From the moment you arrive in Calgary, you can rest assured that the staff is committed to making this your most enjoyable and satisfying travel experience ever.
The staff will guide you to the train from the Gold Entree Level of the Palliser Hotel where you will stay overnight prior to departure. Attendants will ensure that you and your luggage are safely on board. Skilled attention to detail is the hallmark of Royal Canadian Pacific's famous 'Royal Crown' service. Serving staff are attentive but not intrusive, and make every effort to make guests feel at home.
Royal Canadian Pacific has a very high ratio of service staff to passengers, with a maximum of 32 people on the train at any one time - approximately one staff member for every three guests. Guests have lockable private rooms with en suite facilities. Security guards keep watch over the train at all overnight station stops.
This is an "all-inclusive" tour - a no tipping policy is in effect. Staff take every step to create a warm and sociable atmosphere on board the train. However, guests' privacy will always be respected, and participation in tours and social activities is optional.
We have recreated the era of elegance and charm known as the "Romance of the Rails". Our hospitality consultants will help you plan and develop a rail tour which is unique in the world. Our onboard attendants cater to your individual needs to ensure that you experience a level of comfort that is unparalleled. Knowledgeable guides and interpreters accompany you to ensure you enjoy an enriching program of events and activities. Support staff follow the train to provide a safe and secure voyage.
Rich wood-panelled dining rooms on each carriage set the scene for our silver service and glorious food prepared especially for you.
Meals are served in both dining rooms of the Mount Stephen and the Royal Wentworth.
Meal times vary somewhat, to fit in with tour visits. The crew will tell you when meals are about to start. In general, breakfast is served from 07:30, luncheon between 12:00 and 14:00, and dinner between 19:30 and 20:00. Menus and starting times for meals are posted on the Mount Stephen car. Full service for breakfast is available every day in the dining cars. Alternatively, we will serve continental breakfast in your room if you advise the Service Team the previous evening.
Tea, coffee and other beverages can be served in all the lounge areas or rooms.
Dining attire
The dress code for breakfast and luncheons is business casual. The dress code for evening dining is semi-formal. The guideline for business casual includes dress pants, no ties, vests, shirts, sweaters, cotton pants and casual jackets. It does not include t-shirts, sweat shirts, sweatpants, casual shorts or tank tops. Semi-formal means that jacket and tie is the norm for gentlemen, except during unusually hot weather. For ladies an evening dress is recommended.
The Menu
Royal Canadian Pacific chefs create their meals begining with fresh local ingredients. These premium Canadian ingredients are then prepared with international influence. The chefs' wide ranging experience and creativity ensures a varied and exciting dining experience.
Guests can order from a full a la carte breakfast menu. Lunch is a light three course meal, and dinner is typically five courses. A choice of red and white wines is offered at lunch and dinner. Menus, including wine selections, are posted on the train each morning.
Royal Canadian Pacific Chefs
Josef Oeler
Denis Sirois
Pierre Meloche
Special diets
Special diets can be easily accommodated by our chefs - just advise us in advance on the Booking Information form. You are encouraged to advise of any allergies or dietary restrictions at the time of booking or on the morning of the tour departure on the registration form.
Enjoy sumptuous meals served in wood-paneled dining cars, with silver service abord our fleet of vintage rail carriges.
Swiss-born Josef is Royal Canadian Pacific's master chef. He apprenticed in some of Switzerland's finest five-star hotels before moving to Canada. Josef worked with renowned chef Albert Schnell at Montreal's Hotel Queen Elizabeth, and was a gold medal winner in the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt.
Denis trained in Quebec City where he spent five years working with French chefs. Chef Daniel Vezina, a well-known Radio Canada cooking show host and cookbook publisher, was Denis' inspiration and teacher during his culinary career in Quebec City. He then moved to Vancouver to experience the flavor and ethnic diversity of Pacific Northwest cuisine.
Pierre, from London, Ontario, has 15 years experience in the food industry, specializing in Californian, French and international cuisine. He trained in Toronto before being appointed chef at the city's Four Seasons Hotel.
The all-inclusive cost of your tour on The Royal Canadian Pacific includes:
Smoking Smoking is not permitted inside the coaches since this will set off the sensitive fire alarms which ensure your safety. Smoking is not allowed in any other part of the train except on the exterior open platform on each Business Car.
