download the story of the canadian pacific railway
TRANSCRIPT
The Story of the Canadian Pacific RailwayHop aboard the Canadian Pacific Railway and travel through its history from the steam era to modern times
Hop aboard the Canadian Pacific Railway and travel through its history from the steam era to modern times
page 2
The people of British Columbia
agreed to join Canada after Prime
Minister Sir John A. Macdonald
promised that a railway would be
built within ten years to join this
westernmost province to the other
provinces. The result was the birth of
the Canadian Pacific Railway. Today,
CPR remains one of Macdonald’s
greatest legacies and has been the
subject of numerous books and
songs. These include Pierre Berton’s
books, The National Dream (1970)
and The Last Spike (1972), and
Gordon Lightfoot’s well-known
song, Canadian Railroad Trilogy.
British Columbia –The Promise
The Transcontinental Railway
On July 1, 1867 fourprovinces joined together to form
the new country of Canada. The four provinces – Nova Scotia,New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario– were joined three years later byManitoba and the NorthwestTerritories. Then in 1871 BritishColumbia decided to join Canada,but only if the Canadiangovernment promised to build a transcontinental railway.British Columbia set a 10 year deadline for the completion of thislink to the rest of the country.
page 3
John Alexander Macdonald, whowas born in Glasgow, Scotland onJanuary 10, 1815, came with hisparents to Kingston, Upper Canadain 1820 when he was only five yearsold. After receiving his educationand becoming a lawyer, Macdonaldwas elected to Upper Canada’sLegislative Assembly at the age of29 and by 1857 was Premier ofUpper Canada. In Macdonald’s earlyyears as a politician, Canada, as weknow it today, did not exist. Insteadthere were several British NorthAmerican colonies – Newfoundland,Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island,New Brunswick, Lower Canada(today called Quebec), UpperCanada (today called Ontario), andBritish Columbia. In addition to the
colonies there was the vastexpanse of land in the Westknown as Rupert’s Land.
During his years as apolitician in UpperCanada, Macdonaldsupported joining thecolonies together to formCanada. After meetings inCharlottetown, Prince EdwardIsland in 1864 and QuebecCity, Quebec in 1865,Macdonald and the otherFathers of Confederationworked out a deal thatwould form the basis of the British NorthAmerica (BNA) Act. OnJuly 1, 1867, the British
Parliament passed theBNA Act, creating
the Dominion ofCanada. For thekey role he playedin bringing aboutConfederation,
Queen Victoriaknighted Macdonald,
giving him the title ofSir. Macdonald, elected as
Canada’s first PrimeMinister, held that
office from 1867 to 1873 and againfrom 1878 until his death on June 6, 1891.
In thiscaricature of Sir
John A. Macdonald,CPR president Cornelius
Van Horne used his talent as an artist to
poke gentle fun atCanada’s prime
minister.
Although many thought itwas impossible to buildsuch a railway, Sir John
A. Macdonald, Canada’s firstprime minister, was determinedto keep his promise to the peopleof British Columbia. However,Macdonald’s Conservativegovernment soon ran into troublewhen private financiers hired to
build the railway bribedgovernment officials. Thiscaused a scandal,known as thePacific Scandal,which was thereason Macdonald’sgovernment lost the election of1873 and the Liberals came topower. The Liberal government,
under Prime MinisterAlexander Mackenzie,
was not veryinterested in
building therailway. It
wasn’t until1878, when Macdonald
was re-elected prime minister thatconstruction of the railway started
in earnest. British Columbia’s10-year deadline wasfast approachingand Macdonaldknew he had todo somethingto show theprovince therailway was on its way.
Keeping a Promise
Canada’s First Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald
page 4
On May 27, 2005, Canadian PacificRailway named the railwayinterchange in Kamloops,British Columbiaafter Chineselabourer Cheng GingButt. The ChengInterchange honorsthe many labourerswho toiled, somesacrificing their lives,to build the westernsection of the CPR fromPort Moody toCraigellachie, BC.
For many years, the contribution ofthe Chinese railway workers went
largely uncelebrated.Fifteen years ago
CPR, working with theChinese community,
erected a monument in Torontohonouring Chinese railway
labourers. More recently, the RoyalCanadian Mint launched a two-coincommemorative set marking the
120th anniversary of the completion of the CPR and theimportant partplayed by theChinese workers in building therailway. In 2005,
CPR, once again building trackto expand in the West, took theopportunity to celebrate the Chineseworkers from the 1880s with thededication of the Cheng Interchange.
