Canadian Locomotives, 1860-1905 (First Day Cover)

ID# 5,808

Canadian Locomotives, 1860-1905, 64¢ CP Class D10a 4-6-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID# 5,804

Canadian Locomotives, 1860-1905, 37¢ GT Class E3 2-6-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID# 5,802

Canadian Locomotives, 1836-1860 64¢ Adam Brown 4-4-0 Type (First Day Cover)ID

ID # 6,434

Because the mid-1980's will mark the centennial of "The Last Spike" and the 150th anniversary of the first Canadian railway, the Canada Post Corporation will commence a series of train stamps. This is a continuation of the stamp series featuring Canadian transportation, which was begun in 1975 with ships and followed by airplanes. The stamps will recall the days when the railroad was "an image of man, a tradition, a code of honour, a source of poetry, a nursery of boyhood desires, a sublimest of toys, and the most solemn machine - next to the funeral hearse - that marks the epochs in a man's life." The first Canadian railroad, the Champlain and St. Lawrence, opened for business on 21 July 1836. On that date the Dorchester, a locomotive imported from England, pulled two coaches from La Prairie to Dorchester (later St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu) and back. Like many early Canadian lines, the Champlain and St. Lawrence was a portage railway, a short cut between the Richelieu River and Montreal, saving ninety miles of river travel. Mine railroads also gained prominence at this time. In 1838 the Samson, the first locomotive in the Maritimes, began running from the Frood coal mine to the Pictou wharf. By 1850, British North America boasted about sixty-six miles of railway. A construction boom over the next ten years raised the total to 2065 miles. By 1860, an uninterrupted stretch of track connected Sarnia, Montreal, and the Atlantic coast at Portland, Maine. Most contemporary Canadian railroads hoped to tap the lucrative American market, but failed to do so. They depended heavily on government financing and foreign capital, lacked sufficient customers, and suffered financial headaches. Most locomotives, such as the Birkenhead-type Adam Brown, were still imported. Nevertheless, in the 1850's some Canadian railroads began building their own to meet North American conditions. Among these was the Toronto, the first locomotive manufactured in Canada West, built in Toronto in 1853. The locomotive stamps were designed by Ernst Roch of Montreal. The format chosen, which presents the locomotives in profile against a plain background colour, are ideal for presenting the mechanical complexity that makes locomotives so visually interesting. The principal challenge of designing these stamps was to simplify the engines to make a sufficiently strong graphic statement at stamp size without sacrificing significant detail.
Canada Post Corporation. [Postage Stamp Press Release], 1983.

Canadian Locomotives, 1836-1860 32¢ Toronto 4-4-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 6,437

Canadian Locomotives, 1836-1860 64¢ Adam Brown 4-4-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 6,433

Because the mid-1980's will mark the centennial of "The Last Spike" and the 150th anniversary of the first Canadian railway, the Canada Post Corporation will commence a series of train stamps. This is a continuation of the stamp series featuring Canadian transportation, which was begun in 1975 with ships and followed by airplanes. The stamps will recall the days when the railroad was "an image of man, a tradition, a code of honour, a source of poetry, a nursery of boyhood desires, a sublimest of toys, and the most solemn machine - next to the funeral hearse - that marks the epochs in a man's life." The first Canadian railroad, the Champlain and St. Lawrence, opened for business on 21 July 1836. On that date the Dorchester, a locomotive imported from England, pulled two coaches from La Prairie to Dorchester (later St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu) and back. Like many early Canadian lines, the Champlain and St. Lawrence was a portage railway, a short cut between the Richelieu River and Montreal, saving ninety miles of river travel. Mine railroads also gained prominence at this time. In 1838 the Samson, the first locomotive in the Maritimes, began running from the Frood coal mine to the Pictou wharf. By 1850, British North America boasted about sixty-six miles of railway. A construction boom over the next ten years raised the total to 2065 miles. By 1860, an uninterrupted stretch of track connected Sarnia, Montreal, and the Atlantic coast at Portland, Maine. Most contemporary Canadian railroads hoped to tap the lucrative American market, but failed to do so. They depended heavily on government financing and foreign capital, lacked sufficient customers, and suffered financial headaches. Most locomotives, such as the Birkenhead-type Adam Brown, were still imported. Nevertheless, in the 1850's some Canadian railroads began building their own to meet North American conditions. Among these was the Toronto, the first locomotive manufactured in Canada West, built in Toronto in 1853. The locomotive stamps were designed by Ernst Roch of Montreal. The format chosen, which presents the locomotives in profile against a plain background colour, are ideal for presenting the mechanical complexity that makes locomotives so visually interesting. The principal challenge of designing these stamps was to simplify the engines to make a sufficiently strong graphic statement at stamp size without sacrificing significant detail.
Canada Post Corporation. [Postage Stamp Press Release], 1983.

