The Soo Line’s Famous Trains to Canada

By Terry Gainer and Darryl Raymaker

The Soo Line’s Famous Trains To Canada is a brief history of a small and unique Class 1 railway and its famous Canada–USA tourist trains.

Initially chartered in 1883 to serve the needs of local millers in Minneapolis, the Soo would eventually come to join the Canadian Pacific line at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with service to Montreal. In 1888, Canadian Pacific assumed controlling interest in the Soo Line, providing entry into the lucrative US market and levelling the playing field for the CPR to face the onslaught of ferocious competition from James J. Hill, the infamous American railway baron.

The “little railway that could” grew to attain giant-killer status, launching famous passenger trains from Minneapolis and St. Paul, meeting head-on the western expansion of the Great Northern Railway and viable, competitive routes to the Atlantic seaboard. Over the years, the Soo Line introduced thousands of Americans to Montreal and Quebec City, the famous Canadian Rockies resorts, and the city of Vancouver, the home port for CP’s Pacific steamship services. The Soo also successfully competed on the Spokane and Portland routes from Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest. In 1923 the “Soo Mountaineer” was launched, becoming the most famous and longest “two-nation” train journey in North America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RMB Rocky Mountain Books
• Release date: Nov 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781771606721

Terry Gainer

Terry Gainer’s family arrived in Banff in 1948 when his father, Frank Gainer, was transferred there as station agent. From their arrival until 1955 the family lived in the residence atop the station itself. During those years, Terry explored every nook and cranny of the station and the surrounding grounds. From 1957 he worked summer jobs there, initially as a porter in the baggage room and then as a redcap through the summer of 1962, which was the bonanza year of the Seattle World’s Fair and the opening of the Trans-Canada Highway but unfortunately also the beginning of the end of train travel to Banff. Largely influenced by his upbringing, Terry has enjoyed a career that has been an amazing fifty-year adventure in tourism. Though he retired in 2005, he has stayed involved in the industry as a marketing consultant. Terry’s books include When Trains Ruled the Kootenays, When Trains Ruled the Rockies: My Life at the Banff Railway Station, and The Soo Line’s Famous Trains to Canada (Fall 2023). Terry lives in Nelson, British Columbia.

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