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

© 2006 Canadian Pacific Railway • Communications and Public Affairs • www.cpr.ca