Scenic Rail Guide to Western Canada: With Connecting Road Routes

Leonard Wertheimer was Languages Coordinator for the Metro Toronto Library Board.

The Canadian train Michelin, nothing less! The author, a former railwayman and now tour organiser with VIA, offers a painstaking description of all rail routes and, where necessary or useful, road routes. Stations and views, also historic lore and origin of station names are described mile by mile (the author pointedly insists on the railways’ use of the mile). The narratives are accompanied by strip maps of the stretch of route discussed in the chapters. Of course, the treatment is not confined to CN and CP, but includes the B.C. Railways, the Glacier Express of the Alaska Railway, the White Pass and Yukon Railway. Nor should the “Western Canada” of the title be taken too strictly: Ontario is not omitted, nor is Montreal, the starting point of the “Canadian,” even connecting services to Quebec, Halifax, and the United States are drawn in.

The book is profusely illustrated, sometimes too profusely: six photos on a quarter page (p. 12) cannot possibly disclose much information; but this is a minor flaw. This book should be indispensable to the tourist besides being pleasant reading for the armchair traveller. Want to know how blind mice live in a five-mile tunnel? Read the book! It will be $6.95 well spent.