In July 1886 Sir John A. Macdonald and his Wife Lady Agnes Macdonald took a trip across Canada on the new CPR.
The trip was notable for the adventurous Agnes' trip through the Rockies perched on the Cowcatcher of the engine!
From an article in the William's Lake Tribune, July 2018.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
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| Sir John A. Macdonald and Lady Agnes Macdonald (to the right) and their
party at “the Jamaican” railway car. (BC Provincial Archives photo) |
In 1885, the last spike was hammered into the Canadian Pacific
Railway at Craigellachie, and for the first time, Canada had a
transcontinental link from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Sir John
A. Macdonald, Canada’s Prime Minister, had never been west of Ontario.
It had been his life’s ambition to see the joining of the country by
rail, and so it was planned that he and his wife, Lady Agnes, should
travel by train across Canada in the summer of 1886.
A private
railway car named “the Jamaican” after the country where Lady Agnes had
been born was outfitted, and a special train was scheduled to carry a
party of political dignitaries from Ottawa to Granville (now known as
Vancouver).
The plan was for the Prime Minister to stop in as many
towns as possible along the way to do some campaigning and to take
credit for the building of the railway.
However, at Calgary, Lady Macdonald began to steal the show.
She had been quite bored in the private car as they traversed the monotonous Prairies, and she wanted a little excitement.
She
climbed up into the cab of the locomotive and asked the engineer and
fireman to explain all the dials and levers, and to explain how the huge
engine worked.
She became so intrigued with it that she decided
to ride the next several miles in the cab, and she asked if she could
blow the whistle at the next crossing.
She did, and she blew it
many more times along the route, resulting in a note being sent up to
the cab by Sir John A. himself, telling her to stop playing around as it
was interfering with his reading concentration.
Then, just
outside of Banff, while the engine was watering up, the engineer asked
her if she would like to accompany him while he conducted a walk around
inspection of the engine.
The minute Lady Agnes saw the huge
cowcatcher at the front, she decided that she wanted to ride there for
the remainder of the journey.
She felt that compared to the
stuffy, boring, smoke-filled atmosphere of the private car, riding on
the front of the train with the wind in her face would be exhilarating
and would give her the best view from the best seat on the train.
The
engineer was astounded. Lady Agnes later wrote: “he seemed to think it
was a very bad idea indeed. To a sensible, level-headed man as he is,
such an innovation on all general rules of travelling decorum was no
doubt very startling.”
The engineer was firm. He would not allow her to ride on the front unless the Prime Minister himself gave his permission.
Sir
John A. was sitting in the private car, having another drink and
reading a magazine, when Lady Agnes rushed in and made her request.
He looked at her as if she was crazy and said: “Ridiculous!”
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| BC Provincial Archives photo Lady Agnes Macdonald. |
That should have been the end of it, but being a politician, Sir John A. couldn’t resist saying more than one word.
So, he followed up with a question: “Could you hold on?”
Lady Agnes took this as permission granted, and back she went to the locomotive.
By
now, the engineer had turned the problem over to the Superintendent of
the journey, an aide to the Prime Minister who was in charge of the
whole trip.
The Superintendent tried valiantly to talk her out of
it, pointing out the danger, the inconveniences to her person and the
lack of decorum for an upper class lady, but to no avail.
Finally,
he asked her what she would use as a seat. She looked around and saw a
small box which had contained candles sitting on the platform, and she
declared that this box would serve nicely as a seat.
The
Superintendent saw that he would not win the argument, so he helped her
up onto the top of the cowcatcher and, feeling duty bound not to leave
her there, he sat down on the other side.
Lady Agnes recognized
that he was greatly distressed by her plan and tried to cheer him up,
declaring that this was a great adventure, travelling at the very front
of the train from the mountains to the sea.
By all accounts, the Superintendent was not very encouraged by her words.
Later,
she described her feelings during her ride: “With a firm right hand
grasping the iron stanchion, and my feet planted on the buffer beam,
there was not a yard of descent in which I faltered for a moment.”
The drops down the west side of the Great Divide should have terrified Agnes, yet she was thoroughly exhilarated.
It was the poor Superintendent who was terrified.
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