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Sleeping car curtains need identifying
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Author:  Margaret (SP fan) [ Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Sleeping car curtains need identifying
SLEEPING-CAR CURTAINS NEED IDENTIFYING

These curtains are a beautiful forest green, and
are in excellent condition. They are labeled
"SHANNONVILLE" in pale yellow paint - stenciled –
on the top binding. That may be the manufacturer
of the car name - I have no way of knowing.

Could these curtains be from a Canadian passenger
car? I wonder... I ask this because I know that
Canada still uses single-level passenger cars, abd
curtains like these may have become surplus and
useless once the Canadian RRs remodeled their
passenger-car interiors.

There are 2 curtains, and each is identical, except
for the room number which is on each curtain.
These numbers are on flexible thick plastic and
are halfway up the side of each curtain. One is
"7" and the other is "10".

Please note: these curtains are convertible:
from narrower to wider, by buttoning them, and
they are also convertible from half-length (of a
normal sleeping-car curtain) to full-length.
All these conversions are done by buttoning them,
and all buttons appear to be there, The buttons
are black. There are 8 hooks on each curtain.

I wonder if being convertible in length means they
were possibly 1930's-era curtains - for cars with
a center aisle and upper andlower berths...???
But they look so new.....

These curtains were used, as can be seen by the
repairs done on Room #7's curtain - not major
repains, just a rip of about 3 inches or so in
lenghth that was sewn up on a machine.

I would appreciate any help anyone can give me in
indentifying these bealtiful cortains. They are from
a deceased friend's estate, and he left them with me.
In order to donate them, I need to have some idea as
to their provenance.

Sorry - I do not hve access to a digital camera, or I
would post a photo of one of the curtains. Would
make it easire to see what I am referring to.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Margaret
Author:  Brian Norden [ Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Sleeping car curtains need identifying
This took a little digging, but here is the answer. According to Robert Wayner's A Century of DeLuxe railway Cars in Canada SHANNONVILLE was a Canadian Pacific 12 section, 1 drawing room sleeping car. The listing for this group of cars says built by Canadian Car and Foundry and Company Shops 1930-33. The individual car is listed as being converted into a container flat (#520028) in June 1965.

Along the way I checked alphabetical lists for the Canadian National and the Pullman Company and did not find the name used. So then Wayner's book was pulled off the shelf and the CP entries examined until the name was found.

So the car is a typical sleeping car with the center aisle and six sections on either side of it. Typically the sections are numbered 1-12 and the drawing room is lettered "A."

I'm not sure why there would be buttons for different widths. But the reason for different lengths may be because the CP, like the Pullman Company, sold not only berths, but also single occupancy sections. Instead of covering only the single berth, the curtains when a single occupancy section was sold had to reach from the ceiling to the floor.

In a full car both the upper and lower berths were sold and made up at night. The lower berths usually sold out first with few upper berth sales but unsold upper berths were let down for the night. A single occupancy section was sold at a price higher than a lower berth, but less than buying an upper and a lower berth together -- it guaranteed that the upper berth was not sold and that berth was kept against the ceiling at night giving the user of the lower berth more headroom, etc.

I found a copy of a Pullman advertisement for the single occupancy section on the web. It is found at http://www.pullman-museum.org/main/anhereswhatyoulllike.jpg
This from the Pullman Virtual Museum found at http://www.pullman-museum.org/
Author:  Margaret (SP fan) [ Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Sleeping car curtains need identifying
Thanks you very much, Brian, for the most excellent
help - which answered my question. :)

I had thought that "SHANNONVILLE" had to be a
Canadian sleeping car of some sort, with a center aisle
and upper and lower berths. I ended up with the
curtains for Sections 7 and 10. Thank heavens they
stenciled the car's name on the curtains!

I figured the "SHANNONVILLE" had to be a Canadian car because she seemed to be named after Shannon, Ireland, a part of the British Empire, and American cars were usually not named after non-US places - or so I thought.

The curtains were not different widths, but buttoned in the middle, instead of zipping, as can be seen from the ad you postd the link to. There are thus a total of 4 sections of heavy cloth for the curtains for each section.

What an ignominious fate to befall such a nice car -
converted into a container flat! Those curtains would certainly not be needed at all once the cars were converted to other configurations, or scrapped. I wonder if that car is still riding the rails, as she turned 41 this year, if she is still extant. Does Canada also, as does the US, require a freight car to be extensively inspected and, if necessary, repaired every 40 years?

Thanks, again, for the super help! :)

RYPN is a great site! :)

Margaret(SP fan)
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