The Rockies by Daylight

I was combing through my oversized post card album today and was inspired to post these cards into my blog; along with some

information:
Visiting the Canadian Rockies by train has been popular almost since the Canadian Transcontinental Road was completed. Sir William Van Horne, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) said,"If we can't bring the mountains to the tourists, we will bring the tourists to the mountains". The tourists traveled by train from across Canada and the United States to see the beauty of the Canadian Rockies.

However, with the price of air flight becoming less expensive, many chose to fly to Canada and take the scenic part of the train route to and from Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. This caused the CPR "Canadian" and the Canadian National Railway's "Super Continental" to sell out west of Calgary and Edmonton in the summer months. Travel agencies and tour operators started to book

blocks of sleeping car accommodation a year in advance. Even so, much potential business was turned away due to sold out long distance trains. Via Rail - the new Canadian passenger service was receiving complaints both from its regular customers who couldn't get on the trains in the summer months due to tourist travel, and from the tour operators who couldn't get space

for their organized tours. Another complaint about the long distance trains was that on either the CPR or CNR route, much spectacular scenery went by during the night. For the railways, this was a dilemma because in order to serve the prairie cities and the end points in eastern Canada during daylight hours, trains had

to cross British Columbia and Alberta in the evening. In 1988, Via decided to experiment with a seasonal daylight train from Vancouver to Calgary and from Vancouver to Jasper. This train was marketed through the travel industry, who also arranged overnight accommodations in Kamloops. Cars from the former "Blue Fleet" of ex-CNR coaches and "day-niter" coaches were used, with galleys to serve chilled breakfasts and lunches airline style.

For four summers in a row I attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana from my home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In 1988 and 1989 I flew from Chicago to Vancouver instead of to Edmonton. In 1988 I caught a train from Vancouver to Calgary and in '89 from Vancouver to Jasper, Alberta. Each train was part of a tourist train called "The Rockies by Daylight". I was under the impression that the trains were operated by VIA Rail Canada. My post cards are telling me that they were actually operated by a private company.

The Via train 101/102 Vancouver/Banff/Calgary and 103/104 Vancouver/Jasper were a success in the 1988 season, and the operation was extended into the 1989 season with more cars available and with a new name "Rocky Mountaineer". In the summer of 1989, the Canadian Government announced massive cuts to the Via Rail passenger train network. The "Rocky Mountaineer" was one of the services slated for discontinuance. Peter Armstrong, a travel agent and tour operator offered to operate the "Rocky Mountaineer" as a private enterprise and was granted the opportunity to do so. He set up a private corporation to operate the "Rocky Mountaineer" and persuaded several friends to invest their life savings. They very nearly lost everything, as the train did not turn a profit for three years. Then this happened:

The following is taken from their official website: https://www.rockymountaineer.com/about-us/history
Since its inception in 1990, Rocky Mountaineer, the British Columbia based, family owned business, has grown to become the largest privately owned luxury tourist train company in the world and has welcomed nearly 2 million guests onboard. While Armstrong Group, owners and operators of the award-winning Rocky Mountaineer, has a rich history rooted in success, the goal from day one remains the same: provide the most spectacular and unforgettable travel experiences in the world.

