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72-624: In the early 1900s, the Government of Canada envisioned a new northern transcontinental railway to complement Canada's first transcontinental railway which ran closer to the Canada–US border. The Grand Trunk Railway under the subsidiary Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was contracted to construct and operate the Western Canadian portion of the new line after legislation was passed by Parliament in 1903. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway followed

144-769: A Major General, he was appointed inspector general of Allied transportation. In 1919 he became a British subject, and King George V made him a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire . Thornton was also named an officer of the Order of Leopold and a Companion of the Legion of Honor of France. He received the Distinguished Service Medal from the United States. In 1922 Thornton

216-555: A broad gauge ( Provincial Gauge ) of 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ); however, this was changed to the standard gauge of 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) between 1872 and 1885 to facilitate interchange with U.S. railroads. To overcome the gauge difference , the GTR experimented with a form of variable-gauge axles called "adjustable gauge trucks", but these proved unreliable. The GTR system expanded throughout southern Ontario , western Quebec, and

288-579: A design completed by the company, a proposed lease for 42 years, and suggested rent of $ 500 per year. However, the agreement was delayed by questions concerning school lands, and which department had jurisdiction over the waterways in the park. While the delay continued, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway developed plans for two additional hotels, one near the Jasper townsite on Snape's Hill with an attached golf course allegedly designed with

360-726: A federal government Board of Management until finally being placed under the control of the Crown corporation Canadian National Railways (CNR) on July 20, 1920. GTR underwent serious financial difficulties as a result of the GTPR, and its shareholders, primarily in the United Kingdom, were determined to prevent the company from being nationalized as well. Eventually on July 12, 1920, GTR was placed under control of another federal government Board of Management while legal battles continued for several more years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, GTR

432-617: A ferry service was established across the St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot (now Port Huron, Michigan ). The Grand Trunk was one of the main factors that pushed British North America towards Confederation . The original colonial economy structured along the water route from the Maritimes up the St. Lawrence River and the lower Great Lakes was greatly expanded by the duplicate route of the Grand Trunk. The explosive growth in trade during

504-454: A four wing design that blended with the original bungalows and natural environment. The new concrete foundation was poured in late-September, and the steel-frame structure and roof were completed before winter weather came to Jasper. The new Central Lodge was completed on June 9, 1953. Jasper Park Lodge was sold to Canadian Pacific Hotels in 1988 with a commitment to become a year-round resort destination. A five-year restoration and development

576-457: A number of small cabins made of rustic logs and fieldstone sprawling across the landscape, rather than the traditional large resort hotel. Henry Worth Thornton , the new president of Canadian National Railways, visited Jasper in January 1923, and viewed the development favourably, as he sought to expand tourist developments along the rail line. During the winter of 1922–23, construction began on

648-476: A result of burns. The fire believed to be started due to defective wiring, was discovered around 9 p.m. by an employee in the cloakroom, and attempts by the staff to contain the blaze with a fire extinguisher were not successful as the fire spread into the main part of the building. The guests evacuated the lodge, while the on-site band continued to play Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to calm the evacuating guests, and then left shortly afterwards. The town fire department

720-621: A third railway system from the Atlantic to the Pacific. GTR would build (with federal assistance) and operate the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR) from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Prince Rupert, British Columbia , while the government would build and own the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) from Winnipeg to Moncton , New Brunswick via Quebec City , which the GTR would also operate. As part of this program,

792-489: A very large loan and had enacted legislation authorizing debt restructuring . These arrangements allowed the company to float new bond issues to replace existing debt and to issue securities in lieu of interest. Charles Melville Hays joined the Grand Trunk in 1895 as general manager (and in 1909, president, based in Montreal). Hays was the architect of the great expansion during a colourful and free-spending era. He upgraded

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864-451: A year-round transportation system that British reinforcements could use should their territory be attacked during winter when the St. Lawrence River was frozen, and the only railway for British reinforcements to use would be the Grand Trunk connection at Portland, in the United States. Many citizens thought that the only way to finish the Grand Trunk – and protect the country – would be to unite all

936-506: Is speculated to have contributed to poor management of GTR over the ensuing decade, and also contributed to the abandonment of the uncompleted Southern New England Railway to Providence, Rhode Island , begun in 1910. Construction started on the GTPR/NTR in 1905, and the GTPR opened to traffic in 1914, followed by the NTR in 1915. It was a transcontinental system, with the only exception being

