Ride the rails through Canada’s western mountains to explore the many vestiges of the region’s spectacular and surprising railway heritage. Here is where grand railway hotels were built to attract tourists to the West’s beautiful scenery and bring profit to the railway lines as well. Rustic stations added to the allure. The challenges of conquering the mountains resulted in some of Canada’s most ingenious feats of engineering, such as spiral tunnels and soaring trestles (one of which was featured in The Amazing Race Canada).
Relive the days of rail on a steam train, the luxurious Rocky Mountaineer, or one of VIA Rail’s mountain journeys. Outdoor enthusiasts can follow the abandoned roadbeds of Canada’s more spectacular rail trails, like the legendary Kettle Valley Railway. Also included are some of Canada’s most extensive railway museums, which have helped to bring this vanished era back to life.
(From publisher's website)
Contents
The rails arrive -- Conquering the mountains : the tunnels and bridges -- The faces of the railways : the heritage railway stations -- Life on the line : the railway towns -- The dream castles : western Canada's railway hotels -- Railway structures : a forgotten heritage -- Celebrating the heritage : the railway museums -- The rail trails -- All aboard.
The Soo Line’s Famous Trains To Canada is a brief history of a small and unique Class 1 railway and its famous Canada–USA tourist trains.
Initially chartered in 1883 to serve the needs of local millers in Minneapolis, the Soo would eventually come to join the Canadian Pacific line at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with service to Montreal. In 1888, Canadian Pacific assumed controlling interest in the Soo Line, providing entry into the lucrative US market and levelling the playing field for the CPR to face the onslaught of ferocious competition from James J. Hill, the infamous American railway baron.
The “little railway that could” grew to attain giant-killer status, launching famous passenger trains from Minneapolis and St. Paul, meeting head-on the western expansion of the Great Northern Railway and viable, competitive routes to the Atlantic seaboard. Over the years, the Soo Line introduced thousands of Americans to Montreal and Quebec City, the famous Canadian Rockies resorts, and the city of Vancouver, the home port for CP’s Pacific steamship services. The Soo also successfully competed on the Spokane and Portland routes from Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest. In 1923 the “Soo Mountaineer” was launched, becoming the most famous and longest “two-nation” train journey in North America. -- From publisher
Contents
Part 1: A brief history of the soo line -- 1. In the beginning -- 2. The birth of the railway -- 3. What a tangled web we weave -- 4. Westward ho through great northern's backyard -- 5. Wisconsin central, the final piece of the puzzle -- 6. Setting the stage, Canadian pacific steamship company and Canadian pacific hotels and resorts -- Part 2: Famous trains of the soo -- 7. The Atlantic limited -- 8. The soo Pacific express -- 9. The Manitoba express, the Winnipeg express, the winnipeger -- 10. The soo-Spokane-Portland train deluxe -- 11. The mountaineer -- 12. The mystique of the mountaineer -- 13. The depression and the dirty thirties -- 14. My mountaineer -- 15. 1962, triumph and tragedy -- 16. The end of an era.
Pertains to Glacier House and a paper read at the Royal Geographical Society by Rev. W. Spotswood Green who traversed the Selkirks accompanied by Rev. H. Swanzy in 1889 with accompanying photographs/sketches of Beaver Creek, snow shed, Glacier House kitchen staff, aftermath of a snow slide, Mount Bonney, Lower Columbia Lake, goats, Mount Lefroy and Lake Louise, and an avalanche.