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On my daughter’s 13th birthday we ate breakfast in Montreal, lunch in Chicago, dinner in Miami, and fell into bed in Quito, Ecuador. It was a long day, but not impossibly so. The hardest work in such a plane journey is boredom; hanging around in line ups and sitting still for hours… We take our mobility and the movement of goods and information for granted. People and things can travel thousands of miles in mere hours, ideas and electronic files are transferred in the blink of an eye, and our imaginations stretch easily to the idea of telekinesis, “Star Trek” style.

Sweeping changes in our idea of what is possible in transportation have been very fast. 50 years ago the first commercial airlines opened for business and rocketry was just getting off the ground. 100 years ago the gasoline engine was fuelling plans for automobiles and airplanes. 200 years ago it was the steam engine coming on track that filled our minds with new visions of the possible.

"The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city to another, almost as fast as birds can fly, 15 or 20 miles an hour.... A carriage will start from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup in New York the same day.... Engines will drive boats 10 or 12 miles an hour, and there will be hundreds of steamers running on the Mississippi, as predicted years ago."

--Oliver Evans, 1800

Mr. Evans’ vision came true. Steamships were plying the Mississippi by 1807 and by late century railroads zigzagged the U.S. and connected Canada coast to coast. By the time we made our cross-continent, breakfast to bedtime hop we were travelling much faster than any bird.

A profound change in the way we think about transportation and distance began with steam power in general and trains more specifically. For a whole century, but only a century, trains defined transportation. The limits of the railroad were the limits of inclusion, socially and economically. This cybertour of railroads in Canada will give you a glimpse of various issues and topics connected to them, and leave you with some questions that beg asking.

All aboard the railroad cybertour….

Open a document called Railroad Cybertour and use it to collect answers to the questions (italicized) that follow by cutting and pasting them from the documents you look at or typing your own thoughts. Minimize the document rather than closing it so you can flip back and forth between your work and the cybertour. Be careful to read through your instructions before you click on the link so you don’t arrive at the site and wonder what happens next!!

Have you ever looked at something like a light switch or a cassette and asked yourself: “Who dreamed that up?” You know, imprinting sound on a magnetic tape, or boiling water to make steam to build pressure to force a piston to turn a wheel…? Check out the time line at this site to discover:

1. Who built the first “modern” steam engine?

2. What were the first steam powered motors used for? Do you have enough clues to figure out what industry was driving this new technology?

While you’re there read the story about the world’s first ever passenger train between Swansea and Mumbles in 1807.

3. What long term impact did the railroad have in this region?

Railroad history is full of colourful vocabulary and interesting characters. This site offers a collection of both. Under “stories”, look for “Doubling Mary Anne’s” and “Frank Blaine, Canada’s Casey Jones”.

4. What is a Mary Anne?
5. Who was Frank Blaine?

Under “articles” take a look at “Across the Continent in 67 Hours”

6. What drove the search for speed, then as now?

The Trainweb site also has a collection of advertising posters from the 1940’s. The ones on this page seem to reflect an interesting shift in thinking, from trains conquering the vast distances to railroads opening up the horizons.

7. What is the most important element in each of the 5 posters? Do you agree that they represent a shift?

You won’t find any mention of travel insurance on the current Via Rail site: www.viarail.ca but it was obviously a concern to early train passengers!

At this Web site, have a look at the first 2 ads from long ago. You are sure to agree with the ad writers who made the change!

Pictures galore!! A wealth of photographs, posters, brochures, and tickets…browse the wonderful collection. Click on "history" at the top right hand side of the page. Now click on "history of the CPR Logo". Read the information in the banner down the right hand side of the screen...

8. Make a list of the 5 men responsible for opening the CPR.

Now go back to “image gallery” and nose your way through the collections under both “photos” and “graphic art”. The copyright agreement you made going into this site means you can’t cut and paste your favourite image into your own document, but you can:

9. Describe the path you followed to find it, and write a description of the image and its importance that will make your reader want to visit this web site and seek out your chosen picture.

