Ahhhhh..... we have a bit of experience with these things.

The pictured 4992 now has a rubber roof, which was the subject of some postings here a few months ago--- search for "EPDM roof" and it should come up.

4990 is now in the shop, getting a quick paint job and some roof attention.

The "4900" number series was commonly used for Montreal commuter service. Some cars retained their original long-distance coach numbers in that service. Most of the cars in Montreal commuter service were originally coaches. Some had large "smoking rooms" at one end (16 seats in there), many were air conditioned with ice in the late 1930s. There were a few cars in the 4900 series that started life as "colonist" sleepers (130 of these orginally built in 1919, CNR 2750 to 2879) and were converted to coaches. 4959 to 4974 became first class coaches, then went into commuter service with no number change.

There are two excellent books about CNR passenger cars published by Bytown Railway Society, and they have detailed rosters showing renumbersing, orginal configurations, etc.

For example, our 4990 was originally 5114, 4992 was 5089, our 4980 was 5072. These were always coaches, not colonist cars.

They are good cars and ride very well; removing the "school bus windows" was important as that opened up an area that trapped water on the window sills and window posts. Roller bearings and "E" couplers are a plus, in my opinion.

Howard P.