No. 10261 Semi-Streamlined Class H-1e 4-6-4 "Royal Hudson" Steam Locomotive & Tender, heading up the "Dominion" Streamlined Passenger Train

 Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway started out in 1850 as a twelve-mile run on the Saint Lawrence River northeast of Montreal. By 1885, the road had become transcontinental, with financing by the Canadian government, to compete with the United States cross-country rail system, completed in 1869. The Canadian route stretched from Montreal to Vancouver, some 2776 miles, and by the 1920s Canadian Pacific offered five fine heavyweight Pullman-equipped transcontinental trains daily, including the ”Soo-Pacific Express,"  the “Imperial Limited,”  the “Dominion,” and the all-sleepers  “Mountaineer” and "Trans-Canada Limited." 
 
In 1937 Canadian Pacific started to take delivery from the Montreal Locomotive Works of 45 semi-streamlined 4-6-4 “Hudson”-type steam locomotives to power these fast trains.  The “Hudsons” were first used on the New York Central Railroad in 1927 (see No. 10073) to head up its “name” trains, the “20th Century Limited” (No. 10073) and “Empire State Express” (see No. 10062). The locomotives were powerful, fast, and dependable, built for the Canadian Pacific 1937-1940.
 
In 1939, recently crowned King George VI of England visited Canada with Queen Elizabeth, touring the country for thirty days with their entourage on a 12-car Canadian Pacific “Royal Train,” headed up by one of Canadian Pacific’s new “Hudsons,” Class H-1d No. 2850. In honor of the occasion, the locomotive was decorated with the British royal arms and crown, which was soon added to all the other semi-streamlined “Hudsons” in Canadian Pacific’s fleet. They were then referred to as “Royal Hudsons.”
 
Henry Blane Bowen had 23 years of Canadian Pacific Railway service under his belt when he was appointed Canadian Pacific’s Chief of Motive Power and Rolling Stock in 1928. Bowen, an Englishman by birth, created a body of work from the mid-1930s through 1949 that flavored Canadian Pacific’s passenger trains with some British undertones and a dash of North American Midwestern spice.
 
The best-known of Canadian Pacific’s steam locomotives were the Bowen-designed final 45 “Hudsons” of the 65-engine-strong 2800 series, all built by the Montreal Locomotive Works. Nos. 2820-2849 arrived as Class H-1c in 1937, Nos. 2850-2859 were built as Class H-1d in mid-1938, and oil-burning Class H-1e, Nos. 2860-2864, were delivered for Western service in June, 1940. All were semi-streamlined, and royal permission was given to place cast crowns on the forward running board skirts of all 45 semi-streamlined “Hudsons,” then becoming known as “Royal Hudsons.”  Four “Royal Hudsons,” including celebrity No. 2850, survived scrapping in the 1960s and went on to excursion careers of varying scope, including No. 2860, featured on this model train.

The "Dominion" was a fine heavyweight Canadian Pacific train with a long-established tradition, starting out as the "Imperial Limited" early in the twentieth century, evolving into the "Dominion" in 1928. 
 
Post World War II, the Canadian Pacific in 1953 ordered 173 new Budd-built lightweight stainless steel coaches, sleepers, and diners, including the new sensation, dome cars (CPR called them "Scenic Domes").  These replaced the aging heavyweight cars in use from the 1920s. Then, in 1955, Canadian Pacific introduced a completely new streamlined train with the new cars, the “Canadian,” on the Montreal-Vancouver route, with service starting in April of that year (see No. 10531).  The train featured two dome cars, becoming the longest dome-car journey in the world and the premier passenger train in Canada. The food and service were excellent, and the views of the unspoiled prairies, lakes, and mountains spectacular.  This was a faster sister train to the "Dominion," which made more stops, on the same Montreal-Vancouver route, 71 hours for the "Canadian" versus 83 hours for the "Dominion," under new diesel power (see No. 10393).  At this time there were four Canadian Pacific transcontinental trainsets, two in each direction, the "Canadian" and the "Dominion." 
 
With the arrival of the jet powered passenger plane and improved national highway systems, passenger train revenues declined in the United States and Canada in the 1960s. Like Amtrak in the U.S., VIA Rail Canada took over passenger operations throughout Canada in January, 1976. The “Canadian” has survived into the 2000s, but as a lesser train under VIA Rail, between Toronto (since 1978) and Vancouver (2007). The "Dominion" was retired in 1966.
 
In the 1950s, diesel power began to assert itself, being more efficient than traditional steam propulsion. Diesel and steam shared main-line duties in the 1950s, with steam being phased out by 1960 on the Canadian Pacific in favor of the newer multi-unit diesel locomotives (see No. 10531).
 
No. 10261 represents an accurate semi-scale model of Canadian Pacific’s Class H-1e 4-6-4 “Royal Hudson” No. 2860, heading up the streamlined train,  the “Dominion” as it would have been seen on its Montreal-Vancouver run in the late 1940s to early 1950s under steam power. The train is in “0” gauge by MTH with seven modernized solid maroon heavyweight cars (Nos. 10262, 10263, 10264).  There should be no dome car on this train as they were not introduced to the "Dominion" until it was re-equipped with Budd-built lightweight stainless steel cars in 1955, by then diesel-powered. 

Currently (2007) there is one VIA Rail transcontinental dome-equipped deluxe streamliner, the "Canadian," running between Toronto and Vancouver.