Collection Being Digitized

Canadian Pacific Railway Collection

The Canadian Pacific Railway Photograph Collection comprises images depicting the history of the CPR in British Columbia. These images provide a fascinating insight into the role of the railway in the development of the province. The pictures portray rural and urban railway stations; railway bridges that are true engineering feats reaching out across the challenging topography of the province; the workers who laid the tracks and manned the locomotives; the passengers who travelled on the railway; and a myriad of buildings, hotels, yards and ships, all of which were part of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. The pictures were captured by various photographers and they range in date from the 1880s to the 1950s.

Approximately 1,500 images from this collection are now digitized and available for searching via this website.

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Photograph (top): VPL #423; C.P.R. locomotive and box cars on Salmon River steel bridge, Thompson subdivision. 1909.