Peeps at Many Lands: Canada 6

Peeps at Many Lands: Canada 6

CHAPTER VII

 

THE SHIP OF THE PRAIRIE

 

"All aboard!" Such is the commanding cry which rings out in a Canadian

railway-station when a train is quite ready to start. "All aboard!"

shouts the conductor as he walks briskly alongside the train. In climb

the waiting passengers, and without further warning the big, ponderous

engine begins to move; and as it moves, the big bell which it carries

begins to toll, and keeps on tolling until the train is well clear of

the station. There is no string of guards and porters crying, "Take

your seats, please!" and no ringing of a station bell, as in England.

The conductor is the master of the train. Indeed, he is more like the

captain of a ship, and wields almost as much authority over his

passengers as does the captain of a big Atlantic liner. You will

notice that his cry when the train is ready to start is one that would

be appropriate to use to people intending to embark on a vessel. The

camel in tropical countries is called the "ship of the desert." It

would be just as suitable to call the Canadian train the "ship of the

prairie," especially as many phrases are used with regard to trains

that we are more accustomed to associate with travelling by sea. For

instance, when a Canadian merchant sends away by train a quantity of

timber or of potatoes, or even groceries, he always speaks of

"shipping" them. Again, the men who are in charge of a train--namely,

the engine-driver, the stoker, the conductor, the luggage-clerk

(baggage-man), the post-office officials (mail-clerks), and the parcels

official (express agent), are spoken of collectively as the "train

crew."

 

The Canadian engine, which is a big, heavy thing, generally painted

black, so that it has not the smart look of an English railway

locomotive, carries a huge acetylene lamp fixed high up on the front of

the funnel, and with this it can light up the track for many yards in

front of it as it puffs along at night. When it wants to give a

warning, it does not whistle in the shrill way an English railway

locomotive does: it gives out an ear-splitting, hoarse, hollow-sounding

scream or roar that can be heard a long way off, and also rings the big

"chapel" bell. And when it is entering a station, it keeps on clanging

its bell until it comes to a dead standstill at the platform.

 

The through trains on the transcontinental railways carry three classes

of passengers--colonist, tourist, and first-class, or "Pullman," as

they are called, from the name of the great American firm which long

made the Pullman or palace cars for all the railways in America. Those

who travel by the latter live as luxuriously as if they were at an

hotel; a dining-car accompanies them in which a full-course dinner is

served; there are libraries, shower-baths, even barber's shops, on some

of these trains, and each train is fitted with observation-cars with

glass sides, from which one can view the scenery at fifty miles an

hour. Besides this, the railways maintain fine hotels at all the

places of interest, just as is done at home.

 

The conductor of the train not only does what the guard on an English

train does, but he also performs the duties of ticket-examiner and

booking- or ticket-clerk as well. Whilst the train is still travelling

he walks through the cars, one after the other, and examines and

punches the passengers' tickets; and if a passenger has not got a

ticket, the conductor will give him one and take the money for it.

This saves the railway company the expense of having ticket-collectors

at every station. Another reason why the conductor performs these

duties is that at many of the small stations there is no station-master

and no booking-clerk. Except in certain of the largest towns, there

are no porters at the railway-stations. In consequence of this,

railway-travellers generally carry only a small portmanteau or valise

in their hands. The general name for a handbag, portmanteau, or valise

is "grip." Before setting out on a journey the traveller hands his

heavy baggage over to the "baggage-master," who ties a strong cardboard

label to it bearing a number and a letter of the alphabet and the name

of the town the traveller is going to, and at the same time he gives a

similar piece of cardboard, bearing exactly the same number and the

same letter and the name of the town, to the passenger. When the

passenger reaches the town he is going to, he goes to the

baggage-office and presents his cardboard ticket, and the official

gives up to him the trunk or box which bears the corresponding number

and letter. This is called "checking baggage through."

 

The passenger coaches, known as "cars," on the Canadian railways are

very different from the passenger carriages in England. You do not

enter at doors in the sides, but you climb up to a platform at the end

and enter from the platform. A gangway runs through the middle of the

car from the one end to the other. In this way, even when the engine

is running at full speed, you are able to travel all through the train,

crossing from one car to the other by means of the platforms at the end

of each. On each side of the gangway of the car are the seats, facing

each other, and affording room for four passengers in each recess. At

night the seats can be pulled out until they meet one another, and in

that way they make a bed, on which the porter places mattresses and

bedclothes and around which he hangs curtains. About one-half of the

passengers generally sleep, however, above the heads of those who lie

on the seats. High up, all along the sides of each gangway, there are

big, broad shelves, which can be let down at night, and pushed up again

out of the way in the daytime. It is on these shelves that many of the

passengers sleep. Each "shelf" will hold two people.