Australian 5¢ Standard gauge rail link 1970 Stamp (First Day Cover)

ID # 36,711

Canadian Locomotives, 1860-1905, 32¢ (First Day Cover)

ID # 5,807

The period between 1860 and 1905 was marked by spectacular growth in the Canadian railway system, thanks to the birth of the Canadian nation and the resulting geographic expansion. Long before Confederation, the British had seen the building of a railway system as a timesaving link between the mother country and her Pacific colonies. Later, the discovery of gold in British Columbia led to the creation of a new British colony, which became a Canadian province in 1871 on the strength of the young Canadian government's promise to build a railway. Thus in 1876 the Intercolonial Railway system was completed, and in 1886 the Canadian Pacific inaugurated its transcontinental line. The Scotia, built in 1861 in the Great Western Railway's shops in Hamilton, was the first Canadian locomotive with a steel boiler. The Countess of Dufferin, purchased from the Northern Pacific in the United States and brought to Winnipeg in October 1877, was the first locomotive to see service in the Prairie provinces. Between 1886 and 1896, the Grand Trunk Railroad's 2-6-0 type, E3 class locomotives were built in the Pointe-Saint-Charles shops in Montreal and in the Canadian Locomotive Company's shops in Kingston. The Canadian Pacific built one hundred and ten of the D10 class a, b, and c locomotives between 1905 and 1906. Its fleet of these locomotives would later become quite impressive, with the five hundred and three engines. These stamps, designed by Ernst Roch of Montreal, continue the series begun in 1983 and shot the locomotives against a plain background, which enhances their attractiveness and complexity. The stamps in this year's grouping are wider in order to accommodate the larger dimensions of locomotives built between 1860 and 1905, while maintaining approximately the same scale used for the 1983 stamps.
Canada Post Corporation. [Postage Stamp Press Release], 1984.

Canadian Locomotives, 1906-1925, 39¢ CNoR Class 010a 0-6-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,174

From fond hopes... to a bottomless pit of debt... to consolidation and renewal; that sums up Canadian railroading from 1906 to 1925. The railway craze of the early twentieth century, however, gave Canada no fewer than three transcontinental lines. In 1885, Donald Smith drove the last spike on the CPR. Fifteen years later, an economic boom, the growth of mining, the rapid development of the Prairies, and a spirit of optimism were generating a huge demand for a new railways. Entrepreneurs and politicians eagerly stepped forward to satisfy this demand. William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, for example, had started out as CPR contractor in Western Canada. In 1897 they launched their own 197 km (123-mile) railway in Manitoba. Their system later known as the Canadian Northern, expanded rapidly, especially in the northern Prairies. When Mackenzie and Mann tired of shipping freight to Eastern Canada and the Pacific on rival lines, they developed transcontinental fever. They began work on their transcontinental line after having failed to agree on building on in conjunction with the Grand Trunk, a prominent eastern railway. The Grand Trunk, on the other hand, still wished to enter the market in growing Western Canada. It therefore decided to build a subsidiary - the Grand Trunk Pacific - from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, and to lease a line that the federal government would construct from Moncton to Winnipeg via Quebec City. Cash and land grants from governments and government guarantees for private bond issues largely paid for the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific. Rising construction costs, economic recession, and war eventually crushed these firms. Private loans for construction dried up. Immigration and its major contributions to the railway business stopped. With initial success, these railways turned for aid to the federal government. However, in 1917 the government began the nationalization process, having concluded that the suppliants would never cease to drain the public purse and that the country's credit rating would suffer if they went under. By 1923, the Canadian Northern, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Grand Trunk (dragged down by its subsidiary), and several other bankrupt railroads found themselves consolidated into the government-owned Canadian National Railways. The stamps, the third set in the Locomotive series, were designer by Montreal graphic designer Ernst Roch. The meticulously detailed painting of locomotives from this period - A Canadian Pacific P2a, a Canadian Northern 010a, a Grand Trunk K2, a Canadian Government Railways H4D - show the wealth of interesting detail associated with their drive mechanism. The rendering of the engines in a range of greys reflects the drab coloration typical of locomotives of this time period.
Canada Post Corporation. [Postage Stamp Press Release], 1985

2¢ Locomotive (First Day Cover) (Ten Stamps)

ID # 3,913

Canadian Locomotives, 1836-1860 37¢ Samson 0-6-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 6,436

