Montreal’s Expo ’67 opened on April 28 and lasted until October 29, which are approximately the dates this timetable was in effect. The timetable’s cover shows the Canadian National exhibit at the fair, which was designed to make people think about time and motion, asking visitors to consider such questions as how people experienced time when playing a game of chess vs. racing down a hill on skis or whether the duration of a kiss felt the same to a boy as a girl.
Click image to download a 48.7-MB PDF of this 68-page timetable.
A subtle point of this exhibit might have been to make people think that a trip by train would be more enjoyable than flying and therefore worth the extra time required. Whether that was CN’s intention or not, the exhibit filled a niche in the theme of the fair itself, which was supposed to be “Man and His World.” Aside from the sexism, a retrospective look at the exhibits makes me think the fair was really about “People and Their Cities,” as there was a strong bias towards visions of future urban life.
On my other blog, I’d write about how most of those visions have failed, particularly the supposedly affordable Habitat ’67 housing project that still survives today but turned out to be so expensive that it failed to inspire any imitators. However, that’s beyond the scope of this web site.
Instead, let’s look at changes in the consists of the Super Continental and Panorama. As in the previous two years, CN split the Super into Montreal and Toronto trains in the summer months. CN expected enough business due to the Expo that is made this split from June 1 to September 30 rather than from late June through early September.
Each train included two coaches, nine sleepers, and three food service cars that went all the way from Montreal or Toronto. The Montreal train also had three cars that only went part way and the Toronto train had two including, in both cases, a coach between Edmonton and Jasper and a dome between Edmonton and Vancouver. Sleeping car passengers on the Montreal train enjoyed a Sceneramic Lounge car between Edmonton and Vancouver, while those on the Toronto train had to crowd into the smaller ex-B&O dome-sleeper. The Montreal train no longer carried a parlor car or coaches to Ottawa.
The Panorama continued to operate as a single train that divided at Capreol with sections to Montreal and Toronto. The train continued to carry a Sceneramic Lounge car between Edmonton and Vancouver with the Edmonton-Winnipeg portion cut out in order to free up the cars for the Montreal Super Continental. Between Edmonton and Vancouver the train included 18 cars plus any baggage and express, making it as long or longer than almost any other Canadian National train.
During April, May, and October, the Super Continental was also a combined train between Capreol and Vancouver. Naturally, it carried a Sceneramic Lounge car between Edmonton and Vancouver and at its greatest length it included 15 cars, plus baggage and express, west of Edmonton. It appears that the leased, ex-B&O dome cars weren’t used during these months.