Canadian Northern Pacific Railway

The Canadian Northern Pacific Railway (CNoPR) was an historic Canadian railway with a main line running between the Alberta-British Columbia Provincial border and Vancouver, British Columbia. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Canadian Northern Railway(CNoR).

This railway existed mainly on paper, thus there were no cars or locomotives lettered as "Canadian Northern Pacific". As far as the public and most workers were concerned, it was just a part of the CNoR.

The CNoPR was incorporated in 1910(1). The last spike was driven at Basque, Briish Columbia in January 1915. This event completed Canada's third transcontinental railway, which ran from Quebec City, Quebec to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The CNoR maintained other subsidiary companies, such as the Alberta Midland Railway (Vegreville, Alberta to Drumheller, Alberta), the Canadian Northern Alberta Railway (CNoAR)(St Albert, Alberta to the Alberta-British Columbia border) and the Edmonton, Yukon, and Pacific Railway which ran from Strathcona, Alberta to Edmonton, and later to Stony Plain, Alberta.

The CNoAR was also incorporated in 1910 (1). Construction started at St. Albert in 1910 and the construction train passed into British Columbia around the beginning of 1913.

The line from Edmonton to Vancouver was approved for operation in October 1915 (1). The first west bound passenger train left Edmonton on November 23 1915 (2). The first east bound passenger train left Vancouver on November 25, 1915. Initial main line through service was three trains per week in each direction (3).

These were all operated as part of the CNoR system and were taken over by the Crown upon nationalization in 1918.

(1) A.B. Hopper and T. Kearny, "CNR Synoptical History of Organization Capital Stock, Funded Debt and Other General Information as of December 31, 1960," Canadian National Railways, Montreal, 1962. Copies are available in each Provincial Archive.(2) Edmonton Bulletin, November 24, 1915.(3) Edmonton Bulletin, November 26, 1915.