Canadian Railway Scenes, No 4

T.D. Regehr is a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan and
the author of For Everything a Season: A History of the Alexanderkrone
Zentralschule and Mennonites in Canada, Volume 3, 1939-1970.

Railway picture books with detailed descriptions of particular pieces of
rolling stock enjoy a relatively small but reliable and enthusiastic
readership. The highlight of this volume is an extended photo essay on
the Canadian Pacific Railway’s great effort to make passenger service
a success in the 1950s by introducing a sparkling new stainless-steel
scenic dome car in a train that bore the proud name “The Canadian.”
There are many memories here for those who worked on that train, or
enjoyed the impeccable service and beautiful Canadian scenery as it made
its way across the country.

Another section of the book has photographs and descriptions of
cabooses, and there are also numerous pictures and descriptions of old
steam locomotives, stations, and maintenance and repair facilities. The
attractive color cover photo shows two double-headed steam locomotives.
All the photos in the rest of the volume are black-and-white.

This is a volume for railway buffs and anyone else with a sense of loss
and nostalgia for the days when railways and passenger trains were still
seen as instruments of national policy tying the country together from
coast to coast.