Canadian Pacific Railway
| Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | CA13645T1003 |
| founding | 1881 |
| Seat | Calgary , Canada |
| management | Keith Creel, President and CEO |
| Number of employees | 12.163 |
| sales | 6.554 billion CAD 4.34 billion EUR |
| Branch | Transport / logistics |
| Website | www.cpr.ca |
| As of December 31, 2017 | |
The Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR ) is a railway company with a standard-gauge rail network of almost 22,300 kilometers in Canada and the United States . It is, in addition to the Canadian National Railway , one of the two Canadian Class 1 - railway companies . The company, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the S & P / TSX 60, is based in Calgary . The company's main line, the transcontinental link built between 1881 and 1885, runs between Montréal in the east and Vancouver in the west. With the construction of the line , a promise to the province of British Columbia , which had joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871 and had requested a transport link to the east of the country , was fulfilled . The route contributed significantly to the settlement of the Canadian prairie provinces of Alberta , Manitoba and Saskatchewan . Today the Canadian Pacific Railway operates exclusively freight services after the passenger service was transferred to VIA Rail in 1978 .
From 1971 to 2001 the Canadian Pacific Railway was part of the Canadian Pacific Limited , the world's largest transport and raw materials group ( shipping , aviation , railroad , truck transport, telecommunications , mines , oil , natural gas ). In the period from 1968 to 1996, the railroad's services were marketed under the name CP Rail . In 1996 the entire group was reorganized. Five separate subsidiaries were formed, including the Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which took over the railway business. With effect from October 1, 2001, the individual subsidiaries became legally and economically independent companies, while the group dissolved.
In the USA the Canadian Pacific Railway operates the two subsidiaries Soo Line Railroad and Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H).
history
Before the Canadian Pacific Railway (1871 to 1881)
The Canadian Pacific Railway was built for a variety of reasons. The Conservative government of Prime Minister John Macdonald had promised British Columbia in 1871 to build a rail link between the Pacific and the eastern provinces; this in exchange for the accession of the new province to the Canadian Confederation . The ten-year period for the construction of the line began on July 21, 1871. Macdonald saw in the railroad a means to create a united Canadian nation and to strengthen the feeling of togetherness. In addition, the industrial companies in Québec and Ontario were interested in gaining access to raw materials in Western Canada and opening up new markets.
The main obstacle to construction was the high cost. The cheapest route for a railroad to western Canada would have been through the American Midwest and Chicago , but it was supposed to be an all-Canadian railroad. The difficulty and cost of building a railroad across the Rocky Mountains was evident. In addition, there was the crossing of a deserted area more than 1,600 kilometers wide in the Canadian Shield and in the Muskeg , the swampy tundra of northern Ontario . In order to secure the route, the government granted extensive perks, including the right to purchase vast swathes of land along the route for virtually free.
In 1872, the Canada Pacific Railway Company led by Hugh Allan (not identical to today's company) was awarded the contract to build the line, while the Inter-Ocean Railway Company went empty-handed. But Prime Minister Macdonald and other high-ranking politicians had been bribed, which led to the Pacific scandal . The conservative government had to resign in 1873 in the wake of the scandal; on January 22, 1874 an early general election took place. The new government under Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie ( Liberal Party of Canada ) ordered the start of construction of the first sections under state control.
Construction on the section in the Thunder Bay district between Lake Superior and Winnipeg began in 1875. Construction progress was extremely slow and daunting due to the lack of public funding. When John Macdonald came back to power on October 16, 1878 , a more aggressive building policy was followed. Macdonald confirmed earlier plans that the starting point would be in Port Moody , British Columbia. He announced that the Port Moody railway line would run along the Fraser River and Thompson River to Kamloops .
In 1879 the tender for the 206-kilometer section between Yale and the ferry from Savona on Kamloops Lake was issued . The contract went to contractor Andrew Onderdonk , whose workers began construction on May 15, 1880. After completing this section, he was commissioned to build two more sections; between Yale and Port Moody and between Savona and Eagle Pass .