1008-516: The Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway . The original charter was for a line running from Montreal to Toronto mostly along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River . It quickly expanded its charter eastward to Portland, Maine , and westward to Sarnia , Ontario. Over time it added many subsidiary lines and branches, including four important subsidiaries: A fifth subsidiary

1080-847: The Central Vermont Railway . The main goal of the corporation, headquartered in Detroit , was to make GTW profitable and keep parent CN from having to subsidize GTW's losses. CN sold off the Central Vermont in 1995 when CN became a public traded company instead of a crown corporation. CN continued to place its US acquisitions as subsidiaries under the Grand Trunk Corporation which includes Illinois Central , Wisconsin Central , and Great Lakes Transportation . The Association of American Railroads considers

1152-548: The Icefields Parkway connecting the park to Banff was completed. In 1939, 3,100 automobiles and 21,000 people were recorded entering Jasper National Park, which jumped to 19,000 automobiles and 83,000 people in 1940. The growth in tourism was short lived as Canada entered the Second World War , and Jasper Park Lodge closed to the public in fall of 1942 until spring of 1946 to contribute to the war effort. In

1224-611: The Jasper wildfire destroyed or damaged a number of structures, but the main lodge was spared. The wide-open valley along Lac Beauvert made the prospect of a golf course in the area feasible, and in 1922 the Dominion Parks Branch decided to build a golf course for use by visitors and Jasper residents. A simple nine-hole course was designed by Charlie Duncan, a golf professional from Banff, and work began on clearing boulders and bush. After slow construction in 1922 and 1923,

1296-810: The Pittsburgh office. He was promoted to supervisory engineer in 1899 and District Superintendent in 1901. He was appointed as general superintendent of Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railroad , part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system in Ohio, in 1901. In 1912 he was named general superintendent of the Long Island Rail Road . In 1914, Thornton was made general manager of the Great Eastern Railway Company Ltd . Thornton served during World War I . As

1368-556: The 1850s within the United Province of Canada and further east by water to the Maritimes demanded that a railway link the entire geopolitical region. During this time the GTR extended its line to Lévis further east to Rivière-du-Loup . By 1860, the Grand Trunk was on the verge of bankruptcy and in no position to expand further east to Halifax . On the eve of the American Civil War , it stretched from Sarnia in

1440-547: The Canadian National Railway approached the Canadian government with an offer to take over the construction of the golf course. The Canadian National Railway commissioned Canadian golf course architect Stanley Thompson to design the 18-hole course. The 35-hectare (86-acre) site was cleared in the summer of 1923 by a team of 250 men, which found the topsoil insufficient for growing thick grass necessary for

1512-555: The First World War, hitting the first ball. The course was renovated in 1928–29 in preparation for the Canadian Amateur Championship . In 1930, a clubhouse was constructed for the course, as well as a 23-bedroom building for golfers. The Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club held an annual "Totem Pole Tournament" from the 1920s to the 1950s, which was won by actor Bing Crosby in 1947. The original design had

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1584-477: The GTR, occurring on June 29, 1864, when a passenger train operating between Lévis and Montreal missed a signal for an open drawbridge on the Richelieu River near the present-day town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec , plunging onto a passing barge and killing 99 German immigrants. Canadian Rail speculated in 1963 that an independent GTR might have survived had it always used standard gauge. The GTR

1656-583: The Grand Trunk Corporation as a Class I railroad . The Portland, Maine-Chicago, Illinois mainline of the Grand Trunk is or was known by the following names: The Montreal-Toronto segment had been known by the following names: The Grand Trunk Railway Building on Warwick House Street in London continues to stand. Built by Aston Webb , the 7 storey building was built in 1907 with the banner The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada on 4 Warwick House Street and Canadian National Railway on Cockspur Street. CN no longer owns

1728-593: The Grand Trunk. Sir Joseph Hickson was a key executive from 1874 to 1890 based in Montreal who kept it afloat financially and formed an alliance with the Conservative party. Carlos and Lewis (1995) show that it managed to survive because its British investors accurately assessed the corporation's value and prospects, which included the likelihood that the Canadian government would bail out the railway should it ever default on its bonds. The government had guaranteed

1800-812: The Interior Frank Oliver seeking land and the exclusive privilege to build and operate hotels in the Jasper Forest Park. Hays was eager to emulate the success of the Canadian Pacific Railway 's grand hotels in Banff, Lake Louise, and Rogers Pass. Hays sought to build the Chateau Miette hotel near the Miette Hot Springs , and gain an exclusive lease for a rail line to the springs. The proposed location