Building a Nation
CPR Honours Chinese Workers
The best way to show that the railwaywas coming to British Columbiawas to start building tracks. So, the
Canadian government hired an Americancontractor, Andrew Onderdonk, to startconstruction. Over the next seven years15,000 men, including many Chineselabourers, built 545 km of track in BritishColumbia from Port Moody to Eagle Pass.The work was dangerous and cut through
some of the most treacherous geographyin the Fraser Canyon. Many workers losttheir lives building this section of thetranscontinental railway, but thetracks built by these men showedBritish Columbians the railwaywas on its way. Canada had kept its promise and BritishColumbia decided to remainpart of the country.
page 5
William Cornelius Van Horne is
most famous for overseeing the
construction of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. This was a great
achievement, but just one of the
ways Van Horne left his mark on
the railway and Canada. Van
Horne became one of CPR’s first
vice presidents in 1884. Four years
later, he became the president
of CPR, a job he held until his
retirement in 1899. Van Horne
was appointed Chairman of
CPR’s Board of Directors that
same year, a position he held
until his resignation in 1910.
In addition to being a
smart business man
Van Horne was known
for his great intellectual
curiosity. He had many
interests, including
geology, gardening,
sketching, and art
collecting. He was one
of the first people in
Canada to acquire
artworks by French impressionist
painters. After his retirement, Van
Horne indulged in his passion for
sketching. On a trip to Europe in
1909, Van Horne sent hand drawn
postcards to his grandson in
Montreal. He loved to draw
elephants, including elephants
on trains with their “trunks all
aboard.” Author Barbara Nichol
was so inspired by Van Horne’s
elephant sketches she wrote
a book of verse using his
illustrations. This children’s book
was published in 2001 and is
appropriately called, Trunks
All Aboard.
The story of the CPR would
probably be quite a different one
if Van Horne had not been at the
railway’s helm in its early days.
Today, Van Horne is remembered
as “the aristocratic railway builder
of the Canadian Pacific” in the
Canadian Railway Hall of Fame.
Birth of Canadian Pacific Railway
With construction underwayin the West, the Canadiangovernment still needed
someone to complete the rest of therailway from the East. That is when a
group of investors steppedforward with the money and
know-how to completethe project. On
February 16, 1881,Canada’s governor
general declared the Canadian PacificRailway Company “official” and therailway company was born. The next day,George Stephen was named thecompany’s president. The governmentgave the company $25 million and 25 million acres of land to buildCanada’s first transcontinental railway.Unfortunately, things didn’t get off to avery good start. During the first year ofconstruction crews laid only 211 kilometers
of railway track. But soon thingsstarted moving along after therailway hired William CorneliusVan Horne. CPR offered VanHorne a salary of $15,000 a year,a very large sum of money forthe 1880s, to become the railway’sgeneral manager. His job was tofinish building the railway over thePrairies and through the mountains.
William Cornelius Van Horne
page 6
In 1882, with Van Horne in charge ofconstruction, crews laid 673 kilometers of track. The dream of a transcontinental
railway was getting closer to being a reality. But,first there was one big problem to overcome –how to get through the mountains? In the late1880s CPR did not have the modern equipment itdoes today, so laying tracks through the mountainswas a difficult task. Major A.B. Rogers, a surveyor,started looking for a possible route in 1881.
It took him two seasons to find a pass that therailway could use to cross the Selkirk Mountains.The pass was called Rogers Pass in honour ofthe Major. In addition to having the pass namedafter him, Rogers was rewarded with $5,000and a gold watch for his work. Today, CPR usestunnels under the mountains, while the Trans-Canada Highway follows the original CPR routeover Rogers Pass.
Conquering the Mountains
The Rogers Pass was sosteep trains needed pusher
locomotives to help them get over thetop. In the winter avalanches often blocked
the tracks and many people lost their lives,either caught in an avalanche or digging out from
one. It soon became clear that a tunnel through themountain would be safer than going over RogersPass. On December 9, 1916, Canada’s Governor-General, His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught,officially opened the tunnel that bears his name.
The Connaught Tunnel served the railway as adouble track tunnel until November 11, 1958. It
was then converted to single trackoperation so that the higher and
wider loads on rail carswould fit.
