at Como, Quebec, Canada

© 1964, 2002-2010 Glenn F. Cartwright

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was inaugurated by the Canadian Pacific Railway on April 24th, 1955 and traveled daily between Montreal/Toronto and Vancouver via the Canadian Pacific's Lake Superior Route to Winnipeg, Calgary, Banff, and Lake Louise and through the Spiral Tunnels to Field, Kamloops,  and Vancouver, British Columbia. The following clip was filmed in 8mm in April, 1964 as train #1, the westbound Canadian, passed Como, Quebec about 2 miles east of Hudson, Quebec.

Although it is 1964, that is a model-T Ford at the Como Station which belonged to a Dr. Walford, a dentist, who practiced in Montreal at the Drummond Medical Building.  

Note the Canadian Pacific locomotive livery, the tunnel icicle removers on the locomotive roofs, and the Tuscan red express car behind the locomotive.  The U-series (Tourist) car that follows was one of 22 heavyweight, 14-section sleepers rebuilt in Canadian Pacific's Angus Shops in 1955 to match the new Canadian equipment by the addition of fluted stainless steel (Holland, 2005).  A Skyline dome (coach/coffee shop) car is followed by 2 coaches, a dining car, 2 sleepers (probably one each of a  Manor and a Chateau series) while the Park dome car brings up the rear.

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What has happened since 1964...

• The U-series tourist sleepers were withdrawn with the Canadian Pacific's abolition of Tourist Class in 1966.  None of the cars were preserved and all were scrapped in 1968.
• The Como station is gone.  Como is now part of Hudson and the one and only remaining commuter train (Rigaud-Montreal) which calls at Hudson no longer calls at what was formerly Como.  
• The Hudson Train station is now venue for live theatre.
• The tracks west of Rigaud, Quebec (about 12 miles west of Como and 40 miles west of Montreal) all the way to Ottawa have been removed though the right-of-way has been preserved for possible future use.
• The Canadian Pacific Railway's head office in Montreal was transferred from Windsor Station, Montreal Quebec to Calgary, Alberta, in 1996.
• In 1996, the Canadian Pacific Railway in eastern Canada became the subsidiary St. Lawrence and Hudson Railway but reintegrated with its parent company in 2001. 
• Canadian Pacific sold its rail lines east of Montreal and no longer operates there.
  
• The Canadian is no longer a daily train and no longer operates from Montreal.
• The Canadian (and its original equipment) still exists and is the flagship of owner VIA Rail Canada, Inc. It operates three days a week  from Toronto to Vancouver over the Canadian National (CN) route, well to the north of Lake Superior, through Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper, Kamloops,  and Vancouver. There is no direct service of The Canadian to/from Montreal.
• The Canadian equipment underwent a C$200 million dollar renovation in the 1990s which included the replacement of steam with electric heat, improved air conditioning, and newly commissioned art work.
• In December 2008, The Canadian moved to a 4-night, 3-day schedule, leaving Toronto in the late evening.  This lengthened schedule permits connections to/from Montreal and the east as well from (but not to) New York City.

References

Holland, K. J. (2005, Spring). The Canadian. Classic Trains. 58-69.

Kemp, Forster (2005).  The Transformation of a Tourist Sleeper. Canadian Rail, March-April, 47-51.  Reprinted from CRHA News Report, March and April, 1955 (issues Nos. 54 and 55).