_To the Pacific--Montreal to Port Moody_.
On the evening of the 12th September I left Quebec by the train for
Montreal, and travelled over the "North Shore" line of 200 miles. One
of the secretaries of the Vice-President of the Canadian Pacific, Mr.
Van Horn, called upon me to say that accommodation was reserved for me
in the train; and that Mr. Van Horn was sending down his own car, which
would meet me half way. It was no use protesting against the non-
necessity of such luxurious treatment. I was further asked, if I had
"got transportion?" which puzzled me. But I found, being interpreted,
the question was modern American for "Have you got your through
ticket?" I replied, that I had paid my fare right through from
Liverpool to Vancouver's Island--as every mere traveller for his own
pleasure ought to do; and I was remonstrated with for so unkind a
proceeding, as the fact of my having been President of the Grand Trunk
was of itself a passport all over Canada.
At Three Rivers, about half way, while reading by very good light--good
lamp, excellent oil, very good trimming--there was some shunting of the
train, and the usual "bang" of the attachment of a carriage. A moment
afterwards Mr. Van Horn's car steward entered, and asked if I was Sir
Edward Watkin; and he guessed I must come into Mr. Van Horn's car, sent
specially down for me. Where was my baggage? I need not say that I was
soon removed from the little, beautifully-fitted, drawing-room into
this magnificent car. In passing through, I heard some growls, in
French, about stopping the train, and sending a car for one "Anglais."
So, on being settled in the new premises, I sent my compliments,
stating that I only required one seat, and that I was certain that the
car was intended for the general convenience, and would they do me the
favour to finish their journey in it? I received very polite replies,
stating that every one was very comfortable where he was. One
Englishman, however, came in to make my acquaintance, but left me soon.
I now became acquainted with Mr. Van Horn's car steward--James French,
or, as his admirers call him, "Jim"--and I certainly wish to express my
gratitude to him for his intelligence, thoughtfulness, admirable
cookery, and general good nature. He took me, a few days later, right
across to the Pacific in this same car, which certainly was a complete
house on wheels--bedroom, "parlour, kitchen and all." His first
practical suggestion was, would I take a little of Mr. Van Horn's "old
Bourbon" whisky? It was "very fine, first rate." On my assenting, he
asked would I take it "straight," as Mr. Van Horn did, or would I have
a little seltzer water? I elected the latter, at the same time
observing, that when I neared the Rocky Mountains perhaps I should have
improved my ways so much that I could take it "straight" also.
At Montreal, my old friend and aforetime collaborateur, Mr. Joseph
Hickson, met me and took me home with him; and in his house, under the
kind and generous care of Mrs. Hickson, I spent three delightful days,
and renewed acquaintance with many old friends of times long passed. It
was on the 28th December, 1861, that Mr. Hickson first went to Canada
in the Cunard steamer "Canada" from Liverpool. He was accompanied by
Mr. Watkin, our only son, a youth of 15, anxious to see the bigger
England. Mr. Watkin afterwards entered the service (Grand Trunk), in
the locomotive department, at Montreal, and deservedly gained the
respect of his superior officer, who had to delegate to Mr. Watkin,
then under 18, the charge of a thousand men. There were, also, Howson,
Wright, Wainwright, and Barker; subsequently, Wallis. Mr. John Taylor,
who acted as my private secretary in my previous visit, I had left
behind, much to his distress at the time, much for his good afterwards.
Mr. Barker is now the able manager of the Buenos Ayres Great Southern
Railway, a most prosperous undertaking; and poor dear, big, valiant,
hard-working Wallis is, alas! no more: struck down two years ago by
fever. These old friends, still left in Canada, are leading honorable,
useful, and successful lives, respected by the community. To see them
again made it seem as if the world had stood still for a quarter of a
century. Then, again, there was my old friend and once colleague, the
Honble. James Ferrier, a young-minded and vigorous man of 86: who, on
my return to Montreal, walked down to the grand new offices of the
Grand Trunk, near Point St. Charles--offices very much unlike the old
wooden things I left behind, and which were burnt down--to see me and
walked back again. Next day I had the advantage of visiting the
extensive workshops and vast stock yards of the Canadian Pacific, at
Hochelaga, to the eastward of Montreal, and of renewing my acquaintance
with the able solicitor of the Company, Mr. Abbot, and with the
secretary, an old Manchester man, Mr. Drinkwater. Then on the following
day Mr. Peterson, the engineer of this section of the Canadian Pacific
Company, drove me out to Lachine, and took me by his boat, manned by
the chief and a crew of Indians, to see the finished piers and also the
coffer-dams and works of the new bridge over the St. Lawrence, by means
of which his Company are to reach the Eastern Railways of the United
States, without having to use the great Victoria Bridge at Montreal.