1990 All aboooard! The Rocky Mountaineer departs on the inaugural trip.
1991 Named one of the “World’s 20 Best Rail Experiences” by The International Railway Traveler magazine (same honour in 1998).
1995 Rocky Mountaineer GoldLeaf Service is launched.
1996 Sets the record for longest passenger train in Canadian history (37 cars).
1999 Sets new record for longest passenger train in Canadian history (41 cars).
2002 Welcomes our 500,000th guest and is recognized again by The International Railway Traveler magazine’s “10 Best Rail Experiences in the World”.
2003 Featured on BBC Television, “50 Things To Do Before You Die”.
2005 Wins the prestigious “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” at 2005 World Travel Awards (earns the same honour in 2006 and 2007).
Named as “One of the Great Train Rides in the World”, by Outside magazine.
Named one of “The World’s Top 25 Trains” by The Society of International Railway Traveler (earns the same honour in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009).
2006 Launches two new routes: Whistler Sea to Sky Climb (Vancouver to Whistler) and Rainforest to Gold Rush (Whistler to Jasper).
2007 Wins Tourism British Columbia’s “Foresight Sustainability Award” for leadership and advocacy of sustainable tourism.
Named one of the “World’s Greatest Trips” by National Geographic.
2008 Welcomes aboard our one millionth guest!
2009 ABC’s hit reality TV series, The Bachelorette, showcased the Rocky Mountaineer on a four-day journey.
Voted #1 on the Society of American Travel Writers Top Ten List of the most scenic and exciting train experiences in the world.
Rocky Mountaineer has been honoured with a World Travel Award in the category of “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” for the fourth year.
2010 Launches its iconic brand with a completely new look. From the logo, website and route names to a sleek new paint job for the rail cars, this fresh new look continues across the entire company.
Proudly accepts the World Travel Award’s “World’s Leading Travel Experience by Train” for the fifth time ,and new honour, “World’s Leading Luxury Travel Product of the Year.”
Receives two prestigious marketing awards: Marketer of the Year Award from the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association and British Columbia’s Tourism Award for Best Tourism Marketing Campaign.
Ranks #5 on Reader’s Digest’s list of “World’s 10 Best Train Journeys.”
Listed as one of the “Top 10 North American Train Trips” by National Geographic.
2011 Rocky Mountaineer proudly accepts its sixth World Travel Award as "World's Leading Travel Experience by Train" and is listed as one of the "Top 5 trains in the world," by Conde Nast Traveler and by Travel + Leisure magazine Western Living as one of the "Best Life-Changing Trips" and among the "Top 5 Trains in the World."
Recieves Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards for "Best Rail Vacation" and UK Travel Agents Choice Awards for "Long-haul Rail Operator of the Year."
2012 Launches its newest and third level of service, SilverLeaf Service on the First Passage to the West route. Also begins running its bi-level dome cars on the Whistler Sea to Sky Climb for a limited time in the 2012 season.
2013 Launches its new Coastal Passage route, connecting Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, BC to the Canadian Rockies. After successfully launching SilverLeaf Service on the First Passage to the West route in 2012, Rocky Mountaineer adds this new level of service to its Journey through the Clouds route.
New destination, Lake Louise, AB is offered on Rocky Mountaineer's First Passage to the West route.
New annual corporate giving program, Life-Changing Train for Heroes is launched. The program celebrates wounded soldiers/veterans.
2014 Coastal Passage, Rocky Mountaineer's newest route offer 24 departures.
SilverLeaf Service is offerd on three routes, First Passage to the West, Journey through the Clouds and Coastal Passage.
2015 Rocky Mountaineer celebrates its 25th Anniversary. The company has grown to be the largest privately owned luxury tourism train company in the world.
2016 The Rainforest to Gold Rush route becomes a three day journey, with overnight stops in Whistler, Quesnel and Jasper.

The Old and the Older, but Which One is Which?

The locomotives pictured on the front of these two post cards are both “F-Units”. One is about 50 years older than the other.

The locomotive on this, the top post card, is an EMD that was part of a line of diesel-electric locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) in the U.S.A. and General Motors-Diesel Division (GMDD) in Canada. While the parts came from many locations, the final assembly for all F-units was at the GM-EMD plant at La Grange, Illinois, and the GMDD plant in London, Ontario. The term “F-unit” refers to the model numbers given to each successive revision (i.e. F3, F7, etc.), all of which began with the letter F. The "F" originally meant Fourteen, as in 1,400 horsepower, not F as in Freight. Longer EMD “E-units” for passenger service had twin 900 horsepower diesel engines. The later "E" meant Eighteen as in 1,800 horsepower. The F-units were the most successful "first generation" road (main line) diesel locomotives in North America, and were largely responsible for superseding steam locomotives in road freight service.

The locomotive in this post card, the bottom post card, is an F40PH-2. The design of the F40PH was based on the EMD GP40-2 freight road-switcher and shared that locomotive's turbocharged EMD 645E3 V16 cylinder, two-stroke, water-cooled diesel engine. The locomotive developed 3,000 horsepower at 893 RPM. Beginning with the EMD F40PH-2, introduced in 1985, the engine developed 3,200 horsepower. Many of the original F40PHs were updated to match that output. The locomotives were 56 feet 2 inches (17.1 m) long. A standard F40PH weighs 260,000 lb (117,934 kg). The designation "F40PH" stood for the following: "F" for the full-width cowl carbody, "40" as the locomotive is part of EMD's 40-series (based on the GP40-2 freight locomotive), "P" for passenger service and "H" for head-end power. Both trains are passing by the famous “Morant’s Curve”, a location made famous by the Canadian Pacific Railway’s official photographer Nicholas Morant. The above information was mostly gleaned from a couple of Wikipedia articles.

