Canadian Museum of Rail Travel

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The Canadian Museum of Rail Travel, or its brand name "TRAINS DELUXE", is located in Cranbrook, British Columbia, a city of about 20,000 on the west side of the Rocky Mountains. The City was developed by the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1898, as the administrative centre for the railway's "Crowsnest Pass" route. It is still a very busy railway centere with Canadian and international freight traffic.

This Museum, begun in 1977, is unique in that it collects, restores and displays "sets" of vintage passenger trains - the great named transcontinental "Deluxe Hotels-On-Wheels". It emphasizes deluxe railway passenger cars design in various era (1886, 1907, 1929, 1936) as well as deluxe railway hotel architecture.

Briefly, the collections, which are of CPR in origin, include: 1) the "Pacific Express" (1886)(2 representative original cars) 2) the "Soo-Spokane Train Deluxe" (1907) (4 rare original cars) 3) The "Trans-Canada Limited" (1929) ( a complete restored 7-car set)* Recipient of Heritage Canada's "Achievement Award" for restoration in 1993. 4) the "Chinook" (1936) ( a complete 4-car set) 5) There are various additional "interpretive cars" that expand the story line including Royal and Business cars. 6) The "Royal Alexandra Hall" ( 1906) the restored former Grand Cafe of the luxurious Royal Alexandra Hotel, Winnipeg, built by the CPR in 1906, but demolished in 1971, with the Museum obtaining the contents in 1999 and opening the Hall in 2004. * Recipient of Heritage Canada's "Achievement Award" for restoration in 2007. It can hold up to 184 for formal diner, 280 for concert, and 400 for stand up receptions. There are large adjacent facilities that expand the use of this Hall, and which also cater to large groups of visitors that tour the historic trains.

Instead of the usual mechanical and technological focus that most railway museums employ, this Museum emphasizes the social aspects of the railway through travel and design.

Tours through the beautiful inlaid paneled interiors of the cars are offered all year, and the Museum has large spaces for visitor services, and other program facilities, some of which are still under construction.

It located downtown next to the busy rail yards of the CPR as well as being on Highway 3/95, a major east-west Canadian arterial highway, and a major north-south route linking Banff and Japser National Parks with the Pacific North-West of the USA. Cranbrook is about 50 miles (80 km) north of the Idaho & Montana border with Canada and British Columbia.

The back of the Museum has a dedicated siding track for excursion trains arrival, with special doors into the Museum's large Entrance Hall from this track. The spectacular "Royal Canadian Pacific" (a high-end excursion train operated by the CPR on a circle route through the Rockies, out of Calgary, Alberta), uses this facility, as well as occasional special excursions of the CPR's famed #2816 restored "Hudson" style steam locomotive.

A 1992 Study about the historical significance of the collections was recently updated by the author, Rober Turner, Curator Emeritus of the Royal British Columbia Museum, in which he states that "the museum is unparalleled anywhere in Canada, and is clearly of national as well as international importance".