CN003788
Canadian National Railways locomotive No. 6400, which hauled the royal train in 1939.
The King and Queen travelled at the rear of the train, as far from the noise and soot of the locomotive as possible. Car No.1 contained two main bedrooms with dressing rooms and private bath, a sitting room or lounge for the King and Queen, and two bedrooms for members of the Royal Staff. The living room was furnished with green chairs and apricot-coloured upholstery. It had a radio and small library that was appropriately stocked with books by Canadian authors such as Bliss Carmen, Mazo de la Roche, and Stephen Leacock. Popular authors of the day like Pearl S. Buck, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and of course John Buchan (the Governor General) were also represented — as was a translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Family photos and mementos were scattered about, including two little canoes that had been given by a First Nations community for the princesses. There was also a set of specially designed maps of North America that rolled up and down like blinds. In the tiny but fully equipped dining room, the china was a white Limoges pattern with bands of maroon and gold surmounted by an embossed crown.
Perhaps reflecting his naval upbringing, His Majesty’s rooms were in blue and white chintz. Close at hand were his field glasses and cine camera — he was constantly running in to grab it and record sightings of moose and deer that he thought his daughters would like to see. His bathroom was done in pale blue. The Queen’s sitting room was blue-grey with damask coverings and curtains of dusty pink. Her bedroom was in soft peach with brocaded satin drapes. On her bedside table were her The Book of Common Prayer and a pile of the ghost-story books that she loved. Her bathroom was in lavender.
Car No. 2 had a large lounge, as well as an office, a dining room and kitchen, and two bedrooms with a bathroom for members of the Royal Staff. Car No.7 had two main bedrooms with bath, lounge, dining room, kitchen, and also a bedroom for servants. The cars “Pacific” and “Atlantic” accommodated the ladies-in-waiting and other persons of Their Majesties’ staff. “Atlantic” had six rooms with lounge and a shower. “Pacific” had five rooms, a lounge, and a shower. The lounges on “Atlantic,” “Pacific,” and car No. 7 were used as sitting rooms for all members of the royal party.
The exterior colour scheme of this “Buckingham Palace on wheels” (so dubbed by the press) was royal blue, with silver panels between the windows and a horizontal gold stripe above and below the windows, the blue extending above the windows to the roof line, which had a gun-metal colour. The last two cars of the train, cars Nos. 1 and 2, were dubbed “The Married Quarters” by the press. Their two carriages, in which the King and Queen travelled, bore the royal coat of arms in the centre of each car below the windows. The other cars in the train bore the royal cypher and crown in the centre below the windows, and a royal crown at each of the blue stripe between the top of the windows and the roof line. All of the cars were air-conditioned, which was more and more appreciated as the Canadian summer began.
It had been on the King’s express command that a buzzer was installed between the engine and the royal cars, and the locomotive engineer had instructions that, whenever he saw a crowd at any station ahead where they were not going to stop, he was to press the buzzer and slow down. This was a signal for Their Majesties to run out to the observation platform and wave. Through the trip, Her Majesty spent much time arranging the bouquets of flowers that were handed to her at every station. The King and Queen also spent time talking, reading, or playing games of solitaire. They also listened to the radio9 and talked on the phone to London and their daughters — facilities were provided at all stops for an outside telephone service. On one such phone call, Princess Elizabeth assured them that she was looking after Margaret, and her sister burst out with the news that she had passed her Girl Guide tracking test. Outside Port Arthur, the royal couple heard that Her Majesty Queen Mary had had an accident in her old Daimler. In between calls, His Majesty worked away on his “boxes,” the dispatch cases from London.
The royal train heads through the Rockies on its way to the Pacific coast during the 1939 Royal Tour.
The royal train was preceded, throughout the tour, by a pilot train, its purpose to protect and serve those on the train behind them. It carried the press, photographers, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and excess baggage that could not be accommodated on the royal train. The pilot train consisted of twelve cars, of which the Canadian National furnished seven. These included: one drawing-room sleeper, and three baggage cars. Two of the baggage cars were specially equipped to carry the baggage of the royal party, and the third baggage car was converted into a unit that included an electric power plant for generating all electric current, a darkroom for photographic purposes, and a postal-service section. The Canadian Pacific furnished five cars, including two drawing-room sleepers, a diner, a combination baggage car and sleeper, and a lounge car (“River Clyde”), which occupied the rear of the pilot train.
The Canadian National prepared locomotives for hauling the royal train, a 6400 type,10 a 6000 type, and one “Pacific” type, all finished in royal blue. Weighing 660,080 pounds, 95 feet long, and 15 feet high, the Canadian National 6400 steam locomotive had been built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1936 and, with the help of the National Research Council, was planned with an aerodynamic design that could prevent smoke from obscuring the engineer’s vision and could also reduce costs. The final bullet-shaped configuration, the result of wind-tunnel tests conducted in Ottawa, was so streamlined that it was often mistaken for a diesel locomotive. In addition to these, a CN oil-burner was used for hauling it through the mountains. The Canadian Pacific prepared two of its new Class H-1-d 4-6-4 locomotives for the royal train, which were the Hudson type, 2800 class. The Royal Hudson 2850,11 reconditioned at the CPR’s Angus Shops in Montreal, hauled Their Majesties across Canada, the first time that one engine had made a continuous journey of this length. Specially refitted and decorated for the occasion, the Canadian Pacific locomotive was a mass of shining stainless steel, royal blue, silver, and gold. The semi-streamlined engine bore the Royal Arms over the headlight, and Imperial Crowns decorated each running board. The crest of the Canadian Pacific appeared beneath the window of the cab and on the tender. The general decorative scheme comprised a background of deep blue on the underframe, the smoke-box, the front of the engine, and all the marginal work on the engine and tender. The sides of the tender, cab, and running boards were painted royal blue. The jacket of the locomotive, its handrails, and other trim were of stainless steel with gold leaf employed on the engine numbers. With His Majesty’s approval, the Royal Arms and replica crown were applied to all forty-five of the CPR’s H-1-c, H-1-d and the H-1-e 4-6-4s built between 1937 and 1945, and they became known as the “Royal Hudsons.”
The only time Their Majesties did not travel on the royal train was in New Brunswick between Fredericton and Saint John, where the track wasn’t strong enough to take it. A smaller, lighter train, consisting of a drawing-room car and four day-coaches, was used instead.
At a time when most of Canada seemed to live beside or near the two main railway lines, everyone had a good chance of seeing the royal train. Their Majesties met the famous, like air ace Billy Bishop, actor Raymond Massey, and the Dionne quintuplets, and the First People of Canada, like representatives of the Ojibway, Blacks, Stoneys, and Sarcees — some of whom had met the King’s father in 1901. They heard “God Save the King” sung many times in English, fewer times in French, and twice in Cree. Obviously missing their own daughters very much, they had lifted up to their carriage balcony dozens of bewildered children, and once at a remote station, Her Majesty, seeing two mothers with their babies, rushed into the kitchen and ran out with a bag of cookies for them. They met the future of the country through thousands of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, many chosen because they were thirteen-year-olds like Princess Elizabeth (a Girl Guide herself), and they met its past, shaking hands with seven holders of the Victoria Cross. The press did not need to look far for copy and anecdotes abounded. At tiny La Station du Côteau, Quebec, the Queen made His Majesty remain still and pose for a little girl who was struggling with a box camera. Later, at the White House, Her Majesty delicately tried to eat the first hot dog she had ever seen with a knife and fork until President