1872-457: The NTR's ill-fated Quebec Bridge , which would not be completed for several more years. The first indication the arrangement with the government was faltering came when GTR refused to operate the NTR, citing economic reasons. With the enormous cost of building the GTPR and the limited financial returns being realized, GTR defaulted on loan payments to the federal government in 1919. GTPR was nationalized on March 7 of that year, being operated under

1944-570: The U.S. are still in active use by Canadian National (CN) today, particularly the Quebec City–Chicago corridor by way of Drummondville , Montreal , Kingston , Toronto, London, Sarnia /Port Huron, and Battle Creek . Following deregulation of the railway industry in Canada and the United States, CN has abandoned or sold many former GTR and GTW branch lines in recent decades, including the former Portland–Montreal main line which had instigated

2016-463: The U.S. state of Michigan over the years by purchasing and absorbing numerous smaller railway companies, as well as building new lines. GTR's largest purchase came on August 12, 1882, when it bought the 1,371-kilometre (852 mi) Great Western Railway , running from Niagara Falls to Toronto, and connecting to London , Windsor , and communities in the Bruce Peninsula . The company sold

2088-416: The area, asked the railways to construct cheap log cabins on the three sites. Jasper in the early 1900s had a few hotels established during the construction of the railway, with eight listed as established in 1911. The earlies form of tourist accommodation along Lac Beauvert came in 1915 when Robert Kenneth of Edmonton, along with the pioneer outfitters Fred and Jack Brewster established "Tent City". Tent City

2160-569: The assistance of Arthur Conan Doyle , and a second hotel on the south shore of Pyramid Lake . These plans came to a halt in 1914 when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway ran low on funds and was nationalized in 1919 to form the Canadian National Railway. The failure of the railway came when the Government of Canada was finally prepared to approve the Miette lease, and later in February 1915, the Canadian government desperate for any form of accommodation in

2232-569: The building. The current tenant on the lower floor is The Original London Tour Centre at 17–19 Cockspur Street. In Series 3, Episode 1 of Downton Abbey , which takes place during the spring of 1920, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham learns that he has lost most of the fortune that he received from his wife Cora , which Lord Grantham had largely invested in Grand Trunk Railway stock. Henry Worth Thornton Sir Henry Worth Thornton , KBE (November 6, 1871 – March 14, 1933)

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2304-546: The colonies into a federation so that they could share the costs of an expanded railway system. Thus the British North America Act, 1867 included the provision for an Intercolonial Railway to link with the Grand Trunk at Rivière-du-Loup. The end of the American Civil War saw British North America on the verge of uniting in a single federation, and the GTR's financial prospects improved as

2376-426: The course. The Canadian National Railway bought a quarter-section of farm land near Edmonton, stripped the topsoil and loaded it into trains to Jasper at great expense to complete the golf course. A 190,000-litre concrete dam was built along the mountainside to hold water for the course. The Jasper Park Lodge Golf Club opened on July 17, 1925, with Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig , the commander in chief of British Forces in

2448-664: The development of the system to a large degree. As well, a part of the original Toronto–Sarnia routing via St. Mary's Junction and Forest to Point Edward, Ontario , was sold or abandoned, using the Great Western Railway routing instead. CN continues to use the "Grand Trunk" name for its holding company the Grand Trunk Corporation . The corporation was created in 1971 to provide autonomy in operation for CN's US subsidiaries: Grand Trunk Western Railroad ; Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway ; and

2520-527: The federal government encouraged the GTR to purchase the Canada Atlantic Railway (CAR) with lines southeast from Ottawa to Vermont, and west from Ottawa to Georgian Bay . The GTR took effective control of the CAR in 1905, although the purchase was not ratified by Parliament until 1914. The routing of these systems was extremely speculative, as GTPR's main line was located farther north than

2592-823: The film shoot for repeatedly dressing inappropriately for dinner. Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (( reporting mark GT ); French : Grand Tronc ) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut , Maine , Michigan , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , and Vermont . The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal , Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London , United Kingdom (4 Warwick House Street). It cost an estimated $ 160 million to build. The Grand Trunk system and