On October 21, 1880, a new Canadian Pacific Railway Company (unrelated to Hugh Allan ) signed a contract with the Macdonald government. The CPR committed to building the rest of the route. In return, she received a loan of 25 million Canadian dollars (today's value: around 385 million euros ) from the government as well as a land area of 25 million acres (around 101,000 km²) along the railway line. The government transferred the state-directed sections to the CPR. It also paid for land surveying and waived property taxes for the next twenty years. The contract became law on February 15, 1881 , and the company was formally incorporated the following day.
The construction of the transcontinental railroad (1881 to 1885)
It was widely believed that the railroad would run through the Fertile Belt, the valley of the North Saskatchewan River , and cross the Rocky Mountains at Yellowhead Pass . This route over the lowest pass on the watershed was suggested by Sandford Fleming after ten years of planning and surveying. However, the CPR discarded these plans in favor of a route further south across the arid Palliser Triangle in Saskatchewan and over the Kicking Horse Pass . This route was more direct and was much closer to the US border. This enabled the CPR to largely block American railroad companies' access to the Canadian market.
But the route also had several disadvantages. The CPR had to find a way through the Selkirk Mountains ; this at a time when it was not even known whether such a thing existed at all. The task of finding a pass crossing was entrusted to the surveyor Albert Bowman Rogers . The CPR promised him a check for $ 5,000 and gave assurances that the passport would be named after him. Rogers found this pass on May 29, 1881. The railroad company kept the promise, named the crossing Rogers Pass, and presented the check. Rogers initially refused to cash the check, framing it instead, saying he did it not for money but for fame. Finally, the CPR was able to get him to cash in when they put an engraved watch on it.
Another obstacle was that the proposed route ran through Blackfoot Indian territory . The missionary Albert Lacombe was finally able to convince Chief Crowfoot that the construction of the railroad was ultimately inevitable. In gratitude for his consent, Crowfoot received a lifetime subscription to the CPR. Another disadvantage of the route chosen was that the land along the railway line, unlike the variant proposed by Sandford Fleming, was often too arid to be able to farm . The CPR had relied too much on the statements of scientist John Macoun . He had crossed the prairie in rainy weather and reported that the area was fertile, but this was ultimately not entirely true. Because of this, the CPR was barely able to sell land to settlers.
The main disadvantage of the route, however, was the transition at Kicking Horse Pass . On the first six kilometers west of the 1625 meter high pass, the terrain drops abruptly by 350 meters. The CPR, suffering from a chronic shortage of cash, was therefore forced to build a very direct seven-kilometer section with a high gradient of 4.5% in 1884. This was four times higher than the maximum gradient recommended for railway lines at the time. Even today, railroad lines are seldom steeper than 2%. Safety switches were installed at several points in the section that has become legendary as the “Big Hill”. The maximum permissible speed for trains traveling downhill was 10 km / h, and special locomotives with particularly powerful brakes were purchased. Nevertheless, there were always derailments . It was not until 1909 that the dangerous section could be lifted thanks to the opening of two helical tunnels , the so-called spiral tunnels .
In the eyes of those responsible, construction progress in 1881 was far too slow. A year later, CPR President George Stephen hired the well-known American railroad manager William Cornelius Van Horne to drive the project forward. Van Horne promised the completion of 800 kilometers of railway line within a year. Numerous floods delayed the start of the construction season (work was suspended in winter), but that year more than 672 kilometers of main line as well as numerous sidings and branch lines were completed. The branch line to Thunder Bay was completed in June 1882 by the Canadian Ministry of Railways and Canals and transferred to the CPR in May 1883. This made it possible for the first time to travel by water and rail from Eastern Canada to Winnipeg . At the end of 1883 the east side of the Rocky Mountains had been reached. In the construction seasons of 1884 and 1885, work concentrated on the Rocky Mountains and the north shore of the Upper Lake .
