Memories have a way of aggrandizing themselves in our minds. One example - I believed that I had recorded several observations of this venerable private car - GHM-1 - though in checking I could find only one. It was easing east across Kingston's Counter Street crossing during March break, 1979. The last car on the nocturnal Cavalier, in the days of VIA handling private business cars (PV's):
When reminiscing retroactively recently at Real Rails 2025 in Burlington when I featured the March 22, 1979 consist in my presentation, I realized I had some more work to do. What did GHM-1 actually stand for? While maintaining
the original GHM-1 post published back in April, 2021, this enhanced post brings in some additional information about this unique and short-lived Corridor colonist, this Hochelaga habitué', this metropolitan marketing maven!
Differentiate This!
Eric Doubt was a vice-president of a B2B marketing agency specializing in health care in the 1970's. Establishing a Toronto office from Montreal in 1980 was a challenge for the agency as clients and prospects departed down Highway 401 to Toronto. Looking for something to deploy that was dramatic and noticeable, a partner read about the club of private railway car owners in the U.S. Did CN have any passenger cars for sale they could ride into town on?
CN was selling for price of scrap, in good shape, the former library car on the 1939 Royal Train then Governor-General Georges Vanier's car Metis from CN. The price was not cheap, but was below what was expected. Refurbishing, paint job and basic repairs could be managed. The car boasted a lounge, dining room with glass dining table, fully-equipped stainless-steel kitchen, three private bedrooms and bathrooms and was used for meetings, socializing and travel. Metis was returned to service and put into action for launch in Toronto, while there was still no office nor staff in Toronto. GHM-1 was the only privately-owned car in Canada at the time.
Jacques Pelletier, the former Governor-General's valet and chef came to work on the car. He cooked five-course meals while rolling through towns and villages or on the car's spur beneath the CN Tower. The firm received notice of its Agency of Record status from its first Toronto client while aboard the car. GHM-1 give the firm a foothold and presence in Toronto. Press coverage of the private car unfurled, and the firm the soon transferred its operations to a brick-and-mortar office.
The decision to buy GHM-1 parallels the current situation to beamed-up advertising during the pandemic. One recruiting firm just bought a spacious RV in which to meet and stay safe on highways. Imaginative and attention-getting ways to get to one's destination allows firms to stand out from the competition while making a statement.
Originally, in 2021 I happened to find the above engaging excerpt in a podcast by Eric Doubt of CA14 Integrated Marketing & Communications in Georgetown (top photo from CA14 website). Previously, Eric Doubt was Vice-President then Manager of Ontario operations for the car-owning firm that was part of the alphanumeric car number: Greiner Harries McLean, a Montreal ad agency with a staff of 13, to which the above-quoted Eric Doubt podcast referred, though not by name! Industries were moving out of Montreal at the time due to rising language tensions, and this seemed a fun and convenient way to continue to serve them in Toronto. GHM's accounts comprised mostly industrial/technical advertising.
Metis was purchased from CN for $50,000. The interior was redecorated and repainted grey & black, the exterior blue & gold. Railways charged 20 coach fares to move the car on the tail-end of passenger trains. Its home was in in CN's Pointe St Charles yard or near the CN Tower while in Toronto. Parking fee was $1,000 per month, another $150 to hook up phone and sewer, plus wages for the full-time chef/steward. The car also travelled to Ottawa and Quebec City.
Michael Harries, president of the firm and a 47 year-old Briton who had been a fixture in the Montreal advertising scene for 20 years, was quoted in press coverage at the time as saying that the firm hoped to have a permanent office in Toronto, at which time GHM-1 would be redundant, "But I'd hate to sell it". Within two years, he overcame that sentiment. Thoughts of renting the car ended when Michael Harries thought of cigarette burns in the carpet from wild parties! The purchase of the car generated widespread press coverage in 1979.
Toronto Star - March 20, 1979 - just two days before I observed GHM-1 on the Cavalier:
Ottawa Citizen - November 10, 1979:
Ottawa Journal - November 9, 1979:
UNCOVERING GHM-1's HISTORY
I happened upon this excellent (and the only one I've found on any rail enthusiast website) photo of GHM-1 on the rrpicturearchives website
here. Date given as 11/1/1980 - approximate. Location and photographer are unknown, though possibly at the AAPRCO 1980 convention at White Sulphur Springs, VA:
GHM-1 only bore that alphanumeric identity for a short time.