Connaught Tunnel
By the 1970s,CPR needed additional tracks to
move its trains more efficiently, so thecompany began the third and most expensive
of all the Rogers Pass projects. In 1982 CPR startedconstruction on a project to make it possible for
longer and heavier trains to travel through Rogers Passwith ease. The project, which consisted of a 1,229-metrelong viaduct, a shorter 1.9-kilometre tunnel, and a longer14.7-kilometre tunnel, was completed in the late 1980s.The new Mount Macdonald Tunnel, with its gentleslope, meant that pusher locomotives were no longer
needed to help trains through Rogers Pass. Thismodern-day engineering feat is the longest
tunnel in the western hemisphere and onOctober 15, 2003 the tunnel was named
to the Canadian Railway Hallof Fame.
Mount Macdonald Tunnel
page 7
Surveyors had topush their way through
dense bush and scrambleover rugged terrain, and werealso in danger of forest fires,drowning, grizzly bears, and
other wild animals, as well as hordes of pesky
mosquitoes
A CPR track worker carves up the rails on his velocipede.Can he do a rock and roll on that thing?
CPR workers dig out from oneof the worst winter storms toever hit the prairies and hopefor better weather soon.
By 1887, CPR had built 31 showshedsto protect trains from heavy snowand avalanches in the SelkirkMountains of BC
The CPR soon found outit was very expensive to build railway tracks
through the mountains. By 1885the company had run out ofmoney and needed more tofinish building the tracks. Atthe same time CPR was havingfinancial difficulties, Canadawas dealing with the SecondNorthwest Rebellion on thePrairies. The governmentneeded to get soldiers fromeastern Canada to the Westto control the unrest withthe Métis and some of theFirst Nations peoples of
the region. The nearly completed railwaywas used to move troops to the area in lessthan 10 days. This proved to the governmenthow useful a railway was to the country andthe government decided to help CPR with itsfinancial difficulties so the railway could be completed. Just a few months later, onNovember 7, 1885, Donald A. Smith drovethe last spike into the railway tracks atCraigellachie, BC, to commemorate the trackfrom the East meeting up with Onderdonk’strack from the West. Sir John A. Macdonald’sdream of a transcontinental railway wasnow real. Eight months later the firsttranscontinental train left Toronto andMontreal, on June 28, 1886, for the
Pacific Coast.
The Last Spike
If you lookclosely at thephoto of the lastspike, you willnotice the face of a boy in thecentre of the picture. This is EdwardMallandaine, who was born inVictoria, BC, on July 1, 1867, the veryday of Canada’s Confederation.Edward left school when he was 14years old and began providing apony express delivery service to the
railroad construction workers in BC. He made good money forseveral months, until the two endsof the rail-track drew close to eachother and most workers left thearea. Before ending his adventure,Edward decided to attend thehistoric last spike event. So, hehopped aboard an open flat-car,enduring a bumpy ride through a bitterly cold night to reachCraigellachie on Nov. 7, 1885.
At the ceremony,Edward, who was shortfor his age, wormed his wayforward between the burlytrack-workers crowding aroundthe CPR dignitaries, until he wasin the front row. A few momentslater Edward poked his headaround Donald Smith’s shoulderjust as photographer AlexanderRoss took his famous picture. Soonafter Edward had his picture taken
he returned homeand studied to
become anarchitect andsurveyor. He
became a success-ful land developer and was
co-founder of the town ofCreston, BC. Edward passed away in 1949 at the age of 82, foreverremembered as the boy in thepicture of the Last Spike.
page 8
The Boy in the Photo
?
What is a Cowcatcher?
Craigellachie CRAIG-AL-A-GHEEpage 9
Driving theLast Spike
Canadian Pacific Railway hasbeen providing famouspeople with special trains
almost since its beginnings.Just one week after Canada’sfirst transcontinental trainarrived in Port Moody, BC,July 4, 1886, CPR’s firstspecial travellers – PrimeMinister Sir John A.Macdonald and his wife, Lady Agnes
Macdonald – took atranscontinental
train trip. They
travelled in Sir John A’sprivate car, Jamaica,across Canada. LadyAgnes rode on the frontof the train through themountains and started atrend. A few years later, Canada’sgovernor general, Lord Stanleyof Preston, whose lastinglegacy is hockey’s Stanley Cup,travelled across Canada in1889. He and Lady Stanleyalso rode on the front of thetrain through the mountains.
Famous People
I’m a kid, maybe I’ll be famous one day
A group of CPRworkers heldtheir ownLast Spikeceremony afterthe official Last Spike wasdriven at Craigellachie. Forget thetop hats, these were the real workers.