Because the mid-1980's will mark the centennial of "The Last Spike" and the 150th anniversary of the first Canadian railway, the Canada Post Corporation will commence a series of train stamps. This is a continuation of the stamp series featuring Canadian transportation, which was begun in 1975 with ships and followed by airplanes. The stamps will recall the days when the railroad was "an image of man, a tradition, a code of honour, a source of poetry, a nursery of boyhood desires, a sublimest of toys, and the most solemn machine - next to the funeral hearse - that marks the epochs in a man's life." The first Canadian railroad, the Champlain and St. Lawrence, opened for business on 21 July 1836. On that date the Dorchester, a locomotive imported from England, pulled two coaches from La Prairie to Dorchester (later St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu) and back. Like many early Canadian lines, the Champlain and St. Lawrence was a portage railway, a short cut between the Richelieu River and Montreal, saving ninety miles of river travel. Mine railroads also gained prominence at this time. In 1838 the Samson, the first locomotive in the Maritimes, began running from the Frood coal mine to the Pictou wharf. By 1850, British North America boasted about sixty-six miles of railway. A construction boom over the next ten years raised the total to 2065 miles. By 1860, an uninterrupted stretch of track connected Sarnia, Montreal, and the Atlantic coast at Portland, Maine. Most contemporary Canadian railroads hoped to tap the lucrative American market, but failed to do so. They depended heavily on government financing and foreign capital, lacked sufficient customers, and suffered financial headaches. Most locomotives, such as the Birkenhead-type Adam Brown, were still imported. Nevertheless, in the 1850's some Canadian railroads began building their own to meet North American conditions. Among these was the Toronto, the first locomotive manufactured in Canada West, built in Toronto in 1853. The locomotive stamps were designed by Ernst Roch of Montreal. The format chosen, which presents the locomotives in profile against a plain background colour, are ideal for presenting the mechanical complexity that makes locomotives so visually interesting. The principal challenge of designing these stamps was to simplify the engines to make a sufficiently strong graphic statement at stamp size without sacrificing significant detail.
Canada Post Corporation. [Postage Stamp Press Release], 1983.

Canadian Locomotives, 1906-1925, 68¢ CGR Class H4D 2-8-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,175

Issues on November 7, 1985.

From fond hopes... to a bottomless pit of debt... to consolidation and renewal; that sums up Canadian railroading from 1906 to 1925. The railway craze of the early twentieth century, however, gave Canada no fewer than three transcontinental lines. In 1885, Donald Smith drove the last spike on the CPR. Fifteen years later, an economic boom, the growth of mining, the rapid development of the Prairies, and a spirit of optimism were generating a huge demand for a new railways. Entrepreneurs and politicians eagerly stepped forward to satisfy this demand. William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, for example, had started out as CPR contractor in Western Canada. In 1897 they launched their own 197 km (123-mile) railway in Manitoba. Their system later known as the Canadian Northern, expanded rapidly, especially in the northern Prairies. When Mackenzie and Mann tired of shipping freight to Eastern Canada and the Pacific on rival lines, they developed transcontinental fever. They began work on their transcontinental line after having failed to agree on building on in conjunction with the Grand Trunk, a prominent eastern railway. The Grand Trunk, on the other hand, still wished to enter the market in growing Western Canada. It therefore decided to build a subsidiary - the Grand Trunk Pacific - from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, and to lease a line that the federal government would construct from Moncton to Winnipeg via Quebec City. Cash and land grants from governments and government guarantees for private bond issues largely paid for the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific. Rising construction costs, economic recession, and war eventually crushed these firms. Private loans for construction dried up. Immigration and its major contributions to the railway business stopped. With initial success, these railways turned for aid to the federal government. However, in 1917 the government began the nationalization process, having concluded that the suppliants would never cease to drain the public purse and that the country's credit rating would suffer if they went under. By 1923, the Canadian Northern, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Grand Trunk (dragged down by its subsidiary), and several other bankrupt railroads found themselves consolidated into the government-owned Canadian National Railways. The stamps, the third set in the Locomotive series, were designer by Montreal graphic designer Ernst Roch. The meticulously detailed painting of locomotives from this period - A Canadian Pacific P2a, a Canadian Northern 010a, a Grand Trunk K2, a Canadian Government Railways H4D - show the wealth of interesting detail associated with their drive mechanism. The rendering of the engines in a range of greys reflects the drab coloration typical of locomotives of this time period.

Canada Post Corporation. [Postage Stamp Press Release], 1985

Canadian Locomotives, 1906-1925, 39¢ CNoR Class 010a 0-6-0 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,173

Canadian Postal Archives information for this stamp

Canadian Locomotives, 1906-1925, 34¢ (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,172

Canadian Locomotives, 1906-1925, 34¢ GT Class K2 4-6-4T Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,171

Canadian Locomotives, 1906-1925, 34¢ CP Class P2a 2-8-2 Type (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,170

20¢ Streetcars Se-tenant (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,080

20¢ First American streetcar (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,079

20¢ St. Charles streetcar (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,078

20¢ Early Electric Streetcar (First Day Cover)

ID # 4,077