The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
, the CNoR owned a main line between
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...
and
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...
via
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...
,
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
, and
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...
.
Manitoba beginnings
The network had its start in the independent
branchline
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An indust ...
s that were being constructed in
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
in the 1880s and 1890s as a response to the
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
exercised by
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...
(CPR). Many such lines were built with the sponsorship of the provincial government, which sought to subsidize local competition to the federally subsidized CPR; however, significant competition was also provided by the encroaching
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, wh ...
(NPR) from the south.
Two branchline contractors,
Sir William Mackenzie and
Sir Donald Mann
Sir Donald Daniel Mann (March 23, 1853 – November 10, 1934), who was also referred to as "Dan" or "D.D." before his knighthood, was a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur.
Biography
Born at Acton, Canada West, Mann studied as a Metho ...
, took control of the bankrupt
Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company in January, 1896. The partners expanded their enterprise, in 1897, by building further north into Manitoba's Interlake district as well as east and west of
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
. They also began building and buying lines south to connect with the U.S. border at
Pembina, North Dakota, and east to
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
.
Connecting the Prairies to the Lakehead
The Canadian Northern Railway was established, on January 13, 1899 and all railway companies owned by Mackenzie and Mann (primarily in Manitoba) were consolidated into the new entity. CNoR's first step toward competing directly with CPR came at the start of the 20th century with the decision to build a line linking the Prairie Provinces with
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
at the harbour in
Port Arthur-
Fort William (modern
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its populati ...
, Ontario), which would permit the shipping of western grain to European markets as well as the transport of eastern Canadian goods to the West. This line incorporated an existing CNoR line to
Lake of the Woods
Lake of the Woods (french: Lac des Bois, oj, Pikwedina Sagainan) is a lake occupying parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba and the U.S. state of Minnesota. Lake of the Woods is over long and wide, containing more than 14,5 ...
and two local Ontario railways, the
Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway and the
Ontario and Rainy River Railway, whose charters Mackenzie and Mann had acquired in 1897.
To reach Port Arthur, which became the lake terminus of the CNoR, the line extended south of Lake of the Woods into northern
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...
before heading northeast through
Rainy River District to the head of navigation on the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
. The Winnipeg-Port Arthur line was completed on December 30, 1901, with the last spike being driven just east of Atikokan station by Ontario's
Commissioner of Crown Lands,
Elihu Davis
Elihu James Davis (December 2, 1851 – June 18, 1936) was an Ontario businessman and political figure. He represented York North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal member from 1888 to 1904.https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/ ...
.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie and Mann expanded their prairie branch line operations to feed the connection to Port Arthur. From a series of disconnected railways and charters, the network became 1,200 miles of profitable and continuous track that covered most of the prairies by 1902.
Northern expansion
After receiving grants from the Province of Manitoba and the Dominion of Canada in the 1890s, Mackenzie and Mann began building lines further north in Manitoba, with the intention of eventually reaching
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
. Throughout the 1890s, they reached
Swan River, and continued building north between the
Porcupine Hills to the west and
Lake Winnipegosis to the east.
In 1900, Mackenzie and Mann directed this northern line west into the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
(later
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
), where it eventually terminated at E.R. Wood (later
Erwood). This northwestern line mainly carried
lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...
and was extended to
Melfort between 1903 and 1905.
In 1907, the Canadian Parliament pressured Mackenzie and Mann to continue building more rail towards Hudson Bay. In that year, they created a junction on the Erwood to Melfort line near the mouth of the Etoimami river, where
Fort Red Deer River
Hudson Bay Regional Park is a regional park in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located on the south side of the town of Hudson Bay in the RM of Hudson Bay No. 394 along the shores of the Red Deer River. The park is the site ...
existed, and a line was extended north to
The Pas. By 1910, the settlement at this junction was renamed
Hudson Bay Junction
Hudson Bay is a town in east-central Saskatchewan, Canada, west of the Manitoba border. The town is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Hudson Bay No. 394.
History
In 1757, a Hudson Bay Company fur trading post was established in the ...
, and the line was completed between the junction and The Pas.
The long section of rail between The Pas and
Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
was never completed by CNoR. However, after CNoR was acquired by
CN, the line was completed in 1929. ''(see
Hudson Bay Railway)''
Transcontinental
Once elected in 1896, Prime Minister
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime mini ...
was eager for a second transcontinental. However, an expansion of the non-
CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spont ...
railways west of
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
would be a mammoth questionable gamble for the operators. Adding an equally costly route to supplement the existing uneconomical CP track through Ontario seemed more ludicrous. At the time, the CNoR planned to advance no further west than Edmonton. In 1902, the
GTR held talks with Laurier and agreed to build a transcontinental under the auspices of the
GTPR for the western portion, with the eastern portion built by the government-owned
NTR. The CNoR, which had a charter to build westward to the mouth of the
Skeena River was alarmed, but in no hurry, because it believed the GTPR would choose one of the more northerly passes to cross the
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...