November 7, 2005 marked the120th anniversary of the drivingof the last spike. It was on thisdate in 1885 at 9:25 a.m.that Canadian Pacific Railwayfinished laying the track forCanada’s first transcontinentalrailway. Company director Sir
Donald Smith had the honour of using a spike maul, or sledgehammer, to drive the last spikejoining the track from the eastto the track built from the west.The ceremony, which took placein Craigellachie, BC, wasattended by several CPR officials
and the rail workers who hadjust joined the two sets of tracksearlier that morning. Althoughthere were no reporters orpoliticians at the ceremony,the event was marked by a very famous photo on page 8.
The cowcatcher is not really forcatching cows, but the name ismuch more fun than the officialterm for a series of metal bars onthe front of a locomotive – a pilot.The device deflects objects fromthe track that might otherwisederail the train. Perhaps the pilotbecame known as a cowcatcher
after a cow decidedto catch a ride on
a passinglocomotive.
Second to Last Spike
Crowfoot,head chief of the
Blackfoot, wearing hislifetime pass to travel on the
CPR. Van Horne gave Crowfootthe pass after the resolution ofa dispute about the railway’s
construction through theBlackfoot reserve.
In order to encourage immigrants
to settle on the Prairies, CPR
decided to sell some of the land it
had received from the Canadian
government to build the railway.
However, there was one problem;
settlers did not know how to farm
in the Prairie environment. In 1909,
CPR solved this problem by selling
ready-made farms. Each farm came
equipped with a house, barn, well
and pump. The 65- to 130-hectare
farms were fenced, with one third
of the land plowed and ready to
seed. They were located near
schools, churches and, of course,
the railway. The cost was ten equal
annual payments of $1,300 for
smaller farms and $2,500 for
larger farms.
The first ready-made farm
colonies sprouted up in southern
Alberta. Later ready-made farm
colonies were built along the CPR
line from Wetaskiwin, Alberta to
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Between
1909 and 1919, CPR developed 762
ready-made farms in 24 colonies of
five to 122 farms.
page 10
Settling the West
Ready Made Farms
Over the next several yearsthe railway continued togrow. By 1889, the railway
extended from coast to coastreaching Saint John, NB, and theCPR was expanding into otherbusinesses. In order for the railwayto be profitable, it needed passengersand cargo, but not many peoplelived in the West when the railwaywas first built. So, as early as 1881,the railway got involved in landsettlement and land sales. CPRactively recruited immigrants
and settlers to come West by sellingthem farm land from the railway’soriginal 25 million acre land grantat bargain prices. To help sell itsland, CPR set up 10 experimentalPrairie farms along the railwaytracks in 1884. An exhibit car full ofcrops grown on these farms touredaround Eastern Canada to showpotential settlers from Ontario andQuebec the bounty of the Prairies.
CPR didn’t just advertise for settlersin Eastern Canada, it also ranadvertisements in Europeannewspapers to tell people aboutthe fertile farmland of theCanadian Prairies. In 1909 CPRspent more money promotingimmigration than the Canadiangovernment.
Heading for a
new life in Canada
page 11
The railway also becameinvolved in many otherenterprises. In 1882, CPR
bought the parcel carrierDominion Express and started anexpress parcel service door todoor. That same year the railwaytransmitted its first commercialtelegram over telegraph lineserected alongside its track. Afterthe last spike was driven in 1885,CPR realized that passengers onthe railway needed a place to stopand rest. In1886 CPR
president WilliamVan Horne decidedto build three hotels.The hotels, MountStephen in Field, BC,Glacier House inRogers Pass, BC andFraser Canyon Housein North Bend, BCwere very modest,but they paved theway for the construction of otherhotels along CPR’s rail line. Itwasn’t long before grand resorthotels like the Banff Springs and
Chateau LakeLouise werebuilt. VanHorne also
saw thepotential of
the touristtrade and so
proposed settingup a national
parks system todraw tourists to the
Rocky Mountains.In 1883 three CPR constructionworkers had discovered a natural
hot springs at the base of SulphurMountain in Alberta; Van Hornedecided this would be a perfectspot for a park. The Canadiangovernment created a 26-kilometre reservation around the springs in November 1885,declaring that the springs wouldbelong to all Canadians – as partof Canada’s first national park.Rocky Mountains Park (laterrenamed Banff National Park)received royal assent in 1887.There are now 41 national parksacross Canada.
