Canadian National Railway: Map, Logo, History, Photos

Last revised: September 16, 2026

Canadian National was Ottawa’s answer to transcontinentals that had borrowed themselves into the treasury. The government already owned the Intercolonial, the Prince Edward Island Railway, and the National Transcontinental. It took the Canadian Northern under a 1917 statute. An Order in Council of December 20, 1918, authorized the name Canadian National Railways for those properties together. Parliament incorporated the Canadian National Railway Company on June 6, 1919. The Grand Trunk came in on January 20, 1923. Slogan in the Crown years: The People’s Railway. Reporting mark CN. Headquarters still Montreal, 935 de La Gauchetière Street West. The IPO was November 17, 1995. The Illinois Central, Wisconsin Central, BC Rail, Great Lakes Transportation, and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern made a three-coast freight railroad of it. In 2026 it is one of six North American Class I freight carriers. The other Canadian transcontinental is Canadian Pacific, now CPKC.

G.R. Stevens, in History of the Canadian National Railways, is the book for the nationalization years. Tom Murray’s Canadian National Railway is the later corporate story. Don L. Hofsommer, in Grand Trunk Corporation, is the American subsidiaries.

Canadian National 4-8-4 6214 steams through Bayview Ontario with commuter train 76 in the 1950s

One of the Canadian National’s handsome 4-8-4s, #6214, steams through Bayview, Ontario with commuter train #76 (Toronto–Hamilton) during the 1950s. Paul Meyer photo. Author’s collection.

On this page: At a glance · Government railways · Canadian Northern · December 20, 1918 · Grand Trunk · 1939 maps · Crown corporation · Steam and diesel · Passenger trains · VIA and Grand Trunk Corporation · November 17, 1995 · Gulf, Wisconsin, the J · Class I, 2026

At a glance

Item	Detail
Legal name	Canadian National Railway Company. Styled Canadian National Railways until about 1960
Slogan	The People’s Railway (Crown years)
Reporting mark	CN
Headquarters	935 de La Gauchetière Street West, Montreal, Quebec
Name authorized	Order in Council, December 20, 1918
Incorporated	June 6, 1919 (Canadian National Railway Company Act)
Grand Trunk in	Operations January 20, 1923
Dates of operation	1918–
Privatized	IPO November 17, 1995. CN Commercialization Act, July 13, 1995
Provinces served	British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
States served	Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska (Omaha), Illinois, Missouri (St. Louis), Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana
Route miles	23,400 (1930). 15,292 (1997). About 20,400 (2020)
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in. Newfoundland was 3 ft 6 in until standard-gauged in pieces
Annual revenue (2020)	$13.82 billion
Principal ancestors	Canadian Northern; Intercolonial / National Transcontinental / Prince Edward Island; Grand Trunk / Grand Trunk Pacific
Later additions	Newfoundland Railway (1949); Illinois Central (1999); Wisconsin Central (2001); BC Rail and Great Lakes Transportation (2004); Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (2009)

1930 mileage is the Official Guide figure. Incorporation is June 6, 1919. Information compiled September 16, 2026.

The historic Canadian National Railway logo. Author’s work.

Intercolonial, Prince Edward Island, National Transcontinental

Confederation came with a railroad promise. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined Canada on the understanding that a government line would tie the Maritimes to the Grand Trunk at Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec. That road was the Intercolonial. Through service in the 1870s made Ottawa a railroad owner before there was a Canadian National.

The Prince Edward Island Railway Act passed in 1871. Construction started October 5 of that year, while the island was still outside Canada. Prince Edward Island entered Confederation on July 1, 1873. The Intercolonial rebuilt the poorly laid island road by 1875. At its peak the PEI ran Tignish–Elmira with branches to Georgetown, Murray Harbour, and Borden, and a car ferry across Northumberland Strait to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick. Agriculture was the business. Remnants lasted until 1989.

The National Transcontinental was the Laurier government’s eastern half of a third coast-to-coast line: Moncton, New Brunswick, to Winnipeg, 2,019 miles, finished in May 1915. It was not a transcontinental by itself. It met the Grand Trunk Pacific at Winnipeg and the Intercolonial at Moncton. When the Grand Trunk would not take the lease it had been offered, the government kept the NTR. That made three federal properties: Intercolonial, PEI, and NTR, later grouped as the Canadian Government Railways.

