Newfoundland NG Passenger Cars Part 2 - Sleepers/Obs & Biz Cars

Here's the second installment on Newfoundland NG passenger cars - with photos from the Andrew Merrilees Collection. All the cars here were used on the trans-island passenger train officially named the "Caribou", but jokingly nicknamed the "Newfie Bullet". I guess it had comparisons to the San Juan and Shavano, except with a 547 mile trip encompassing up to 24 hours, it had sleepers in the consist - which would have been really cool !!!!!

The train was discontinued in 1969, with the last trip on July 3 - so I was just a little too young to venture out on my own and missed experiencing it. A great history of the train is located in the October 1969 edition of "Canadian Rail" magazine, with a link here. [www.exporail.org]. Included is a map, plus a full roster of the 92 passenger cars that existed as of that date.

A number of the cars were used on the mixed trains that still operated into the 1980s, but most of the mainline sleepers etc were either scrapped, or allowed to languish on deadlines. Four of the sleepers have been preserved as a part of local town railway displays however, and I'd love to go explore them on our next trip to the Island. This first post is all sleepers, with more pics to follow.....


All the sleepers and business cars had names. The caption on the back of this print says the wood sleeper "Trepassey" was built by the Reid-Newfoundland Co. in 1911.




Corridor sleeper "Ferryland" was built in 1925 by ACF.




The "Burgeo" was built in 1930 by National Steel Car.




Sleeper "St. George" was a more modern round-roofed car, built by National Steel Car in 1938.




The "Botwood" was part of the new equipment ordered in aid of the war effort - built by CCF in 1943.