The next 3 sites are about the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway, the local railway in Pontiac County. This local story reflects the experience of railway building all over the province and indeed the country: stories of scandal, blackmail, determination and heroism. Just like today’s information highway you dared not get left out, but sometimes the expense of being “let in” was overwhelming. This version of the PP&J story sponsored by the CLD Pontiac (Centre Local de Development) leaves the reader with the impression that the region successfully wriggled out of paying the “Bonus” demanded by the railway company. In fact the county lost its legal battle and spent 38 years paying off the $100,000 bonus, which, once accumulated interest and legal fees were included, came to $413,442.92. Read all about it!!

The PPJ railway never reached Pembroke as was promised. Time and resources were used up connecting with Hull and building the Alexandra Bridge. By the time the CPR took over the line a connection to Pembroke was deemed redundant. Under both “ Ottawa stations” and “bridges” you’ll find references to the PP&J.

10. What was the budget for building the Hull-Beemer station in 1901?

11. When did the Alexandra bridge open to the public?

By the time it was abandoned the PP&J had become the Waltham Subdivision of Canadian Pacific. Order No. 1991-R-105 gave CP official permission to abandon the line and lift the rails.

12. Why was CP granted permission to abandon the Waltham Subdivision line?

Check out this site for a beautiful example of work by a local historical society (The Historical Society of the Gatineau). In the right hand bar click on “rail” under transportation and read the story of the Gatineau Valley Railroad Company.

13. Type the name of your local railway or historical society into a search engine to track down the facts about your Region’s own experience with railroads. Given the unedited self-published world of the internet you might want to check with your local library and/or archives as well to be sure you’ve got the real scoop.

This site from U of T offers a look at the development of transportation from the stagecoach through steamboats to the train. Check out the drawing of the “Royal mail” under “illustrations”!

14. What were the obvious limitations of stagecoach travel?

Have a look under “graphs” at the kinds of cargo carried on the Welland Canal.

15. What were the 3 principle commodities being shipped on the canal? Did they change between 1837 & 1857?

The best offering on this site is a map you can manipulate to look at different features. Play with the options on the map to look at the way transportation changed between 1837 & 1857, and the way those changes affected settlement patterns.

16. How did the move from water dependent transportation to rails affect the ecumene (settled area) along the St. Lawrence river?

Quebec Central Transportation Company offers us a look at the shift from steam powered rails to gas powered buses. Have a look at the pictures at the top of the page to situate yourself in time and then scan the newspaper article to discover:

17. Why did Quebec Central Transportation integrate buses into its passenger service?

Last stop on the cybertour: The Canadian Encyclopaedia Online. Here the possibilities are endless. Trains have coloured the Canadian landscape, our literature, art, immigration patterns, political decisions and structures, economic viability, even our national autonomy. Try a search under Transportation, Railway history, Confederation, Technology, or Industrialization… As you read, write down 3 questions that you would like to ask about railways in Canada. Turn your questions into 18, 19 & 20 in your cybertour document.

There are some big outstanding questions as the dust settles on the railway age. There seems no question that steam was the right technology at the right time, and that it gave way to new technologies when their time came. It would be interesting to explore the real cost of building the railroads, and of then abandoning them. Would railroad technology answer current concerns about fuel costs and highway safety? What costs were involved in the leap from iron rails to asphalt highways?

Gasoline engines have now defined our idea of distance and travel for close to a century. We describe distance in terms of the number of hours behind the wheel of a car. A driver’s licence is a ticket to social and economic inclusion; highway access determines economic viability away from city centres. Environmental concerns and the ever-faster consumption of a limited resource may mean that it is time for another leap. What new technologies will emerge to answer today’s challenges? What costs will be seen as reasonable investments? Will stakeholders in the current system also find ways to make allies of the newcomers? From water to rails to roads to wherever creative imagination takes us – hold onto your hats!!