2664-530: The filming for the Bing Crosby film The Emperor Waltz in 1946, with the location becoming a favorite of Crosby, returning multiple times over the years to compete in the Jasper Park Lodge's annual golf tournament. In the 1950s the Jasper Park Lodge hosted Marilyn Monroe 's River of No Return , and James Stewart 's The Far Country . Monroe was evicted from the Jasper Park Lodge during

2736-404: The fire 26 guests chose to leave Jasper Park Lodge, and the remaining guests stayed while operations at the hotel returned. At the time of the fire, Jasper Park Lodge had a rough plan for a new Central Lodge underway, and construction of the new design began within weeks of the fire. The new $ 3-million, 7,000-square-metre design included fire-proof steel, concrete, fieldstone and a cedar roof, with

2808-636: The first Victoria Bridge at Montreal (replaced by the present structure in 1898); the bridging of the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York ; and the construction of a tunnel beneath the St. Clair River, connecting Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan. The latter work opened in August 1890 and replaced the railcar ferry at the same location. Common during 19th century railway construction in British colonies, GTR built to

2880-564: The line along the St. Lawrence River between Rivière-du-Loup and Lévis in 1879 to the federal government-owned Intercolonial Railway (IRC), and granted running rights in 1889 to the IRC on trackage between Lévis and Montreal (via Richmond); however, the IRC's construction of a more direct line from Lévis to Saint-Hyacinthe in 1899 saw most of this traffic transferred to that line. As the dominant railway in British North America, GTR

2952-466: The new $ 461,000 Central Lodge and a number of new outlying bungalows designed by English architect Godfrey Milnes. The design of the Central Lodge used peeled logs on a fieldstone foundation, included lounges, dining room, snack room, kitchen, administrative offices, a large stone fireplace mounted animal heads, and was touted as the largest single-storey log building in the world. The Central Lodge

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3024-540: The new provinces of Quebec and Ontario. By 1880, the Grand Trunk Railway system stretched all the way from Portland in the east to Chicago, Illinois, in the west (by means of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad between Port Huron and Chicago). Several impressive construction feats were associated with the GTR: the first successful bridging of the St. Lawrence River on August 25, 1860, with the opening of

3096-541: The newly nationalized Canadian National Railways purchased "Tent City" and began plans for a hotel on the site, with the first bungalow opening in June 1922 under the name "Jasper Park Lodge". The Canadian National Railway's chief architect, John Schofield , envisioned a hotel that altered the Athabasca Valley's view as little as possible, and blended seamlessly into the natural surroundings. Schofield planned for

3168-571: The ninth hole situated far from the clubhouse, so three additional holes were constructed in 1950 to allow golfers to play nine holes and finish at the clubhouse. A new clubhouse was constructed in 1968 with a pro shop included. The Jasper Park Lodge has been featured and used in various films, TV shows and other forms of media. The first feature film at the lodge was the 1926 Fox Film Corporation The Country Beyond , three years later Fox returned with Under Suspicion , and director W. S. Van Dyke 's Rose Marie in 1936. The Jasper Park Lodge hosted

3240-701: The original Sandford Fleming "Canadian Pacific Survey" route from Jasper, Alberta through the Yellowhead Pass , which reached the Alberta/British Columbia border in November 1911. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway's lines largely through the Yellowhead Pass were largely duplicated by Canadian Northern Railway shortly after construction. In March 1911, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway president Charles Melville Hays wrote Minister of

3312-654: The profitable CPR main line in the Prairies, and NTR was located even farther north of populous centres in Ontario and Quebec. Construction costs on the GTPR escalated, despite having the most favourable crossing of the Continental Divide in North America at Yellowhead Pass . GTR's cost-conscious president Charles Melville Hays was one of the victims on board RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. His death

3384-401: The railway was well-positioned to take advantage of increased population and economic growth. By 1867, it had become the largest railroad system in the world by accumulating more than 2,055 km (1,277 mi) of track that connected locations between its ocean port at Portland, Maine , its river port at Rivière-du-Loup, the three northern New England states, and much of the southern areas of

3456-592: The same year it purchased the Toronto and Guelph Railroad , whose railway was already under construction. But the Grand Trunk Railway Company changed the original route of the T&;G and extended the line to Sarnia, a hub for Chicago -bound traffic. In October of 1856, the section from Montreal to Toronto opened, while the line from Toronto to Sarnia was finished in November of 1859. Also in 1859,

