[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Exhibition contains railway history donated by ordinary folk

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Exporail exhibition contains railway history 
donated by ordinary folk 
David Johnston, The Gazette, Monday, September 28, 2009 

Ten days before he died in 2007, Fred Angus of Westmount told 
Exporail, the Canadian railway museum on the South Shore of 
Montreal, about an important document that he wanted to bequeath. 
It was his great-grandfather R.B. Angus's copy of a contract between 
the Dominion of Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate 
to build a railway across Canada. 

The contract set out to fulfill what has become known in Canadian 
history as the "national dream" - a transcontinental railway to unify 
the sparsely populated country. 

Canada had been born in 1867 as a result of the British North 
America Act. But to get British Columbia to join Confederation as the 
sixth province in 1871, an amendement to the BNA Act entrenched a 
federal promise to B.C. to create a transcontinental rail link. 

Construction of that link was completed as a result of an 1881 
contract between the federal government and the seven members of 
the new Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate. Then, as now, parties to 
contracts were entitled to their own original copies. As one of seven 
original investment partners in the CPR syndicate and one of four 
original company directors, R.B.Angus received his own handsome 
leatherbound copy. 

This copy - the same one that Fred Angus told Exporail president 
Stephen Cheasley about - is the only original copy known to exist 
today. Now this copy is part of the museum's temporary exposition 
titled What's In The Box? The exposition, which runs at Exporail 
until April 11, features the best of Canadian railway memorabilia 
donated or bequeathed to the museum during the last five years. The 
title refers to the many precious items that were mailed to the 
museum in little boxes, sent by people carrying out the wishes of the 
recently deceased. 

The Angus name, of course, needs no introduction to Montrealers. 
The former Angus rail yards in Rosemont were an important part of 
Montreal's history through the 20th century. 

Fred Angus, editor of Canadian Rail Magazine for 26 years, 
bequeathed many rare items to Exporail, including old Bank of 
Montreal $20 notes bearing R.B.'s likeness. But nothing compares 
with R.B.'s copy of the "national dream" contract in terms of 
historical importance, says Cheasley. 

"Since there were seven members of the CPR syndicate, along with 
the government of Canada, there were probably only a dozen or so 
original copies of the contract," he said. 

"But we don't know whether there are other bound copies still in 
existence. I would think there must be a copy somewhere in the 
national archives in Ottawa. But we don't know of any others." 

The government of Sir John A. Macdonald promised British 
Columbia in 1871 to build the railway within 10 years. But little 
progress had been made by 1881 and, as a result, a separatist 
movement arose in B.C. In response, the federal government signed a 
new deal in 1881, with the newly incorporated CPR group, to build 
the railway by 1891. The CPR finished the job within five years. On 
Nov. 7, 1885, construction came to a ceremonious end outside 
Revelstoke, B.C., when the famous "last spike" was driven home by 
the eldest of the four original CPR directors, Donald Smith, or Lord 
Strathcona. (R.B. Angus was a director from 1881 until 1921, the year 
before his death at his waterfront estate in Senneville.) 

In Alexander Ross's photograph of Smith's driving home the last 
spike - said to be the most important photograph in Canadian history - 
Sir William Van Horne, the CPR's chief executive, can be seen on 
Smith's immediate right. Van Horne had travelled from Montreal to 
B.C. for the ceremony in his private railway car, the Saskatchewan. 
Today, that car is part of the permanent exposition at Exporail. 

Exporail's permanent collection, as well as exhibits featured in What's 
in the Box?, are a reminder of the vital role that the railroad played in 
Canadian nation-building. 


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