The Diesel Age: Modernization and Rationalization

The Second World War placed a tremendous strain upon Canadian railways. Not only did they move unprecedented quantities of material and numbers of people as train movements in 1944 reached an all-time high of over 336 million train kilometres but the railway companies were also involved in war production work. Railway plants, such as the CPR’s Angus Shops and the CNR’s Pointe-St-Charles Shops in Montreal, turned their productive capacity to producing armaments. The story of the Canadian railway industry’s role in the war effort is well illustrated in the Museum’s railway photo collections, in many of the images in the CN Photo Collection, and in our other railway photo holdings, providing ample graphic evidence of the enormous effort mounted by railway employees and their companies during this period.

The period following the end of the war in 1945 was one of readjustment. Technically-speaking, many trends that had begun in the pre-war period continued at a faster pace. Steel increasingly replaced wood as the material of choice in railway car construction. Signalling became complex, and relied more and more upon control from remote centralized offices, rather than local operators. In fact, the experience garnered during the war years from handling significantly-increased density of traffic on lines demonstrated the effectiveness of centralized train-control (CTC) systems.

Narrow Gauge Business Car, Terra Nova. Manufacturer: Rhodes Curry, ca 1898 (CSTM 680900)

The railway system itself continued to expand at a slower rate. With the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation in 1949, the province’s railway line—The Newfoundland Railway—was transferred to the CNR. The 1,100 kilometre Newfoundland line was quite distinct from most railways in Canada, in that its track was narrow- gauge, or 1.067 metres (3’6") rather than the North American standard of 1.435 metres (4’ 8"). Constructed beginning in the 1890s, it remained something on an oddity on the North American railway map for many years. A private car, the Terra Nova , is the only example of a narrow-gauge car from Newfoundland in our collection (680900). Built in New Brunswick in the late 1890s, it was used by company officials and political dignitaries right into the 1960s. The Terra Nova is typical of a private or business car, in that it has a small sitting area, dining room, bedroom, and a kitchen. The car was rebuilt extensively, prior to its donation to the Museum in 1968.

Walter J. Phillips Strathcona Provincial Park, oil on canvas, 1954 (CSTM 870013.1)

Although the Museum currently does not have any post-war passenger cars in its collection, it has acquired a remarkable collection of paintings, commissioned by the CPR in the early 1950s to decorate the observation cars on its high-speed and ultra-modern transcontinental train, The Canadian. The Park Car Murals are a collection of paintings removed from the dome observation cars, when the cars were renovated by Via Rail Canada in the early 1980s. Representing many provincial and national parks, the murals were painted by some of the most noteworthy artists in Canada at the time, including Walter Phillips whose mural depicting Stratchona Park is reproduced here (870013.1). These paintings represent not only an interesting example of Canadian art, but also the role of Canadian railways as patrons of Canada’s artistic community.

One the single greatest changes during the post-war period was the rapid adoption of diesel-electric locomotives. In 1947, a little over 98 per cent of the 4,451 locomotives operating on major Canadian railways were steam-operated. By 1965, none of the 3,323 units in use were steam locomotives. The impact that this change had on the nature of railway operations and railway culture in Canada was enormous, and is beyond the scope of this brief essay. However, it should be noted that the diesel-electric locomotive was considerably more efficient than its steam-operated counterpart, and was not as labour-intensive to maintain.

CPR Diesel Electric Locomotive 4065 in Service, 1968 (Photo: S. Smaill)

Diesel-electric technology is represented by a number of unique objects in the collection. First among these is CPR 4065 (900064), a locomotive built by the Canadian Locomotive Co. of Kingston in 1951. Featuring the Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston engine, the 4065 was one of the first “C-Line” locomotives built in Canada, and began its career as a demonstrator. Symptomatic of the rapid change that took place within the field of diesel locomotive design, the locomotive was declared obsolete by 1975. It is currently the only mainline diesel locomotive within the collection, and represents the dawn of a new era in Canadian railways.

While diesel locomotives have significantly altered the face of Canadian railways, motorized vehicles have severely influenced the services railways offer. It is important to note, however, that today’s Canadian railways are moving more freight over greater distances than ever before. The Canadian railway, while adjusting to modern conditions, continues to play a vibrant and important role in Canada’s diversified transportation system.