Many thousands of workers ( called navvies ) worked on the route. Most of them were European immigrants. In British Columbia , the CPR also hired workers from the Chinese Empire . A navvy made between $ 1 and $ 2.50 a day but had to pay for food, clothing, transportation to the construction site, post office, and medical treatment. With two and a half months of hard work, they could make no more than $ 16. The Chinese workers received only between $ 0.75 and $ 1.25 a day, which meant that they could hardly ever send home transfers. The Chinese did the most dangerous jobs, like handling dynamite . The families of the Chinese who died did not receive any compensation, not even a message of the death of their relative. Many of those who survived did not have enough money to return to China and had to survive in dire circumstances for years. Twelve year old boys were used as teeboys .
In 1883, work was progressing rapidly, but the CPR was slowly running out of money. In response, Parliament passed the Railway Relief Bill and granted the CPR a loan of $ 22.5 million. On March 6, 1884 , the law became legally binding.
In March 1885 , the Northwest Rebellion broke out in Saskatchewan when the Métis wanted to fight for their own province. Van Horne, who was then in Ottawa , promised the government that the CPR could move troops to Fort Qu'Appelle within eleven days . Some sections had not yet been completed or had not yet been driven, but the transport to the war zone ultimately only took nine days and the rebellion was quickly put down. The government was extremely generous for the services rendered, took over the debt of the CPR and granted a further loan of $ 5 million.
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On November 7, 1885, Lord Strathcona set the symbolic last nail in Craigellachie ; thus the promise to British Columbia could finally be kept. Four years had passed since the first appointment. But the route was handed over more than five years before the second date (1891), which John Macdonald had renegotiated in 1881. Despite delays and political scandals, the successful completion of the project was a technical and political masterpiece for a country with a small population, limited financial possibilities and difficult terrain. The Trans-Canadian Railway was then one of the longest routes in the world.
In the meantime, the CPR had set up a network of connecting lines between Québec and St. Thomas in eastern Canada . For this purpose, the subsidiary Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&C) acquired and leased numerous small companies. To connect the new acquisitions with the CPR route, the O&C built a route between Toronto and Perth , which opened on May 5, 1884. Four months earlier, CPR had signed a lease agreement with O&C for a term of 999 years.
1886 to 1900
So many cost-saving measures had been taken during the construction of the transcontinental link that operations could not start until seven months after the official opening, as the condition of the line had to be improved in numerous places. But without the austerity measures, the CPR would have run out of money prematurely and the route would have remained unfinished. The first passenger train left Montreal on June 28 and reached Port Moody on July 4, 1886. The CPR had meanwhile decided to move the western terminus by a few kilometers to a small hamlet that was named at the end of the year Vancouver received. The first official train reached Vancouver on May 23, 1887; however, the first test drives had already taken place three months earlier. The CPR soon became profitable and was able to repay all government bonds years ahead of the due date.
In 1888 a branch line between Greater Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie opened, which made the connection to the US rail network . In the same year construction began between London and Windsor (across from Detroit ). This line was opened on June 12, 1890. The CPR built a few short lines east of Montreal and leased the New Brunswick Railway for 999 years. In 1889 she also built the International Railway of Maine ; this led a short distance over US territory and connected Montreal with Saint John , the largest city of New Brunswick . The CPR had thus closed the last gap between the Pacific and Atlantic . From now on, travelers and goods could be transported between the oceans even when the Gulf of St. Lawrence was frozen and access to the port of Montreal was blocked.
By 1896, competition with the Great Northern Railway in British Columbia had intensified to such an extent that the CPR had to build another line south of the original line. Van Horne asked the government for assistance. This pledged 3.6 million dollars to build a route from Lethbridge over the Crowsnest Pass to the south shore of Kootenay Lake . In return, the CPR had to lower the freight tariffs for important goods indefinitely. The route over the Crowsnest Pass was opened on June 18, 1899.
