page_title: Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Trunk Pacific Railway / History / Operations
caption_attribution_description: Lovett, Alberta. ca. 1915. From the Godby Family fonds, PR2009.0441/15.
context_page_description: The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Transcontinental Railway
context_section_description: The CNoR tracklaying through the Canadian Rockies in 1913 roughly paralleled the GTPR line of 1911, creating about 100 miles of duplication. In 1917, a contingent from the Corps of Canadian Railway Troops added several crossovers to amalgamate the tracks into a single line along the preferred grade as far west as Red Pass Junction (misidentifed as 36 miles west of Red Pass on Google Maps). The surplus rails were lifted and the heavier grade GTPR ones shipped to France for use during World War I.
  In 1915, unable to meet its debts, the GTP asked the federal government to take over the GTPR. The CNoR was in worse financial shape. The royal commission that considered the issue during 1916, released its findings in 1917. In March 1919, after the GTPR defaulted on construction loans to the federal government, the federal Department of Railways and Canals effectively took control of the GTPR, before it merged into the CNR in July 1920. Noting not just numerous construction blunders, the 1921 arbitration on worth ranked its significance within the naïve railway schemes of that era by the observation, "It would be difficult to imagine a more misconceived project...". The GTP itself was nationalized in 1922.
caption: Grand Trunk Pacific boxcars and gondola in Lovett, Alberta. About 1915.
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