Colonist car

Colonist cars were a solution to the challenge of North American settlement in the mid and late 19th century which saw the growth of settlement areas in the western interior of the continent, thousands of miles from the seaports where most immigrants arrived.

Colonist cars began in the 1840s as the cheapest form of transport for immigrants who could only afford basic fares.

At first they provided only benches around the side of what were often boxcars which could be converted to grain cars for return trips to the east coast.

[4] These cars provided simple pull-down sleeping berths and kitchens where immigrant families could cook their own meals.

A family could cross Canada from Montreal for seven dollars, but immigrants had to provide their own food and bedding.