The controversial Crowsnest Pass Agreement froze tariffs for wheat transport to the east and for transports of "settler goods" to the west at the 1897 level. The agreement was temporarily canceled during World War II , but it wasn't until 1983 that it was replaced by the Western Grain Transportation Act . Only from then on could the freight tariffs for wheat be gradually increased.
In 1888 the CPR entered the tourism business. In order to lure wealthy tourists from eastern Canada into the picturesque mountains of the Rocky Mountains, she had a number of exclusive luxury hotels built along the transcontinental railroad , the Canadian Pacific Hotels . Other hotels followed in the big cities of the East. The best known example is the Château Frontenac , which has now become a tourist attraction in Québec.
1901 to 1928
During the first decade of the 20th century, the CPR built further lines. In 1908 she opened the direct connection between Toronto and Greater Sudbury. Before that, the trains had to make a long detour through eastern Ontario .
In 1909, the opening of two structures brought about a marked improvement in operating conditions in western Canada. The first structure was the spiral tunnels , which defused the steep section on "Big Hill". With the two spiral tunnels, the maximum gradient could be reduced from 4.5 to 2.2% from August 1909. On November 3, 1909, the opening of the Lethbridge Viaduct over the valley of the Oldman River took place near Lethbridge in Alberta . With a length of 1,624 meters and a maximum height of 96 meters, the viaduct is the longest railway bridge in the world made entirely of steel. The section over the Rogers Pass was constantly threatened by avalanches in winter . It was replaced in 1916 by the eight-kilometer Connaught Tunnel under Mount Macdonald .
The CPR acquired numerous small railway companies on the basis of long-term leases. On January 3, 1912, she acquired the Dominion Atlantic Railway in the western part of Nova Scotia . This gave the CPR access to Halifax , an important port on the Atlantic. The connection to the main network was made at Saint John with a train ferry across Fundy Bay . On July 1, 1912, the CPR acquired the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island , which was also connected to the main network by rail ferry. On December 14, 1912, the Quebec Central Railway was finally purchased .
After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the CPR dedicated its resources to the Canadian war effort. While other societies struggled for economic survival, the CPR could always make a profit. After the war, the government created the Canadian National Railway (CNR, later CN) from the remains of numerous bankrupt railroad companies that had come into government possession . The CNR should become the main competitor of the CPR.
Great Depression and World War II (1929 to 1945)
The world economic crisis , which lasted from 1929 to 1939, hit numerous societies hard. Unlike CNR, CPR was less affected because it was debt free. Nevertheless, the CPR had to stop passenger and freight traffic on some routes and after 1932 refrain from distributing dividends to shareholders.
A highlight for both society and Canada was the visit of King George VI. and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. It was the first time ever that the British monarch, the head of state of Canada, visited the country. The CPR and CNR shared the honor of pulling the royal train across the country. The CPR was responsible for the trip west between Québec and Vancouver , the CNR for the return trip.
Shortly afterwards the Second World War began . Even now, the CPR put itself at the service of the nation and made many resources available. The locomotive workshop in Montréal was converted and used to build Valentine tanks . Troops and material were transported across the country. The CPR owned 22 ships, 12 of which were sunk.
1946 to 1978
On September 1, 1947, there was a serious railway accident in which 31 people died and 85 were injured. The high number of victims resulted not least from the fact that at that time the CPR was still using older types of passenger cars with wooden superstructures and in some cases still with gas lighting , which caught fire after the collision of the two trains. As a consequence of the accident, at the CPR, the wagons with wooden superstructures were replaced by those made entirely of steel.
After the Second World War, transportation in Canada changed fundamentally. Previously, railways had handled almost all passenger and freight traffic, but now private cars , trucks and airplanes were gaining more and more market shares. CPR entered the truck and airline business and was thus able to remain profitable. Rail freight traffic continued to flourish thanks to the transportation of raw materials and bulk goods. But passenger traffic quickly became unprofitable. Nonetheless, the company was innovative in the field of passenger transport during the 1950s and introduced numerous new trains, including in 1955 the Canadian , a transcontinental luxury train . At the beginning of the 1960s , however, the company began to withdraw from passenger transport by ceasing operations on numerous branch lines. It put the transcontinental train The Dominion on the siding in 1966 , but failed in 1970 with the application to be allowed to set the Canadian as well. Finally, in 1978, all passenger traffic from CPR and CN was transferred to the new state-owned company VIA Rail .
