Saturday, October 30, 2010

125 Years Since the Last Spike

Today marks 125 years since the driving of the last spike at Craigellachie, British Columbia that finished Canada's first transcontinental railway.

I understand CP is donating surplus "heritage" equipment as part of this celebration. Read on CP's site. The list (PDF) includes such items as tool cars, baggage cars, sleepers, mail cars and an autorack. The autorack is in the Moose Jaw yard and you can see it on the left side of this photo I took in May 2010.

Hopefully some museums will take CP up on its offer and preserve some of this equipment.

2 comments:

Robert in Port Townsend said...

A little early for celebrating!

On November 7, 1885, Sir Donald Alexander Smith (Lord Strathcona), a director of the company, raised his hammer and struck the final blow to the last, plain iron spike in the country's first transcontinental railway. The resting place of the last spike was named Craigellachie Station after a prominent crag in a village on the River Spey in Morayshire, Scotland, the ancestral home of Sir George Stephen, first president of the CPR.

Canadian Train Geek said...

I knew it was November 7... I guess I didn't set the posting date right when I wrote the post. :)