This bridge, of 1,000 yards, or 3,000 feet, in length, is a remarkable
structure. It was commenced in May and intended to be finished in
November. But the foundations of the central pier, in deep and doubtful
water, were not begun, though about to begin, and this, as it appeared
to me, might delay the work somewhat. The work is a fine specimen of
engineering, by which I mean the adoption of the simplest and cheapest
mode of doing what is wanted. All the traffic purposes required are
here secured in a few months, and for about 200,000_l_. only.
The "Victoria" bridge at Montreal is a very different structure. A long
sheet-iron box, 9,184 feet in length, with 26 piers 60 feet above the
water level, and costing from first to last 2,000,000_l_.
sterling. The burning of coal had begun to affect it; but Mr.
Haunaford, the chief engineer of the Grand Trunk, has made some
openings in the roof, which do not in any way reduce the strength of
the bridge, and at the same time get rid of, at once into the air, the
sulphurous vapours arising from coal combustion.
Mr. Peterson told me that their soundings in winter showed that ice
thickened and accumulated at the bottom of the river. This would seem,
at first sight, impossible. But experiment, Mr. Peterson said, had
proved the fact, which was accounted for by scientific people in
various and, in some cases, conflicting ways. May it not be that the
accumulation is ice from above, loaded with earth or stones, which,
sinking to the bottom by gravity, coagulates from the low temperature
it produces itself? Mr. Peterson is not merely an engineer, and an
excellent one, but an observant man of business. His views upon the
all-important question of colonising the unoccupied lands of the
Dominion seemed to be wise and far-sighted. He would add to the
homestead grants of land, an advance to the settler--a start, in fact
--of stock and material, to be repaid when final title to the property,
were given.
Taking leave of my old friends, I left Montreal at 8 p.m. on the night
of September 15th, in the ordinary "Pacific Express," on which was
attached Mr. Van Horn's car, in charge of James French. I went by
ordinary train because I was anxious to have an experience of the
actual train-working. Mr. Edward Wragge, C.E., of Toronto, an able
engineer of great experience, located now at Toronto, has sent me so
concise an account of the journey of this train, and of the general
engineering features of the line, that, anticipating his kind
permission, I venture to copy it:--
"Leaving Montreal in Mr. Van Horn's car, the 'Saskatchewan,' by the 8
p.m. train on the 15th September, we passed Ottawa at 11.35 p.m.
"During the night we ran over that portion of the Canadian Pacific
Railway which was formerly called the Canada Central Railway, and
reached Callander (344 miles from Montreal), the official eastern
terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at 8.30 a.m. 13 miles from
this, at Thorncliff is the junction with the Northern and Pacific
Junction Railway, which forms the connection with Toronto and Western
Ontario, being distant from Toronto 227 miles. At North Bay, which is a
divisional terminus, the line touches Lake Nipissing, where there is a
flourishing settlement, the land being of a fair quality. The line is
laid with steel rails, about 56 lbs. to the lineal yard, and with ties
about 2,640 to the mile. For the first 60 or 70 miles from Callander
the line is ballasted entirely by sand, and, with the exception of a
few settlements, is entirely without fencing. Most of the bridges are
of timber; but there are one or two of the larger ones of iron or
steel, with masonry abutments.
"At Sudbury is the junction with the Algama Branch, not yet opened for
traffic. This is 443 miles from Montreal. After leaving Sudbury the
character of the country changes, and is alternately swampy and wild
rocky land. Numerous large trestles are necessary, which will
eventually be filled in with culverts and earthwork. The schedule
running time of the trains along this portion of the line is 24 miles
per hour, including stoppages.
"At 8 p.m. Chapleau, another divisional terminus, was reached, and the
schedule running time during the night from that point to Heron Bay,
reached at 5.15 a.m. the following morning, is 20 miles an hour. At
Heron Bay (802 miles from Montreal) the north shore of Lake Superior is
first touched, and the line runs along it to Port Arthur, a distance of
993 miles from Montreal. The scenery here is very wild and picturesque.
At one time the line runs along the face of the rock, with the lake
from 50 to 100 feet below, the road-bed being benched out on the cliff,
and at another time is away back among barren hills and rocks, crossing
several large streams (with either bridges of iron and masonry or
timber trestle work), which streams flow into the lake at the north end
of deep indentations or arms of the lake. The line through this
district is winding, having many sharp curves and steep grades. There
are several short tunnels, all of them through rock, and not lined. The
schedule time for trains on this portion of the line is 16 miles per
hour. We were detained some little time near Jack Fish, owing to a
slight land slide coming down in one of the cuttings.
