Through the winter of 1938-39, London and Ottawa were busy working out the details of a royal visit to North America. As Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had just returned from Germany with Hitler’s assurance that there would be no war for at least a year, it was considered safe to allow Their Majesties to leave the country and drum up support from Britain’s closest Dominion and its mighty neighbour. The royal train trip would be from one coast of Canada to the other and back, with a side trip to Washington and New York. The plan was that Their Majesties would visit every province and provincial capital, with day trips in large cities and whistle stops in smaller ones. The train would pull off into quiet (and secret) sidings at night so that all on board could sleep. If the city to be honoured was in the riding of a powerful Liberal politician, so much the better, for then, as now, the photo opportunity for a politician of greeting Their Majesties at the station was worth thousands of votes. This precipitated local politicians, mayors, Rotary clubs, and society hostesses to badger the Prime Minister’s Office for a few precious royal minutes and to warn of dire consequences in the next election if that did not happen. Where the train could not stop, the plan was that it would slow down and Their Majesties would drop everything and rush out to the platform and wave, affording the throngs of locals who had been waiting for hours a quick view of the King and Queen on the rear platform.
It was a heavy schedule, exhausting for everyone involved with the royal party —the Mounties, the press, the ladies-in-waiting, the hairdressers, the postal workers, and everyone on board. But no one was to work harder than Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who at every stop got off the train first and then rushed over to the royal car to greet Their Majesties, welcoming them to whichever city they were in and introducing them to the local politicians, their wives, and the aldermen.
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Joyce Evans, daughter of the Port Arthur City Clerk, presents a bouquet to the Queen, as W.L. Mackenzie King and C.D. Howe look on, May 23, 1939.
The grand railway tour was to begin on May 18, when Their Majesties would be driven from the Citadel at Quebec City to the railway station. Engineer Eugène Leclerc of Quebec, who had worked on the Royal Train in 1901 and had been in CPR service between Quebec City and Montreal for forty-eight years, had the honour of being the first engineer. The Royal Train would leave for Montreal, making sure it stopped on the way at Trois Rivières, Quebec, Premier Maurice Duplessis’s hometown. After Montreal it was on to Ottawa, then Toronto, with a brief stop at Kingston and Cobourg on the way. Through the Ontario highlands it would go, and then along the north shore of Lake Superior to Port Arthur, C.D. Howe’s riding. The train was to stop at Raith, Ontario, for servicing but only slow down at Kenora before arriving in Winnipeg. The Prairies would follow, with stops at Brandon, Regina (named for the King’s great-grandmother Victoria Regina), Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Medicine Hat, Calgary, and Banff, where the royal party was to rest. Through the Rockies they were to stop at Craigellachie, Salmon Arm, and finally Vancouver. On the return east, it was Vancouver to New Westminster, through the Fraser Valley to Jasper for a rest, and then on to Edmonton. They would stop at Wainwright, Biggar, Saskatoon, Waitrose, Melville, Portage la Prairie, and Sioux Lookout, then travel through to Toronto and then west to Guelph, Kitchener, Stratford, Chatham, and finally Windsor, where the royal party would stay overnight — quite a coup for up-and-coming local MP Paul Martin. In the evening the royal train was to arrive at Niagara Falls. Then it would traverse the undefended border into New York State, go down to Washington, and then make for Manhattan. At the New Jersey shoreline, the train would halt to allow Their Majesties to take a United States naval vessel to The Battery, Manhattan. The train would be waiting for them at Hyde Park Station, where the President’s home was, to take them back to Canada. Across the border, they would go through Levis, Rivière-du-Loup, and on to New Brunswick. They would reach Prince Edward Island by a destroyer, and then the royal train would be picked up again at New Glasgow. The last stops would be Truro and finally Halifax, where a liner would wait to take them home.
There were only two organizations in Canada capable of planning and executing the logistics of such a complex visit: the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway. Both railways were already proficient at VIP tours across Canada. CPR President Sir Edward Beatty set out on one annually, in his luxurious carriage “Wentworth” — named, like his golf club, with his middle name — to inspect his domain. More frequently, the CNR would take the Governor General about in his private carriage. With the first company private — and most of its shareholders British — and the second wholly owned by the Canadian government, it might be assumed that Mackenzie King (who loathed the CPR and its president) would give S.J. Hungerford, president of the Canadian National, a free hand in the whole royal trip. But in a typically Canadian gesture, both railways divided the trip — on land and sea, in hotels and lodges — between them, so that, if Their Majesties arrived at a Canadian National station, as in Montreal at Jean Talon, they would leave from Windsor Station, where the CPR had its headquarters. From Vancouver to Victoria they crossed on a CPR ferry the Princess Marguerite, but, on the return voyage, they used the government-owned ship Prince Robert. The trip west would be made on CPR tracks, the return journey on CNR tracks. Neither railway was to be given preference, and the King and Queen were told not to mention either in speeches or interviews. So important were the two railway presidents that, when Their Majesties stepped on shore at Wolfe’s Cove on May 17, after the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Ernest Lapointe, the next to be introduced were Beatty and Hungerford.
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When the royal train couldn’t stop: Their Majesties leaning out of the carriage, May 1939.
Of the royal train’s twelve cars, six were prepared in the Point St. Charles shops of the Canadian National Railways and six at the Angus Shops of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The former included the Governor General’s two private cars, in which the King and Queen travelled; No. 7, which the Lord-in-Waiting and the Lord Chamberlain used; the Canadian National compartment cars “Atlantic” (No. 6) and “Pacific” (No. 4), in which other members of the royal party were accommodated; and one of the new Canadian National diners, the most modern type recently put in service by the Canadian National and capable of seating forty people. The Canadian Pacific Railway also supplied the private car “Wentworth” (No. 5), which was used by the Prime Minister and his official staff; the Chambrette car “Grand Pré” (No. 8), which accommodated the Train Office and provided sleeping quarters for a number of officials; a Chambrette car (No. 3) for the personal servants of Their Majesties and the Mounties; a compartment sleeping car (No. 9), which was used chiefly by the protective forces, but also included a barber shop; a combination baggage and sleeper for part of the train staff (No. 11); and a baggage car (No. 12). In one end of the baggage car, an electric power plant was installed to furnish power for the passengers’ needs and to provide a refrigerated storage compartment for food supplies.
The King’s sitting room in Car No. 1 of the royal train used in the 1939 tour.
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The map in the sitting room on which Their Majesties plotted their progress across Canada in the royal train.