Canada, by Train

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Travel

Railways made land travel available to the masses, much as large sailing ships and steam vessels had done for water travel. The first passenger cars were often no more than flatcars or boxcars, with benches, that ran at about 30 km/h. Passenger trains later improved, but long waits and hazards, such as becoming snowbound or derailed, were not uncommon. Despite this, train travel was the fastest, most comfortable and most reliable mode of long-distance land travel until the age of the automobile and paved roads. In the 1940s, air travel further contributed to the decline of the passenger train.

Source

Rotary snowplow clearing a snowbound railway line near Banff, Alberta, 1910

Source

Canadian National Railways, 1926. Montréal and Toronto were first connected by rail, in 1856, by the Grand Trunk Railway. The railway was later absorbed by the CNR

Source

Canadian Pacific Railway, 1926, cover and map

Source

Canadian National Railways, 1921

Source

Canadian National Railways, 1924

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