Not Just a Railway

June 24, 2003 9:01 AM

The Canadian Pacific Railway was not just a railway, it was a way of life, as the many posters featuring ships, hotels and vacation land posters can attest. Travel along the rails to a different time . . .
posted by ashbury (10 comments total)

Don't forget they have teapots in their engines too!
posted by @homer at 9:27 AM on June 24, 2003

Great post.
posted by plep at 9:34 AM on June 24, 2003

Yeah. but unfortunately they are no longer a passenger service.

Although they do have a Rocky mountain tour thing, last I checked it was around $7000.00 for 5-7 days...

...posting from Calgary, AB - CPR's headquarters...
posted by jkaczor at 10:06 AM on June 24, 2003

As the biggest landowner in the country, and monopoly shipper, CPR was widely despised in western Canada. There is an old story about a prairie farmer in the drought-stricken '30s who somehow manages to raise a huge field of grain. A few days before harvest, a thunderhead rolls in with a blast of hailstones that flattens the whole field in seconds. The farmer rears back, shakes his fist at the heavens and cries out, "God damn the CPR!"
posted by timeistight at 10:06 AM on June 24, 2003

Nice post. If you'll forgive my posting an image, the various buildings and such around the stations also lead to things like this, now, of course, with the added meaning of coronary danger:

posted by transient at 10:26 AM on June 24, 2003

monopoly shipper?

What about Canadian National (CN), CPR hasn't been a monopoly since about ~1920, have they?

Hmm, however I am a bit rusty on rail history, but they do have a northern route, do they not?
posted by jkaczor at 10:27 AM on June 24, 2003

And if looking at piccies is too passive for you, you can become a Canadian Rail Baron yourself!
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:32 AM on June 24, 2003

My history's a little rusty, too, but I'm pretty sure that the CNR and the CPR wouldn't have actually competed over rates. That would be uncanadian.
posted by timeistight at 10:41 AM on June 24, 2003

Wow... what a coincidence for me... I was just in Edmonton for a week, and I kept seeing these signs for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and I thought "I bet that's some sort of historic thing...".

Now I know...

Thanks, ashbury!
posted by BobFrapples at 11:33 AM on June 24, 2003

I've often wondered to what degree the rest of the world's perception of Canada was influenced by posters like this, this or this (that last almost looks like a Tom Thompson.) Surely not too many other countries had their entire foreign image controlled by one corporation.
posted by arto at 2:20 PM on June 24, 2003