In 1968 the entire group was reorganized. All main activities of CPR, including the operation of the railways, were outsourced to separate subsidiaries. The railroad's name was changed to CP Rail and the parent company was named Canadian Pacific Limited in 1971 . The company replaced the traditional Biber logo with simple lettering that could be used for all branches of the company.
1979 until today
In 1984 CP Rail began construction of the Mount Macdonald Tunnel , which was to relieve the Connaught Tunnel under the Selkirk Mountains . It was opened in 1988 and with a length of 14.7 kilometers is the longest tunnel on the American continent.
During the 1980s, the Soo Line Railroad , in which CP Rail owned the majority, was restructured. It acquired the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway in 1982 . On February 21, 1985, the Soo Line gained control of Milwaukee Road and took it over on January 1, 1986 for good. In 1987, much of the former Soo routes in the Great Lakes region were transferred to a new company, Wisconsin Central Ltd. sold. This was shortly thereafter taken over by the Canadian National Railway.
Aided by the free trade agreement between Canada and the USA that came into force in 1989 , which liberalized trade between the two countries, the expansion of the CPR continued in the 1990s. In 1990 CP Rail gained full control of the Soo Line and in 1991 bought the Delaware and Hudson Railway . The route network of CP Rail thus reached the major US cities of Chicago (via the Soo Line) and New York (via the D&H). Over the next five years, the route network in Canada shrank as numerous routes were sold or closed. These included all routes east of Montréal, including the route to the port of Saint John .
In order to do justice to the growing importance of traffic to the west, CP Rail moved its headquarters from Montréal to Calgary in 1996 , took on the traditional name Canadian Pacific Railway and reintroduced the old logo. A new subsidiary, the St. Lawrence and Hudson Railway, was formed to operate routes in Québec , southern and eastern Ontario, and the D&H. However, this measure was only of a short-term nature, as the StL & H was reintegrated into the CPR on January 1, 2001. In the same year, the parent company, Canadian Pacific Limited, converted its five subsidiaries (of which CPR was one) into independent companies.
In September 2007, Canadian Pacific announced the acquisition of Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DME) and its subsidiary Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad for $ 1.48 billion. In spring 2007, DME received approval to build a railway line into the coal-producing area of the Powder River Basin , but had problems securing funding. With this merger, CPR has the opportunity to enter this lucrative business. The shares in CP Rail will be held in trust until they are approved by the Surface Transportation Board .
In late November 2019, the company announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the Central Maine and Quebec Railway . This extends the route network by 774 kilometers, which extends east of Montreal in the states of Quebec (Canada) and Maine (USA). The company also has direct access to the Atlantic ports of Searsport and Saint John .
Freight transport
Over half of the Canadian Pacific Railway's freight traffic consists of the transportation of coal , wheat, and containers (which are later loaded onto ships). The CPR also transports auto parts , sulfur , fertilizer , chemicals , wood and other raw materials. The busiest route is the main line between Calgary and Vancouver.
Since 1970, coal transport has gained significantly in importance. The coal is transported from the coal mines in the mountains to the terminals at Roberts Bank and North Vancouver , both in British Columbia , on purpose-built freight trains . There it is then loaded onto ships that transport it to Japan . Every year the CPR transports 34 million tons of coal to the west coast.
Wheat is transported by CPR from the prairie to the ports of Thunder Bay and Fort William on Lake Superior, as well as to Vancouver, from where it is shipped overseas. Wheat has always been one of the most important goods of the CPR. Between 1905 and 1909, the only reason she had expanded the line between Winnipeg and Fort William to two tracks was to be able to handle the wheat transport even better. For several decades this was the only double-track section of the CPR outside the metropolitan areas.