, leaving the
Yellowhead Pass
The Yellowhead Pass is a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Canadian Rockies. It is located on the provincial boundary between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and lies within Jasper ...
for the CNoR. Despite promptings, the GTP was unwilling to collaborate with the CNoR in any joint construction.
Western Canada expansion
In 1905, CNoR reached
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...
, just as part of the old NWT had changed into the province of
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
. The rail-line crossed the North Saskatchewan River at Fort Saskatchewan, coming into Edmonton from the northeast, following the present-day LRT track.
After a pause, the CNoR began construction west from Edmonton, and by summer 1907 had gone as far as Stony Plain. A stock market crash that year ceased construction. When construction was resumed in 1910, it was found that extending the Stony Plain line meant frequent crossings over the Grand Trunk Pacific line which had been laid in the meantime. Instead CNoR decided to leave Edmonton through St. Albert. (A bump on 124th Street near Stony Plain Road is remnant of the constructed but abandoned road-bed.)
CNoR's terminus on the coast changed over time. Rather than competing with the GTPR in having a terminal at the mouth of the Skeena, the CNoR accepted BC government subsidies to switch to the
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...
area. When the GTPR selected the Yellowhead route, CNoR protests created some delay but could not overturn he decision.
In 1911, CNoR workers started on a
townsite named
Port Mann on the Fraser River. This townsite would accommodate new car shops, and from there, rail-lines would extend to Vancouver and the Fraser River delta.
CNoR's initial expansion in the 1890s and 1900s had been relatively frugal, largely by acquiring bankrupt companies or finishing failed construction projects. By the 1910s, significant expenses were accumulating. The CNoR started construction west of Edmonton in 1910, fully two years later than GTPR. The construction through the Rockies, which was expensive, largely paralleled the GTPR line of 1911, creating about 100 miles of duplication. However, the largest costs were from building on "the wrong side" of the
Thompson
Thompson may refer to:
People
* Thompson (surname)
* Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician
Places Australia
*Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality
Bulgaria
* Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province
Canada ...
and
Fraser rivers in the
Coast Mountains
The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbi ...
of British Columbia. CPR already had trackage on the desirable banks, forcing the CNoR to blast tunnels and ledges out of these canyons.
The most infamous construction folly on the CNoR in British Columbia happened in 1913, when blasting for a passage for the railway at
Hells Gate triggered an enormous
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...
which partially blocked the narrow swift-flowing Fraser River. The resulting damage to Pacific
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Onco ...
runs took decades to reverse by the governmental construction of
fishways.
Eastern Canada expansion
Mackenzie and Mann began their first significant expansion outside of the prairies with the purchase of
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
steamships, the
Quebec and Lake St-John Railway
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...
(1906) into northern
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
's
Saguenay region and the acquisition of branchlines in southwestern
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
(the
Halifax and Southwestern Railway
The Halifax and South Western Railway was a historic Canadian railway operating in the province of Nova Scotia.
The legal name of this railway was the Halifax & South Western Railway, as is defined in various Acts of the Nova Scotia Legislature ...
) and western
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The island accounts for 18. ...
(the
Inverness and Richmond Railway). Other acquisitions were in
southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...
and a connecting line was built from
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
to
Parry Sound
Parry Sound is a sound or bay of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, in Ontario, Canada. It is highly irregularly shaped with many deep bays and islands. Killbear Provincial Park is located on the large peninsula that separates the sound from Georgian ...
.
In 1908, a line, which under later CN ownership was known as the
Alderdale Subdivision
The Canadian National Railway Alderdale Subdivision was a railway line in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It originally opened in 1915 as a part of the Canadian Northern Railway's transcontinental mainline. It connected Brent in the east with C ...
, was built east from a connection at
Capreol, Ontario, on the Toronto – Parry Sound line to
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...
and on to
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
. In 1910 a direct Toronto–Montreal line was built. In 1911, federal funding enabled construction of the line Montreal – Ottawa – Capreol – Port Arthur. In 1912, with GTR and CPR holding the ideal southern routes around
Mount Royal
Mount Royal (french: link=no, Mont Royal, ) is a large intrusive rock hill or small mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The best-known hypothesis for the origin of the name Montreal is the ...
to downtown Montreal, CNoR started building a double-tracked mainline north by excavating the
Mount Royal Tunnel.
Steamships
In 1910 the company entered the trans-Atlantic liner business with the founding of the Canadian Northern Steamship Company. The subsidiary acquired two liners from the
Egyptian Mail Steamship Company and operated them under its Royal Line brand. The pair of ships were renamed upon purchase—''Cairo'' became and ''Heliopolis'' became ''Royal George''—and refitted for travel on the North Atlantic. In Royal Line service, ''Royal Edward'' sailed from
Avonmouth to
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
in the summer months and to
Halifax in the winter months. At the outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, ''Royal Edward'' and ''Royal George'' were both requisitioned for use as troopships.