Touring Canada
Entertainment and refreshments in the pool at the Banff Springs Hotel in the years between World Wars I and II. Life was tough sometimes.
page 12
After CanadianPacific Railwaybuilt hotels inAlberta andBritish Columbia,lots of touristsbegan to vacationin the luxuriousaccommodationsand enjoy thefabulous views inCanada’s first nationalpark. Amateurmountain climbers
were also comingwest to conquer theunscaled mountain
peaks. Thetourist
trade wasbooming,
but then, in1896, an
amateurmountain
climber fell to hisdeath while climbing Mount
Lefroy. This tragic accident couldhave halted the tourist trade tothe mountains, but CPR saved the
day by hiring Swissguides to safely guidetourists to the tops ofmountains.
In June 1899 thefirst two Swissguides, ChristianHäsler andEdouard Feuzarrived. Theysettled in andprepared to offertheir guiding
skills to CPRhotel guests
at Glacier,Field and
LakeLouise.Swiss
guides made it safefor just about
anyone to climb amountain. In fact in the
55 years between 1899 and 1954that CPR's Swiss guides led guestsup and down mountain peaks,passes and glaciers, not a singleperson died.
Christmas was a special time ofyear for telegrams, as relativeswanted to let loved ones far awayknow they weren’t forgottenduring the holiday season. Peoplefelt very important when insteadof the postman trudging throughthe snow with a Christmas card, aCPR telegraph boy came to thedoor. A telegraph boy was alwaysoutfitted in a gray uniform,complete with a cap, boots andeven leggings; in his hand wouldbe a brightly coloured holidaytelegram designed by CPR’s artdepartment. The telegrams were
decorated withpictures of holly,poinsettias, dovesand Christmasscenes. Along withseason’s greetings, they alsocontained a special message fromthe person who sent the telegram.CPR went a step further in the1930s when Santagrams wereintroduced. These specialtelegrams were from Santa Claus himself and were a real hit with children anxiouslywaiting to hear whether theywere on his good or naughty list!
The Telegraph Boy
Swiss Guides
Dear Tommy stop you are in big trouble
stop there are 42 more nights stop this
is your last warning stop Santa stop
In 1899, Canada became involved inits first overseas conflict – the BoerWar (1899-1902), sending volunteersand troops to South Africa in supportof Great Britain. Canadian PacificRailway director Donald AlexanderSmith, Lord Strathcona and MountRoyal, felt that the Canadiangovernment’s commitment was
lacking, so using his own money,he equipped and funded amounted cavalry. Fivehundred thirty sevenofficers and men, as well as599 horses, arrived in CapeTown, South Africa on April10, 1900. The men and
horses, calledStrathcona’sHorse, foughtwith distinctionand returnedhome at the end of the war highlydecorated.
Today, the Lord Strathcona’sHorse (Royal Canadians) isbased in Edmonton, Alberta.Each year, the StrathconaMounted Troop performsmounted rides anddemonstrations acrossWestern Canada.
The CPR continued to help build Canada and its economy through its many businesses.The railway was also a great help to Canada’s
efforts during the First World War from 1914 to 1918.CPR devoted its rail repair shops to wartime shellproduction and CPR ships transported 810,000 troopsand millions of tons of supplies and ammunition. When
the war ended in1918, Canada
had lost almost62,000 men out of
a population ofjust 8 million
and CPR hadlost 1,116employees. Strathcona’s Horse
Women helped out the wartime
effort by manufacturing
munitions in CPR’s Angus
Shops in Montreal
Canadian Pacific Railway Goes to War
page 13
CPR passenger
cars converted to
hospital cars were
used by the Red
Cross to transport
wounded soldiers
to their homes
across Canada.
page 14
School Days
After the war Canadacontinued to prosper and the need for services
grew. But travel in the 1900s wasnot nearly as easy as it is todayand many children in remoteareas did not have the opportunityto attend school without travellinggreat distances from home. CPRfound a solution in 1926 with itsschool cars that
brought education by rail tochildren living in NorthernOntario. The railway alsointroduced a specially equippeddental car to bring free dental careto Northern Ontario children.
On the Prairies, CPR used itstravelling tree-planting cars toeducate children and adults howto plant trees on the bald,parched prairie farmland.
CPR and the Canadian Forestry
Association taught the young
and the old how to plant trees
on the Prairies. In a 50-year span,
500 million trees were planted.
School Cars
If there were no schools near your
house where would you go to
learn? To solve this problem for
children living in northern Ontario,
the provincial government decided
to bring the school to the children.