Former CN streamlined heavyweight business car 1041 Metis, built by CC&F in 1928 with sister car CN 1040/Cacouna as 7 compartment-observation-library-buffet, often used on Depression-era CN's St. Lawrence Special Montreal-Gaspe trains. As built, from Canadian National Railway Passenger Equipment 1867-1992 by Lepkey and West showing original clerestory roof:
Schematic from CN passenger car binder:
On June 27, 1964 showing clerestory roof and ductwork covered (Bob Gevaert photo - W.R.Linley collection, from John Riddell's Canadian National Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment-Volume 1):
- 1937 - ice-activated a/c installed with ducting on the roof.
- 1939 - redesignated Special Compartment car.
- 1953 - modernized with a straight arched roof and modern sealed windows.
- roller-bearing trucks installed by 1968.
- 1973 - renumbered by CN to Business Car 41.
- 1975 - renumbered to CN 15104.
- In private ownership as Gravette Historical Museum [GHM-1] --> red herring. This information was included with the rrpicturearchives captioning information, erroneously. I checked with the Gravette, [Arkansas] Historical Museum and they knew of no connection to this car!
- Sold in 1978 to Eric Doubt and Michael Harries as GHM-1 (Montreal/Toronto)
- Resold in 1981 to J.H. Green, Texas Tank Car Works
- Resold in 1989 to Jeff Hanley (Clarksville, AR), named Mercedes
- Resold in 1997 to Ron Dyer, Historic Rails Travel Center (Kansas City). Metis was an attendee at AAPRCO conventions 2003+.
- Resold in 2004 to John Tyson, American Rail Excursions (Reno) MRLX 800341 Metis.
- Resold in 2010 to the New Brunswick Southern.
- Now MRLX 800341 Mid-America Railcar Leasing.
My observation of GHM-1:
Lots o' links:
Running extra...
Another one bites the dust. VIA's Amherst Manor has been renamed Archibald Manor. Archibald who? The car's plaque reads, "Archibald Manor - Sir Adams George Archibald (1814 - 1892), for whom this car is named, represented Nova Scotia at the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences in 1864, forming the basis for Canadian Confederation in 1867. In 1870, he became the first lieutenant-governor for the newly created province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. He administered the provisions of the Manitoba Act guaranteeing Métis land rights and was vital in the negotiations of Treaties 1 and 2 with the Ojibwe and Swampy Cree."
I grew up in
Amherst View, across from
Amherst Island, and went to
Amherst View Public School. Having just watched Ken Burns' series on the American Revolution, it's about time that Washington state and even the capital of the US are renamed. The reasons for doing so would be equally VIAlid. Disease was rampant during the American Revolution, famously Smallpox running rampant among the ranks of the patriots, as was Dysentery, Typhus, Malaria and Measles. A virtual
Bouquet of Biological Warfare!
The crowded, unsanitary conditions of military camps made smallpox particularly virulent due to the lack of immunity among many American colonists. In response, George Washington implemented a controversial but successful mass inoculation program for the Continental Army against smallpox, which was crucial for securing victory. Really Fundamental Knowledge, junior!
My parents travelled in Bedroom F of
Amherst Manor, as they left
Amherst View and rode west on VIA No 1
in the summer of 1983. My Dad thought this was an interesting bit of local interest, photographing the portrait of Sir Jeffrey that hung in their room. It's okay now to revise the history portrayed on VIA's Canadian. Can revising Canadian history itself be far behind? I'm left to wonder what he'd say if I told him about the
renaming.
Waiting to EXO...Distant heads-ups EXhOrted me trackside this past weekend and I was EXOrable, so went out to catch three X's and O's head east as they were EXpOrted from California ALL-tOgether towards Montreal where they will carry Anglophones, Francophones and ALLOphones.
Youtube video here.
Scrapping of at least three VIA Renaissance cars at the Montreal Maintenance Centre, posted to UrbanToronto by 'ManyQuestions' on December 3:
First past the post...
I was able to plug some holes in my plethoric periodicals this past week, thanks to fellow blogger Steve Boyko. Inhabiting the incoming box with Bytown Branchlines was a bevy of beautiful X2F's for my burgeoning box of banausic couplers. Thanks, Steve!
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