This CN timetable is the earliest one we have seen that features the ex-Milwaukee Super Domes and Sky-Top observation cars. CN purchased these cars in 1964 but they aren’t pictured in yesterday’s April 1964 timetable. I don’t have a copy of the October 1964 timetable, but its cover shows a Super Dome (which CN called a “Sceneramic Lounge”) in the Rocky Mountains; the same photo is shown on the inside front cover of this one.
Click image to download a 47.7-MB PDF of this 68-page timetable.
Today’s timetable says both the Super Continental and the Panorama carried Sceneramic Lounge cars between Vancouver and Edmonton. It doesn’t mention the Sky-Top cars but they went on the Ocean Limited and Scotian.
Starting in 1965, during the summer months CN ran the Super Continental as two separate trains with the same name. One went between Montreal and Vancouver and the other between Toronto and Vancouver. In this timetable, the two trains operated about ninety minutes apart from about June 23 through early September 8.
During these months, the timetable shows 13 cars from Montreal to Vancouver, plus a sleeper from Winnipeg to Saskatoon and the Sceneramic dome car between Jasper and Vancouver. The Toronto train is nearly identical but doesn’t have a sleeper between Winnipeg and Saskatoon.
During the off-season months, the train had 13 cars from Montreal and Toronto together to Vancouver, plus some other cars for shorter distances. When there was only one Montreal-Toronto train, the Sceneramic Lounge car could shuttle between Vancouver and Edmonton, but when there were two it was scheduled to go only as far as Jasper so that a dome car could also be put on the Panorama at Jasper. The Panorama had 11 cars from Montreal or Toronto to Vancouver, plus various shorter-distance cars including the dome car.
Surprisingly, neither of the feature cars are shown on the front cover, which presents an incredibly long passenger train along a river. Part of the train (including the dome car if it has one) is obscured by trees, but I estimate it carried 18 cars, four of which were baggage and express. The equipment listing indicates that the Super Continental included 13 transcontinental passenger cars, plus the dome between Vancouver and Edmonton and a sleeper between Winnipeg and Saskatoon. No other CN train was so long so the cover photo is quite likely the Super.