Contractor's Private Car Eva (Yale Shops) c. 1885
BCA Photograph No. 74960
BCA Call No. I-30873
Photo in Onderdonk Album, #5, 45. (BCA Accession No. 198401-006)

Identical photographs are in the collection of the City of Vancouver Archives (CAN.P. 131 N.98) and the Vancouver Public Library (#206).

Onderdonk had this car built at his Yale car shops, probably in 1884. 'Eva' was the name of one of Onderdonk's daughters. The private car was used to transport visiting dignitaries along the railroad line under construction.

There were many distinguished visitors, who inevitably also enjoyed the hospitality of the Onderdonk residence, such as the Marquis of Lorne and various government inspectors. One suspects that, given the hardships and the dangers faced by the workmen, that the sight of the car may have provoked mixed feelings. Before the tracks could accommodate the car, dignitaries visited the railroad by special horse-drawn coach. On August 9, 1883, the Inland Sentinel no doubt expressed the sentiments of many:

...even this week said officials are rolling along the Cariboo road in their extra soft seated coach, (once honored by a Lord Dufferin and a Marquis of Lorne,) and have lackeys to attend to every command, while prancing steeds move at their will. Thus we have pompous, high spirited favorites who live in luxury at the peoples' expense, and wordlings are dancing attendance upon them wherever they go, while the poor natives of the land are deprived of not only decent places to worship but, also, often the necessities of life, and permitted to die for want of medical attendance!

The visitors on this occasion were Collingwood Schreiber, Chief Engineer of the CP Railway, J.W. Trutch, the Dominion Government's agent in Victoria, L.K. Jones, Fletcher, M.J. Haney, Onderdonk's General Superintendent, and assistants.

The first oblique mention of the Private Car occurs in The Inland Sentinel of October 16, 1884.