an elliptic spring system, and an air brake system and a compressor were added to the vehicle. These changes brought the total weight up to 3.8 tons. The car is capable of moving at 115 kilometres per hour but is restricted to 80. The Oshawa factory was previously the McLaughlkin Car Company.

A classic steam locomotive at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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C.P.R. 492
«Ten-Wheeler» 4-6-0, D4g manufactured in 1914 by Ateliers Angus Shop in Montréal (Québec)

Steam locomotives with the 4-4-0 American configuration were the most popular for close to 75 years. However, as transportation needs increased after the West was opened in 1887 the limitations of these small locomotives became apparent. At the turn of the twentieth century, Candain railways began to rely on locomtives with a 4-6-0 configuration -- The Ten-Wheelers.

More pwerful and slightly larger then the type of vehicle they replaced, these locomotives were equally suited to hauling freight trains and passenger trains. The Canadian Pacific's new Angus Shops were producing Ten-wheelers by 1912, delivering a first lot of 6 locomotives that included CPR 492. Ocer five hundred Ten-Wheelers locomotives in servaeral classes were operated by the Canadian Pacific, and they remained a major part of the CP fleet until the arrival of more powerful locomotives in the 1930s.

The Saskatchean business car at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)

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C.P.R. 38 - Sakatchewan
Business car manufactured in 1883 by Barney and Smith in Dayton (Ohio)

The Saskatchewan was not, properly speaking, William C. Van Horne's personal car. However, as general manager, then vice-president, and finally president of the Canadian Pacific, Van Horne was closely associated with the car as its almost exclusive user. After all, wasn't the Sawskatchewan his second home with its luxurious, mahogany-finished interior including kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, and living room? The car carried Van Horne to his final resting place as part of the funeral train that took him to his native town of Joliet, Illinois, in 1915. Later, the famous Saskatchewan went through less glorius times. Renamed the Laurentian, it was demoted to the status of standby business car, then district supervisor's car under the name Quebec. The ultiamte insult came n 1929 wehn it lost its name entirely -- it was known thereafter only as number 38.

Just rolling allong. at the Exporail museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec. (2012)