"The Nepigon River is crossed at a high level with a steel trussed
bridge, masonry piers and abutments, and there is an old Hudson's Bay
settlement on the river a short distance above the bridge. Between
Nepigon and Port Arthur the line runs through a country much more
accessible for railways, and the schedule time here is at the rate of
24 miles an hour. We reached Port Arthur at 4 p.m. on the 17th. This is
a flourishing town, situated at the head of Thunder Bay, a large bay on
the north shore of Lake Superior, and has a population of four or five
thousand at the present time. From the north shore of Lake Nipissing to
this point, however, a distance of over 600 miles, the country may be
said to be almost without inhabitants, except those connected with the
working of the railway, squatters, and Hudson's Bay trappers and
traders. The weather was chilly during the evening of this day, and a
heavy sleet storm arose before arriving at Port Arthur. At night a fire
had to be lighted in the car, as there was a sharp frost. During the
night the train was detained for some little time east of Rat Portage,
in consequence of a trestle having given way while being pulled in, and
the train arrived at Rat Portage at 7.30 a.m., four hours, behind time.
"From Port Arthur the line westward is run upon the 24 o'clock system,
commencing from midnight; 1 p.m. being 13 o'clock, 2 p.m. being 14
o'clock, and so on. The train arrived at Winnipeg at 12.45 on the 18th
(1,423 miles from Montreal), and time was allowed to drive round the
town, the train leaving again for the west at 13.30 o'clock. From
Winnipeg westward the line runs through a prairie country, which
extends without intermission to Calgary, a distance of 838 miles, and
2,261 from Montreal. At Winnipeg the Company have good machine shops,
round houses, &c., and a large yard, and has acquired 132 acres of land
for these purposes of working and repair and renewal.
"The country for three or four hundred miles from Winnipeg west is more
or less settled; in some parts farms are quite numerous, and the land
good and well cultivated. At Portage la Prairie the Manitoba and North-
Western Line leaves the Canadian Pacific. It is being rapidly pushed
forward, and 120 miles of it have already been completed through the
'Fertile belt.' It should have been mentioned that the line between
Port Arthur and Winnipeg, a length of 430 miles, was constructed by the
Government of Canada and given to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company
free as a portion of their system. This part of the line is laid with
57 lbs. steel rails, and is well ballasted. The line is also ballasted
east of Port Arthur, though in some places the ballast is of poor
quality, and in others there is not sufficient of it. West of Winnipeg,
however, there is no ballast across the prairie, except where the
excavations through which the line goes afford ballast, it being simply
surfaced up from side ditches with whatever the material may happen to
be; but it is in good condition for a line of such a character, and the
schedule time is 24 miles an hour, including stoppages.
"The train ran through Qu'Appelle, Regina, and Moose Jaw during the
night of the 18th, and reached Dunmore (650 miles from Winnipeg) at
15.30 o'clock on the 19th. At this point there is a branch, 3-feet
gauge line, 110 miles in length, to the Lethbridge mines, belonging to
Sir Alexander Galt & Company. His son, Mr. Galt, met us at Dunmore, and
invited us to go and inspect the mines, but as it would have made a
delay of at least one day, the idea had regretfully to be abandoned.
The train reached Bassano (750 miles from Winnipeg) at 19 o'clock, our
time, having made up 3 hours and 20 minutes since leaving Winnipeg,
which was the time late leaving there. The train was then exactly 97
hours since leaving Montreal, having travelled 2,180 miles, an average
speed, including all stoppages and delays, of 22-1/2 miles an hour.
"During the night of the 19th and the early morning of the 20th, the
train ran through Calgary, at the foothills of the Atlantic slope of
the Rocky Mountains; and at 5.30 on the 20th arrived at the summit of
the Rocky Mountains. As it was just daylight we were enabled to see the
scenery at that point and Kicking Horse Pass. From the summit of the
Rocky Mountains, for some nine miles, the line is considered to be
merely a temporary one, though permanently and strongly constructed,
there being a grade for two or three miles of it of 4-1/2 feet per
hundred, say 1 in 22-1/2. There are several catch sidings on this
grade, running upwards on the slopes of the mountains, for trains or
cars to be turned into, in the event of a break loose or run away, and
a man is always in attendance at the switches leading to these sidings.
