Via Rail Canada is now starting to show members of the press the NightStar cars aquired from England. These cars are almost like modern LRC cars, and should be seen on the Ocean and Enterprise by year end. The cars were aquired for a very atrractive price (can't remember the exact total but it WAS CHEAP!) and will cost almost as much to rebuild as they paid for the cars (Which still brings the total to a lesser amount than new cars. Via will soon start sending some of these cars out for employee surveys, and then later out for public oppion surveys. It has not been made official yet, but the coachs will be in the 7200 series, the diners in the 7300 series, and the 7500 series is the sleepers. There are 139 cars total, only 69 built, the rest are partially built or in nice little kits for Via to assemble. (Note: The cars that aren't built are better for Via as they can now make the modifications easier, and faster!) There are 72 sleepers, 47 coachs and 20 Food Service Cars. I hope with the addition of new cars, more services can be added. One rumour that has been flying latelly is that Via will run the <big>Canadian dayly</big> between Vancouver and Sask. That part of the run recovers 107% or its annual running costs! Happy Railroading! DÅÑë
These cars have now been dubbed the "Renaissance Cars" as they were purchased with the Federal Rail Renaissance 2001 money. They should debut around December, about a month after the P42DCs are released with the new yet to be released Via Rail Canada paint scheme (I wonder how long they will last with out adds on them!) Happy Railroading! Dane
