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Canadian Pacific Railway in BC Route Diagram
0 mi Vancouver). (alt. 5 feet) 2 Hastings (alt. 5 ) 3 Brighton (alt. 5) 11 Barnet (alt. 5) 26 Port Moody (alt. 5) 31 Port Coquitlam (alt. 5) 39 Haney (alt. 5) 46 Whonnock (alt. 5) 44 Ruskin (alt. 5) 59 Dewdney (alt. 5) 74 Lake Errock (alt. 5) 79 Harrison Mills (alt. 5) 94 Agassiz (alt. 5 99 Hope (alt. 20 ) 104 Yale (alt. 20) 225 Spuzzum (alt. 25 ) 466 Keefers (alt. 30) 116 North Bend (alt. 30) 120 Cisco (alt. 30 ) 123 Lytton (alt. 40 ) 130 Spences Bridge (alt. 50 ) 138 Ashcroft (alt. 100 ) 142 Savona (alt. 100 ) 225 Cherry Creek (alt. 1862 ) 154 Kamloops (alt. 100 ) 157 Chase (alt. 100 ) 173 Sorrento (alt. 200 ) 176 Salmon Arm (alt. 200 ) 196 Sicamous (alt. 200 ) 203 Eagle Pass (alt. 452 ) 225 Craigellachie (alt. 1862 ) 214 Revelstoke (alt. 462 ) 236 Rogers Pass (alt. 3600 ) 466 Mount MacDonald (alt. 1400) 246 Golden (alt. 3500 ) 252 Kicking Horse (alt. 3000 ) 273 Field (alt. 2000 ) 314 Hector (alt. 1500) 358 Banff (alt. 2000)

Canadian Pacific Railway in BC

Background

After the US Civil War, Politicians in Upper Canada and Britain were worried about possible American expansion in the Pacific. The US bought Alaska in 1867 and thus the British Territory between the 49th Parallel and Alaska was considered ripe for annexation. To prevent this, Sir John A. MacDonald, the Canadian Prime Minister of the new Dominion on Canada made an offer to the provincial officials. BC Politicians wanted union with Canada, owing to debts from the Cariboo Gold Rush, and also wanted a telegraph and wagon road to the Prairies. MacDonald astounded everyone, by agreeing to the union of BC with Canada, the assumption of BC's debts, and the building of a Pacific Railway within ten years. BC entered Confederation with Canada in 1871.

Panic of 1873 and the Pacific Scandal

MacDonald's government in Ottawa fell in 1872 due to corruption with railway contracts due to the national railway. MacKenzie took office and embarked on a very slow building process in Manitoba. At this time, there was also a severe financial depression owing to the Credit Mobilier scandal and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad in the US. Also at this time, the government of Canada embarked on many surveys across the Rocky Mountains searching for the best route. Half a dozen routes were investigate: Pine Pass, Rocky Mountain Canyon, Yellowhead and Kootenay Crossing for example. These myriad surveys took time, effort and money: money that should have been spent on one or two surveys. MacDonald returned to power in 1878 and truly began to get on with the job of the railway.

The government of Canada let a contract to Andrew Onderdonk to build a railway from Port Moody on Pacific tidewater to Savona's Ferry, some thirty miles west of modern Kamloops. Public Works Minister Sir Sandford Fleming had chosen the Fraser Canyon route, through the fearsome Hell's Gate torrent, steep chasms of granite, winding valleys and rockfalls. Other surveys had been conducted down Bute Inlet, Burke Channel, Howe Sound, Harrison Lake and were found lacking. Fleming favoured the Yellowhead Pass as the best route. At any rate, the blasting and tunnelling through the Pacific Cascade Mountains would take half-a-dozen years and thus the route could drive from Kamloops to Jasper after Onderdonk's crews had finished.+

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway Bill is voted through the House of Commons and in February of 1881 the company enters into legal being.They agreed to build the railway in exchange for $25,000,000 (approximately $625,000,000 in modern Canadian dollars) in credit from the Canadian government and a grant of 25,000,000 acres (100,000 km²) of land. The government transferred to the new company those sections of the railway it had constructed under government ownership. The government also defrayed surveying costs and exempted the railway from property taxes for 20 years. The Montreal-based syndicate officially comprised five men: George Stephen, James J. Hill, Duncan McIntyre, Richard B. Angus, and John Stewart Kennedy. Donald A. Smith and Norman Kittson were unofficial silent partners with a significant financial interest.

