Below, on the CPR in New Brunswick near the Bay of Fundy around 1900, a passenger train has stopped a little short of the platform for a photograph. Sporting a bell, whistle - and a headlight for nighttime use - there will be a decreased danger of collision at unguarded level crossings such as this one. This being Canada, it was also prudent to have a large snowplow attached to the pilot of the locomotive. Insulators on the arm at the peak of the roof suggest that the train dispatcher sends telegraph messages through the station's operator to modify printed train schedules when necessary.

As you can clearly see, the railways are becoming more and more safety conscious.

Every time a person rides a train there is the potential for legal action if they are injured. This may tarnish the railway's reputation and cost it money. So the lawyers and operating executives work together to develop a safe transportation system, occasionally assisted by the friendly toe of the federal safety regulatory boot. Advances include :

• Reliable locomotives with modern safety appliances.
• Better control of train slack and better train braking in emergencies.
• Enclosed sturdy heated coaches to protect passengers from weather and mishap.
• Printed train movement rules and safety instructions for employees to cover all conceivable hazards.
• Printed employee timetables with management personnel modifying scheduled train movements via telegraphed instructions as needed.

By the time this CPR postcard photograph was taken of a westbound on a sunny day in Field, British Columbia, Lady Agnes Macdonald in 1886 had famously ridden on the cowcatcher and also in the locomotive cab from the present site of Lake Louise to the Port Moody terminus - 500 miles.

As if in defiance of their parents' hypothetical question about someone else jumping in the lake, it seems others just had to climb on the equipment to pretend they had done the same as Lady Ag.

There is a nice big steam-driven air compressor in front of the fireman's cab window and a trainline air hose by Lord Cowcatcher's left leg, so we can add train air brakes to the list of safety systems on this train. Handy, because ...

This train has just descended the long steep hill from the continental divide high in the Rockies - respectfully referred to system-wide as "The Big Hill".

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The long distance train in Canada - the early years of CPR's specialty

The train pictured above is about 2400 miles from its starting point in Montreal.

Today most passenger trains in the world make relatively short fast runs between cities. Often the travel experience is like taking a 3 or 4 hour plane ride :

• Coffee.
• Then a washroom.
• Perhaps a contemptuously small bag of peanuts as a token of the carrier's affection. 
• Someone seated next to you talks incessantly on a cell phone.

If the folks above were travelling in 1892, here's a possible itinerary:

• Leave Montreal at 0840hr on Monday.
• Arrive at Field for breakfast at 10hr on Saturday.

Five days on the train! Maybe doing something crazy like riding a cowcatcher seems appropriate at this point!

If only to satisfy Lord and Lady Cowcatcher's biological needs, and to keep them from desperately jumping out the open windows while going over high wooden trestles, Canadian railways became quite good at running long distance trains. The settlement pattern and the size of the country demanded it.

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In the early days, how did they provide the "Canadian long distance train experience"?

Newcomers to Canada were such a diverse group. I don't know if foreign agents of the railway/government were always entirely ethical in their dealings with the Canadian immigrants they were trying to attract (in return for a commission).

I'll stick to English-speaking eastern Canadians, British Empire visitors checking out their colony, and American tourists.

Attract passengers with advertising:

• Scenery: mighty mountains (Rockies: "the Alps of North America"); vast forests (and swamps); endless prairies; "rapidly vanishing" native people in traditional dress; wilderness.
• Equipment with deluxe and/or affordable accommodation; powerful locomotives; safety comfort and speed.

Provide destinations:

• Luxurious chateau-style railway hotels.
• Semi-private theme parks (also known as "National Parks": Van Horne's suggestion to Sir John A. Macdonald).
• Company owned : wilderness fishing lodges; resorts with horseback riding, canoeing, mountain climbing ...

 ... how to provide that "Canadian long distance train experience" continued ...

Invest in railway physical plant:

• Fast powerful locomotives to accelerate trains quickly and "get over the road" - and up the steep grades.
• Modern attractive rolling stock, with enhanced levels of interior decoration and service at higher prices.
• Emphasize and market premium services : dining cars with china, silverware and fine food; private sleeping facilities with private toilets, and sinks with hot water; special cars where premium passengers can go for a better view of the scenery.
• Keep all blankets, sheets, pillow cases, towels, table cloths, napkins , etc. in immaculate condition.
• Provide effective heating and cooling systems for passenger comfort.
  