The reason that chose these two post cards to blog about is multi-faceted. 1) They are both pictures of Moran’t Curve in the winter, but taken about ten years apart. There aren’t a lot of differences between the two, when you compare the scenery. The trees on the inside of the curve, near the tracks, seem to have grown a bit, but not much. The Bow River flows in the same crooked pattern in both pictures. 2) They demonstrate the differences between the two different F-Units that were used by Via Rail. The top one is the earlier version; the bottom one the modern version.

3) The bottom picture is a photo of the very last Via Rail passenger train to travel on these tracks. Via took over the operation of all passenger rail services in Canada in in 1977. They stopped running two transcontinental trains (one through Edmonton and one through Calgary) in January of 1990. This is the last one that travelled east-bound through Calgary. 4) Although the top picture is older than the bottom one, the bottom post card seems to be older than the top one. The bottom post card includes a bar code on the back; it was printed in Australia and developed in Calgary, Alberta. The company, started in 1950, is still active (now in Cochrane, AB) with a website: http://www.hccolour.com/ The top card includes a only a post office box on the back; it was printed in Canada by Dexter Colour. DEXTER COLOR CANADA, LIMITED was founded on June 28, 1978 and has its registered office in Bramalea, Ontario. The organisation's status is listed as "Inactive - Amalgamated".

Edmonton to Calgary and Back

The information below is taken from this website: http://forthjunction.ca/passenger-rail.htm Regularly scheduled passenger trains served the area between Calgary and Edmonton on the Canadian Pacific line from 1891 to 1985. When the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway reached Fort Calgary in 1883, the Calgary-Edmonton Trail gained significance as a major transportation corridor and a crude stagecoach service began carrying mail, goods and passengers north and south along the trail. The trip between the two forts took 4 to 5 days requiring several stopping houses along the way. The one way fare between Calgary and Edmonton was $25 (at the time, a good wage was $2 per day). Almost immediately, there developed a demand for rail service. The Calgary & Edmonton Railway received its first charter in 1885 but nothing happened. A new charter was awarded in 1890. The new railway was built and it was completed by July 1891. The CPR leased the line and took over operations in August 1891 with regular passenger service beginning in 1892. The travel time was 12 hours with a one-way fare of $10 between Calgary and Strathcona (part of south Edmonton today). In 1936, Canadian Pacific introduced "high speed rail" with 'The Chinook', a specially-designed inter-city light passenger train between Calgary and Edmonton, reducing travel time to 5-1/4 hours at speeds up to 100 mi/hr. with up to 22 stops. From 1936 to 1955, four passenger trains a day ran the Calgary-Edmonton route including an overnight train, the 'Eskimo'/'Stampeder', a 'milk run', and the 'Chinook' using a 4-4-4 Jubilee F2a class locomotive no. 3001, one of only five of this class of locomotive ever built. Passenger service and rail infrastructure remained relatively stable for 60 years (1914-1954). But, with increased competition from airlines, new roadways, the new affordability of personal vehicles and cheap fuel, the desire for rail passenger service started to decline. In an attempt to maintain viable passenger service within the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, Canadian Pacific replaced 'the Chinook' Jubilee with a Budd 'Dayliner'

