"Cape Churchill" A CPR Solarium Buffet Sleeper

The best friend of any CPR modeler, Mr. Geoff Gooderham has struck again and this time it's a truly iconic CPR passenger car that he has brought to life in a shell and base kit... the "Cape" series Solarium-Buffet-Sleeper.

Built as the River series solarium's for the world famous Trans Canada Limited in the late 1920's these cars served the premier train for it's entire existance. rebuilt and re-furbished in the mid 1940's the new "Cape" series cars carried the drumhead and markers for almost all the CPR's named long distance consists including the premier "Dominion" trans continental train.

Bumped from Dominion service by the introduction of the lightweight stainless steel "Park" dome observation cars built for the "Caandian" and "Dominion" they served on secondary trains until they started to be removed from service in the 1960's - some being converted to Business cars, some to work service and some scrapped.

The "Cape Race" is at the Toronto Railway Historical Association's Roundhouse Museum awaiting restoration.

Geoff's casting is outstanding with features like belt lines, rivets and rain gutters being faithfully represented. The base is well made and my kit fit perfectly right away. The underside of the car is very accurate, as are the signature solarium windows.

I added a full solarium and observation buffet lounge interior and roughed in the four bedrooms. I added window treatments and 17 passengers to the car, which can be clearly seen when running. MT body mounted couplers, MT offset bolster 6 wheel trucks were used and smaller details such as marker lamps were added.

Geoff has created a wonderful addition to his line of CPR passenger cars (available exclusively through Vancouver's Central Hobbies) I highly recommend this kit to anyone who loves CPR passenger consists. I am very pleased with the results I ended up with building mine.


My "home made" car (Cape Breton") and the painted shell from Geoff


The interior construction of the solarium and observation areas.


The finished construction - bedroom side and passage way side

 

Puddington : Can't say there's much of a comparison. They are both equally well done. Now I just need to get one of the Geoff Gooderham shells for myself, because I've been wanting a solarium for a long time.

 

Thanks - Geoff's shell is absolutely hands down better than my bashed one but I have no problem with two CPR solariums "passing each other" west to east ! LOL !

 

Many thanks for your kind comment. The "up side" of this wonderful model is the accurate windows that truly represent the prototype... the "downside" are those same windows....unless you want to model a car being "deadheaded" back to somewhere you better be prepared to either model a detailed interior with paying passengers or "draw the shades"...LOL

Thanks again for the encouragement.

 

Fabulous work,Mike. Can't believe how nice that CN car looks!!!!

 

Thanks Marty and I hear they have this new invention called "glasses"...you should think about investigating them..... "snicker"

 

Hey Mike, mind if I add one of your new pictures to the rest of your pictures on my Gooderham page? (http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/passenger/goodcpr.html)

Also (and I may have already asked you this, but...), do you have any of his A Class Diner models (and pictures thereof)?

Also also, have you checked out any of the Panamint models CP trucks? He just came out with the Type 2b's as well as new 1b's with offset centers that should better fit on the Gooderham cars (based on my experiences trying to fit the old ones to my Gooderham DM&E cars) -




Here's the 2b -



Thanks!
-Mark

 

My Fault, Pud. What I meant to say, was how much BETTER it would look on thr Truely GREAT CANADIAN NATIONAL!!!!! heee....heeee

 

No worried pal, please do. I wasn't aware the trucks were ready for purchase... if so, I'm in !!!!!!!!!!!! The A series diner isn't built, but when it is i will shoot you a pic...

 

Much appreciated, thanks. I'm not sure if the Type 2's are listed on Shapeways yet, but if not they should be very soon. The Type 1's have been available for a while, although you might want to wait for the offset bolster hole version. The initial version hit the steps on my 2200 coach (requiring that I relocate the bolster mount). Not a big deal, but the revised version should work without any modification.

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/panamintmodels

-Mark