Run the railway efficiently:

• Give passenger trains priority over freights. This impresses the heck out of the passengers and makes better use of the costly equipment and all the onboard staff needed to provide service to the customers.
• Carry other fast stuff like The Royal Mail (including special post office cars where post office clerks sort mail enroute and exchange mail bags on the fly with wayside stations) and express (today's "Fedex packages").
• If locomotive pulling ability is limited in the mountains (early 1900s) forget the dining car and make it an "event" for passengers to shlep out into the mountain scenery and get their meals at railway station diners. And let them sit on the cowcatcher if they're good.

Give passengers something to do:

• The scenery often draws everyone's attention.
  
• Three meals in the dining car can take over three hours while passengers talk to complete strangers at their tables and look out the window. They didn't eat in front of the television in 1900, so eating food while watching changing scenery must have been quite special. 
• To control the lineup at the small dining car : every afternoon the dining car steward walks through the train making a big deal out of signing everyone up for a particular scheduled sitting during the long period of evening meal service.
• Sell newspapers and magazines.
• Sell railway postcards of sights along the CPR line, of CPR railway equipment, and of CPR hotels so passengers can pass their time writing to family and friends. Then they can mail the card into the side of the train's own railway post office car! The postcards showing the CPR's features and attractions then travel to the passengers' personal "network" potentially attracting more passengers. (And many decades later, some guy with too much time on his hands will be provided with public domain "content" to interpret on his pokey little website, thus keeping the CPR legend alive.)
  
• Sell guidebooks of the line. Sample entries, westbound out of Montreal :

1. at 2200hr, after 600 miles: "Approaching Onaping a good view of the high falls of the Vermillion River is to be had for a moment" [hint : don't blink]
2. at 1535hr, after 2000 miles: "Lakes and ponds, some fresh, some alkaline, occur at intervals to Maple Creek." [hint : dead cattle with a white crust around their mouths lie beside a***line ponds]
3. at Midnight, after 2200 miles: "The entire country is underlaid with two or more beds of good coal, and natural gas is frequently found in boring deep wells."
4. ... hope you brought along your imagination. The books were actually quite good and the scenery was/is impressive.

• Passengers in observation cars and parlour cars will often naturally take an interest in each other. Service staff often have a particular flair for providing excellent service and "warming up" a group of strangers. [Even circa 1980s in a lounge car: "The 'mad engineer' takes over at Schreiber this evening and we're travelling right along the edge of Lake Superior. Make sure you are secure in your bed!" sic, personal experience.] 
• If all else fails, passengers who are non-plussed by the whole long distance train experience can still buy playing cards, smoking materials and alcoholic beverages and pretend they are back at home.

Below is a westbound passenger train on the Stoney Creek Bridge in the Selkirk Mountains - just west of Golden, B.C. This photo was probably taken in the 1920s and probably came from a souvenir photograph set sold by the railway. Outside on the rear platform of the observation car, the passengers will be getting a good look at Stoney Creek, 325 feet below.
... how to provide that "Canadian long distance train experience" continued ...


Hire nice people who care, the rest can be taught:

In the early 1900s ... well, not exactly.

Because railway life was unique in many ways, employees were usually trained from scratch and promoted up through the ranks.

The railways ran on a top-down military-style system of command and control. All procedures were standardized in rulebooks. Blanket rules sort of implied your duty if there was no specific rule to cover a particular circumstance and your errors and accidents would be judged accordingly.

Good managers probably had some latitude to be reasonable, and poor managers had lots of specific rules and blanket rules to hide behind.
 
The various job titles and the duties of the many different employees who made a long distance passenger train successful deserve their own separate page. On one hand, there were the running trades employees who were responsible for the safe passage of the train and the lives of all aboard. On the other hand were the "onboard service staff " who looked after the needs of the long distance passengers.

Running trades employees were subject to the railways' traditional "macho Prussian-style discipline" when mistakes were made in the vicinity of many hundreds of tons of equipment and many hundreds of passengers' lives.


Human relations skills and subtlety were valued in the onboard service staff. In 1920, on the CPR, for waiters :

Avoid coming too close to patrons. When patrons speak, listen attentively. Do not make them repeat their words, but repeat the order yourself if you are not quite sure. Do not place your hands on the back of their chair or on the table.

Waiters and other employees must be obliging, courteous and polite at all times; must anticipate the patron's wishes; must always be on the alert to notice instantly any deficiency in the service and look after these small details which go so far to make service perfect.