In 1926, the Ontario Department
of Education hired the Canadian
Pacific Railway, the Canadian
National Railway and Ontario
Northland Railway to use some
of their railcars as travelling
classrooms. Each school car was
divided into two parts. One half
was a classroom, complete with
a chalkboard, charts, a map, desks,
and a library and the other half
was comfortable living quarters
for the teacher.
The school cars travelled from place
to place with each stop lasting five
days at a time. Students often
travelled by foot in the summer or
snowshoes in the winter to attend
classes. Once Friday arrived, the
school car would move on to its
next destination over the weekend,
leaving the students with enough
homework to last them until the
school car visited again.
Today you can still see one of CPR’s
original school cars on display at
the Canadian Railway Museum in
Delson/Saint-Constant, Quebec.
The 1930s were not easy forCPR. Canada was in the midstof an economic depression
and the newly formed CanadianNational Railways was competingwith CPR for business. Then in 1939World War II broke out and thecompany once more devoted itsresources to Canada’s war effort.
During the next sixyears, CPR moved 307million tons of freightand 86 millionpassengers, includingmany soldiers and sailors. Twenty-two CPR ships went to war and 12of them were sunk. In the air, CPRpioneered the “Atlantic Bridge”– the transatlantic ferrying ofbombers to Britain. CPR set uppilot training schools and openedCanada’s far north to modern-daytravel, creating Canadian Pacific
Air Lines in1942. CPR alsotransformed
major portions of itsrail repair shops in Montreal andCalgary to build munitions, navalguns and tanks. At CPR’s ChateauFrontenac hotel in Quebec City CPR helped Canada host two veryimportant meetings in 1943 and1944 called the Quebec Conferences.It was at the first Quebec Conferencewhere Canadian Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King,
United States President FranklinDelano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchillplanned the D-Day invasion intoFrance, which ultimately won thewar in Europe. CPR’s huge wareffort came with a cost, 21,787 CPR employees enlisted in WorldWar II, 658sacrificed their lives.
page 15
During both World War I and World War II,Canadian Pacific Railway turned itsrailway shops into munitionsfactories. Because so many menwere overseas fighting, therewas a real shortage of workersand women stepped in to fillthe void. Women not onlyworked at manufacturingmunitions, they also served asengine wipers, car cleaners andnurses. Today women work inall aspects of the rail industryfrom locomotive engineers toexecutive positions.
Women Railroaders
With many maleemployees offfighting in hewar, it was up towomen to keep
the railwayrunning. Thesewomen are wipingdown a locomotive
betweenruns.
Freight from a Canadian PacificAirlines’ Douglas DC-3 will completeits journey by horse-drawn sleigh.To War, Again
blah blahFALA! blah blah
blahbla blablablablah blah blah FALA!
blah blah blahblablablabla blah
From 1941 to 1943, CPR’s AngusShops in Montreal produced 1,420Valentine army tanks to supportthe Allies in World War II.
Scottish terrier Fala was a well-travelled
and well-loved dog, accompanying
US President Franklin Roosevelt and his
wife Eleanor on many of their foreign
trips. In this photo Fala shows off for
Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon
Mackenzie King at the 1943 Quebec
City Conference.
page 16
Travelling in StyleFor over 100 years, senators, primeministers, presidents, dukes andduchesses, princes and princesses,kings, queens and emperors havetravelled in style on CanadianPacific Railway’s trains. Thesevisitors travelled on specialpassenger cars known as businesscars. The business cars were
originally built for CPR executives,so they could travel the railwayin comfort. The cars are elegant,with wood paneling and carvingsof the finest mahogany andother exotic woods. They alsohave bedrooms with beds ratherthan berths, as well as privatebathrooms.
Executives and visitors not onlyslept in comfort, they also dinedin high style with fine linens,china and silverware. Whenpassengers weren’t sleeping oreating they could relax in thecomfortable chairs in the loungearea at the back of each car andview Canada’s spectacular
scenery.Today theeleganceof thesebygone days of train travel hasbeen recreated by CPR’s RoyalCanadian Pacific Train.
General Electric produced diesel-electric locomotives as early as 1918,but it took several years beforeCanadian Pacific Railway wasconvinced that diesel power washere to stay. At the end of 1942, CPRoperated 1,686 steam locomotivesand only one diesel locomotive. Butit soon it became apparent that
diesel locomotives are easier tomaintain and operate moreefficiently than steam locomotives.Today, all of CPR’s locomotives arediesel, except for one very specialsteam locomotive.
