Vol. 17 No. 1
January, 1987
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Keep the Ball Rolling
Stay Safe in 87
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Railway Scores Coup with
Move
British military equipment at Bikerdike Pier in Montreal prior to
move by CP Rail to CFB Suffield, Alberta.
Thanks to some
fine strategic planning by marketing and sales representatives in England and Canada, the British army recently
decided to ally itself with CP Rail for an important shipment of military equipment to southeastern Alberta.
The shipment represented a competitive coup for the railway, said Bob Smith, international sales representative.
Some 85 British tanks, armored personnel carriers and other military hardware were shipped to Canadian Forces
Base Suffield, Alberta.
The Suffield exercise is designed to train soldiers in conditions approximating those of Central and Eastern
Europe.
"An inward and outward movement of this type of traffic occurs twice each year - once in the spring and
once in the fall", Smith said.
"Previously, these shipments were handled out of Halifax and Contrecoeur, Quebec, which left the lion's
share of the rail haul with CN Rail.
To get the shipment, CP Rail went to work on both sides of the Atlantic.
The railway's London marketing and sales office held discussions with the British ministry of defence. Their
task was to convince the British army to position a large share of traffic at a port accessible to CP Rail.
In Montreal, Smith and his coleagues worked with Westward Shipping, the British army's freight forwarding
agents in Canada. As well, Norm Spencer, director of sales in Lethbridge, Alberta, worked with the British
Army Training unit in Suffield.
"Not only did the ministry of defence decide to try the Port of Montreal and CP Rail, but also Canada
Maritime's roll on / roll off vessel the Eastern Unicorn to handle the shipment from England to Bickerdike Pier
at the western end of Montreal Harbor", said Smith.
The military equipment was loaded onto 34 flatcars during the first week of December. As well, 10 flatcars of
returning traffic were loaded onto the Eastern Unicorn.
This CP Rail News article is copyright
1987 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with
their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company.
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