Canadian National Hawker-Siddeley Van 

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Canadian National Railway found itself with a large fleet of wood end cupola cabooses or vans which needed replacement. After testing their initial prototype steel van in 1964, CN jumped into the modern caboose era with their first large order from Hawker Siddeley. 

 

This order for 150 cars were of an all-new design specially for CN. With body shells constructed in Trenton, Nova Scotia, final assembly was completed at Hawker Siddeley’s previous Fort William, Ontario plant (now Thunder Bay). Notable features of these included several modern amenities such as Waugh full cushion underframes, electric lighting and power via an axle-driven generator, roller bearing trucks, a pair of oil stoves, a refrigerator, hot plate and much more. Numbered 79200-79349, these were delivered in 1967 and quickly became favorites with crews. With the success of these cars, many of the design features were also applied to CN’s home built Pte. St Charles vans which completed the modernization of CN’s caboose fleet in the mid 1970’s.  

 

Few changes were made to these cars over their 30-year service lives with CN, but there were a couple of paint scheme changes over time. Initially the cars featured body coloured orange step wells and end cages which were gradually painted black over time. Some cars were also modified for international service into the USA and featured FRA compliant window glass with orange side sill and end striping to signify that service.   

 

Cape Breton Development Corporation (DEVCO) in Nova Scotia picked up a couple of ‘Hawkers’ which were renumbered into the 9100 series and painted it in the distinctive green/yellow stripe scheme for use in coal train service. One of these, the 9106 later was sold to the Ottawa Central railway and was returned to CN ownership in 2008 after the OCR was folded back into the CN system!  

 

‘The Hawkers’ as they became affectionately known as, enjoyed long careers in CN service with many remaining until the end of caboose operations in the mid-1990’s. Due to their excellent condition, many were sold off to museums and can be seen preserved across the county!