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Celebrities Ride the Rails
STEEL WHEELS by Corporate Historian Emeritus
Jonathan Hanna
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT: Governor-General Lord Stanley and party ride
the buffer beam.
At times, Canadian Pacific has looked like an episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". If you were on land, travelling
by rail was the only way to go. In CPR's 126 years of existence, more than 800 million passengers have travelled on its trains. And they
continue to ride our rails in Canada and the United States. CP still carries commuter trains, intercity passenger trains, and even
transcontinental passenger trains for part of their trip. CP still provides the right of way for the cruise train crowd on the Rocky
Mountaineer. And, of course, the railway operates its own luxury cruise train: the Royal Canadian Pacific.
PRE-FAMOUS: Senator John Kennedy
and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.
It's no surprise, then, that CPR has hosted senators, prime ministers, presidents, dukes and duchesses, princes and princesses, kings,
queens and emperors, past, present, and future. Some were yet to be famous when they travelled on the CPR, like the junior senator from
Massachusetts and his new bride: John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, or Crown Prince Akihito, the future and current
Emperor of Japan. The Kennedys and Prince Akihito travelled in relative anonymity on the CPR in 1953. In fact, both were captured on film
by CPR staff photographers who "drew the short straw" and were saddled with an off-hours assignment, thinking their photos
would never see the light of day. Of course, the photos were discovered and have now been widely used, but only a quarter or a half
century later.
In the case of the Emperor of Japan's photos, only in 2005, after the emperor himself fondly recounted his train trip as a 20-year-old on
his way to Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation.
There are just too many to name all the "CPR celebrities". But a sampling would have to include Prime Minister Sir John A.
Macdonald and Lady Agnes Macdonald, and Canada's governor general, Lord Stanley of Preston, whose lasting legacy is hockey's Stanley Cup.
Both couples travelled across Canada and started a trend of riding on the locomotive's buffer beam through the mountains.
Later, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (the future King George V and Queen Mary) crossed Canada via the CPR. They were soon
followed by Japan's Prince Fushimi and, much later, by Prince Akihito.
The United Kingdom's Duke and Duchess of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson) travelled on the CPR. The Duke travelled
many times on the CPR, on his way to High River, south of Calgary, where he owned a ranch.
England's Winston Churchill travelled on the CPR three times. CPR even gave him his own special train, in 1943, on which he clocked more
than 6,000 km (4,000 miles).
Other guests of the CPR were 20th century Canadian prime ministers Laurier, Bennett, and Mackenzie King, U.S. president Franklin D.
Roosevelt, British princesses Margaret, Anne, and, before she became queen, Princess Elizabeth, Prince Philip, King George VI, and Queen
Elizabeth. The latter two travelled on the most famous CPR special train ever, the 1939 Royal Train.
Other CPR noteworthy travellers have included sports figures (Stanley Cup hockey teams, Grey Cup fans and players), clerics (Cardinal
Leger), and even the world's first surviving quintuplets, the Dionne Quints.
Industrialists and entertainers got special treatment, too, some as guests and some paying for the privilege. Chrysler's Lee Iacocca,
GE's Jack Welch, China shipping magnate Tung Chee Hwa, and, the wealthiest of all, Bill Gates, all savoured CPR's succulent samplings on
special business cars that are now in service with today's CPR luxury cruise train, the Royal Canadian Pacific.
Among the entertainers who travelled on CPR trains were "America's sweetheart" Mary Pickford, Montel Williams (twice), Francis
Ford Coppola, and George Lucas, to name but a few.
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