DCHP-2

Canadian Pacific Railway C.P.R., CPR, CP Rail, CP, Canadian Pacific DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Transportation, also often in compounds

  the Canadian railway line that offered the first east-west rail connection from the Atlantic to the Pacific on Canadian soil as of 1886.

  Type: 1. Origin — The Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated on 16 February 1881 to fulfil the federal government's promise to link British Columbia with central Canada. This was one of BC's conditions to join Confederation in 1871. On Nov. 7th, 1885, the "Last Spike" was driven at Craigellachie, BC. It took another year to install service buildings so that the CPR could be used (see Canadian Encyclopedia reference).
  The first passenger train travelled from Montreal, arriving on 4 July 1886 at Port Moody, BC (see the first 1886 quotation). The line was extended to Vancouver (then called Granville) the following year. The occasion found only an indirect mention in the Toronto Globe (see the 1887 quotation), while there was full coverage in the Victoria Daily Colonist (see the 1887 quotation). The company's name was changed to Canadian Pacific or CP in the 1980s.

  See also: CPR strawberries  Crow rate  CPR  Canadian National Railways  

  • As is the usual path of changes in formal signs, the original full form Canadian Pacific Railway or the dotted abbreviation C.P.R. (see the 1873 and 1879 quotations) came to be replaced more and more with the short form CPR, so that in the early 21st century CPR and CP are the standard forms.