All this day the train ran through mountains, the Rocky Mountains, the
Selkirk Range, and Eagle Pass. With the exception of the steep grade
mentioned, the ruling ones are 116 feet to the mile, and there are
numerous sharp curves, usually to save short tunnels. The line,
however, is in some parts well ballasted, and work is still going on in
this direction. The rails are of steel, 70 lbs. to the yard, and the
locomotives, of the "Consolidation" pattern, with eight driving wheels,
are able, Mr. Marpole, the able divisional superintendent, stated, to
take a train of 12 loaded cars over the ruling grades, two of them
being required for the same load on the steep grade already mentioned
at Kicking Horse Pass. Mr. Marpole stopped the train at the Stony Creek
Bridge, a large timber structure 296 feet high, and said to be the
highest wooden bridge in America. The scenery through the Selkirks is
magnificent, the mountain peaks being six and seven thousand feet above
the level of the railway, many of them even at this season of the year
covered with snow, and there being several large glaciers.
"During last year, before the line was opened for traffic, observations
were taken with the view of ascertaining what trouble might be
anticipated from avalanches, the avalanch paths through the Selkirks
being very numerous. Several large avalanches occurred, the largest
covering the track for a length of 1,300 feet, with a depth in one
place of 50 feet of snow, and containing, as was estimated, a quarter
of a million cubic yards of snow and earth. The result of these
observations caused the Company to construct during this season four-
and-a-half miles of snow sheds, at a cost of $900,000, or $200,000 a
mile.
"The sheds are constructed as follows:--On the high side of the
mountain slope a timber crib filled with stones is constructed. Along
the entire length of the shed, and on the opposite side of the track, a
timber trestle is erected, strong timber beams are laid from the top of
the cribwork to the top of the trestle, 4 feet apart and at an angle
representing the slope of the mountain, as nearly as possible. These
are covered over with 4-inch planking, and the beams are strutted on
either side from the trestle and from the crib. The covering is placed
at such a height as to give 21 feet headway from the under side of the
beam to the centre of the track. The longest of these sheds is 3,700
feet, and is near the Glacier Hotel.
"Over the Selkirk Range the schedule time for trains from Donald to
Revelstoke, that is, from the first to the second crossing of the
Columbia River, a distance of 79 miles, is only eleven miles an hour;
but this time table was made before there was much ballast on this
portion of the line, and better time can now be made. On the 21st
September the Fraser River was crossed early in the morning over a
steel cantilever bridge, and the line runs down the gorge of the Fraser
River to Port Moody, reached at noon. The train had thus been
travelling from 8 p.m. on the 15th September to 12 noon on the 21st,
apparently a total of 136 hours; but, allowing for the gain of three
hours in time, an actual total of 139 hours. During this time the train
travelled 2,892 miles, or an average speed made throughout the journey,
including all stoppages, of 20-1/2 miles per hour, and this is the
regular schedule time for passenger trains at the present time.
"Port Moody is the present terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway,
but the line has been partially graded for 12 miles further to
Vancouver. Owing, however, to the hostile attitude of some landowners,
the Company have not been able to complete this work, as the contention
has been made that, although the Company have power to build branches,
an extension of the main line is not a branch, and the Company will
have to obtain legislation before this can be done. Vancouver at the
present time is said to have a population of about 3,000. It is
situated at Burrard Inlet, a mile or so inside what are called the
First Narrows, but the neck of land on which it is situate is only
about a mile across; and in the future, when the town grows, English
Bay, which is outside the Narrows, can easily be made the harbour in
preference to the present one, as it is fairly well sheltered, and
affords good anchorage.
"The trip down Burrard Inlet, the Straits of Georgia, and through the
San Juan Archipelago to Victoria, a distance of about 90 miles from
Port Moody, occupied 9-1/2 hours, and Victoria was reached at 10.30 on
the night of the 21st September."
To this memorandum I may add a few words. First, in praise of the
excellent rolling stock; secondly, of the good discipline and smartness
of the service; and, thirdly, of the wonderful energy, boldness, and
success of the whole engineering features of this grand work of modern
times. I should be ungrateful if I did not thank the chief officers of
the Canadian Pacific, whose acquaintance I had great pleasure in
making, for their exceeding kindness, for the full information they
afforded to me, and for showing me many cheap, short, and ready plans
of construction, which might well be adopted in Europe. These gentlemen
have looked at difficulties merely in respect to the most summary way
of surmounting them; and, certainly, the great and bold works around
the head of Lake Superior, the many river and ravine crossings of
unusual span and height, and, especially, the works of the 600 miles of
mountain country between Calgary and the last summit of British
Columbia, so successfully traversed, would make the reputation of a
dozen Great George Streets.