index

Immigration

On September 14, 1881 the first train crossed the new bridge over the Assiniboine. Nineteen days later the newly created site called Brandon saw its first train. The creation of a new city, destined to be the service centre for a huge expanse of farmland, proceeded… quickly.

By mid 1882 three thousand people lived here, 200 businesses were established, and thousands were passing through on their way to new homes on the vast prairie.

In 1887 the original CPR Station was replaced by an attractive new building, reminiscent of an English Country Inn.

Two views of the second CPR Station

That building in turn was replaced in 1911 by a large modern structure, destined to become a highly visible landmark at the base of Brandon’s busy 10th Street.

A David Munn photo of the “New Station.

By 1907 the CPR had 600 people on the Brandon and area payroll. And by then it was just one of three major railway companies connecting Brandon to the world.

Some historians have estimated that by 1912 about 300 passenger trains and 500 freight trains passed through Brandon each week. Compare that to today when 18-24 trains pass over the same tracks.

Alternate modes of transportation - Archives of Manitoba

Throughout western Manitoba there are countless pioneers stories that begin something like this:

“Moses Calverley left Hagersville, Ontario, and came by train to Brandon, then set out on foot to search for his own virgin land.“

“Mrs. Morrison and her baby son came west, traveling to Brandon to the end of the steel, then by team and wagon to Hartney, …”

“Upon their arrival in Brandon, they (the Thomas Reid family) pitched tents on Rosser Avenue where the women and children remained while the men went on to prepare shelter and find homesteads.”

“During this time, I (John More) used to get off for a few days in the summer to look for land, but did not succeed until 1885, when I took the train to Brandon and walked to Deloraine.”

The train brought may settlers to Brandon but transportation to their homestead often required more traditional methods. Archives of Manitoba

Freight and Mail

In addition to moving people, the new rail line was a giant leap forward in terms of freight when compared to the ox cart and the steamboat. This enabled the explosion of building that created this new city and the dozens of smaller towns springing up in the region.

Regular trips to Brandon for supplies were a way of life for pioneers in Westman.

The railway was such an improvement in transporting goods that the T. Eaton Company, and a few others, sold houses (and barns, and churches, and school houses!) from their catalogue.

The house portion of Eaton's merchandise was a Western Canadian phenomenon only. Houses were advertised only in the Winnipeg catalogue and in special plan books.

The lumber came by boxcar from British Columbia and the millwork came from Winnipeg. Freight was paid to the nearest railway station.
Step by step instructions were included.

The Wheat City

The same trains that brought the tons of lumber and farm implements went back east loaded with grain. For nearly ten years, while the region’s farmers waited for branch lines, most of that grain travelled through Brandon.

At its peak in the late 1930s, there were about 19 such grain elevators lining Pacific Avenue, "a solid wall of grain elevators from First to 18th." A Brandon Souvenir

Pioneer farmers had these memories…

“Early farming was difficult and laborious. Seed was scattered by hand and harrowed in with Couver harrows. Grain was hauled, first to Brandon, then to Deloraine before the railway finally arrived at Hartney.”   George Morrison

“The first grain was hauled to Brandon for sale. Prices were very low and it seemed the further you were from the railway, the less money you had to take home after paying for stopping houses and food.”   Mrs. Elizabeth Weightman

“For the first few years the grain had to be hauled to Brandon to be traded, in part, for flour, tea, sugar and other commodities. No doubt, lumber was brought on the return trip to build the first school in the area.”   Nathaniel Barber:
Delivered to Your Door…

Brandon Brewing Company - Archives of Manitoba

Short spur lines like the one in to the Brandon Brewing Company provided excellent service to businesses.
And travellers on the Canadian Northern found the station adjacent to Brandon’s finest hotel…. and close to many others.

Convenient access to the Prince eddy. Photo BATM

When military training centres such as Camp Hughes and The Air Training Centre opened nearby – a direct link was required.

Silk Trains

As the economy developed, the trains carried a wider assortment of goods into the new city, stocking the stores with consumer items from around the world. Trains proved especially valuable where time of delivery was crucial.
The speed of travel on the rail was soon put to commercial benefit with the Silk Trains. Special airtight freight cars were "fast tracked" to Fort William, now Thunder Bay, or beyond, as far a s New York.

The value of the cargo was so great that the only passengers were guards.

"The Silk" used to make a five-minute stop in Brandon on its runs during two decades of service early in the century. During this stop the locomotive would be changed and a quick check made of the running gear.
Nothing interrupted The Silk's schedule. Even a special train bearing Prince George (later King George VI) eastward in December, 1924 had to be pulled onto a side track to allow The Silk to pass.
Speed was essential because the railways paid a high daily insurance while the cargo was being transported. Even during the Twenties a cargo of silk leaving Yokohama on the Empress of Canada arrived in New York City thirteen days later. A record trip was made between Brandon and Winnipeg in 1924 - 133 miles in 131 minutes.
The Silk service was discontinued in the mid-thirties when there was no longer a demand for silk. A former Silk fireman, Alex Stelmack, once resided in Brandon.

Special Duty

There were also times when the railways were called upon, and able, to provide some unlikely services.

In the days before home refrigerators, ice was a valued commodity. A large icehouse, located between the CPR tracks and Assiniboine Avenue at 3rd Street, was filled with blocks of ice from the Assiniboine River each winter and later shipped via refrigerator cars.

When the icehouse caught fire, steam switch engines were used as fire engines. A hose carried in a box under the tender was fitted into a branch of the boiler feed pipe (discharge pipe). When the injector was turned on it gave a nozzle pressure of over 200 psi.

Another service was provided when an explosion at the 10th Street steam plant left Brandon without heat. CN stepped up to the call and set locomotives on a siding and ran pipe to provide Brandon with much needed steam power/heat for the duration of the outage.