Chinese Workers

Owing to labour shortages, Onderdonk contracts labour agents in Kowloon to supply thousands of Chinese coolies for the project. BC is up in arms over the mass transfer of labour and "asiatics" fearing it would upset the White Anglo Saxon classes in "British" Columbia. MacDonald accedes owing to the labour costs that would be saved. BC at the time only had two or three thousand Europeans at the time, not nearly enough people to build such a large project. MacDonald's riposte was BC could either have chinese and a railway, or no chinese and no railway. The chinese crews thus worked year round in the cliffs and forests leveling a grade. In British Columbia, the CPR hired workers from China, nicknamed coolies. A navvy received between $1 and $2.50 per day, but had to pay for his own food, clothing, transportation to the job site, mail, and medical care. After two and a half months of back-breaking labour, they could net as little as $16. Chinese navvies in British Columbia made only between $0.75 and $1.25 a day, not including expenses, leaving barely anything to send home. They did the most dangerous construction jobs, such as working with explosives. The families of the Chinese who were killed received no compensation, or even notification of loss of life. Many of the men who survived did not have enough money to return to their families in China. Many spent years in lonely, sad and often poor conditions. Yet the Chinese were hard working and played a key role in building the western stretch of the railway; even some boys as young as 12 years old served as tea-boys.

Michael Haney

Onderdonk engaged a superior foreman in the form of Irishman Michael Haney. Haney looked at the problem of the rivers, gorges, and cliffs to realize that Onderdonk would need extensive bridging. To solve this problem, Haney built a steam powered sawmill at Haney to cut standardized timbers. Crews also cut bridge bents so the advance crews only had to submit measurements to Haney, and he would purpose build a woodwork for that mile marker of track. The prime Douglas Fir of the Fraser Valley provided ideal timber. Lumber was cut at Texas Creek also for ties. Other crews were engaged around the province cutting and squaring crossties by the million. Timber was also cut at the Chehalis river near Kilby.

1885-the Critical year

The ongoing construction crews, difficult mountains, rivers and Canadian Shield completely undid construction estimates. As such, the CPR was near bankrupt in 1885. To prevent complete collapse. the CPR crews stopped building in masonry and steel, and opted for tree pole construction, with bridge trestles built from nearby trees. Snowsheds, easy routings, sidings, were omitted to reduce costs. Only the intervention of Lord Revelstoke of Barings Bank of London with another loan gave the CPR enough financing to finish the job.The greatest disadvantage of the route was in Kicking Horse Pass. In the first 6 km (3.7 miles) west of the 1,625 metre (5,330 ft) high summit, the Kicking Horse River drops 350 metres (1,150 ft). The steep drop would force the cash-strapped CPR to build a 7 km (4.5 mile) long stretch of track with a very steep 4.5% gradient once it reached the pass in 1884. This was over four times the maximum gradient recommended for railways of this era, and even modern railways rarely exceed a 2% gradient. However, this route was far more direct than one through the Yellowhead Pass, and saved hours for both passengers and freight. This section of track was the CPR's Big Hill. Safety switches were installed at several points, the speed limit for descending trains was set at 10 km per hour (6 mph), and special locomotives were ordered. Despite these measures, several serious runaways still occurred. CPR officials insisted that this was a temporary expediency, but this state of affairs would last for 25 years until the completion of the Spiral Tunnels in the early 20th century.

Strike at Golden

The money problems yielded a strike at a construction camp near Golden in late 1885. Workcrews had not been paid for months and thus downed tools. The NW Mounted Police and tried to calm the situation. Promises were made by the company which amieleorated the situation, the crews went back to work.

Last Spike

The Riel Rebellion on the Red River was quickly put down with troops travelling over the CPR. Perhaps because the government was grateful for this service, they subsequently re-organized the CPR's debt and provided a further $5,000,000 loan. This money was desperately needed by the CPR. On November 7, 1885 the Last Spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia, making good on the original promise. Four days earlier, the last spike of the Lake Superior section was driven in just west of Jackfish, Ontario. While the railway was completed four years after the original 1881 deadline, it was completed more than five years ahead of the new date of 1891 that Macdonald gave in 1881.

