The 1867confederation of Canada's four eastern provinces sparked an interest in railways. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick joined the confederation, expecting a railway to link them with Ontario and Quebec. Manitoba, farther west, joined in 1870. British Columbia came aboard in 1871, when the central government promised a railway to link it with the East within 10 years. Construction floundered and governments fell over the enormous railway-building task, until the CPR syndicate stepped in. At the end of the 1881 construction year, it had added only 131 miles and at once sacked top engineers. The new general manager, William Cornelius Van Horne, added 418 miles clean in his first year. In November 1885, the eastern and western lines met at Craigellachie, British Columbia, for the last spike-driving ceremony.
CPR settled and bought and sold land from 1881. It put up the telegraph beside the railway in 1882. The company built its own locomotives in 1883 and later its own passenger cars. CPR steamships sailed the Great Lakes from 1883, and its ships sailed the Pacific from 1891. Diverse industries, from abattoirs, slaughterhouses, to waste management, followed and in 1942 CPR formed Canadian Pacific Airlines.
As of 2010, CPR's 14,000 miles of track run across Canada from Vancouver to Montreal and to Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Buffalo, New York; and New York City. In 2001 CPR's five subsidiaries, Canadian Pacific Investments, PanCanadian Energy, Fording Coal, CP Hotels and CP Ships became separate companies, as CPR again focused on its core business, railways.
From late November to the week before Christmas as of 2010, the CPR Holiday Train raises money and food for Food Banks Canada. The train travels across Canada, and the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, visiting 130 communities in eight U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, according to the CPR website.
The CP Empress made its last official run in 1960. Now the fully-restored CP 2816 Empress steam locomotive is a big part of CPR's community connect program. The Montreal Locomotive Works built the class H1b Hudson type engine in 1930 and retired her, temporarily, after 2 million miles of service. As of 2010, she is a "roving ambassador" for CPR, according to its website.
CPR calls the Royal Canadian Pacific the most luxurious train journey in the world. It combines 10 lavishly restored 1920s era business carriages and two 1950s diesel locomotives, magnificent scenery, gourmet wining and dining and what its brochure describes as a "pinnacle of a bygone tradition of elegance." In 2010 CPR slotted in two "Royal Canadian Rockies Experience" tours of five nights and six days, from Calgary and return, and one "Royal Fly-Fishing Adventure" tour for the same period.