In 2001, the CPR Empress 2816 re-entered active service as a rovingambassador for CPR. This class H1bHudson-type locomotive was builtby Montreal Locomotive Works inDecember 1930 and logged morethan two million miles in active
service before being retired on May26, 1960. After a complete three-yearrebuild, 2816 has been restored to itsoriginal splendor. Each year the CPREmpress visits communities alongthe CPR’s mainline, once againthrilling spectators, young and old,with the sights and the sounds ofthe steam era.
Getting Back to Business
CPR’s Roving Ambassador
After the war effort, it wastime to get back to thebusiness of being a
railway. Before the war all but oneof CPR’s locomotives were poweredby steam. Then in the 1950s, CPRbegan using diesel locomotiveseventually retiring the last of itssteam locomotives in the 1960s.CPR, known for its ingenuity, was
often the first to introduce newtechnology. In 1952, CPR was the firstrailway to offer the new generationof piggyback service where trucktrailers are carried on railwayflatcars. A few years later, in 1967,CPR introduced Canada’s firstremote-controlled mid-train diesellocomotives in freight service, usinga “robot” radio-command system.
This allowed the railway to increasethe length of its trains and theamount of freight carried on eachtrain. Several years later, in 1984,CPR was the first railway in NorthAmerica to pioneer the use of AC-traction locomotives. AClocomotives have a much greaterhauling capacity then standarddirect current (DC) locomotives.
For example, three of today’s 4,400horsepower AC4400 CW AC-tractionlocomotives do the work of five1960s-to-1980s 3,000-h.p. SD40-2DC-traction locomotives. While AClocomotives are more expensive,they are more fuel efficient, havebetter reliability and require lessmaintenance than DC locomotives.
Chimpanzees
in transit on
CPR make sure
they don’t get
misplaced. You
just never know!
page 17
The cab of a modernlocomotive sportslots of computerequipment.
page 18
From the late 1970s, when Via Rail was formed to takeover passenger services in
Canada, CPR concentrated on its freight service. The railwaycontinued to expand in the early1990s with its two US railways –the Soo Line Railroad and theDelaware and Hudson Railway.
In 1996, Canadian Pacific Railwaymoved its head office to Calgary,Alberta from Montreal, Quebec.The railway decided it made moresense to be located in Alberta closeto Prairie grain and BC coal, twoproducts that make up a largepercentage of goods moved by therailway. Three years after moving
to Calgary, CPR launched itsfirst Holiday Train, whichhas become an annualHoliday Tradition. As thetrain travels across Canadaand the US, it gives CPR employeesthe chance to say thank you to thecommunities along its tracks. Thetrain also helps raise awareness
abouthunger by
collectingdonations
of food andmoney for
communityfood banks in each town and citythe train visits.
As the company continuedto grow and expand itsbusiness beyond the
railway, it changed its name in 1971from Canadian Pacific Railway toCanadian Pacific Limited. Althoughthe company had many interests,its main businesses were: the
railway; ships; hotels; mines,minerals and manufacturing;oil and gas exploration; airlines;telecommunications; trucking;and real estate. By the 1980s,CPL had become Canada’s secondlargest company with some100,000 employees.
CPR Holiday
Trains meet at
the Canada/US
border on their
annual trek to
raise food and
money to help
in the fight
against hunger.
Much More Than a Railway
Moving across NorthAmerica
page 19
The Soo Line Railroad had a muchlonger name when the company wasfirst started. It wasn’t long beforepeople started to shorten Minneapolis,St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway.But, instead of Sault, the phoneticspelling of Soo was used. In 1950, SooLine became the railroad’s trade name.A decade later, Soo Line Railroadbecame the railroad’s official name.
The Delaware and Hudson Railway
has been called “America’s
oldest continually operated
transportation company”. D&H
started out as a canal company
in 1823, and later built one of the
first railroads in the United States.
In the late 1890s, the company sold
its canal and changed its name to the
Delaware and Hudson Company. Over
the next several years the company
expanded its rail business
and in 1928 changed its
name to the Delaware and
Hudson Railroad. Canadian
Pacific Railway acquired the
D&H in 1990. Today the D&H
operates as part of the CPR
and gives the railway access
to New York City and other
parts of the northeastern
United States.
The Soo Line RailroadTwo of Canadian
Pacific Railway’sfounders, Donald Smith and
George Stephen, began investing in theMinneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and AtlanticRailway in the late 1800s. CPR owned thecontrolling interest in the railroad, commonlycalled the Soo Line, for many years. In 1992CPR increased its ownership of the railroad,acquiring all of the railroad’s shares. Todaythe Soo Line is the United States arm of theCPR, serving Chicago, Illinois and the areas to the east and west.
