[lesmore49]

Another car I had was a Mercury Comet Caliente, 289 V8, 3 speed full syncro with a Hurst Mystery Shifter. Mine was also red. The only color for Caliente, eh?



A light, nimble, powerful car. I miss mine.

Very nice, and not common.

I remember these Comet Caliente...Caliente, was the Spanish word for ' hot'...or so I was led to believe from the Mercury adverts of the time. When the Caliente was introduced, memory says it established a number of long distance speed records at the Daytona Beach track.

The cars had the K code 289 cube/ 271 hp engine, 4 speed manual...which was quite a performance option for this mid size car.

They were beauties.

[MXLX]

I built a model of the Caliente when I was a kid.

[tim60]

I built a model of the Caliente when I was a kid.

That’s something that does not happen much now.

[MarkJerling]

Another car I had was a Mercury Comet Caliente, 289 V8, 3 speed full syncro with a Hurst Mystery Shifter. Mine was also red. The only color for Caliente, eh?



A light, nimble, powerful car. I miss mine.

Pretty car Racer. There's something that never made it to our shores.

[Racer X 69]

Pretty car Racer. There's something that never made it to our shores.

Oh, there may have been at least one . . . . . .

[CharLac]

Nice one Racer. '62 was a pretty year for Chevs.

My parents had an early 60s Chev wagon...I'll have to dig up a photo and identify it sometime.

[CharLac]

Another car I had was a Mercury Comet Caliente, 289 V8, 3 speed full syncro with a Hurst Mystery Shifter. Mine was also red. The only color for Caliente, eh?



A light, nimble, powerful car. I miss mine.

That's one spicy looking ride!!

[CharLac]

One of my grandfathers was a carpenter for the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) and he worked there for . believe it or not...49.5 years. He started when he was about 12 years old, sometime around the past, turn of the century, then became a soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces , during WW1, then returned home and work at CPR, till sometime in the 1950's.

I was born in the very late 1940's and recall the end of the steam locomotive age in Canada and the USA, in the 1950's. For about the first 5-6 years of my life, I used to see steam locomotives moving both passenger and freight trains across the North American Plains.

Steam locomotives seemed alive....with all that smoke issuing out the stack, and steam coming from numerous other orifices of the engine. I don't know a lot about trains, but I do remember that.

The modern locomotives we have here now, aren't as exciting to watch. They are very large, diesel-electric locomotives, that can pull huge lines of freight trains across the never ending North American prairie.

When I was a young boy, I remember playing on a train, first one in the prairies of western Canada. It was originally used in Dakota Territory and northern Minnesota, before being bought by the CPR for use in Canada.

When it was retired , it was parked outside the CPR train depot. Kids (me included) were allowed to play on it at the time.

The name of this steam locomotive, was the Countess of Dufferin.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8...ZdUKBH5Y2Ddj3y

My siblings and I, all born in the early 60s, were fascinated by the prairie trains. Growing up in Montreal, we saw trains but usually pulled by one locomotive. Then while driving across Canada, pulling a Terry travel trailer with a Chev Townsman station wagon, we saw our first prairie train that seem to go on forever. Three locomotives and sometimes four; so cool. I may not be old enough to remember steam but I do remember when the caboose was a standard.

[lesmore49]

My siblings and I, all born in the early 60s, were fascinated by the prairie trains. Growing up in Montreal, we saw trains but usually pulled by one locomotive. Then while driving across Canada, pulling a Terry travel trailer with a Chev Townsman station wagon, we saw our first prairie train that seem to go on forever. Three locomotives and sometimes four; so cool. I may not be old enough to remember steam but I do remember when the caboose was a standard.

Long prairie freight trains still exist.

It is not uncommon to see two to three locomotives at the front, then a locomotive 'pusher' in the middle, then another locomotive 'pusher' at the very back of the freight car line. I have seen up to six diesel electric locomotives out here, pulling vast lines of freight cars.

The freight cars are flatbeds with cargo containers, oil tankers, automotive carriers, regular cargo box cars, grain cars, flatbeds with processed wood. Mostly freight trains have all these cars and more. I don't know the number of freight cars in a line, too many to count and I lose my place as they fly by a rail crossing, with me and others in our vehicles waiting, and waiting.

What we don't see and haven't seen for years, are any passenger car trains, except the Canadian on occasion. In the prairies we don't have much in the way of highway passenger buses, either, since Greyhound pulled out of the prairies a few years ago.

Our public transportation in the west (prairies) are our own vehicles. We have lots of space, lots of farms, ranches, but not a huge population considering how much square miles there are.

But on the other hand, I enjoy getting out in the countryide....solitude can be nice.

[MarkJerling]

Oh, there may have been at least one . . . . . .

[dbs]

Ahh ... waiting for a freight train to go past seems to last forever.
They are not as long as in the US, being governed by the length of the sidings but still very long.

[Racer X 69]

That's one spicy looking ride!!

Caliente!

[Racer X 69]

Ahh ... waiting for a freight train to go past seems to last forever.
They are not as long as in the US, being governed by the length of the sidings but still very long.

Says the man from the land of the road train.

[dbs]

Says the man from the land of the road train.

Good find.
Not too many roads around for this rig .... that is no corners .... Nullarbor plain maybe.

[CharLac]

Yay! Wifey and I head out tomorrow for a last trailer camping trip to this lovely locale.

Parc national d'Opémican - National Parks - Sépaq