Customer Reviews (1)

A great Canadian railway and canal reference
If you are interested in Canadian transportation history, then this atlas is a must for you! The author details, in writing, pictures and maps every significant railway and canal in Canada, including in-service dates, the route(s) and abandonments.

A great way to see how our country was shaped by rail and canal transportation from 1830's to 1950's. It is a must-have for every rail-fan, student of Canadian history, school and library in Canada.

Bernie Geiger, Ottawa, Ontario, July 1998 ... Read more

Book Description

Despite the "green" benefits of rail travel, Canada has lost much of its railway heritage.Across the country stations have been bulldozed and rails ripped up.Once the heart of communities large and small, stations and tracks have left little more than a gaping hole in Canada's landscapes.This book revisits the times when railways were the country's economic lifeline, and the station the social centre.Here was where we worked, played, listened to political speeches, or simply said goodbye to loved ones never knowing when they would return. The landscapes which grew around the station are also explored and include such forgotten features as station hotels, restaurants, gardens and the once common railway YMCA. Railway companies often hired the world's leading architects to design grand station buildings which ranged in style from chateau-esque to art deco. Even small town stations and wayside shelters displayed an artistic flare and elegance.Although most have vanished, the book celebrates the survival of that heritage in stations which have been saved or indeed remain in use.The book will appeal to anyone who has links with our rail era, or who simply appreciates the value of Canada's built heritage.

Book Description
November 7, 1885, marked the completion of one of the longest, most expensive, most challenging engineering feats in the world -- the Canadian Pacific Railway. A ribbon of steel now united Canada from east to west. It took 30,000 workers less than five years to cross the wild land. This is the story of Canada's first transcontinental railway and the thousands of people who made the dream of a united Canada a reality. This is also a look at the freight trains, school trains, troop trains and passenger trains that helped shape a country, the people who worked and rode on them and what the railway system looks like today. ... Read more

Book Description
Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada is a "survey course" about one of the most interesting chapters in Canadian railway history. The late Omer Lavallee's original work was published by Railfare Books in 1972, and soon sold out. Long-sought by collectors, historians and railway enthusiasts, his excellent material has now been expanded (over 40%) by the author's long-time friend and collaborator, editor Ronald Ritchie.Omer Lavallee's survey indicates the Province of Ontario, Canada, was the birth place - in July 1871 - of the first narrow gauge steam-operated public railway in North America . . . and the Lingan Colliery Tramway in Cape Breton may have been - in 1866 - the first narrow gauge steam-operated railway in the Western Hemisphere.Two dozen different railway systems are covered within the book's twenty-five chapters. There are 192 rare photographs - including a section of 66 full-colour photos - interesting sketches, and informative maps of each line to show route details. These are keyed to an overall map, pinpointing the railway's exact location within Canada. Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada contains listings of railway mileage, chronological and geographical facts about each system, and locomotive information. Several other useful features include: time-mileage charts, 50 diagrams, charts and tables, equipment rosters for virtually all the railways, and gradient profiles of three steeply-graded mountain routes.The book includes a specially-commissioned painting by famed railway artist Wentworth Folkins, illustrating Newfoundland Railway's "Overland" approaching Port-aux-Basque on the last lap of its 547-mile journey from Newfoundland's capital city, St. John's. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Lovingly Done, Great Pictures
Railroad gauges in Canada have varied quite a bit. In 1851, the legislature passed a law that all rails laid in Canada would be 5'6". This was to keep Yankee domination of the railroads from happening. The fact that you then couldn't send a car from Toronto to New York wasn't important. This lasted until the 1870's.

Canada's narrow gauges came from two sources. One was the 'British Metric,' not really metric, but 3'6". The other, more common in the west was copied from the very successful D&RG of Colorado which used a 3' gauge.

There were some 17 narrow gauge railways in Canada. Generally speaking they were in areas where the narrow gauge meant significant savings in construction costs. The tighter turning radius meant that a lot less earth had to be moved in mountains.

This book is a loving collection of the pictures and stories of these railways. And lest you think of narrow gauge as something of the last century, there is a great picture on page 115 of a diesel engined train leaving a tunnel and crossing a bridge. What makes is to great is that everything in the picture, the tunnel, the bridge, the engines, the cars is of later than 1968 vintage.

Lovingly Done, Great Pictures, Good Book.

Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada
Twenty-three short histories of Canadian railways and tramways are presented in text and in numerous black & white photos.Timetables, engine erection drawings, and time-mileage charts are included for some ofthe lines.The strength of the book is the presentation of these railwayswhich may otherwise not be known.Those who love Canadian railway historyor obscure narrow gauge railroads will find this book a delight. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1871, a tiny nation, just four years old — it's population well below the 4 million mark — determined that it would build the world's longest railroad across empty country, much of it unexplored. This decision — bold to the point of recklessness — was to change the lives of every man, woman and child in Canada and alter the shape of the nation.

Using primary sources — diaries, letters, unpublished manuscripts, public documents and newspapers — Pierre Berton has reconstructed the incredible decade of the 1870s, when Canadians of every stripe — contractors, politicians, financiers, surveyors, workingmen, journalists and entrepreneurs — fought for the railway, or against it.

The National Dream is above all else the story of people. It is the story of George McMullen, the brash young promoter who tried to blackmail the Prime Minister; of Marcus Smith, the crusty surveyor, so suspicious of authority he thought the Governor General was speculating in railway lands; of Sanford Fleming, the great engineer who invented Standard Time but who couldn't make up his mind about the best route for the railway. All these figures, and dozens more, including the political leaders of the era, come to life with all their human ambitions and failings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Classic history of Canada's teething days
Pierre Berton is Canada's favourite historian and this book remains the definitive history of the railroad that ensured Canada would grow all the way to the Pacific coast. The National Dream is the first of two chronicles. It recountsthe preparations to the actual construction work, which is covered in the second volume "The Last Spike".

We read of the political negotiations with British Columbia, which at first only wanted a wagon trail. We witness the fighting between the surveyors of different routes through the Rockies. I was surprised to discover that the greatest political difficulty was getting the railroad to go through Ontario, over the desolate granit of the Canadian shield, so that it avoid going south of the lakes, through the US. The Pacific railway had to be an all-Canadian venture. Still in politics, Berton describes the money politics of 1870's and ends by putting us in the House of Commons during the CPR debates of December 1880.

Canada today is a country stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, capping the lower 48 of the United States. At Confederation in 1867, Canada ended at the Great Lakes; west of there but not part of Canada was the Hudson's Bay Company's land, the Red River colony (today Manitoba) and British Columbia. Canadian visionaries correctly saw the railway as the only way to ensure Canada survived American expansion. The CPR was a ridiculous undertaking. Imagine a country the size of New Zealand deciding that survival meant a space program and you get the picture.

The CPR was an instance of a particularly Canadian National Policy whose purpose is to keep Canada whole. The price we had to pay then was that expensive all Canadian route. Interestingly, we still live with the legacy and expensive transportation is still a Canadian "feature". While travel between cities is cheap within the US, flights between any two large Canadian city are expensive as the money is used to subsidize transport to Canada's more remote areas. Is it worth it? Ask any Canadian, and you'll often get a mumble and grumble finally ending in a painful "yes, yes it is". ... Read more

Book Description
Before the railways, Canada was a vast, rugged country with a small, widely spread population.As train tracks were laid from the Atlantic to the Pacific, towns sprang up along the way.Train stations became centres of life and communication.Jobs were created, businesses sprang up, and for the first time, Canadians felt united.By 1867 the Dominion of Canada would form, due in no small part to the railways. ... Read more