The Railways

Brenda Reed is the curriculum and reference services librarian in the
Education Library, Queen’s University.

This well-designed introduction to Canada’s railways will tie in with
history, geography, and technological education classes at the Grades 4
to 8 level.

Helpfully complemented by black-and-white line drawings, the text is
divided into five chapters that place the building of Canada’s
national railway in the context of North American railway history. There
are profiles of the major players involved in the construction of the
railway, including Sir Sandford Fleming, Sir John A. Macdonald, and
William Van Horne, and some fascinating anecdotes. Young readers will be
interested to learn that Jumbo the elephant was killed in St. Thomas,
Ontario, by an unscheduled Grand Trunk train, and that three locomotives
and many kilometres of track were once swallowed by a sink hole in the
muskeg around northern Lake Superior. There are stories about train
mysteries, too, including that of the “headless brakeman.” The
disasters and dangers that accompanied the building of the early
railways are also highlighted. Readers learn about the abuse of the
workers who were brought over from China, and about the many lives that
were lost during the construction period.

The introduction includes a helpful glossary of railway terms. There
are six activities in the main text: the construction of a cutout
locomotive, the identification of engines, the solving of switching
problems, a game, construction of the surveyor’s transit, and a good
crossword puzzle.

This engrossing and lively look at Canada’s railway history is highly
recommended for all Canadian public libraries and for elementary to
junior-high schools.