Christmas book reading

[al-in-chgo]

That book sounds just the ticket!

Of course, we can't defend the actual CPR corporation.  How did they survive from the 1870s until today?.....absolute untrammelled avariciousness.....bleeding the farmers through monopolistic freight rates....cashing in on the largest real estate give-away in global history (still cashing in today as Marathon Realty Co.)...but those were the terms of construction.

Maybe it can't be defended, but it's a pity our thread originator is retired or has moved on. from teaching school  CPR has lots of free info. aimed at middle-to-high school students.  Generally they sort into two categories:  CPR history (quite shiny and momentous!), and safety (same advice as down here, on the easy side but it's stuff that can't be repeated to often IMHO). 

Profile Get Profile for:

Canadian Pacific Railway Limited Gulf Canada Square 401-9th Avenue SW Calgary, AB T2P 4Z4 Canada - Map Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] Web Site: http://www.cpr.ca/

 

[DavidH]

Quite amazing that a railway as big as CN was apparently unfamiliar with the concept of string-lining.  Fortunately for me, the trains they run under the building my office is in are moving very slowly.  They've only managed to kill off one pedestrian below my office window, and that wasn't their fault . . .

 

David

[Fawlty Logic]

Tell me about it.  I'm in the neighbourhood of that competitor who managed to run 4 or 5 trains off the rails in our area alone

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060221/train_derailments_060221/20060221

Talk about greed.  When they took over the British Columbia Railroad, they wouldn't be told.  BCR had run trains for years safely through areas such as the Cheakamus Canyon, but CN increased the length of the trains to over 110 cars to make more money.

Not sure about all the other details, but I think they did not follow the BCR wisdom of three mid train "pusher" units (don't know the exact term for this) and apparently were using greener train crews because many of the older engineers at BCR took retirement rather than work for CN.  I was told CN practices and drving literally yanked the trains off the rails in the canyons.  CN didn't know how to drive on their new road!

But I shouldn't repeat "stories". I stand to be corrected. Yet the trains going by my house coming out of the canyon are less than half the length CN was trying to run at the outset....even shorter than BCR ran and no mid train units either!  Transport Canada is really watching them, I guess.

[DavidH]

On the bright side, though, at least they maintain their physical plant well, unlike an unnamed large Canadian competitor . . .

 

David

[Fawlty Logic]

That book sounds just the ticket!

Of course, we can't defend the actual CPR corporation.  How did they survive from the 1870s until today?.....absolute untrammelled avariciousness.....bleeding the farmers through monopolistic freight rates....cashing in on the largest real estate give-away in global history (still cashing in today as Marathon Realty Co.)...but those were the terms of construction.

[DavidH]

If you can get it, and I think it has been in reprint, "Van Horne's Road", by the late CPR archivist Omer Lavallee is a marvelous photo and narrative account of the building of the CPR.

I purchased this book in first edition in 1974, and it is probably my most treasured railroad book, and I have a lot of them!

David

[Fawlty Logic]

Sorry at the outset as I think most people on this forum know about the CPR: 

However, Don 7's post about Field, British Columbia and the references to Roger's Pass, Captain Rogers etc. got me to thinking about, arguably, the greatest railway construction project in the world.

For those that don't know the story, ask for a book about the history of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway for Christmas.  There are many good ones, though the uncondensed ones (The Great Railway and The Last Spike) by Pierre Burton contain too much info about Canadian political machinations to be of much interest to many who are not Canadian history buffs...but he does have a condensed version which title escapes me at this time.

The horrors of construction across the Canadian Shield in Ontario, the amazing speed of construction across the prairies, to the amazing feats through the Rockies, make good reading.

Without this railway, all the Canadian posts herein would be coming from the US states of North North Dakota, North Montana, North Idaho, and Columbia (the word British as an anathema to the US government would have to be dropped) The young provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia and the Districts of Assiniboia, Keewatin, Athabaska, and Alberta would never have been able to withstand the pressure of assimilation with the USA. 

The map of North American railroads would be very much different as the northern US lines reached into their new northern territories.

Sorry again.  I'm an ex-secondary school teacher.....and I can't stop it!  Gotta' be a pill for this somewhere.