Extension of the Line from Port Moody

After the completion of the through line to Montreal, van Horne, looked at Port Moody, and then at Burrard Inlet and opted to move the terminal to False Creek. Land was secretly obtained from the Provincial Government and landowners to prevent specutation and t then work crews extended the line 11 miles west to the City of Vancouver.

Founding of Vancouver

Vancouver was founded in June of 1886 as an adjunct to the arrival of the railway. The CPR was given extensive lands in the Vancouver area--the West End, lands west of Cambie street, False Creek and the southlands area stretching to the Fraser River. Posh subdivisions came about due to railway influence. The Drake Street Roundhouse was built on False Creek, and so Yaletown emerged.

Enter the CPR Pacific Steamers

The CPR chartered ocean steamers, Batavia, Abyssinia, and Parthia to enter the China tea trade.

Profitability

The completion of the line and the extension of steamers put the railway in the black. From this it began a program of rebuilding the line--the temporary trestles were changed to stone and steel. Snowsheds were built as were rail yards, spurs, coalsheds and watertowers. The CPR looked for cargoes for its trains. Lumber from the Hastings mill, fish from Steveston, fruit from the Okanagon, minerals from the Kootenays and immigrants from Europe. With this in mind the railway expanded with spurs to the Okanagon, the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, and a southern link from Port Coquitlam to New Westminster and Eburne.

Turn of the Century

By the turn of the century, the Railway was going concern and made its mark on the world stage. Major Hotels were started as in the Empress in Victoria, the Hotel Vancouver, the Banff Springs, and Chateau Lake Louise. Heavier railway equipment was built and ordered to keep up with the increased tonnage, and with the heavier trains came heavier bridges. On ongoing problem was the onerous grade up the Kicking Horse Pass. The heavy trains needed batteries of engines to get over the Big Hill. From this the Spiral Tunnels evolve and construction started to build the long tunnels under the mountains.

The Crow's Nest Pass

The CP empire had driven south from Calgary in the 1890s to reach the coalmines of Lethbridge; also, a link was made to the US lines in Montana. From this the CPR wanted to build a line to the rich coalfields of Fernie over the Rocky Mountains in BC. A line was built from Alberta across the Crow's Nest Pass to Fernie and Creston and the mountains became littered with colleries. By 1900, the CPR had purchased the smelter at Trail, BC and sought to move Fernie coal around the Selkirk Mountains to Nelson and Trail. When the CPR bought the smelter it also bought the large mining company of Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company and there many properties in the Kootenays.

The Canadian Pacific Railway built a line from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Nelson, British Columbia, through the Crowsnest Pass, opening in 1897. This line was built to develop coal deposits in the Elk River valley and help to assert Canadian (and CPR) sovereignty in an area that U.S. railroads were beginning to build into. CPR sought and received construction funding from the federal government, subject to a freight subsidy arrangement for prairie farm exports which came to be called the "Crow's Nest Pass Agreement".

Crow Rate

The "Crow Rate" or "Crow's Nest Freight Rate" was a subsidy offered to the Canadian Pacific Railway ("CPR") by the Canadian government. The subsidy was instituted by an agreement between the CPR and the federal government made in 1897. The purpose of the subsidy was to enable the CPR to expand westward over the Canadian Rockies through the Crow’s Nest Pass while reducing the transportation costs for farmers in the Canadian Prairies. In exchange for cash and perpetual title to the CPR over the lands which the railway would run, the CPR would reduce shipping rates for listed agricultural products "forever".

CP in the Kootenays

The Columbia and Western Railway was a short line, narrow gauge railway running from the silver and gold mines at Red Mountain and Rossland down the hill to the smelter at Trail. The Arrow Lakes route was accessible from north, by a rail connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Revelstoke, where the CPR crosses the Columbia River. The Arrow Lakes Route was also accessible from the south, at Northport, Washington, also on the Columbia River, where there was also a rail connection. The Columbia River crossed the border near Boundary, Washington, which was about 749 miles from the mouth of the Columbia.