Mackenzie, Mann, and the Canadian Northern

The largest piece of what became CN was the Canadian Northern Railway, formed January 13, 1899, by William Mackenzie and Donald Mann. They meant to break the transcontinental monopoly Canadian Pacific had held since the 1880s. Their start was the Winnipeg Great Northern between Gladstone and Winnipegosis, Manitoba, late 1896. Loans and land grants did the rest. By 1906 they had Port Arthur, Ontario, to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, via Winnipeg.

They pushed west to Edmonton, used Yellowhead Pass with the Grand Trunk Pacific, and turned southwest toward Vancouver. The last spike was driven at Basque, British Columbia, on January 23, 1915. East of the gap they already had Montreal, Toronto, and a reach toward the Maritimes. The missing 1,050-mile central link had been started in 1911. At about 11,000 route miles the Canadian Northern was a second Canadian transcontinental. It was also broke. The government took the stock under the 1917 acquisition act.

The Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific, the Canadian Northern’s Minnesota door, kept its own name into the CN years. That railroad is Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific.

Canadian National FPA4 6775 and 6752 at Ottawa Ontario November 1968

A pair of Canadian National FPA4s, #6775 and #6752, board their train at Ottawa, Ontario on a gloomy November day in 1968. Author’s collection.

The name, and June 6, 1919

On December 20, 1918, Ottawa authorized “Canadian National Railways” as the operating name for the Canadian Northern and the Canadian Government Railways together—Intercolonial, National Transcontinental, Prince Edward Island, and a handful of New Brunswick shorts, on the order of 13,600 miles. The corporate entity of each system was preserved on paper. Parliament then passed the Canadian National Railway Company Act. Incorporation was June 6, 1919. That is the legal birthday.

Sir Henry Thornton, late of the Pennsylvania and of England’s Great Eastern, became president and chairman in October 1922. He was hired to make one railroad out of the pile.

Grand Trunk, Grand Trunk Pacific, January 20, 1923

The last big Canadian piece was the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, chartered November 10, 1852: Montreal–Toronto in 1856, Portland, Sarnia, the Victoria Bridge, the St. Clair Tunnel in 1891, the Great Western in 1882. That company is Grand Trunk Railway. Its Michigan and Indiana lines that outlived the name are Grand Trunk Western. The New England corridor is Central Vermont.

Charles Melville Hays, general manager from 1896 and president from 1909, took the company west. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was incorporated October 24, 1903. Hays died when RMS Titanic foundered on April 15, 1912. The western division, 1,804 miles, did not turn for Vancouver. It went to Prince Rupert, a new deep-water port near the Alaska panhandle. The line was completed in April 1914. Prince Rupert did not become Vancouver. The Grand Trunk Pacific was nationalized March 7, 1919.

The parent followed. A federal board took the Grand Trunk on July 12, 1920. Preference and common stock vested in the Minister of Finance on January 19, 1923. Canadian National took operation on January 20. An Order in Council of January 30, 1923, amalgamated the Grand Trunk into the Canadian National Railway Company and brought the 1919 Act fully into effect. About 8,000 miles in Canada and 1,164 in the United States, through some 125 companies. From that date the map was one system: Canadian National Railways, later Canadian National, more than 22,000 route miles, Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

System map, 1939

Canadian National Railways 1939 system map sheet 1

Canadian National Railways system map, 1939, sheet 1 of 4. Author’s collection.

Canadian National Railways 1939 system map sheet 2

Canadian National Railways system map, 1939, sheet 2 of 4. Author’s collection.

Canadian National Railways 1939 system map sheet 3

Canadian National Railways system map, 1939, sheet 3 of 4. Author’s collection.

Canadian National Railways 1939 system map sheet 4

Canadian National Railways system map, 1939, sheet 4 of 4. Author’s collection.

A Crown corporation with a high operating ratio

Size was not the same as a surplus. The operating ratio—expenses as a share of revenue—ran high, sometimes over 100 percent. Deficits were the normal year. World War II traffic pushed the ratio to about 73 percent, a number CN would not see again until the 1990s. The Canadian National–Canadian Pacific Act of 1933 told the two transcontinentals to cut duplicate services. They remained rivals.

Montreal commuters rode a 3.2-mile electrified bore under Mount Royal, built 1913–1918 to reach downtown. Six General Electric boxcabs handled the tunnel. Newfoundland entered Confederation on March 31, 1949; the Newfoundland Railway, 3 ft 6 in gauge, became a CN property, Port aux Basques to St. John’s, with the Caribou as the island train.

