Hijacked
MadHatter: the Canadian originally ran from Montreal and Toronto to Vancouver over the CPR route (it was built by CPR in '54), going through Winnipeg and Calgary. When it passed into VIA's hands (and the government's) the route varied a bit and when I took it, it was combined with the Super Continental to give a co-ordinated service over both the CN and CP lines with a major train shuffle in Winnipeg. Later, one government made major cuts to rail service and only the CN route survived, down to 3 days a week. (The popular feeling was that only trains serving cabinet ministers' constituencies survived.)
The Canadian never ran east of Montreal. After the major cuts, the cars were used on trains to the east coast because they scrapped all the smoothside ex-CNR cars, leaving only the Budds from the Canadian and the LRCs.
(Sorry to hijack the sunset thread.)