Canadian Pacific Railway - Freight Trains

Freight Trains

Over half of CP's freight traffic is in coal, grain, and intermodal freight, and the vast majority of its profits are made in western Canada. A major shift in trade from the Atlantic to the Pacific has caused serious drops in CPR's wheat shipments through Thunder Bay. It also ships automotive parts and assembled automobiles, sulphur, fertilizers, other chemicals, forest products, and other types of commodities. The busiest part of its railway network is along its main line between Calgary and Vancouver. Since 1970, coal has become a major commodity hauled by CPR. Coal is shipped in unit trains from coal mines in the mountains, most notably Sparwood, British Columbia to terminals at Roberts Bank and North Vancouver, from where it is then shipped to Japan. The CPR hauls over 34 million tons of coal to the west coast each year, mainly for export to Japan.

Grain is hauled by the CPR from the prairies to ports at Thunder Bay (the former cities of Fort William and Port Arthur), Quebec City and Vancouver, where it is then shipped overseas. The traditional winter export port was West Saint John, New Brunswick when ice closed the St. Lawrence River. Grain has always been a significant commodity hauled by the CPR; between 1905 and 1909, the CPR double-tracked its section of track between Fort William (Which is today part of the city of Thunder Bay) and Winnipeg to facilitate grain shipments. For several decades this was the only long stretch of double-track mainline outside of urban areas on the CPR. Today, though the Thunder Bay-Winnipeg section is now single tracked, the CPR still has two long distance double track lines serving rural areas, including a 75-mile (121 km) stretch between Kent, British Columbia and Vancouver which follows the Fraser River into the Coast Mountains, as well as the Canadian Pacific Winchester Sub, a 100-mile (160 km) stretch of double track mainline which runs from Smiths Falls, Ontario through downtown Montreal which runs through many rural farming communities. There are also various long stretches of double track between Golden and Kamloops, British Columbia and portions of the original Winnipeg-Thunder Bay double track (such as 20 miles through Kenora and Keewatin, Ontario) are still double track.

In 1952, the CPR became the first North American railway to introduce intermodal or "piggyback" freight service, where truck trailers are carried on flat cars. Containers later replaced most piggyback service. In 1996, the CPR introduced a scheduled reservation-only short-haul intermodal service between Montreal and West Toronto called the Iron Highway; it utilized unique equipment that was later replaced (1999) by conventional piggyback flatcars and renamed Expressway. This service was extended to Detroit with plans to reach Chicago however CP was unable to locate a suitable terminal. Loss of the small Detroit terminal and low US traffic along with loss of the Chrysler Windsor traffic it was later cut back to Milton, west of Toronto.