Hotels, steamships, and, from 1937, Trans-Canada Air Lines (later Air Canada) sat in the same Crown tent. The railroad still moved the country’s freight and a national passenger fleet. It was a Canadian Crown corporation assembled to keep the rails open after 1917.

Brooks, Confederation types, and diesel

CN experimented with diesel in 1929: 1,330-horsepower boxcabs #9000 and #9001 from the Canadian Locomotive Company at Kingston, designed by chief of motive power C.E. Brooks. Road freight and passenger diesels waited. Electro-Motive F3s arrived in 1948. Whitcomb and CLC 650-horsepower units covered Prince Edward Island. New power was assigned territory by territory until regular steam ended in April 1960.

The late steam fleet is what the photographs remember: U-1 4-8-2s, J-class Pacifics, U-2 4-8-4 Confederation types. The post-1900 class table is CN steam. CN 6218, a U-2-g, became the excursion engine after dieselization; her last trips were July 3–4, 1971. First-generation diesels wore Pullman green with yellow and black, and the circular Canadian National Railways emblem, before Allan Fleming’s 1960 CN mark. Builders were General Motors Diesel at London, Montreal Locomotive Works, Canadian Locomotive Company (Fairbanks-Morse designs), and a little General Electric. The GMD1, the MLW RS-18 and M420, the CLC C-Liner, and the FPA-4 passenger cabs are the CN-only look. The wide safety cab, later the North American comfort cab, started here. Ditch lights did too. The all-time diesel tables are CN diesel.

Canadian National SW900m 7251 at Calgary Alberta September 1981

Canadian National SW900m #7251 at work in Calgary, Alberta during early September of 1981. American-Rails.com collection.

Canadian National GP38-2 5547 eastbound near Beachville Ontario August 27 1977

A trio of Canadian National GP38-2s, led by #5547, have an eastbound near Beachville, Ontario on August 27, 1977. J. Bryce Lee photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Canadian National SD40-2 5175 westbound in the Fraser River Canyon British Columbia August 1981

A trio of Canadian National SD40-2s, led by #5175, head west through the Fraser River Canyon in British Columbia; August, 1981. American-Rails.com collection.

Canadian National 4-8-4 6218 class U-2-g fan trip over Grand Trunk Western at Stillwell Indiana November 20 1966

Canadian National 4-8-4 #6218 (Class U-2-g) leads a fan trip over the Grand Trunk Western at Stillwell, Indiana on November 20, 1966. Rick Burn photo.

The 1960s brought centralized traffic control and TRACS, a computerized car-and-train reporting system. Trailer-on-flatcar came in the postwar years; container-on-flatcar followed and is still the intermodal business.

Canadian National FPA-4 6787 FPB-4 6863 and GP9 4103 westbound at Bayview Ontario August 25 1974

Canadian National FPA-4 #6787, FPB-4 #6863 and GP9 #4103 have a westbound passenger train at Bayview, Ontario on August 25, 1974. Doug Kroll photo.

Named trains

CN fielded a national passenger fleet. Streamlining on steam was as much smoke deflectors and crew sightlines as stainless sides. In later years the company bought second-hand American cars, including Milwaukee Road Super Domes and Skytops after the Olympian Hiawatha came off in 1961.

Canadian National FP9 6501 arrives Dorval Quebec with train 14 the International Limited September 6 1965

Canadian National FP9 #6501 arrives in Dorval, Quebec with train #14, the International Limited, on September 6, 1965. Roger Puta photo.

Ambassador / New Englander (Boston–Montreal)
Caribou (St. John’s–Port aux Basques)
Continental Limited (Montreal/Toronto–Vancouver)
The Gull (Boston–Halifax)
Inter-City Limited (Montreal–Toronto–Detroit/Chicago)
International Limited (Montreal–Toronto–Chicago)
Maple Leaf (the Lehigh Valley–CN New York–Toronto train; GTW also used the name on Detroit–Chicago)
Montrealer / Washingtonian (Washington–New York–Montreal)
Northland (Toronto–North Bay/Timmins/Kapuskasing)
Ocean Limited (Montreal–Halifax)
Scotian (Montreal–Halifax)
Super Continental (Montreal/Toronto–Vancouver)

Canadian National 4-8-4 6218 U-2-g departs Belleville Ontario with an excursion May 3 1971

Canadian National 4-8-4 #6218 (U-2-g) departs Belleville, Ontario with a special excursion on May 3, 1971. Carl Sturner photo. Author’s collection.

