Wednesday, December 18, 2013

C.N.R. School Car, Capreol, Ontario c. 1928

Richard Howard, Jacques Lacoursière & Claude Bouchard.  A New History of Canada.
10.  A Time of Shocks.  1926-1939.
 Montréal:  Éditions Format, 1973.

These cars used to travel around the north, visiting communities for 3 to 6 days every month.  

Capreol, north of Sudbury, is home to the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum and Heritage Centre.  You can visit their page on the School on Wheels for more information on these unique school cars.

A converted Colonist car was donated by CN in 1940.  In 1967, the school car program was discontinued, and this last car disappeared. It was found many years later in a Mississauga rail yard, vandalized, burned out, and with a tree growing through it.  It has since been restored and is now on display at the School on Wheels Railcar Museum in Clinton, Ontario.

In place of school cars, Capreol now boasts a "Terror Train" during Halloween.  No doubt more fun, but less educational.

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