in 1955 cutting the travel time from Calgary to Edmonton to 3-1/2 hours. Budd Dayliners The CP Dayliners reached a peak of three trains a day in each direction in 1969 carrying almost 80,000 passengers that year. The following year, the number of trains was reduced to one in each direction per day resulting in only 31,400 passengers that year and only 23,400 passengers in 1971. At the order of the federal Railway Transport Committee, the frequency was increased to two trains per day in 1972. The CP Edmonton downtown station was closed to passengers in 1971 (and demolished in 1978), with Strathcona becoming the northern terminus of CPR corridor passenger rail service, further eroding the desire for travellers to use the train. Canadian Pacific corridor service was reviewed in 1976 and 1979 by the Railway Transport Committee after public hearings in response to continued CP requests to cancel passenger operations. Meanwhile, the government-owned VIA Rail took over all CP and CN passenger service in 1978. The federal Committee ordered improved service in 1981 citing the corridor had the best potential for rail passenger service outside of the Quebec City-Windsor corridor. Ridership increased to 53,000 in 1982, the highest since 1969. One-way fare was $27. However, grade crossing collisions and railway errors caused the public to question the safety of Dayliner service. And poor integration with other transport modes and connectivity caused much frustration. The Dayliners continued on the CP Calgary-Edmonton corridor until September 6, 1985 when the service was cancelled due to financial losses and at-grade collisions after 94 years of continuous rail passenger service.

The post card was printed by Dexter Color Canada in Cornwall, Ontario. It was published by JBC Visuals out of Toronto, Ontario. The photo credit is given to Peter Jobe.

Preserving History

These two post cards show what the diesel engine number 9000 looks like today.

The photo here is by Laaysell Studios and the post card was made by Dexter Colour out of Cornwall, Ontario.

This post card came from STEAMSCENES in West Vancouver, Canada. They used a photo by Nils Huxtable.


Number 9000 is worthy of preservation because it was the first production road freight locomotive built for a Canadian railway. The Canadian National Railway (CNR) had used diesels for about 20 years before they ordered this one; but, these other diesels were always used in yards for shunting around cars. This locomotive was intended to be used for regular road freight service. During World War II it was loaned to the Canadian government. It was clad in armour and used along the West Coast of Canada. Once the war was over it was returned to the CNR which reconditioned the locomotive so that it could be used in regular passenger service. Several of these post cards are pictures of the locomotive pulling "The Super Continental" passenger train through the Rockies, no doubt.

The locomotive has had a bit of an identity crisis over its years. It was built in May of 1948 as an F3A class, V-1-a by EMD.
It was later reclassified as a V-1-A-a in January of 1950 and once again reclassified in September of 1954 as a GFA-15a. This post card, showing the 9000 as in freight service, was published by JBC Visuals out of Toronto, Ontario.


After seeing 33 years of service on the CN mainlines, it was retired on October 8, 1971 after traveling over 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles). It was donated by CNR to the Alberta Pioneer Railway Association in November of 1971.

It is currently being kept and used at the Alberta Pioneer Railway Museum in the northeast of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. The association of volunteers restored the locomotive (there were some major challenges). It was ready for service, after being painted in the CNR freight colours, in 1996, just in time to "star" in the move "In Cold Blood". No one has taken credit for the photo or printing of this post card above or the one just below, but they both do say,"Made in Canada".

This post card was prduced from Natural Color transparency. Published and copyrighted by Smith Lithograph Co. Limited, Vancouver, Canada. It was distributed by Harry Rowed, O'Neill and Associates Ltd, out of Jasper, Alberta in Canada. The printed date on it is 1958.

Byron Harmon, One More Time (No, Two More Times)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_(train) is the source of information below about the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) train known as "The Canadian".

The two trains seen on the fronts of these post cards are part of the transcontinental train service that used to be offered by the CPR. The company christened its new transcontinental flagship train “The Canadian” and service began on April 24, 1955. Running time between Montreal and Vancouver was reduced from about 85 to 71 hours, so that passengers spent only three, rather than four, nights en route. Although CPR competitor Canadian National Railways (CNR) began its own new transcontinental service, the Super Continental, on the same day, CPR was able to boast honestly that “The Canadian” was "The first and only all-stainless steel 'dome' stream-liner in Canada" — it was not until 1964 that the CNR acquired dome cars from the Milwaukee Road.

The train operated with Montreal and Toronto sections which ran combined west of Sudbury, Ontario. The Montreal section (also serving Ottawa) was known as train 1 westbound and train 2 eastbound, while the Toronto section was known as train 11 westbound and train 12 eastbound. Although initially successful, passenger train ridership began to decline in Canada during the 1960s. Facing competition from airlines and increased automobile usage following construction of the Trans-Canada Highway, the CPR cancelled “The Dominion” in 1966, and petitioned the government to discontinue “The Canadian” in 1970. Although this petition was denied, CPR during the 1970s attempted to remove itself from the passenger service market. “The Canadian” was operated at reduced levels, with the government subsidizing 80 percent of its losses. VIA Rail eventually took over “The Canadian” operations then dropped the service on January 15, 1990.

