Canadian Pacific Railway facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Canadian Pacific Railway

Type	Public
Traded as	TSX: CP NYSE: CP
Industry	Rail transport
Founded	February 16, 1881; 144 years ago (1881-02-16)
Headquarters	Calgary, Alberta , Canada
Area served	Canada Contiguous United States
Key people	Andrew Reardon (Chairman) Keith Creel (President and CEO)

An eastbound CPR freight train at Stoney Creek Bridge descending from Rogers Pass

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), also known as CP Rail (CP) is a railway in North America with track in both Canada and the United States. It was built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885. Although it used to go all the way to Atlantic Canada, it does not do so anymore.

When British Columbia became part of Canada in 1871, one of the promises the federal government made was to link it to the rest of Canada by rail. Most of the trains that use the CPR carry freight, and the CPR used to run passenger train services until they were taken over by Via Rail in 1978. For many years, until the airplane was invented, the railway was the only way to move people across the country. Because of this, it had a big role in the settlement and development of Western Canada.

The company that owns the CPR, Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, was once one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada. It owns about 20,000 kilometres (12,500 mi) of track from Montreal in the east to Vancouver in the west and Edmonton to the north. CP also has track in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City in the United States.

The logo of the CPR company is a beaver, the national symbol of Canada, and it has its headquarters in Calgary, Alberta and its U.S. operations are in Minneapolis. It trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP.

• The Premier's Funeral (11 June 1891). The Woodstock Evening Sentinel Review, p. 1.

• , illustrated account of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Images for kids

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  An alternative CP logo, featuring a beaver, Canada's national animal

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  John A. Macdonald

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  C.P.R. 2-6-0 locomotive no. 2000 and employees

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  Canadian Pacific Railway Crew laying tracks at lower Fraser Valley, 1883

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  Unidentified engineers of the Canadian Pacific Railway Survey, 1872

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  Map from 1890 showing system of land survey and the lines of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Manitoba, Alberta, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan. First Nations reserves are marked throughout with "I.R." for "Indian Reserve."

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  William Cornelius Van Horne

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  CPR trestle bridge

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  Donald Smith, later known as Lord Strathcona, drives the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at Craigellachie, 7 November 1885. Completion of the transcontinental railway was a condition of BC's entry into Confederation.

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  Telegram to Prime Minister John A. Macdonald announcing the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 7 November 1885

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  The system in 1906, soon after the construction of the transcontinental railway

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  First Transcontinental Train arrives in Port Arthur on 30 June 1886

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  One of the CPR's land offerings, 1883

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  CPR advertisement highlighting "Free Farms for the Million" in western Canada, circa 1893

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  Lethbridge Viaduct

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  C.P.R. railway locomotive 2860

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  Strikers from unemployment relief camps climbing on boxcars as part of the On-to-Ottawa Trek, 1935

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  CPR train step stool (Calgary station) c. 1950

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  Canadian Pacific A1e class 4-4-0 No. 29 on static display in front of the railway's headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, 2012

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  CP EMD SD90MAC locomotive in Thunder Bay, Ontario

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  GE ES44AC CP 8863 in Campbellville, Ontario

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  Soo Line 6022, an EMD SD60, pulls a train through Wisconsin Dells, WI, 20 June 2004.

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  An Angus Shops building converted into an SAQ liquor store

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  West Coast Express at Waterfront station in Vancouver

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  Funeral train of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald

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  King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Hope, British Columbia

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  Holiday Train in Montreal, November 2009

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  A crowd watches entertainers perform out of the CP Holiday Train

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  Canadian Pacific 2816 Empress at Sturtevant, Wisconsin, 1 September 2007

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  Advertisement for Canadian Pacific steamships to the Far East, 1936

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  Countess of Dufferin

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  CPR 2816 Locomotive

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  CPR 2317, a G-3-c 4-6-2 Pacific-type locomotive built at the CPR's Angus Shops in 1923

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  A CP passenger train heads east towards Calgary circa 1973

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  A westbound CP freight train pulls away from a passing siding after track clearance in Bolton, Ontario. It is headed by four GE AC4400CW locomotives (8627, 9615, 8629, and 8609).

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  CP 7028, an EMD SD70ACU, in Nashotah, Wisconsin

See also

In Spanish: Canadian Pacific Railway para niños