BEFORE THE CANADIAN PACIFIC  RAILWAY  ̶  AND NOW

   Leaving Montreal by the Canadian Pacific train no. 1 going west, the luxurious mode of travel of the present day unfolds itself.(1) We leave at 10 a.m. on Saturday and at 6 p.m. Sunday I am at Nipigon, distance 926 miles. Compare this with the early eighties, when to reach that point from the same place of departure, would have required seven and probably ten days.

   While I have travelled by other lines of railways in Canada and the United States, this is my first journey on a through Canadian Pacific train. Well, I must not go into comparisons it would not be nice holding one line up to the detriment of the other. But this I can say, there were surprises for me in the beautiful, comfortable and luxurious cars, the Conductors and Brakemen were always willing to explain things and places. The dining car, its appointments, the willing and obliging waiters, are things and persons one would dearly like to meet more frequently in one’s passage through life.

   All that never to be forgotten Saturday was one succession of panaromatic views, beauty spots of nature was unfolded in almost every curve of the line; delightful little villages nestled among surrounding hills just out with green folage. Every once in a while we pulled up at some thriving and prosperous little town, the platforms of which stations were thronged by a healthy and well dressed set of young people, all going to show the prosperity of the land over which we were passing.

   At 10 o’clock we pull into North Bay, a place of rapid growth and now of much importance, seeing the Grand Trunk connects with the C.P.R. here from Toronto. The new government road going north from Temiscamingue and now pushing still further north to tap the G.P. Pacific.(2) All these roads centering and departing from North Bay make the place a busy one.

   But as at this point most of the passengers retire to their births, and as night had even in this north country settled down I will describe the North Shore of Lake Superior in another article, for really the sublime grandure of that portion of road requires a page by itself.

   Under the ever watchful care of the train crew we retire to our beds and are soon by the gentle swaying of the car rocked off into a refreshing sleep.

   Along about 1 a.m. the long stoppage of the train causes me to wake, I look out of the berth window and see “Sudbury” over the station. Sudbury, yes the name seems familiar and I remember in a sleepy way that it is from this point that a branch of the great railway runs south to Sault Ste Marie and into the United States by the International bridge that connects the two Soos. That is the extent of my waking thoughts for the train is in motion again and once more I am shy on figures.

   I had told the porter to awaken me at Chapleau for I wished to be up and observant from the very entrance to Lake Superior wilds. From the East Chapleau may be considered the very doorway to that ground and wild desolation of the next three hundred miles.(3)

END NOTES

1  The original spelling, punctuation, and diction of T.A. Reynolds’ manuscript have been preserved.

2  “The new government road going north from Temiscamingue”, in 1908, was called Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, and later, Ontario Northland Railway. The reference to G.P. Pacific should be GTPR, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which in 1908 was also called National Transcontinental Railway, for in those days those names were often used interchangeably. Today it is Canadian National Railways, but the line between Nakina and Constance Lake First Nations Reserve (just east of Hearst) has been decommissioned.

3  The “wild desolation” is the North Shore of Lake Superior. There were no roads between Chapleau and Nipigon. Even the Algoma Central Railway, running north from Sault Ste. Marie, aiming to connect with the CPR line, stopped short. In the next chapter of this series, Reynolds will describe passing through White River, Peninsula, Schreiber, Rossport, and (“the next place with a name”) Pays Plat.

(Narrative continued in No. 5 – North Shore)