On August 13, 1915, the German submarine ''
UB-14'' sank ''Royal Edward'', which was transporting troops from
Avonmouth to
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...
.
''Royal George'' was sold to
Cunard
Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Ber ...
in 1916, became an emigrant ship in
Cherbourg
Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Febr ...
by 1920 and scrapped in 1922 in
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...
.
Plans for a trans-Pacific service were mothballed.
Resort development
In 1914, to develop a resort on
Grand Beach, CNoR bought a homestead north of Winnipeg on the shores of Lake Winnipeg,
Financial trouble and nationalization
By 1914, with the company's financial predicament threatening the solvency of its major financier, the
Bank of Commerce, the CNoR appealed for government help. The last spike of the CNoR transcontinental railway was driven January 23, 1915, at
Basque, British Columbia
Basque, British Columbia, is located in the province of British Columbia, Canada, near the village of Ashcroft. It is the post office and whistlestop-crossing on the historic Basque Ranch, one of the earliest ranches in the Interior of British ...
, with Montreal-Vancouver freight and passenger services commencing six months later, and providing a rail network in Nova Scotia, Southern Ontario, Minnesota, and on
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...
. Between 1915 and 1918, CNoR tried desperately to increase profits, but CPR garnered the majority of wartime traffic. The company was also saddled with ongoing construction costs associated with the
Mount Royal Tunnel project.
CNoR was heavily indebted to banks and governments, and its profitable branchlines in the prairie provinces — "Canada's breadbasket" — would not generate enough revenue to cover construction costs in other areas. Unable to meet its debts, the company became desperate for financial aid. In 1917, the federal government effectively took control of the company.
As a condition for further funding, the government became the majority shareholder. On September 6, 1918, the directors, Mackenzie and Mann, resigned, replaced by a government-appointed board. Subsequently, CNoR executive
David Blyth Hanna
David Blyth Hanna (December 20, 1858, Thornliebank, Scotland – December 1, 1938, Toronto) was a railway executive with the Canadian Northern Railway and the Canadian National Railways. Born in Thornliebank, Scotland, he emigrated to Cana ...
and his team managed not only CNoR operations but also the federally owned
Canadian Government Railways (CGR). On December 20, 1918, a
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...
directed CNoR and CGR to be managed under the name
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
(CNR) as a means to simplify funding and operations, but CNoR and CGR would not formally merge and cease corporate existence until January 20, 1923, the date Parliament passed the final act to incorporate CNR.
Significant portions of the old CNoR system survive under
CN (as the CNR has been known since 1960); for example:
* the
Mount Royal Tunnel and
suburban line to
Deux-Montagnes, Quebec
* the line from
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
(
Pointe-aux-Trembles) northeast to
Saguenay, Quebec
Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the S ...
* the CN main line north and west from
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
to
Longlac, Ontario, about 900 km east of
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
* the CN main line from the
Yellowhead Pass
The Yellowhead Pass is a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Canadian Rockies. It is located on the provincial boundary between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and lies within Jasper ...
southwest to
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...
.
The majority of CN's former CNoR branchline network across Canada has either been abandoned or sold to
shortline operators. An important U.S. subsidiary of CNoR, the
Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway, forms part of a key CN connection between
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
and
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
.
See also
*
Bay of Quinte Railway (acquired 1910)
*
Canadian Northern Pacific Railway (subsidiary, incorporated 1910)
*
Central Ontario Railway (acquired 1911 as part of
Irondale, Bancroft & Ottawa Railway)
*
Halifax and Southwestern Railway
The Halifax and South Western Railway was a historic Canadian railway operating in the province of Nova Scotia.
The legal name of this railway was the Halifax & South Western Railway, as is defined in various Acts of the Nova Scotia Legislature ...
(acquired post-1906)
*
Inverness and Richmond Railway (acquired late 1890s)
*
Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario
The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, a rail museum in a former CNoR station, stands on the abandoned right-of-way of a Canadian Northern Railway line which once led southwest toward Napanee. Established 1985 as the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, ...
(former CNoR
Smiths Falls station)
*
(acquired July 1906)
*
History of rail transport in Canada
*
List of defunct Canadian railways
Most transportation historians date the history of Canada's railways as beginning on February 25, 1832, with the incorporation of British North America's first steam-powered railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad. This line opened for tr ...
Footnotes
References
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Northern Railway
Canadian National Railway subsidiaries
1899 establishments in Manitoba
Defunct British Columbia railways
Defunct Alberta railways
Defunct Saskatchewan railways
Defunct Manitoba railways
Defunct Ontario railways
Defunct Quebec railways
Defunct Nova Scotia railways
Predecessors of the Canadian National Railway
">Former Class I railroads in the United States
Defunct Minnesota railroads
Railway companies established in 1899
Railway companies disestablished in 1923
1923 disestablishments in Manitoba