The Royal Canadian Pacific draws from an elite fleet of dedicated Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) business and parlour rail cars, built between 1917 and 1930. These 80-foot-long, steel-constructed, Pullman-style "heavyweight" cars were built to carry the railway's elite, and on occasion, hosted the world's rich and famous. Among the luminaries that have graced the Royal Canadian Pacific's fleet are Bill Gates, Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, and Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
The Royal Canadian Pacific has six cars which are coupled in the following order from the rear of the train:
| 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Observation Day Car: Mount Stephen with dining room Capacity - 12 persons |
Business Car: Royal Wentworth with two twin rooms, and dining room. Capacity - 10 persons. |
Business Car: Van Horne with two twin rooms. |
Business Car: Killarney with four rooms for the RCP Service Team |
Generator / Baggage Car |
Trailing Locomotive 1900 (built in the 1950s) Leading Locomotive 1400 (built in 1953) |
The sequence, at left, is designed to keep the day cars, particularly the open verandah of the Mount Stephen observation car, and the two open verandahs from the Royal Wentworth and Van Horne furthest from the locomotive so guests can enjoy the passing countryside or take advantage of great opportunities for pictures from all vantage points.
These diesel-electric locomotives are used mostly in pairs, each equipped with a 1,750-h.p. engine, geared for a maximum speed of 65 m.p.h. All three of the locomotives used by the Royal Canadian Pacific have been upgraded to current standards, but maintain the look and livery of the 1950s.
The pool of three locomotives that power the Royal Canadian Pacific are vintage 1950s General Motors passenger locomotives. The A-B-A set of locomotives, two with cabs (A) and one without (B), spent most of their distinguished careershauling transcontinental passenger trains across Canada. Special care has been taken to restore these vintage diesel-electric locomotives to the look and livery of the 1950s Canadian Pacific Railway, right down to the beaver crest on the nose. Locomotive 1400, the Royal Canadian Pacific’s flagship locomotive, was built for the CPR by General Motors in their London, Ont. plant. Delivered in April 1953 with a 1,500-h.p. engine geared for a maximum speed of 77 m.p.h., the locomotive was originally numbered 4099. A year later it was selected for CPR’s premier transcontinental passenger trains, first The Dominion and later The Canadian. The locomotive was renumbered 1400 and geared for high-speed passenger operation at 89 m.p.h. Canadian railway passenger service was turned over to the federal government’s crown corporation, Via Rail, in 1978. Via Rail purchased 1400 along with 27 other CPR passenger locomotives and upgraded its engine to produce 1,750 h.p.
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Sir George Stephen, Baron Mount Stephen, was CPR's first president, serving in that post from 1881 to 1888.
CPR's Angus Shops craftsmen in Montreal built the Mount Stephen in just eight weeks at a mere cost of $72,522 Cdn in 1926. The car is named after CPR's first president (1881-1888), Sir George Stephen, later Baron Mount Stephen. Built to serve as the directors' "day car" for daytime business use, the car has an extended lounge and meeting/dining area but no sleeping accommodations except for crew. The Mount Stephen hosted many world-renowned people, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (former King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson), Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh (later Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip), Princess Margaret, and Bill Gates. |
| The Wentworth was named after the president and chairman of the CPR in 1926 - Edward Wentworth Beatty - when it was built. It became royal when it served as part of the "Royal Train" in 1939.
The Royal Wentworth came out of CPR's Angus Shops in Montreal in 1926 as the Wentworth, at a cost of $73,536 Cdn. The name, Wentworth, came from CPR's then chairman and president, Edward Wentworth Beatty. A prestigious golf course and curling club, located in the Montreal suburb of Côte-St-Luc, was also given the CPR chief executive's middle name. The Wentworth's moment in history came in 1939 when the car was remodelled and repainted in royal blue, dark blue and aluminum livery as Car No. 5 of Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth's Royal Train. The car was occupied by a number of dignitaries; including Canada's then prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. In honour of the 60th anniversary of its Royal Train service, the car was renamed Royal Wentworth in 1999. |
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William Cornelius Van Horne was the great railway builder who managed the construction of the CPR rail lines from northern Ontario through to the west coast. He later became president and chairman of the railway
Ordered on February 7, 1927, this 84-foot (25.6-m) business car was built in less than 14 weeks by CPR craftsmen in the company's Angus Shops in Montreal. The total 1927 price tag for this 102-ton (92-tonne) car came to $73,031.21 Cdn.
The Van Horne is named after William Cornelius Van Horne, CPR's famous American-born, railway-building general manager, who later rose to the ranks of vice-president and president before becoming CPR's first chairman.
The Van Horne hosted gatherings of celebrities, politicians, lords and ladies, and company directors. In October 1931, its blue tapestry and mahogany surroundings conveyed then prime minister, Richard B. Bennett, from Ottawa to Pointe-Claire, Quebec. And in September, 1996, one year before Britain's lease on Hong Kong reverted control to China, its first governor under Chinese rule and former shipping magnate, Tung Chee Hwa, traveled aboard the Van Horne from Calgary to Lake Louise, Alberta.
Itineraries
Royal Canadian Rockies Experience |
Royal Fly Fishing Adventure |
Royal Clubhouse Golf Excursion |
Private Train Charters
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To check availability or receive additional information on The Royal Canadian Pacific, drop us a note, or call.... 800-777-7739 |
reprinted with permission of the Royal Canadian Pacific
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