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| from: unknown North American railway/steamship guide; circa 1874. |
The beginning of Prince Edward Island's railway is shown on the map above. The first three images come from a very distressed copy of a publication similar to the Official Guide which was published in 1874 - the year after Prince Edward Island joined Canadian Confederation.
Like some of the other documents reproduced here, it dislikes being crushed into the scanner glass so some areas lack a perfect focus. Except for the first, all images are sized to 1200 pixels, but Google has a funny way of handling them so their width is not uniform.
The following image shows the first surviving page of this document and it contains the only surviving reference to transportation to, or on, Prince Edward Island.
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| from: unknown North American railway/steamship guide; circa 1874. |
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| from: unknown North American railway/steamship guide; circa 1874. |
While Greenwich Time became Britain's 'standard time' in 1854, a few years after its railways began to use one standard time ... it wasn't until 1883 that North American railways began to use standard one-hour time zones across the continent - hello there, Sandford Fleming! Canada's most eastern time zone at that point was known as 'Intercolonial'.
As the image above dates from 1874, the traveller's time wheel with its local solar times appears. The railway, of course, was the first invention which really gave ordinary people the need to coordinate their times over large geographical areas.
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Leaving 1874, the following pages come from a 1915 Canadian government publication which provided - to any who would need them - the altitudes calculated across Canada. As railways were the single largest source of surveyed elevations above sea level at this point, this data offers some historical insights into the early railways constructed in Canada.
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| from: Altitudes in Canada; James White; 1915; Commission of Conservation Canada. |
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| from: Altitudes in Canada; James White; 1915; Commission of Conservation Canada. |
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| from: Altitudes in Canada; James White; 1915; Commission of Conservation Canada. |
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The next set of images come from a report to the Canadian Parliament. Because part of Prince Edward Island's bargain with Canada was that the Dominion would assume responsibility for PEI's railway, its officials had a reporting responsibility to the Minister of Railways and Canals, and Parliament.
... So operating details became part of the nation's archives ... rather than private property which needed to be microfilmed and/or burned because it occupied valuable office space and was of no further use to the company.
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| from: Annual Report, Dept of Railways and Canals, Canada (to March 31, 1913); F Cochrane, Minister; 1914. |
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| from: Annual Report, Dept of Railways and Canals, Canada (to March 31, 1913); F Cochrane, Minister; 1914. |
Errors and Omissions Excepted - this is a fancy accounting version of 'CYA' - cover your accountant.
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| from: Annual Report, Dept of Railways and Canals, Canada (to March 31, 1913); F Cochrane, Minister; 1914. |
The most colourful and historically interesting report is saved for last.
Plenty of enjoyable historical interpretation could be done to thoroughly explain these old practices.
The railway provided transportation and employment.
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| from: Annual Report, Dept of Railways and Canals, Canada (to March 31, 1913); F Cochrane, Minister; 1914. |
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| from: Annual Report, Dept of Railways and Canals, Canada (to March 31, 1913); F Cochrane, Minister; 1914. |
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| from: Annual Report, Dept of Railways and Canals, Canada (to March 31, 1913); F Cochrane, Minister; 1914. |
While it is entirely possible that my knowledge of historical geography is 'off'' ...
it seems that CNR Headquarters could be accused of showing some ignorance of local conditions ...
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| from: Scenic Canada; 1925; Canadian National Railways. |
(the provincial port names are reversed)