CANADIAN PANORAMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1941, Page 6

CANADIAN PANORAMA

TRAIN JOURNEY ACROSS CONTINENT.

ROUTES OF GREAT SCENIC BEAUTY. Montreal. Although the journey by train from Montreal to Vancouver takes just over 87 hours —that is three and a half clays—the trip is never monotonous. The traveller sees Canada —a panorama flashing by his window —the aspects and moods of the Dominion; its wealth; its wildness and its natural resources. The train passes through four time zones as it speeds past the forests of Quebec and Ontario; the seemingly limitless wheat fields of the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Eastern Alberta; and the majesty and grandeur of the mountains of Western Alberta and British Columbia. No opportunity was overlooked to choose routes of great scenic beauty, when this could be done without interfering with the efficiency of the railway. Along the route are some of the most interesting tunnels and bridges on the continent. The train is at various altitudes on its 3,000-mile journey. At Montreal it is 100 feet above sea level, reaches almost 200 feet at Ottawa, rises to over 1.000 feet along the North Shore of Lake Superior, and drops to some 770 feet at Winnipeg. Across the Prairies the elevation is about 2,000 feet. The Canadian Pacific Railway, which takes the southern route through the mountains, is at 3,437 feet at Calgary, in the foothills of the Rockies, then climbs to 5,332 feet at the Great Divide, the highest point on the line.. From there it is a rapid descent to 14 feet above sea level at Vancouver, 500 miles westward. The Canadian National, taking the northern route through the mountains, does not climb to such great heights. The peak is 3,717 feet at Yellowhead. When the train passes Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies (12,972 feet), the railway track is actually 3,150 feet above sea level; It drops to 1,134 feet at Kamloops, and from there to Vancouver, a distance of some 260 miles, the descent is gradual. Fifty-five years ago, in 1886, all Canada celebrated the operation of the first through train from Montreal to the Pacific Coast.