Five Fantastic Canadian Rail Mysteries

Here are five Canadian railway mysteries I've come across in the form of photos that I'm unable to solve.  I'll present what little information I've found, mainly photographic evidence, but I realize there is much more to be added in order to provide background to these photos.

Montreal's commuter agency experimented with fitting "demi-lune" icicle breakers on its ex-CP Rail F-units and single-level coaches (top photo) as suggested by St Luc diesel shop employee M. Jos Louis.  These were intended to protect the Vickers bilevel cars from damage caused by icicles hanging from Autoroute overpasses.  It was hoped that their unique rounded shape would also protect the winterization hatches of the F-units. I'm not sure if these were ever fitted to the rest of the fleet...

Fuel tenders have been developed by Class 1 railroads like BN and now CN.  CN's red, white and black car (below) is certainly eye-catching. What I was unaware of was that CP had a different idea of 'fuel tender'.  They actually used a former steam engine tender! Intended to carry prototype experimental fuels, not just coal and water, CP appropriately lettered the tender to reflect their environmental stewardship as well as their profit-driven corporate strategy.

I must admit that even I found this one difficult to believe.  Enter the world of Canadian public transit with me, and feast your eyes on this specially-modified two-car Toronto Transit Commission set.  I have not been able to discover why the original English-prototype Gloucester 'red' cars:

were so modified (below).  My theories include: to transport Ontario College of Art and Design students with their tall A-frame easels, as some sort of LEAN process management initiative, or perhaps to fit through some reduced-clearance tunnels on the TTC system.  Seen operating above-ground during testing, the cars had been seldom-photographed until this photo surfaced online:

You've probably heard that CP decided its multimark paint scheme was causing CP's paint costs to skyrocket.  So, the multimark (please don't call it the Pac-Man - that's something that lives in an arcade game and sounds like wokka-wokka-wokka as it moves along - totally different) was not renewed on locomotives and cars as the rolling stock came in for shopping.  An unknown analyst at CP then decided that the equipment could be shortened, thereby removing the parts of the car that would normally have the multimark applied.  This of course went horribly wrong, was waaaay too much work and did not result in adequate cost-savings.  Only one end-cupola van was shortened in this manner (van and commuter train photos from the Tim Reid collection), then was hidden away in a CP yard in Montreal so as not to reveal the failure of this cost-cutting measure.

Another CP Rail multimark mystery.  Apparently there were plans afoot to apply different lettering to different route segments of CP's (pre-VIA) passenger network. This resulted in the AMRoad scheme shown below on F's 4070-4067, photo from the Brian Schuff collection.  The AM was to readily identify the Atlantic Limited to Montreal.  Similarly, CVRoad would denote the Canadian to Vancouver.  Between the marketing and equipment departments, someone remembered there was already a CV (Central Vermont) railroad down in Vermont, and the repainting was quickly cancelled.  (I'm not sure whether a Budd car to Sudbury variant was ever envisioned.)

So there you have five fantastic Canadian rail mysteries I'm not able to solve. I present them for your perusal, hoping that some astute Trackside Treasure readers will spring into action this April with additional information they can bring to light, or perhaps add some fuels to the burning fire of knowledge I hope to have kindled for you on this day. Until then, I would classify them as AFD (Apparently Few Details)...

April 2 Update!
Trackside Treasure readers and commenters once again prove their mettle.  Not daunted by red herrings (and red F-units) they saw through the tongue-in-cheekness of this post to reveal the truth:
1. Montreal's nicely-restored stations included beautiful platform lighting poles and fixtures that do not constitute icicle-breaking capability.
2. Former steam tenders in MoW service fascinate me to the point that I couldn't help adding some of my own lettering to dress one up a bit.  CP is known for maximizing the assets.
3. No explanation behind that triangular interurban thingie.  OK, I did add some lettering and number as well.
4. CP Rail Rossland Sub switchback shortened one-windowed caboose.  Only two existed.  Love the markers.
5. AMRoad Silver Streak.  Wisely, no-one bit about my suggested BSRoad scheme.
Check out the post's second-last sentence.  It contains the words April, fuels and day.  Summed up as AFD in the last sentence. Thanks for playing along and keeping this blog fun and enjoyable!  You're as rightly skeptical as you are eminently wise!  This is how I spend my voluminous spare time! I'll likely only post such facetious posts once per year. Likely, I said.  --Eric

Running extra...
Just finished reading Garbo - The Spy who Saved D-Day. Both the Germans and the British (for whom he was working) liked this double-agent's work so much that they awarded him the Iron Cross and Member of the British Empire, respectively.  Garbo was successful in detaining valuable German forces away from Normandy, largely due to the credibility and regularity of the (sometimes) useful but largely out-of-date intelligence he transmitted via Spain.

Grammy video by Bruno Mars...Runaway Baby.  He's Elvis! He's James Brown! His horn section is co-ordinated! Humourous exhortation of the stunned and staid celebrity crowd at the 2:16 mark.

Another rail mystery solved...I've always wanted to delve into the CP Rail connections in the movie Silver Streak.  Chris and Connie over at the ChrisBigDoer blog have already done so.  Why reinvent the wheel?  Find out about their in-depth discoveries behind the movie's signature scenes in Alberta.... like how Okotoks = Stavely.