File:DSC00548 - Combine Car Sidney & Louisbourg 4 (48167641451).jpg

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This car, combining a passenger section and a baggage area, provided a link between Louisbourg and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. It is one of the oldest existing combine cars. On the passenger side, work carried out in 2001 has restored the vehicle to what is believed to have been its original appearance in 1894. The car has been through many changes over the years. Some parts of the vehicles are “windows to the past”: they have voluntarily been left unrestored to illustrate the various conditions and paint styles that have marked the vehicle’s history.

This car was used by Marconi in his 1901 trip to carry out long-distance radio transmission tests. Another interesting feature is the interior layout: two passenger sections separated by a section for the conductor, evidence that the car was originally designed or built for an American company practicing racial discrimination. Such cars, built for the segregationist American market, are more often known by their nickname: "Jim Crow Cars".

Rhodes, Curry & Co. began producing cars after acquiring James Harris & Co. in St. John, New Brunswick, in 1893. Production was moved to Amherst the same year. At the time, Rhodes, Curry & Co. was a manufacturer of wood products seeking to diversify its output. The company’s clients included almost all of Canada’s railway companies, and Rhodes, Curry & Co. rivalled Crossen of Cobourg, Ontario, as Canada’s largest manufacturer of wooden rolling stock. A new firm, the Canadian Car & Foundry Co., was the product of a 1909 merger carried out by Nathaniel Curry between Rhodes Curry, Dominion Car & Foundry and the Canada Car Co. in Montreal.

All the information used with the pictures was taken from information at the Canadian Railway Museum Site.