Can anyone direct me to a source for the correct spelling of CN passenger car names, especially the Indian and French names? For instance the books I have list a sleeper named Sisiboo Falls yet in looking up Canadian place names, I can only find Sissaboo, so how was it spelled? Many of the French names should have grave or acute accents and/or hyphens, example Rivière-du-Loup. Were these applied to the passenger cars?
I can't help you on spelling but I will say one thing. Railroad types sometimes named areas slightly different than what the actual name was at one time. I don't know if it was because when many of these names were created those in charge were border line illiterate I'm sure. Few join the railroad to write their great master piece...lol. And that was even more true back then. My grandfather - a CN engineer from the day CN was formed - had a grade four education, not uncommon in those days. There is a first Nation band called the Siska, but the bridges that are famous right by their land are called the "Cisco" bridges. Sometimes I think those people took the name for the area and turned it into what they thought they heard. And I'm sure that many of the Siska nation couldn't read or write when the Cisco bridges were named and provide the correct spelling. So you will find variances in spelling from the rail roads version to other versions that are out there.