3528-586: The size of the building, and more cabins were built around Lac Beauvert. Additional new cabins were built between 1928 and 1931, including the luxury cabins Point, Outlook and Viewpoint, and other small cabins lifting the hotel's capacity to 550 guests. King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited Jasper during the 1939 royal tour of Canada , staying in the Outlook Cabin. Tourism in Jasper National Park grew significantly in 1940 as

3600-404: The takeover of the GTR by CNR in 1923 and were operated by Canadian National Hotels : Grand Trunk Railway was built fully a century before major property and highway development took place in the various jurisdictions it crossed and as such had the choice of geography in selecting the most direct routes. As a result, significant sections of GTR mainlines in Canada and Grand Trunk Western routes in

3672-614: The tracks, bridges, shops and rolling stock, but was best known for building huge grain elevators and elaborate tourist hotels such as the Château Laurier in Ottawa. Hays blundered in 1903 by building a subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company some 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi) long; it reached Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia in 1914. The government built and the Grand Trunk

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3744-465: The virtual monopoly of service that CPR maintained and the lucrative increasing flows of immigrants west of Ontario. The federal government encouraged GTR to co-operate with a local railway company operating on the Prairies , the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), but an agreement was never reached. CNoR decided to build its own transcontinental system at this time, forcing GTR in 1903 to enter into an agreement with Wilfrid Laurier 's government to build

3816-421: The west to Rivière-du-Loup in the east and Portland in the southeast. Colonists in the United Province of Canada, some of whom had experienced their territory being attacked by the United States fifty years earlier (in the War of 1812 ), were uncomfortably close to the giant Union Army and faced terrorist attacks during the mid-19th century in the form of Fenian raids . Such security concerns led to demands for

3888-404: The winter of 1943–44, Jasper Park Lodge was used as a winter training base for the Scottish Lovat Scouts special mountain troops. Many of the original log bungalows were replaced in the late-1940s through to the 1960s in a modernization program. On July 15, 1952, a fire broke out at the Central Lodge, destroying the entire building. One employee who marshalled guests out of the building died as

3960-460: Was a businessman. Thornton served as general superintendent of the Long Island Rail Road from 1911 to 1914, general manager of the Great Eastern Railway in England from 1914 to 1922, and president of the Canadian National Railways from 1922 to 1932. His parents were Henry Clay Thornton and Millamenta Comegys Worth. Thornton was educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire , , where he met James A. McCrea, son of James McCrea who

4032-435: Was a private company headquartered in England that received heavy Canadian government subsidies and was never profitable because of competition from shipping and American railways. (In 1880 40% of the Grand Trunk traffic was from one or another American city to and from Chicago, taking a shortcut across Ontario.) Inflated construction costs, overestimated revenues, and an inadequate initial capitalization threatened bankruptcy for

4104-728: Was added to the Lodge in fall 2010. In 2015–16, a $ 16 million renovation to all rooms (Fairmont, Deluxe, Junior Suites and Lakefront Suites) was completed to modernize the décor. Orso Trattoria , the hotel's first Italian restaurant, was also added to the dining options, which includes the Nook Chophouse, Emerald Lounge & Patio, Thompson's Terrace and Oka Sushi. In 2015, the French hospitality company Accor paid $ 2.9 billion to acquire FRHI Hotels & Resorts including several historic Canadian hotels including Jasper Park Lodge, Hotel Macdonald , Banff Springs Hotel , Chateau Lake Louise , Château Frontenac , Château Laurier , Fairmont Royal York and Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel . In 2024,

4176-423: Was built using logs from the construction site and others cut from the nearby Maligne Canyon , with planed lumber hardwood floors brought from out of the area by train, and western red cedar from British Columbia for upright pillars. By 1925, Jasper Park Lodge consisted of over 50 log structures, and by 1927 there was accommodation for 425 guests. In 1927 and 1928, the central lodge was expanded more than doubling

4248-413: Was completed in 1923. The Grand Trunk lines in the United States, however, kept their distinctive name. The Grand Trunk legacy seeped into late 20th century popular culture, when a hard rock trio from Flint, Michigan , called itself Grand Funk Railroad in 1969. Like the CPR and CNR, the GTR began building and operating hotels during the first two decades of the 20th century. Most of the hotels survived

4320-404: Was completed in 1994 to the 442 guest rooms and public amenities. Canadian Pacific Hotels was reorganized in 2001 and formed into Fairmont Hotels and Resorts . In 2006, the Jasper Park Lodge was purchased by Oxford Properties , the real estate investment arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) , but it is operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts . A $ 6.7 million Fairmont spa

