Tree Planting Cars, Part 2

In Part 1, the early life of CN 15021 as a Tree Planting Car (TPC) was profiled. In this post, let's move forward in time to the car's second life as a museum display car in Winnipeg. As I was creating the TPC post, a fellow railfan sent the top six colour photos in this post, part of Winnipeg's Vintage Locomotive Society collection, bequeathed by Ted Shores.  I've been looking at pictures of these cars in CN's East Yard for years now, and it's about time to follow this natural lead-in from the TPC era into this subsequent, more garishly-painted 'That 1970s Show!' era. These were two of many treasure lying in the multi-track marvels of East Yard. Though accessible to VIA travellers on layover in Winnipeg, I did not photograph them or record them in my notes.

BUT FIRST...THE 'ROLLING STOCK MUSEUM' EXHIBIT CAR

An intermediate step between CN 15021's first and second life involves former CN combine 7162, seen above at East Yard adjacent to the Winnipeg Depot. Permit me this small diversion that's integral to the longevity of former TPC 15021. The Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature was engaged in sharing its exhibits more widely across the province in the early 1970s. One approach was a Museumobile van with removable exhibits for schools. Another was acquiring a 'Rolling Stock Museum' exhibit car, ex-CN 7162, reportedly only one day from being scrapped when first inspected by museum staff at CN's Symington Yard. 

Museum staff loading a display case into companion car 9098:

Three black and white images plus schedule from 1972 and 1974 editions of The [creatively-named] Grande New Dawson & Hind Quarter Epistle of the Association of Manitoba Museums show CN 7162 as received (above) and being moved to begin its tour (below) after refitting.

When completed, the heavyweight car featured displays created by the museum's craftsmen, touring 20 communities between The Pas and Churchill with two guides living onboard. Displays were designed to withstand slack action since the car would be moved between display sites by freight train, not by passenger train! Exhibits were tailored to the area's Cree, Cree-Metis and Chipewyan residents and presented in their languages. The car debuted in The Pas, MB on July 17, 1972. The car may also have toured in 1973. An aerial photo of East Yard shows the car still there in June, 1975.

LIFE AFTER TREE PLANTING CAR - PARKLANDS 1974

For the 1974 exhibit season, the Museum's Extension Services Division, created to deal with such travelling exhibits, once again producing a train display. Whereas the theme for the previous two years had been focused on the northern environment, "The Whole North", it would be "The Parklands" featured from the May-August 1974 tour. It was brainstormed that the Rolling Stock Museum would barnstorm through parts of the agricultural region stretching from southeastern Manitoba, through central Saskatchewan, perhaps to the northwestern farming area of Alberta. The planned 1974 Parklands schedule:

It seems serendipitous that the demise of the TPC program in 1973 coincided with the search for the Parklands museum car. For the Parklands program, CN 15021 was selected to take to the rails again, accompanied by former CN baggage car 9098. Presumably surplus to CN's needs, the former baggage car was a display car for maps, artifacts and photo displays. The former TPC would be the library-activity car where programmes were delivered, National Film Board movies and slide shows screened, as well as providing classroom, activity and library space for reference materials - very similar to the way the TPC was used. The Parkland Regional Library Service underwrote the cost of refitting the car. Again accompanied by two museum guides, the car would be open 12 hours per day, seven days a week!

Both cars' obverse sides are shown on these cloudy day photos. The parklands were open prairie punctuated with groves of aspen trees, leading to the cars' eye-catching distinctive leaf graphics.

LIFE AFTER TREE PLANTING CAR - BOREAL IMAGES

CN 15021 got yet another layer of paint, emerging in this shades-of-green Boreal Images scheme, again photographed at East Yard. Perhaps the Parkland Regional Library Service did not provide funding, and the transitional green paint covered up the previous graphics and 'Boreal Images' covered up the Parklands lettering. The National Museums corporation granted the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature $36,000 in March, 1979 to send the display cars into the northern Prairies and North-West Territories! I've found only two two-car Boreal Images schedule data-points: Regina early-May, 1979; Saskatoon mid-July 1979.

Jim Parker kindly shared two undated (1980s?) Bill Grandin photos of the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature/National Museums of Canada Boreal Images 15021 and baggage car 9098 stored at East Yard (note the coach yard building at right, up at depot platform level). 

After its touring days, CN 15021 was scrapped by CN. Both cars looking very much the worse for wear when valued book contributor Brian Schuff photographed them in Winnipeg on December 29, 1986 on their last trip to Mandak. CN 9098:

CN 9098 is preserved at the Big Valley (AB) Historical Society.

CN 15021 with many yawning window spaces:

Thanks to Mark Perry for sending pdf copies of two AMM newsletters from 1972 and 1974 that included articles on the display cars.

Running extra...

As an advocate for VIA, a chronicler of VIA's eras and a documenter of the recent nearly-calamitous buffer car era prompted by the advancing age of VIA's HEP fleet, I'm spreading the word about Transport Action Canada's current petition and asking you to consider signing it here via the Parliament of Canada website. (It's good to be an involved citizen!)

VIA Rail was ready to proceed with the procurement last year, having completed the RFI, and the timeline to replace the fleet will be in real trouble if the funding doesn’t come through this year. The objective of the petition is to make sure the government knows that there’s support for this investment and that any further delay will result in service cuts. 

The wide-ranging aims of the petition are to: 

• Incorporate the contents of Bills C-371, the Rail Passenger Priority Act, and C-236/C-640 (41-2) the VIA Rail Canada Act, in a Government Bill and prioritize its passage through the legislative process;
• Commit, in the 2024 federal budget, the funds necessary to renew VIA Rail’s long-distance fleet;
• Provide passenger and worker representation on VIA Rail’s board of directors; and
• Revise the High Frequency Rail project to protect VIA Rail’s role in delivering public passenger rail service along the Windsor to Quebec City corridor.

Signing the online petition is relatively painless, requiring only some contact information and checking three boxes. That link once again. When I signed, there were already 1,095 fellow petitioners. 

Since CPR 1095 is preserved here in Kingston, that seemed like a good, positive omen to me! I have seen several online videos of Canadian modellers dutifully operating Rapido Trains Inc. HO-scale models of this plucky ten-wheeler on their layouts. On August 18, 1967 we were clamouring to collaboratively clamber over this CLC 1913 product, stuffed and mounted mere steps from its birthplace:

Sign painter and former Kingston Mayor Bob Fray letters the tender:

(Queen's University Archives photo)