The Delaware and Hudson Railway
PronounceThat Name
The Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company not only
built one of the first
railroads in the United
States, it was also the first
company to own a steam
engine. The company was
started to transport coal
from Pennsylvania to New
York City. The coal first went
by boat down the Hudson
River and then through
canals along the Delaware
River to incline railways
through the
MoosicMountains.
The mountains
had a few flat
spots andinstead ofusing horses
to pull the rail
cars, the D&H
decided to use steam
locomotives. The company
ordered four of the new
inventions from England
and on August 8, 1829
became the first company
in North America to
operate a steam engine.
North America’s
First Steam Engine
The “Stourbridge Lion” – the first locomotive ever
run upon a railroad in America.
Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway = Soo Line Railroad
page 20
A New Beginning
On October 3, 2001, amomentous eventoccurred in the
railway’s history. Canadian PacificLimited was dissolved and thecompany’s main businessesbecame five separate companies.One of the five, of course, was
Canadian Pacific Railway. Sincebecoming a separate company,CPR has continued to usetechnology and ingenuity to movemore and more products on itstrains. CPR has the most
AC locomotives of all the largeNorth American railways andmany of its trains exceed 3,000meters. As CPR trains becomemore frequent and longer, beingsafe around trains remains oneof the company’s most important
messages for both
employees and the public,especially children. That is whythe CPR Police and OperationLifesaver offer public educationsessions at schools and otherpublic events to educate peopleabout train safety. Remember,being safe is being smart.
LOOK! LISTEN! LIVE!Every year Operation Lifesaverand the railways bring thesafety message Stay Off, StayAway, Stay Alive! to thousands of school children in Canadaand the United States. Safetyvideos, written materials andextensive web sites are alsoprovided by Operation Lifesaver.For more information onOperation Lifesaver Canada goto www.operationlifesaver.caand in the United Stateswww.oli.org.
OperationLifesaver
Did you know?
Did you know that in 2004 there
were 237 collisions between trains
and motor vehicles at highway
or railway crossings in Canada,
resulting in 25 deaths and 50 people
badly hurt? In addition to highway
or railway crossing collisions, there
were 99 trespassing incidents,
67 pedestrian deaths and 34
serious pedestrian injuries. In the
United States, a person or vehicle is
hit by a train approximately every
two hours and many of these
accidents involve death or serious
injuries. Trains cannot stop quickly.
An average freight train travelling
at 100 kilometres an hour requires
about 1.1 kilometres to stop.
A passenger train travelling at
120 kilometres an hour requires
about 1.6 kilometres to stop.
Trains appear at any timeand simply can’t stop on a dime.
Be sharp, think smart and clear the track.
Obey the law and watchyour back!
The Prairies-to-Vancouver track,which crosses the rugged RockyMountains, is Canadian PacificRailway’s busiest rail line.Canadian resources, such as coaland wheat, shipped to Asiacontinue to grow and imports of
consumer goods made in Asia anddestined for Canadian storeshelves have also increased. Inorder to meet this demand, CPRundertook a project in 2005 toexpand freight capacity on thisbusy stretch of track. The workinvolved building and extending
sidings, laying sections of doubletrack, improving signal systemsand installing staging tracks andtrack-to-track crossovers. Duringthe construction, CPR installedmore than 530,000 feet of rail,137,000 crossties, and 300,000tons of rock ballast.
Since the dream of atranscontinental railway was first realized Canadian
Pacific Railway has become one of the most recognized of allcompanies in Canada and beyond.After celebrating 125 years ofsuccess, CPR has begun anotherexciting chapter in its long history.A major expansion project wascompleted in 2005, when CPR builtadditional tracks in British Columbia,Alberta and Saskatchewan. NorthAmericans are buying more productsfrom places like China andJapan and the railway plays a
very important part in deliveringthese products – everything fromcars to toys – to stores throughoutNorth America. By building moretrack, CPR can move about 400more railcars each day. This meansgoods from the Port of Vancouverare transported across the continentfaster and more efficiently. CanadianPacific Railway has had manymomentous events throughout itslong and illustrious history, butnone more exciting than thefuture that stretches before it.
page 21
CPR transports windmills from the United States
to a wind farm in Saskatchewan.
A Promising Future
Western Expansion