4392-411: Was delayed as the telephone lines from the lodge were burnt before a call for assistance could be made, and the fire was reported from a forest fire lookout who initially believed the blaze was a controlled brush burn. Staff members, guests, RCMP, Jasper volunteer fire fighters, Canadian army personnel and pipeline workers assembled to fight the fire and prevent the spread to other cabins in the park. After

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4464-416: Was established with ten large sleeping tents with wooden walls and floors, and a cooking tent constructed along the lake front. Accommodation at Tent City was set at $ 2.50 or $ 3.00 per day, and a weekly rate of $ 15 or $ 18 was available and over 260 visitors stayed at the accommodation over the summer. The camp which officially opened on July 15, 1915, with regular attendees and a group from The Canadian Press ,

4536-553: Was forced to resign, denied a pension, and removed from the Board of Directors of a local bank. Disgraced, Thornton moved to New York City , where he died less than a year later from pneumonia and complications from surgery. Thornton Park (across from former CN Pacific Central Station ) and Thornton Street in Vancouver and hotel (Sir Henry Thornton Village at former CN Hotel Jasper Park Lodge ) in Canada, are named after Thornton. He delivered commencement addresses at MIT and Syracuse and earned an honorary doctorate from his alma mater,

4608-425: Was fully absorbed into the CNR on a date when all constituent companies were merged into the Crown corporation. At the time that the GTR was fully merged into CNR, approximately 125 smaller railway companies comprised the Grand Trunk system, totalling 12,800 kilometres (8,000 mi) in Canada and 1,873 kilometres (1,164 mi) in the United States. Canada's worst railway accident based on loss of life happened on

4680-455: Was identified later in 1911 by Arthur Oliver Wheeler whom the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway commissioned to map the Jasper Park and Mount Robson region to identify sites for hotels, chalets, and trails. The Government of Canada was not interested in providing an exclusive rights, and instead sought to offer land through a lease system. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and local government officials were prepared to come to an agreement in 1912, with

4752-434: Was named chairman of the board and president of the Canadian National Railways and tasked with modernizing and amalgamating several lines. He championed passenger comfort, introducing onboard radios and establishing of a radio network along the route (a precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ) and investing in hotels in communities served by the railway. When the Conservative Party came to power in 1932, Thornton

4824-407: Was reportedly asked by the federal government soon after Confederation to consider building a rail line to the Pacific coast at British Columbia but refused, forcing the government to enact legislation creating the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to meet British Columbia's conditions for joining Confederation. By the early 20th century, GTR desired to operate in Western Canada , particularly given

4896-460: Was soon extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia, Canada West . In 1853 the GTR purchased the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad from Montreal to the Canada East – Vermont border, and the parent company Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad through to the harbour facilities at Portland. A line was also built to Lévis , via Richmond from Montreal in 1855, part of the much-talked about " Maritime connection" in British North America . In

4968-399: Was successful in the summer of 1915, but failed to reopen after the end of the 1915 season due to the First World War . On June 5, 1919, Jack and Fred Brewster returned from the war and purchased Tent City from Robert Kenneth and reopened the site. The 1919 season proved to be a success and the Brewsters expanded the camp in 1920 with a log kitchen, dining room, and dance pavilion. In 1921,

5040-406: Was the never-completed Southern New England Railway , chartered in 1910, which would have run from a connection with the Central Vermont at Palmer, Massachusetts , to the deep-water, all-weather port of Providence, Rhode Island . The company was incorporated on November 10, 1852, as the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada to build a railway line between Montreal and Toronto . The charter

5112-418: Was then president of Pennsylvania Railroad . After graduating, Thornton attended the University of Pennsylvania , where he played football and served as class president during his freshman year. Upon graduation in 1894, he coached the Vanderbilt football team to a 7–1 record. Also in 1894, Thornton began his career in the railroad business, entering as a draftsman of the Pennsylvania Railroad based in

5184-575: Was to operate the National Transcontinental to link the main Grand Trunk with its Pacific subsidiary. The very expensive subsidiary was far north of major population centres and had too little traffic. Nearing bankruptcy in 1919, the entire system was nationalized: the government merged the Grand Trunk, the Grand Trunk Pacific, and the National Transcontinental lines into the new Canadian National Railways. The process

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