In 1952, the CPR was the first North American railway company to introduce piggyback transport , in which truck trailers are loaded onto flat wagons and transported over long distances.
passenger traffic
Until the end of the Second World War, the railroad was the most important means of transport over long distances. In addition to the local population, passengers also included immigrants on their way to the prairie, troops (especially in wartime) and wealthy tourists. In order to promote tourism , the CPR built numerous hotels and built special passenger coaches for high demands.
After the war, when automobiles and aircraft became more important, passenger traffic decreased. The CPR tried with numerous innovations to stabilize the number of passengers carried. On February 9, 1953, it introduced "Dayliner" multiple units for rural areas , which had particularly low operating costs and were built by the American Budd Company . On April 24, 1955, the Canadian , a new transcontinental luxury train, was introduced. This drove from Vancouver to Greater Sudbury, where it was divided into a train to Toronto and a train to Montréal . The train consisted of a diesel locomotive and stainless steel passenger carriages.
At the beginning of the 1960s, however, the company began with the nationwide cessation of passenger transport, especially on branch lines. For example, passenger traffic on the Crowsnest Pass route ended in January 1964, and that on Quebec Central in April 1967. The transcontinental train “The Dominion” last ran in January 1966. On October 29, 1978, the CPR transferred all passenger traffic the new state railway company VIA Rail .
In addition to the intercity connections, the CPR also operated local transport in the greater Montréal area. In 1970, CP Rail used the first double-decker cars in Canada here . On October 1, 1982, CP Rail's local transport business was transferred to the Montréal Urban Community Transport Commission .
Even so, there is still passenger traffic on CPR routes today. In addition to serving Canadian routes through VIA Rail , the American long-distance transport company Amtrak operates the international Adirondack New York City – Montréal express train on the old D&H route . On the former Soo Line or Milwaukee route between Chicago and St. Paul / Minneapolis, Amtrak operates the Hiawatha service Chicago-Milwaukee and the long-haul train Empire Builder Chicago-Seattle / Portland.
Special trains
Silk trains
Between the 1890s and the 1940s, the CPR transported silk cocoons from Vancouver (where to from the Orient were herangeschifft) to the silk weaving in New York and New Jersey . A train carried goods worth millions of dollars, which is why armed guards came along. To prevent train robberies and keep insurance costs down, trains ran quickly, stopping only to change locomotives and train crews (which often took no more than five minutes). The silk trains had priority over all other trains, even passenger trains had to use side tracks in order to reduce the transport time as much as possible. The invention of nylon meant the end of the silk trains after the end of the Second World War.
Funeral trains
Funeral trains transported the remains of important personalities, for example high politicians. Mourners gathered at several points along the route to pay their respects to the deceased. Two of the trains are particularly well known. On June 10, 1891, Prime Minister John Macdonald's funeral procession drove from Ottawa to Kingston . On September 14, 1915, the funeral procession of CPR President William Cornelius Van Horne ran from Montréal to Joliet in the US state of Illinois .
School car
Between 1926 and the early 1960s, the CPR also owned a few school cars to serve children who were away from school in northern Ontario. A teacher traveled in the custom-built car to teach in a remote location for two or three days and then move on to another region. Each car had a blackboard and several tables and chairs. The wagons also contained small libraries .
Royal moves
The CPR put together special trains when members of the royal family visited Canada. They carried the majesties through the Canadian countryside, stopping in small villages and towns en route to allow contact with the local population. The trains were elegantly decorated, some had amenities such as a post office or a hairdressing salon. The most famous royal train was that of 1939; it should also be the last.
