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Canadian Pacific Railway
DCHP-2 (Aug 2012)
Spelling variants:C.P.R., CPR, CP Rail, CP, Canadian Pacific
n. — Transportation, also often in compounds
the Canadian railway line that offered the first east-west rail connection from the Atlantic to the Pacific on Canadian soil as of 1886.
Type: 1. Origin — The Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated on 16 February 1881 to fulfil the federal government's promise to link British Columbia with central Canada. This was one of BC's conditions to join Confederation in 1871. On Nov. 7th, 1885, the "Last Spike" was driven at Craigellachie, BC. It took another year to install service buildings so that the CPR could be used (see Canadian Encyclopedia reference).
The first passenger train travelled from Montreal, arriving on 4 July 1886 at Port Moody, BC (see the first 1886 quotation). The line was extended to Vancouver (then called Granville) the following year. The occasion found only an indirect mention in the Toronto Globe (see the 1887 quotation), while there was full coverage in the Victoria Daily Colonist (see the 1887 quotation). The company's name was changed to Canadian Pacific or CP in the 1980s.
The first passenger train travelled from Montreal, arriving on 4 July 1886 at Port Moody, BC (see the first 1886 quotation). The line was extended to Vancouver (then called Granville) the following year. The occasion found only an indirect mention in the Toronto Globe (see the 1887 quotation), while there was full coverage in the Victoria Daily Colonist (see the 1887 quotation). The company's name was changed to Canadian Pacific or CP in the 1980s.
As is the usual path of changes in formal signs, the original full form Canadian Pacific Railway or the dotted abbreviation C.P.R. (see the 1873 and 1879 quotations) came to be replaced more and more with the short form CPR, so that in the early 21st century CPR and CP are the standard forms.
Quotations
1870
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY: The following letter has been published by Mr. Thomas O. Keefer: Whatever views may be held as to the physical or the financial practicability of a Canadian Pacific Railway, I think there can be but one opinion as to its bearing on the North-West question.
1873
The object of going up this Inlet, another of the proposed termini for the Railway, was to enable the Chief to get such a birds-eye view of it as he had already obtained of the prairie and the mountain country, and at the same time to meet two parties of the C.P.R. Survey, who had been at work in this quarter all summer.
1879
A locomotive train with a large amount of freight and a caboose full of laborers left this morning for Cross Lake from the St. Boniface station of the C.P.R.
1884
The question has never been, and is not now, Shall a Canadian Pacific Railway be built or shall it not? That question has already been settled irrevocably in the affirmative.
1886
I am convinced, taking the road all over and having regard to the exceptional advantages for railway construction during the last few years, when the cost of construction has been lower than ever before, that had the road been built at moderate speed and with proper economy, had not the rash, the insane policy of extreme haste, with all its incidents and consequences been adopted, the road COULD HAVE BEEN BUILT FOR THAT MONEY, and the Canadian Pacific Railway, built at the public expense, might still be public property.
1886
ON TIME.
The C.P.R. Through Train Arrives at Port Moody.
(From Our Own Correspondent.) PORT MOODY, B.C., July 4 -- The first daily through train on the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived at the Western terminus at Port Moody to-day on time.
ON TIME.
The C.P.R. Through Train Arrives at Port Moody.
(From Our Own Correspondent.) PORT MOODY, B.C., July 4 -- The first daily through train on the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived at the Western terminus at Port Moody to-day on time.
1887
The C. P. R. and the General Assembly.
WINNIPEG, May 23.--The C.P.R. Company have arranged to issue return tickets to all commissioners, lay and clerical, to the Presbyterian General Assembly from Winnipeg to Vancouver for $30.
WINNIPEG, May 23.--The C.P.R. Company have arranged to issue return tickets to all commissioners, lay and clerical, to the Presbyterian General Assembly from Winnipeg to Vancouver for $30.
1887
The Vancouver city band struck up "See the Conquering Hero Comes" in good time, when Mayor McLean mounted the platform and proposed three cheers for the C. P. R. These were given with a tiger, when, by request, H. Abbott, general superintendent and Alderman Oppenheimer, took seats near him.
1897
The great Canadian Pacific Railway . . . has not only brought trade to their wigwam villages, but also the missionary with the Bible to their very doors.
1932
. . . the Canadian Pacific Railway had reached Vancouver, closed the last gap in the "All-Red Route" and had raised the obscure settlement on the muddy shore of Water Street . . . to the status of a world port.
1958
Mr. Herridge said he had been informed that communicable-disease patients could be carried in the baggage section of the Budd cars--or dayliners--on the CPR'S Kettle Valley run in British Columbia.
1965
At one time the pool trains ran over the CNR to Brockville and then by CPR tracks to Ottawa. . . . As at the end of October, the pool trains ceased to exist and the two railways went on their separate ways.
1974
A speedier Dayliner was rented from CP Rail as an experiment, but passengers continued to decline.
1976
Midland sportsman Bryan Berriault reports that the Sturgeon River is brimming with big ‘bows and a new fishway under the CPR bridge has enabled most to proceed past that point.
1979
One of the bonuses of Mrs. Reynolds' book is that we see important parts of our history through Agnes' eyes. The crises that faced Macdonald's administrations - the Pacific Scandal, the Riel Rebellion and subsequent hanging, the problems of getting the CPR finally built, all had their effects on domestic life in Earnscliffe.
1980
The city prefers an eastern route along the CP Rail right-of-way, which follows 103 Street south to the city limits.
1989
We once broke the drive East by loading the car on a CPR lake boat at the Lakehead and sailing to Port Colborne, Ont. It was a pleasant trip and spared you the aridity of Lake Superior\'s north shore.
1998
We had attended the Victory Bond drives, dutifully bought War Savings Stamps and learned the identification of most military ships and airplanes. Our streets churned with armored ordnance and personnel moving through battle theatres; great blue-grey ships secretly entered the harbor and left silently for wars we could only imagine, their guns ominous, commanders stern and lean. Even the CPR ferries had steely guns mounted on grey decks. Most families had somebody overseas: some dead, many wounded.
2002
The facts are that for hundreds of its miles, particularly in the Laurentian shield country, the long-distance traffic from west to east by private cars is never heavy. And there hasn't been a huge growth in long-haul trucking, in part because of increasing container freight on CN and CP trains.
References
- The Canadian Encyclopedia • "Canadian Pacific Railway"
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