 

At each end of each car there are dressing and washing rooms, and on

emigrant sleeping-cars a recess holds a small stove for cooking. In

the early morning, on an emigrant or colonist train, quite a crowd of

people gather round the door of their little dressing-room, waiting

their turns to get in, for the room is very tiny, and will not hold

more than three persons at a time, especially when one is a man trying

to shave without cutting his chin, for very often the cars shake and

rattle, and even lurch and jump. Every man comes in his shirt-sleeves,

and carries his towel and hair-brush, his soap or his comb; and whilst

they stand about waiting their turns, there is generally a good deal of

good-natured gossiping and jesting, especially if the train shakes

much, and they stumble against one another. On a Pullman, or

first-class sleeping-car, however, the accommodation is much better,

and one can wash and dress almost as comfortably as in a good hotel.

 

Nearly all Canadians are great travellers. The large towns are mostly

situated wide apart, and to get from the one to the other you generally

have to make long journeys. In all countries railways are important

features; but in Canada, owing to the vast distances and the way in

which the population live scattered over the immense territory, the

railways are of especial importance. Frequently the railway is the

first pioneer in opening up a district for settlement, being built to

reach a wealthy mine or a petroleum-field, and as the railway

penetrates mile after mile into the unoccupied valley, little towns

spring up alongside it. In this way the hoarse bray of the

railway-engine awakens the sleeping echoes of mountain glen or river

valley before the sound of the settler's axe is heard or the smoke of

the emigrant's camp-fire seen. The two biggest railways in Canada are

the Canadian Pacific Railroad, known in short form as the C.P.R., and

the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, or the G.T.R. Both these form a

link, and a very important link, in the route between England on the

one side and Japan, China, and Australia on the other.

 

In the Rocky Mountains and in the other ranges the gradients on the

railways are necessarily very steep, one at the Kicking Horse Pass (so

called from the figure of a great horse which can be seen in the rock

on the side of the mountain) is 6 in 100. In rainy weather, and in the

spring, when the frost loosens the soil, huge boulders may come sliding

down and cover the track. As the track curves in all directions (near

Glacier one can see four tracks side by side as it loops round to climb

the mountain-side), it would be impossible for the engineer to see

these obstructions in time to save his train, so the track is patrolled

constantly by men night and day. On the steep gradients there are

switches which lead off from the main line and run up the

mountain-side, so that a train rushing down the slope and running up on

to one of these tracks soon loses its impetus and slows down. These

traps are used to stop the train when there is danger ahead, the patrol

opens the switch, which automatically sets a signal, so that the

engineer knows what is coming, and the train loses its force up the

steep switch instead of plunging into the abyss below. As you lie in

your berth at night and watch the great shining spot of the searchlight

on the front of the engine as it lights up mountain, crag, and deep

defile 1,000 yards ahead, the clear whistle rings out in the night;

anxiously you count one, two, three, four, and sink back relieved.

"All right on the main line!" and you know that the lonely patrol man

is faithful in the humble task on which the life of hundreds may depend.

 

In many parts of Canada the snowfall is very heavy, and causes the

railways constant trouble, for if the wind blows it soon piles up, so

that the trains cannot force their way through it. Of course it would

take too long to shovel it out by hand, so gigantic snow-ploughs are

used. These are pushed ahead of the engine, and send the snow flying

to the fences on both sides of the track. Where it is very deep and

frozen hard, a "rotatory low" is used, with a large boring machine

attached to the front of it to cut its way into the drifts, and often

from two to four engines may be needed to force it through the deepest

cuts. In the mountain districts, where the track is exposed to snow

slides, the tracks are covered by great sheds of strong timber, over

which the white avalanche can slide into the cañon below.

 

[Illustration: "THE SHIP OF THE PRAIRIE." _Allan Stewart_]

 

The history of the Canadian railways has thus been very different from

that of the English railways, for these last were mostly built to

connect the big towns together, and the towns existed before the

railways were built.

 

There is also another great difference between the English and the

Canadian railways. In the former country the men who built the

railways were obliged to buy all the land they wanted to build them on.

In the latter country--Canada--the land was given by the Government to

those who constructed the railways; and not only that, but the

Government paid them to build their lines by granting them many acres

of land on each side of the track all the way through. This was

because there were not enough people in the regions through which the

railways were made to provide sufficient passengers and traffic to pay

the expenses of running trains.

 

In the mountainous districts, especially in the Far West, the railways

are often the principal highways. There are no other roads, and so

people walk along the railway-lines. When a man tramps a long distance