That year King George VI visited and his consort Queen Elizabeth left the country and made a trip from Quebec to Vancouver. This was the first visit to Canada by a reigning monarch. A steam locomotive of the type Hudson 2 'C 2' ( class H1d No. 2850), specially painted in silver and blue, pulled the train across the entire 5,187 kilometers across Canada, with the train crew being changed 25 times. The king, who was considered a friend of the railways, traveled in the driver's cab whenever possible. After the trip, he gave the CPR permission to call locomotives of this type "Royal Hudson".
Holiday train
Since 1999 the CPR has operated a holiday train on its main line. The train runs before Christmas in November and December and is used to collect donations for charitable institutions. It is also used for public relations work for CPR and some of its customers.
Royal Canadian Pacific
On June 7, 2000, the CPR inaugurated the Royal Canadian Pacific , a luxury excursion train that runs between June and September during the summer months. He drives a 1050-kilometer circuit from Calgary through the Columbia River valley and over the Crowsnest Pass back to Calgary. The trip takes six days and five nights. The train consists of up to eight luxury passenger coaches (built between 1916 and 1931) and is pulled by a first-generation diesel locomotive .
Locomotives
Steam locomotives
In its early years, the CPR used steam locomotives from the USA , mainly the type with the axle formula 2 'B. But the types 2' C and 1 'D were also used, mainly in the mountains. At the beginning of the 20th century, the CPR owned a large number of Pacific 2 'C 1' and Hudson 2 'C 2'. The most famous Hudson of the CPR was the streamlined Royal Hudson, which pulled the royal train across Canada in 1939. This locomotive, number 2850, is on display in the Saint-Constant Canadian Railroad Museum in Québec . Another locomotive of this type, number 2860, was restored by the British Columbia government and used between 1974 and 1999 for excursions on the British Columbia Railway network.
In 1929, the CPR received the first type T 1 Selkirk (1 'E 2') locomotive, the largest locomotive that ever ran on Canadian rails. These locomotives, named after the Selkirk Mountains , were particularly suitable for steep routes and were used for both freight and passenger trains. The last of the 37 Selkirks was delivered in 1949. It was also the last new steam locomotive ever, since from now on diesel traction was used entirely.
Diesel locomotives
In 1937, the CPR acquired the first diesel locomotive , a prototype built only once , which however did not prove itself and did not go into series production. From 1943 onwards, tried and tested models from the American Locomotive Company (Alco) were imported from the USA . The "Montréal Locomotive Works", the house supplier of the CPR, built the Alco locomotives under license from 1948 onwards. The first route completely converted to diesel operation was the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island in 1949 . What was initially only intended as a trial operation turned out to be a great success, and the CPR began to dieselize the entire main network. The last steam locomotive ran on November 6, 1960.
In 1984 CP Rail was the first North American railway company to test a diesel locomotive with three-phase asynchronous motors . In 1995 General Electric received the order for the first series production of such diesel locomotives with three-phase AC technology in Canada. At the beginning of 2004, 507 of the 1622 CPR diesel locomotives were running with three-phase asynchronous traction motors.
The Canadian Pacific Railway in everyday Canadian culture
The construction of the railroad is the subject of the song "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy" by the famous singer Gordon Lightfoot . The writer and journalist Pierre Berton , who is very prominent in Canada, wrote the two books "The National Dream" and "The Last Spike" , which are now considered standard works on the history of CPR. These were adapted by the television station CBC into a TV series called "The National Dream" .
In the late 1920s, the Canadian Pacific Railway organized tourist trips through the "Wild West of Canada". Several musicians were used on the trips to entertain the guests with country music and comedy. The most famous musician was the later famous country singer Wilf Carter (also known as Montana Slim ).
Management of the Canadian Pacific Railway
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Pacific Railway
From 1981 the Chairman of the Board was also Chief Executive Officer. The President assumed the role of Chief Operation Officer . With the reorganization of the CP Group in 2001, this function assignment changed. The subordinate position of President will be linked again to the position of CEO.
