Trains Newswire carried a story that at 11Am on Veteran’s Day 11/10/2010 they would stop all trains and whistles would blow at 11AM.
A memorial to Canadian and American Soldiers. (excerpt from the Newswire)
"…More than 33,000 CP employees served in the last century’s two world wars. Sadly, 1,774 employees died in battle. In the two world wars combined, 24 of 74 CP ships were lost to enemy action. In the air, CP pioneered the transatlantic delivery of bombers to Britain. “… CP’s efforts included transporting troops, supplies, and equipment, in addition to making its shops available for the output of Valentine tanks, engines for frigates and landing craft, naval vessel power equipment components, naval guns, anti-submarine devices, and fire-control equip.”
I had not heard of a Valentine Tank, before, so I went looking for information: Linked here:
FTL: "…The first tank produced in Canada was the Valentine, built by the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Angus Shop in Montreal from 1941 to 1943. Production continued until early 1944. Most of the 1420 Canadian-built Valentines were shipped to the USSR for use on the Eastern Front, with only 30 being retained for training purposes. The Valentine was used in quantity by British armoured formations early in the war, but its low speed, light armour, and small main gun (a 2-pounder) rendered it obsolescent by late 1942. Nonetheless, the Russians testified to the quality of the tank, stating that “after proof in battle we consider the Canadian-built Valentine Tank the best tank which we have received from any of our allies and we propose to ask for more…”
Quite a story and thanks to the Canadian pacific for the honor to their Canadian Veterans, and to Ame
I talked to my father about this once, and he seemed to recall CP getting serious about honouring veterans on Remembrance Day in the early sixties. He started working for CP in 1947, and didn’t remember significant observations in his early days on the railway.
Eventually, notices came our before Remembrance Day advising employees on procedures to be followed at 11:00 AM. They were required to wear a poppy (originally felt, when I was young, now plastic). As it states in the News Wire story trains were supposed to stop, but also back in timetable and train order days, dispatchers were to refrain from giving or repeating orders if it could be safely avoided. And telegraph use was to stop if it could be avoided.
Even if you were in a station by yourself, you were supposed to stand for two minutes silence. If you had customers in the station, everyone was to be silent and you could do no business for that two minutes.
Years later when we were talking, he said it turned out that during his time at Irricana it had never happened that he had to have a moment of silence while a customer was there. As for trains stopping, the mixed from Calgary usually couldn’t get to Irricana by 11:00 and he never knew if the crew actually stopped south of there.
If you are interested in this subject, on the CPR website, in the history section there is a very good downloadable article on the CPR’s involvement in the two World Wars.
There is a ceremony held outside CP’s head office in Calgary every year, started during Rob Ritchie’s presidency. A brass plaque that had been in storage was rescued after head office moved to Calgary and placed by the steam locomotive in front of the office tower. The attached picture shows the plaque after the crowd had disbanded. In Canada we call it Remembrance Day, over in Britain it is Armistice Day, but it is just different names for the same obligation we owe to those who fought and sometimes died that we might continue to live.
I’d like to mention that the primary purpose of our Rememberance day is to pay tribute to those who fell in battle, but it also allows us to salute our veterans. We don’t have a separate Memorial Day in Canada.
