Oh, some interesting surprises always pop up during the course of research.
Some unknown collector acquired railway photos and glued the prints to 5x8-inch cards. Given the limited data available before the internet, the captions are sparse. I have included the original captions in quotation marks under the images.
To accurately obtain the equipment's building and scrapping dates, I consult Canadian Pacific Steam Locomotives; Omer Lavallee; 1985; Railfare.
... It is necessary to go through all the concatenations of road numbers generated through the Canadian Pacific's three major numbering schemes for steam. Sometimes, the engines were even renumbered within one of those systems.
And I always forget that the builder's serial number is the single best data point to use, to ensure that you haven't slid into the line of data for a completely different locomotive.
I can 'show my work', but I will not burden you with the intermediate road numbers used and their effective dates.
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First, we'll start with a couple of fast-in-both-directions tank engines. You should feel free to call them Forneys if you wish.
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| "Montreal, 1896." |
Built CPR New Shops, April 1893. Scrapped as 5990, September 1924.
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| "Shawbridge, Quebec, September 1921." |
Built CPR Angus, February 1912. Scrapped February 1935.
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| "Field, British Columbia, 1886." |
Built CPR New Shops, July 1886. Scrapped as 159, December 1929.
The display of the American flags is interesting.
Notice that wood was still in use as a fuel.
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| "Golden, British Columbia, 1936" |
Built at CPR New Shops, June 1886.
Above, you will recognize the number of the engine which pulled the first scheduled train into Vancouver on 23 May 1887. It was the 371 which led the first scheduled train coming from Montreal on its final leg into Port Moody on 4 July 1886.
... As oil headlights were no longer being used in 1936, and the Randolph Scott movie Canadian Pacific was made in 1949 ... I did an image search in the hope that the 'event' in Golden would become apparent.
Another CPR Movie
A movie was made in 1937 with the help of the CPR and the people of Revelstoke ... and at other locations. You can also witness a model train which sinks to the engine's running boards in 'muskeg'!
Like Canadian Pacific, the most someone could say is that the movie is 'based on actual events'. Silent Barriers is slightly closer to history, and being a British production, it is 'less Hollywood' in its approach. More CPR corporate history and lore was allowed to filter through into the final product. No doubt the 1949 movie producers referred to the 1937 film during their planning.
'The Great Barrier' was the movie's original title ... pertaining to Major Rogers's last-minute [literally, the last 3 minutes] movie discovery of the pass through the Selkirks for $50,000!
... Perhaps pluralizing to Silent Barriers was intended to evoke both the mountain range PLUS some kind of melodramatic conflict ... labour versus management ... the national dream versus the obstacles to Canadian nation-building ... Van Horne versus Hill ... engineer versus conductor ... take your pick.
Artistic Licence
The most fascinating triumph of story-telling over the vastness of Canada comes when Rogers Pass is discovered. At the exact moment when the pass is found, the railway will be saved: A telegram will be sent to Montreal and the pay car can finally be sent out to pay the striking, rioting, arsonist, murderous workers at End of Track - at the aptly-named 'Moodyville'.
How is this miraculous discovery communicated?
Simple: Rogers lights a fire at the pass, creating a pall of black smoke, it rises over the mountains and is seen at End of Track.
The Making of ...
Through the miracle of the internet, I found an excellent presentation by the curator of the Revelstoke Museum and Archives which shows some of the treasury of photos taken at Revelstoke during the making of the movie.
As someone who is interested in the preservation and interpretation of history (in this case, Revelstoke in the 1930s), I highly recommend the excellent presentation linked below. And there are many others to see via their YouTube account. If you choose to watch the movie, you'll see much more if you watch the museum presentation first.
Silent Barriers, original title The Great Barrier (1937)
Cathy English, Curator
Cathy English mentions that 'they brought up another engine from Vancouver' (this was the 374). The image below is taken from a screen shot of her presentation. If you count the rivets, you'll see that the 522 is not the 374 renumbered. (To represent a whole railway roster, the CPR 136 was renumbered several times during The National Dream.)
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| from: Revelstoke Museum and Archives presentation. |
Built by Manchester, New Hampshire, 1888.
(CPR 522 - acquired from the New Brunswick Railway)
Scrapped (officially as 143, Lavallee), October 1936 - after the movie's summer location work was finished.
Both engines are shown moving under steam power in the first few minutes of the film.
The last minute of the 1937 film features a contemporary motive power scene.
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| from: Revelstoke Museum and Archives presentation. |
Worth their weight in publicity for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Another photo from the Revelstoke presentation.
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| from: Google Maps |
The Revelstoke Museum and Archives in the former post office building.
* * *
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| "Vancouver, British Columbia, 1946." |
Above, CPR 374 is probably decorated for the formal event of its presentation to the City.
Below, as 374 originally appeared on display in the park at Kitsilano Beach.
You'll perhaps be interested in the locations of the air pump.
Originally, the pump for the 'new braking technology' was located on the engineer's side.
Later in history, it will find its permanent home on the fireman's side.
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| No Caption. |
* * *
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| "Moosomin, 1886, First scheduled run to Vancouver." |
With the track curving behind the train, you can see a wind-driven pump for the water tower.
The large crowd on the station platform suggests a special event.
Lightening the photo reveals a man wearing a tie right beside the cab.
In a dress uniform, we see a member of a military unit or a member of the North-West Mounted Police.
* * *
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| "McAdam, before 1904." |
An image identical to the one above appears on the internet - it is printed as dark as my image was originally. However, my photo has an odd rectangular printing artifact at the third storey of the tower.
The camera seems to be perched on a shop building.
In the foreground, left to right, are spare wheels and a jacked up tender water tank. Another tender is having its wooden parts renewed. To its right is another tender for the 631 - loaded with wood and which might just have a link and pin coupler. A triangular locomotive pilot is tipped up in front of the fountain.
In front of the unique caboose (I can't read the print) at the right margin is a car labelled 'CPR' and possibly 'post car'. This guess would be supported by its relatively small door and small windows intended to admit light for work and never people.
The building in the centre has 'railway character' and it may have belonged to a railway subsequently acquired by the CPR - perhaps the New Brunswick and Canada. Its tall guyed 'mast' is quite an interesting feature.
Initially, the Maine Central approached from the west ... and became the St John and Maine at the Canadian border and as it left McAdam on its way east to Saint John.
The New Brunswick and Canada Railway passed through McAdam on its north-south alignment.
I think the CPR had effective corporate control of these lines by 1890.
My guess is that the main east-west (or vice versa) line is seen at the left margin (i.e. part of the CPR 'Short Line' across Maine). However, I don't want to guess on the compass alignment of anything in the photo.
That is probably a four-storey heated water tower. Behind the coach and caboose to the tower's right is probably an interlocking tower and a station with perhaps a divisional headquarters. Or perhaps part of the complex is a hotel. The well-known McAdam station which survives today incorporated a hotel into its design.
Main line passengers travelling to and from the CPR resort at St Andrews, New Brunswick might have justified a high-quality railway hotel being located at this junction.
* * *
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| from: Railway and Canal Maps of Canada; 1904; Government of Canada. archive.org |
The map above shows the general arrangement of railways here circa 1900.
To add to the fun, I have included McAdam-related pages from an employee timetable from the same era.
source: archive.org
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