- February 16, 1881– August 1888: George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen
- August 1888– June 1899: William Cornelius Van Horne
- June 1899 to October 10, 1918: Thomas George Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy
- October 10, 1918-1942: Edward Wentworth Beatty
- 1942-1947: D'Alton Cory Coleman
- 1947-1948: William Neal
- 1948-1955: William A. Mather
- 1955-1964: Norris Roy Crump
- October 1964 to March 13, 1966 Robert A. Emerson
- May 5, 1966–1972 Ian David Sinclair
- 1972-1981 Fred S. Burbidge
- 1981-1984 William W. Stinson
- June 11, 1984-1990 Russell S. Allison
- 1990-5. May 2006 Robert J. Ritchie (President until November 2005)
- May 5, 2006 to May 17, 2012 Fred Green (President from November 2005, CEO from May 5, 2006)
- May 17 - June 28, 2012: Stephen C. Tobias (Acting CEO)
- June 28, 2012 to January 31, 2017 E. Hunter Harrison (President until February 5, 2013)
- January 31, 2017 - Keith Creel (President from February 5, 2013)
Chairman of the Board
With the resignation of William Van Horne as President of the company, he was appointed the first "Chairman of the Board".
- 1899–1910 William Cornelius Van Horne
- 1910-10 December 1923: Thomas George Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy
- 1923-23. March 1943: Edward Wentworth Beatty
- 1943-1947: D'Alton Cory Coleman
- 1955-1961: William A. Mather
- 1962-3. May 1972 Norris Roy Crump
- May 3, 1972-1981: Ian David Sinclair
- 1981–1989: William W. Stinson (also Chief Executive Officer)
- 1989–1995: I. Barry Scott (also Chief Executive Officer)
- 1995 - September 30, 2001: Robert J. Ritchie (also Chief Executive Officer)
- October 1, 2001 to May 5, 2005: James E. Newall
- May 5, 2005 to May 17, 2012: John Cleghorn
- June 4, 2012 to May 1, 2014: Paul G. Haggis
- May 1, 2014 to July 20, 2015: Gary F. Colter
- July 20, 2015 to May 7, 2019: Andrew F. Reardon
- May 7, 2019: Isabelle Courville
See also
- List of North American Railroad Companies
- Canadian Pacific Limited
- Canadian Pacific Railway Limited
- Canadian Pacific Hotels
- Connaught tunnel
- Mount Macdonald Tunnel
- Spiral tunnels
- Rogers Pass
- The Canadian
literature
- Heinrich Korthöber: World trade route between East Asia and Europe. The American project of a transcontinental railroad from a German perspective . In: Horizons of thought and scope for action. Historical studies for Rudolf Vierhaus on his 70th birthday . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1992, pp. 253-292.
- Charles Wassermann: Canadian Pacific - The great railroad. Herbig, Munich and Berlin 1979. ISBN 3-7766-0935-4 .
- Pierre Berton: The National Dream - The Great Railway, 1871–1881. McClelland and Stewart, Toronto 1970. ISBN 0-7710-1326-4 .
- Pierre Berton: The Last Spike. McClelland and Stewart, Toronto 1971. ISBN 0-7710-1327-2 .
- David Cruise, Alison Griffiths: Lords of the Line. Viking, Markham Ont 1988. ISBN 0-670-81437-7 .
- F. Robert: Railways of Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1987. ISBN 0-88894-581-7 .
Web links
- Canadian Pacific Railway ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
- Official website of the Canadian Pacific Railway (English and French)
- History of Canadian railways (English)
- Photos from the Canadian Pacific Railway and other Canadian railways
References and comments
- ↑ Keith Creel
- ↑ a b Canadian Pacific Railway 2017 Annual Report , at www.cpr.ca , accessed October 7, 2018
- ↑ Converted at the rate on the balance sheet date, December 31, 2017
- ^ Bengt Dahlberg: Canada: CP acquires Central Maine & Quebec Railway from Fortress Transportation. Locomotive Report , November 22, 2019, accessed on November 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Fred Green resigns as CP Rail CEO. In: Financial Post Business. May 17, 2012, accessed July 8, 2016 .
