Terry Gainer
Terry Gainer
Banff, 1948-1962 : revivez l’âge d’or des trains à travers les yeux d’un enfant ayant grandi dans la gare mythique des Rocheuses canadiennes.
The Soo Line's Famous Trains To Canada is a brief history of a small and unique Class 1 railway and its famous Canada-USA tourist trains. Initially chartered in 1883 to serve the needs of local millers in Minneapolis, the Soo would eventually come to join the Canadian Pacific line at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with service to Montreal. In 1888, Canadian Pacific assumed controlling interest in the Soo Line, providing entry into the lucrative US market and levelling the playing field for the CPR to face the onslaught of ferocious competition from James J. Hill, the infamous American railway baron. The "little railway that could" grew to attain giant-killer status, launching famous passenger trains from Minneapolis and St. Paul, meeting head-on the western expansion of the Great Northern Railway and viable, competitive routes to the Atlantic seaboard. Over the years, the Soo Line introduced thousands of Americans to Montreal and Quebec City, the famous Canadian Rockies resorts, and the city of Vancouver, the home port for CP's Pacific steamship services. The Soo also successfully competed on the Spokane and Portland routes from Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest. In 1923 the "Soo Mountaineer" was launched, becoming the most famous and longest "two-nation" train journey in North America.
A popular history of late 19th and early 20th century railways as they blasted their way into southeastern British Columbia. When Trains Ruled the Kootenays is the story of how the railways established an extensive and convenient transportation network to haul ore from the mines, move people, and service the communities during the early years of the 20th century in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. Terry Gainer's latest book documents sixty years of change in the railway industry of British Columbia. The evolving transformations of life and landscape noted in the text and photos also reflect a period of rapid change in Canada. Threaded through the narrative are anecdotes from Kootenay pioneers recounting their experiences and the means of transportation of the times. As prominent Kootenay author and historian Tom Lymbery noted, "Many books exist about the construction and maintenance of Kootenay railways. Few, if any, have been written about the people who rode them." From that, Terry took Tom's cue and began to write this book.