Although the Super Continental was CN’s premiere train, a case can be made that the Ocean Limited actually held this title as it was CN’s only all-sleeping car train. The train took about 36 hours between Montreal and Halifax and had four sleepers (one of which doubled as a buffet-lounge) between Montreal and Halifax, two more between Sydney and Montreal, and one between Campbellton and Montreal. A diner shuttled between Mt. Joli, Quebec, the approximate half-way point, to serve breakfast, lunch, and possibly dinner in both directions.

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Based on a cover photo on the 1954 timetable, I observed that the cars all appeared to be heavyweights that had been smoothed out to appear streamlined. Although by 1957 Canadian National had received most if not all of the 359 new passenger cars it had ordered in 1954, the equipment list in today’s timetable makes it clear that the Ocean Limited was still using the same heavyweight cars, although its schedule was speeded up by about two hours.

On the Montreal-Halifax route, the Ocean was supplemented by the Scotian, which carried both coaches and sleepers. The Scotian left the terminal cities 15 minutes after the Ocean and arrived at the other end 90 to 100 minutes after the sleeping car train.

A third train on the same route, the Maritime Express, left Montreal about 8 hours earlier and left Halifax about 7 hours later than the Ocean/Scotian. The six-day-a-week Maritime was a local train, taking about 7 hours more between end points than the Ocean and three hours more than the Scotian.