History of the Canadian Northern Railway Company based on the Company's own records.

Few stories in the annals of railroading are as compelling as the construction, evolution, and astounding successes of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways. This sprawling volume combines two of Voyageur Press' most successful Railroad Color History titles into one volume taking in the grand scope of both railroads. Author Tom Murray presents fastidiously researched and concisely presented histories of each railroad, along with more than 300 photographs, including rare archival black-and-white images and modern and period color photography sourced from national archives and private collections.

Author Tom Murray provides an unprecedented look at a national icon, from its genesis amid the turmoil surrounding World War I to its acquisition of the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway and its lease of BC Rail, both in 2003. In addition to exploring Canadian National operations and equipment through depression, war, modernization, and acquisitions, Murray explains how the railway affected and was influenced by the vast and varied regions it served. Marvelous photography from top shooters and Canadian archives, along with period timetables and print ads, illustrate CN's extraordinary geographic reach, diverse operations, and social and economic roles, both as a government entity for 70-plus years and more recently as a privatized industry exemplar.

A large federal cash subsidy aided CPR construction of the Crows Nest Pass Railway from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Nelson, British Columbia. The line, completed in late 1898, was designed to en-courage mining and smelting in the Kootenays and to link this region with Central Canada. From 1989 to 1914 the Great Northern Railroad in the United States also built lines into southern British Columbia to tap this valuable mining traffic. The CPR completed a line to Vancouver in 1915, by which time it dominated the regional traffic. However, it still faced competition for this traffic from the Great Northern which had allied itself with the Canadian Northern Railway. John Eagle examines the lengthy and bitter conflict which resulted between the two railways. Eagle provides the first scholarly analysis of the Crows Nest Pass Agreement of 1897. Under this historic agreement, the CPR stimulated prairie agriculture by lowering its freight rates on grain, matching both the lower rates of the Canadian Northern on grain and the rates on wheat established under the Manitoba Agreement of 1901. The development of southern British Columbia also opened a new market for prairie grain and cattle. The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada challenges the prevailing view that CPR land policies were designed primarily to promote settlement in order to generate traffic for the railway. Eagle argues that the railway adopted policies which maximized profits from its agricultural lands so that proceeds from prairie land sales became an important source of revenue for the company.

During the first two decades of this century, Sir William Mackenzie was one of Canada's best known entrepreneurs. He Spearheading some of the largest and most technologically advanced projects undertaken in Canada, he built a business empire that stretched from Montreal to British Columbia and to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil. It included gas, electric, telephone and transit utilities, railroads, hotels, and steamships as well as substantial coal mining, whaling, and timber interests. But when he died in 1923, his estate was virtually bankrupt as a result of the dramatic collapse of his Canadian Northern Railway during the First World War. In a business biography intended as much for general readers as for a scholarly audience, Fleming offers a revisionist perspective on Mackenzie. He dispels the simplistic approach of those historians and journalists who have depicted Mackenzie and his partner Sir Donald Mann as melodramatic crooks who could have stepped out of the pages of Huckleberry Finn.