Pacific Western Rail Systems - 805-1A - Passenger Car, Heavyweight, Baggage - Canadian Pacific - 2-Pack

Specific Item Information: Canadian Pacific Railway Set #1 Maintenance of Way. Set Consists of: #404911 "Fire Car" - Black/Red with White Lettering & #404906 "Tool Car" - Red with White Lettering

Model Information: As construction techniques for carbuilding and track & roadbed improved, car capacity increased from 60-ft to 70-ft, nominally measured at 74 feet over the coupler faces or 70 feet between the end sills. These cars were used for carrying express packages, pre-sorted mail, and passenger luggage from the 1920s to the advent of Amtrak. In mail & express service (M&E), they were interlined with connecting railroads to provide seemless service.

Prototype History: Heavyweight Passenger Cars were the prevalent style of railcars used for passenger service during the interwar period. They were constructed of concrete, wood and steel. The floor was often of poured concrete, which helped give these cars a smoother ride than older wooden-body cars. Also, because of their heavy construction, they were also much less likely to "telescope" when a collision occurred. They were much heavier than modern passenger cars due to the materials used in their construction. They were so heavy that they often (but not always) required three-axle bogies to support them.

Heavyweights frequently had what is called a clerestory roof. The center of the roof was higher than the sides, in that it was stepped up. The lightweight cars had smooth, rounded roofs. Heavyweight passenger cars typically weigh around 1 ton per foot of length. So a 85' car weighs in the area of 85 tons for a heavyweight car.

Road Name History: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), formerly also known as CP Rail (reporting mark CP) between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (TSX: CP, NYSE: CP), which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 23,000 kilometres (14,000 mi) of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves major cities in the United States, such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City.

The railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway, but currently does not reach the Atlantic coast. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. The CP became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo because it is the national symbol of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company.

The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. The combined DME/ICE system spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to Kansas City, Missouri, and a line to Chicago, Illinois, and regulatory approval to build a line into the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in Minneapolis.

After close of markets on November 17, 2015, CP announced an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Norfolk Southern Railway, at a price in excess of the US$26 billion capitalization of the United States-based railway. If completed, this merger of the second and fourth oldest Class I railroads in North America would have formed the largest single railway company on that continent, reaching from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast to the Gulf Coast. The merger effort was abandoned by Canadian Pacific on April 11, 2016, after three offers were rejected by the Norfolk Southern board.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Canadian Pacific official website.

Brand/Importer Information: PWRS Retail strives to provide the highest level of customer service resulting in the highest level of customer satisfaction.
PWRS Retail Ltd. is a model railroad store, and we also do a lot of special runs.

Commissioner Information: Pacific Western Rail Systems (PWRS Retail Ltd.) is a model railroad store, and they also do a lot of special runs. They do most of their business by mail order. Please call ahead of time if you would like to visit in person.
Pacific Western Rail Systems is located south of Vancouver at 15515 24th Ave in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

Pacific Western Rail Systems (Co-Op), the club in Surrey, BC, created and developed PWRS Retailing, LTD. A lot of their original business was selling limited-run cars. PWRS Retailing, Ltd. is a business. It was formed because the club's relationship with suppliers grew from a few special run cars, to ordering some locomotives for members, to helping a few friends, to the point where it was a full-time job and a large investment. Volunteer labor was not sufficient. The main owners of the business are those individual members of the club who chose to invest their own money and time in the business. The club members each own a minority interest in the store, but the club and the store are separate entities. Some of the original goals, such as developing a showcase, interactive layout with a sales point for the public, remain works in progress, and the shareholders of PWRS plan other achievements for the future of model railroading as well.
PWRS is a company incorporated in the Province of British Columbia and is owned by over 130 individual model railroaders. Their shareholders live in Canada, USA, Switzerland, England, and Australia.