Canadian Pacific Railway

[7] The creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was undertaken as the National Dream by the Conservative government of John A. Macdonald, together with mining magnate Alexander Tilloch Galt.

After this scandal, the Conservatives were removed from power, and Alexander Mackenzie, the new Liberal prime minister, ordered construction of the railway under the supervision of the Department of Public Works.

It noted that a crowd of "upwards of 500 ladies and gentlemen" gathered to celebrate the event on the left bank of the Kaministiquia River in the District of Thunder Bay, about four miles upriver from Fort William.

Once completed in 1882 with a last spike at Feist Lake, near Vermilion Bay, Ontario, the line was turned over to the newly-minted private Canadian Pacific Railway company.

Macdonald would later return as prime minister and adopt a more aggressive construction policy; bonds were floated in London and called for tenders to complete sections of the railway in British Columbia.

The treacherous 190 km (120 mi) of railway west of Fort William was completed by Purcell & Company, headed by "Canada's wealthiest and greatest railroad contractor," industrialist Hugh Ryan.

The connection with Saint John on the Atlantic coast made the CPR the first truly transcontinental railway company in Canada and permitted trans-Atlantic cargo and passenger services to continue year-round when sea ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence closed the port of Montreal during the winter months.

[26] The Southern Mainline, generally known as the Kettle Valley Railway in British Columbia, was built in response to the booming mining and smelting economy in southern British Columbia, and the tendency of the local geography to encourage and enable easier access from neighbouring US states than from Vancouver or the rest of Canada, which was viewed to be as much of a threat to national security as it was to the province's control of its own resources.

Hard times led to the creation of new political parties such as the Social Credit movement and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, as well as popular protest in the form of the On-to-Ottawa Trek.

The company discarded its beaver logo, adopting the new Multimark (which, when mirrored by an adjacent "multi-mark" creates a diamond appearance on a globe) that was used – with a different colour background – for each of its operations.

In 1987, most of CPR's trackage in the Great Lakes region, including much of the original Soo Line, were spun off into a new railway, the Wisconsin Central, which was subsequently purchased by CN.

In 1996, CP Rail moved its head office from Windsor Station in Montreal to Gulf Canada Square in Calgary and changed its name back to Canadian Pacific Railway.

However, the new subsidiary, threatened with being sold off and free to innovate, quickly spun off money-losing track to short lines, instituted scheduled freight service, and produced an unexpected turn-around in profitability.

[52][53] On July 6, 2013, a unit train of crude oil which CP had subcontracted to short-line operator Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway derailed in Lac-Mégantic, killing 47.

[54] On August 14, 2013, the Quebec government added the CPR, along with lessor World Fuel Services (WFS), to the list of corporate entities from which it seeks reimbursement for the environmental cleanup of the Lac-Mégantic derailment.

The CPPS say they did a thorough investigation into the actions of the crew, which is now closed and resulted in no charges, while the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference called for an independent police probe.

However, CN's merger attempt was blocked by a STB ruling in August that the company could not use a voting trust to assume control of KCS, due to concerns about potentially reduced competition in the railroad industry.

[82] This service was initially heavily promoted by the company and many images of the train, especially as it traversed the Canadian Rockies, were captured by CPR's official photographer Nicholas Morant.

But railway managers realized that those who could afford to travel great distances expected such facilities, and their favourable opinion would bode well to attracting others to Canada and the CPR's trains.

[88] Dominion Express Company was formed independently in 1873 before the CPR itself, although train service did not begin until the summer of 1882 at which time it operated over some 500 kilometres (300 mi) of track from Rat Portage (Kenora) Ontario west to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

[97] The CPR ran a number of trains that transported members of the Canadian royal family when they toured the country, taking them through Canada's scenery, forests, and small towns, and enabling people to see and greet them.

The train set was so lightly disguised as the fictional "AMRoad" that the locomotives and cars still carried their original names and numbers, along with the easily identifiable CP Rail red-striped paint scheme.

In 2013 to celebrate the program's 15th year, three signature events were held in Hamilton, Ontario, Calgary, Alberta, and Cottage Grove, Minnesota, to further raise awareness for hunger issues.

The train stopped in 13 cities along its 3-week summer tour, offering a free block party and concert from Dean Brody, Kelly Prescott[119] and Dallas Arcand.

[120] The heritage train drew out thousands to sign the special "Spirit of Tomorrow" car, where children were invited to write their wishes for the future of Canada and send them to Ottawa.

Being allowed to sell this service meant the railway could offset the costs of constructing and maintaining a pole line along its tracks across vast distances for its own purposes which were largely for dispatching trains.

In 1931, it became the Communications Department in recognition of the expanding services provided which included telephones lines, news wire, ticker quotations for capital stocks and eventually teleprinters.

It was the coming of these newer technologies especially cellular telephones that eventually resulted in the demise of these services even after formation in 1967 of CN-CP Telecommunications in an effort to effect efficiencies through consolidation rather than competition.

The onset of the Great Depression hurt the CPR's financial plan for a rival project and in April they withdrew their applications for stations in all but Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg.

Pennsylvania-Ontario Transportation Company was formed jointly with the PRR in 1906 to operate a ferry across Lake Erie between Ashtabula, Ohio, and Port Burwell, Ontario, to carry freight cars, mostly of coal, much of it to be burned in CPR steam locomotives.

CPR crew laying track at lower Fraser Valley , 1883
Irish-Canadian industrialist and railway magnate Hugh Ryan
Telegram to Prime Minister John A. Macdonald announcing the completion of the CPR, November 7, 1885
Donald Smith , later known as Lord Strathcona , drives the last spike of the CPR, at Craigellachie , November 7, 1885. Completion of the transcontinental railway was a condition of BC's entry into Confederation .
First transcontinental train arrives in Port Arthur on June 30, 1886
The system in 1906, soon after the construction of the transcontinental railway
One of the CPR's land offerings, 1883
CPR advertisement highlighting "Free Farms for the Million" in western Canada, circa 1893
Lethbridge Viaduct
C.P.R. railway locomotive 2860
Strikers from unemployment relief camps climbing on boxcars as part of the On-to-Ottawa Trek , 1935
The Multimark logo was used from 1968 to 1987, when it fell out of favour. It was sometimes referred to as the ' Pac-Man ' logo, after the popular 1980s video game of the same name.
CPR train step stool (Calgary station) c. 1950
Soo Line 6022, an EMD SD60 , pulls a train through Wisconsin Dells, WI , June 20, 2004.
An Angus Shops building converted into an SAQ liquor store
West Coast Express at Waterfront station in Vancouver
Funeral train of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald
Holiday Train in Montreal, November 2009
A crowd watches entertainers perform out of the CP Holiday Train
Advertisement for Canadian Pacific steamships to the Far East, 1936
CPR 2816 locomotive
CPR 2317 , a G-3-c 4-6-2 Pacific-type locomotive built at the CPR's Angus Shops in 1923
A CP passenger train heads east towards Calgary circa 1973
A westbound CP freight train pulls away from a passing siding after track clearance in Bolton, Ontario . It is headed by four GE AC4400CW locomotives (8627, 9615, 8629, and 8609).