The CPR also built rail lines to Sandon. The Nakusp and Slocan line went from Nakusp came down through summit Lake, past Rosebery, to New Denver. Then it drove up the hill and Carpenter Creek onto the mountainous and mining town of Sandon. After 1910, the CPR bought the charred embers of the GN narrow gauge line Kaslo and Slocan and rebuilt parts to standard gauge. The CPR then ran large lake steamers and railcar barges to link these disconnected lines over the lakes: over Kootenay Lake to Nelson, Slocan Lake to Slocan City, and Arrow Lakes to Arrowhead near Revelstoke. The CPR attempted to build a connecting line from Argenta, past Poplar Meadow fifteen miles up the Lardeau River to Marblemount. Low traffic meant that the line was never finished to Trout Lake, Beaton and Arrowhead.

Building the Kettle Valley Railway

The CPR desired to have a second railway line across BC to service the rich farm, timber and mining lands in the Kootenays. Further the CPR wanted to lessen the impact of its rival Great Northern, who had easy access to the area from low valleys in Washington State. Through a long series of companies, political machinations, lobbying, and the constant first appearance of the GN, the Kettle Valley Railway was constructed in the years 1910-1915. It extended the Columbia and Western Railway west from Grand Forks. The core portion of the Kettle Valley Railway started in Hope, transited through Brookmere, Tulameen, Princeton, Summerland, Penticton, Beaverdell, Midway and terminated in Nelson. An additional spur line connected the line to Spences Bridge, British Columbia, and Merritt, British Columbia.

Lake Steamers

The CPR ran large fleets of lake steamers on the Arrow Lakes, Kootenay Lakes, and Slocan Lake. They also had palatial ships on the Okanogan Lakes.

Coastal Service in BC

BCCS was established when the CPR acquired in 1901 Canadian Pacific Navigation Company (no relation) and its large fleet of ships that served 72 ports along the coast of British Columbia including on Vancouver Island. Service included the Vancouver-Victoria-Seattle Triangle Route, Gulf Islands, Powell River, as well as Vancouver-Alaska service. BCCS operated a fleet of 14 passenger ships made up of a number of Princess ships, pocket versions of the famous ocean going Empress ships along with a freighter, three tugs and five rail car barges. Popular with tourists, the Princess ships were famous in their own right especially the Princess Marguerite (II) which became the last coastal liner operating from 1949 until 1985.

Silk Trains

Between the 1890s and the 1940s, the CPR transported raw silk cocoons from Vancouver, where they had been shipped to from the Orient, to silk mills in New York and New Jersey. A silk train could carry several million dollars worth of silk, so they had their own armed guards. To avoid train robberies and so minimize insurance costs, they traveled quickly and stopped only to change locomotives and crews, which was often done in under five minutes. The silk trains had superior rights over all other trains; even passenger trains would be put in sidings to make the silk trains' trip faster.

Expansion

The CPR embarked on facilities expansion in the Edwardian Years. Large service yards were built at Port Coquitlam, Drake Street, Coal Harbour, and Cranbrook. Small feeder lines were built--the Marpole Line from Drake Street to Eburne and then to Steveston. A bridge was built southwards across the Fraser River at Mission and a line was constructed to connect with the US Lines at Huntington (named for Collis P. Huntington, a US Railway giant). The CP also built a hundred miles of rail down the Rocky Mountain trench from Golden to Creston to more easily move heavy freights of coal trains than across the winding and mountainous Kettle Valley LIne. The coal was also needed on the main line for the steam engines.

Powerful Engines

The Selkirk locomotives were 36 steam locomotives of the 2-10-4 wheel arrangement built for Canadian Pacific Railway by Montreal Locomotive Works, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The first of these large engines with 2-10-4 wheel arrangement were built in July 1929. Altogether twenty were constructed before the end of the year bearing numbers 5900 to 5919. The Canadian Pacific Railway's classification was T1a. These locomotives weighed 375 short tons (340 t) fully loaded. They were the largest and most powerful non-articulated locomotives in the British Empire.

Great Depression

The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 until 1939, hit many companies heavily. While the CPR was affected, it was not affected to the extent of its rival CNR because it, unlike the CNR, was debt-free. The CPR scaled back on some of its passenger and freight services, and stopped issuing dividends to its shareholders after 1932. One highlight of the 1930s, both for the railway and for Canada, was the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Canada in 1939, the first time that the reigning monarch had visited the country. The CPR and the CNR shared the honours of pulling the royal train across the country, with the CPR undertaking the westbound journey from Quebec City to Vancouver. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.81.76.183 (talk) 22:27, 16 November 2008 (UTC)