Both of these photos are attributed to Byron Harmon. The top one reflects a classic Byron Harmon point of view. I have several of his post cards that are taken from this position. But these cards show steam locomotives. The back of the post card also reflects a classic Byron Harmon look. “POST CARD” is printed across the top, middle with “Along the Line of the Canadian Pacific Railway” printed directly under these words. Following that, “Copyrighted by BYRON HARMON, BANFF, CANADA” is also printed in the usual script and position. These two post cards are pictures of diesel locomotives. Diesel took over this route long after Mr. Harmon died. I think that someone in his family took over the business upon his passing and tried to keep the Byron Harmon look active.

The bottom post card attributed the photo to “Photo by Byron Harmon Photos”. Byron Harmon Photos is also the copyright holder and publisher of the post card. It is a company in Banff, Alberta. The fact that the post card is a photo-chrome print also tells me that this is a modern card that cannot be directly attributed to Byron Harmon. A bit of background on Mr. Harmon: He arrived in Alberta in 1903 as an itinerant photographer after leaving his portrait studio in Tacoma, Washington. By 1906 He had become a founding member and official photographer of the Alpine Club of Canada. He took over 6,400 photographs while exploring the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirks. In 1907 Harmon began turning many of these photographs into real photo postcards, which became his principal life’s work. In 1924 he traveled into the Rockies with the photographer Lewis R. Freeman. Some of the real photo postcards produced under Harmon’s name from this trip may actually be the work of Freeman that he published for him. After this trip Harmon mostly produced scenes alongside railway lines. He also distributed printed color postcards made from his photos that were manufactured in the United States. He died in 1942. His Granddaughter was still running the family business in Banff the last time that I was there.

Gone, but Not Forgotten

The lead locomotive on this Canadian Pacific (CPR) train is CP 8621.

It is a GP9 model of locomotive, built in 1956 by General Motors Diesel (GMD). GMD was a railway diesel locomotive manufacturer located in London, Ontario. GMD was created in 1949 as the Canadian subsidiary of the Electro Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) of the United States. It is shown here in the original Maroon & Grey “Block” paint scheme. Over the years, CPR has changed the look of its locomotives and 8621 kept up with the times. It has had the CP Rail Large Multimark with 5" stripes, the CP Rail Large Multimark with 8" stripes and the CP Rail Small Multimark with 8" stripes over its life time. In October of 1988 it was rebuilt by CPR as a GP9u, chop-nosed and renumbered to #8215. It was finally declared to be surplus on February 19, 2015. So, while it is now gone from the roster of CPR it will not be forgotten because it has been immortalized on this post card.

It is hauling a load of freight along Kamloops Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The Lake is situated just after where the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers just west of Kamloops forms the Thompson River, which flows west into the Fraser River near Lytton, British Columbia. The lake is 1.6 km wide, 29 km long, and up to 152 m deep. This post card was published by the Audio Visual Designs Company. It was printed after 1965. I know this because the address has a zip code, which was introduced in 1963 and because the photo was taken in 1965.

Audience Participation

The train in the photograph on the front of this post card was so regularly run on its route that one could know exactly where it could be. It did this so often that one could see it in various locations over time. Coal is a major export from the area around the Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta and British Columbia. Sparwood, British Columbia hosts a huge coal mine and railcar loading system. That is probably where this train originated. The train was so regular that the publisher and distributer of this post card decided to take

advantage of it and make it an audience participation event. In the upper left hand corner of the back of the post card there is a little map of the train route. To the right, there is a list of locations at which you could see the train as it passes by. The afore mentioned Sparwood is the first name on the list. The post card was printed by Alex Wilson Publications out of Dryden, Ontario.

My search on the internet did not turn up any good news about the business, so I will leave it alone. I tried to find the publisher, Kenneth R. Bell; that was fruitless. But, when I tried to find the Trading Post that distributed the post card I hit the jackpot. I found a picture of it. I looked in the business yellow pages on line for The Golden Eagle Trading Post in Radium Hot Springs, but found nothing. At least you can enjoy what the trading post used to look like.