Some ex B&M and BAR Sleeper Nostalgia

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NS VIA Fan

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Sep 24, 2011
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Nova Scotia
Back in the mid '60s....CN went shopping in the US for surplus Sleeping Cars. Some of the cars obtained were from the Boston & Maine Railroad and the Bangor and Aroostook (BAR).

Below is ex B&M Greendale......the through sleeper from Sydney to Montreal in 1973 at Stellarton, NS. It will be added to CN's Scotian at Truro, NS. The stainless-steel letterboard above the windows was only brushed-out and depending on how the sunlight hit it....you could still read 'Boston & Maine' !





Here's the car plan and note the 'Sections' at one end of the car and the 'Roomettes' at the other end over the wheels. The more expensive 'Bedrooms' are in the smoother riding centre of the car.







And an interesting photo below of two ex B&M and BAR sleepers on VIA's Atlantic at Saint John, New Brunswick. The Atlantic ran east-west across the State of Maine and just a couple of hours earlier that day those cars would have passed over the north-south Bangor and Aroostook route in Maine they took in the '50s in through sleeper service between Boston and Van Buren, Maine on the Potatoland Special....via B&M, Maine Central and the BAR.

http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track3/potatoland195407.html




A couple of the cars trailing the e/b Atlantic at Moncton, NB in November 1981.....just before it was discontinued.


 
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Greewood would've been an apt name for one of them, since they went through there. It's a current stop on the MBTA and it's a section of Wakefield which borders on Melrose Highlands.
 
In Edmonton I used to wonder where those obviously second-hand "Green" sleepers came from. What other sources were there for that series? Down in the middle of a 1978 Super Continental was 'Green Lane'.

Green Lane was built new for CN by Pullman Standard 1954. The 'Green' series as well as the 'E' series sleepers (in your consist above) were obtained new just before the launch of the Super Continental in April 1955.
 
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