Canadian National 4-8-2 6060 fan trip near La Malbaie Quebec September 26 1976

Canadian National 4-8-2 #6060 hosts a fan trip near La Malbaie, Quebec on September 26, 1976. Ken Wadden photo. American-Rails.com collection.

VIA Rail, and the American companies

VIA Rail was set up in 1977 as a CN subsidiary to take CN and CP intercity passengers, Canada’s counterpart to Amtrak (May 1, 1971). In 1978 VIA became a separate Crown corporation. CN kept some Montreal commuter work for a time; the long-distance burden left the freight railroad.

On July 31, 1971, CN folded its United States properties under the Grand Trunk Corporation: Grand Trunk Western, Central Vermont, Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific. GTW had been a money-losing Detroit–Chicago bridge. Under GTC it posted a stand-alone profit by the late 1970s. Central Vermont was sold in 1995 and became New England Central. The GTW name faded as a paint scheme in the early 1990s; the paper company remains.

The National Transportation Act of 1967 recast Canadian transport policy. The 1987 National Transportation Act is the closer Canadian cousin of the American Staggers Rail Act of 1980: more freedom to abandon thin branches. CN used both decades to cut duplicate prairie and Maritime mileage. Fiscal 1976 produced the first profit in some twenty years. By 1997 the map was down to 15,292 route miles and the operating ratio had dropped below 80 percent.

Tellier, and November 17, 1995

Paul Tellier became president and chief executive in 1992. Non-rail businesses came off. The CN Commercialization Act received royal assent July 13, 1995. Headquarters had to stay in Montreal. No single shareholder could take control. Shares listed on the Toronto and New York exchanges on November 17, 1995, about C$2.25 billion, then the largest IPO in Canadian history. A large block went to American accounts. The anniversary piece is CN at thirty years private.

Hunter Harrison ran the railroad from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2009. Scheduled freight, fewer yards, a lower operating ratio: the method later marketed as Precision Scheduled Railroading. How that doctrine sits on the 2026 map is today. Harrison’s later years at CP and CSX are the 2010s.

Illinois Central, Wisconsin Central, BC Rail, the J

CN announced the Illinois Central on February 10, 1998. The Surface Transportation Board approved the case in 1999. Integration was July 1, 1999. Chicago to New Orleans, the Gulf, and a Council Bluffs/Omaha door to Union Pacific. That company is Illinois Central.

Wisconsin Central closed October 9, 2001, after the Board’s new major-merger rules of that June. The regional gave CN a Superior–Chicago stem and the former Soo Line ore and paper country in the Upper Midwest. That company is Wisconsin Central. A CN–BNSF combination had already been called off on July 20, 2000, in the merger freeze; that decade is the 2000s.

Great Lakes Transportation, including the Bessemer & Lake Erie and the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range, closed May 10, 2004. BC Rail, the old Pacific Great Eastern, went to CN on July 15, 2004, still a lease of the British Columbia right-of-way. The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, Chicago’s outer belt, closed January 31, 2009. The J is Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. Prince Rupert, the port Hays built to nowhere, became a container terminal in the private-CN years.

Class I, 2026

On March 21, 2021, Canadian Pacific announced it would buy Kansas City Southern. CN countered at $33.7 billion. The Surface Transportation Board rejected the CN–KCS voting trust on August 31, 2021. CPKC closed April 14, 2023. CN did not get Mexico. It kept the Gulf via the Illinois Central, the lakes via the old Grand Trunk and Wisconsin Central, and the Canadian transcontinental it was assembled to be.

The 2026 Class I freight map is six names. CN is the mid-continent U.S. franchise on former Illinois Central, Wisconsin Central, and Grand Trunk iron, plus the Canadian main from Halifax and Montreal to Vancouver and Prince Rupert. The pending Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern case is the 2020s. More about who the six are can be found at today.

Canadian National is the 1918 name, the 1919 company, Thornton’s 1923 map, a Crown corporation that ran hotels and an airline, the green-and-yellow diesels, VIA’s parent for one year, and a privatized Class I that bought its way to the Gulf. The independent Grand Trunk ends in 1923. This railroad did not.

Sources

Stevens, G.R. History of the Canadian National Railways. Nationalization, Intercolonial, Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk
Murray, Tom. Canadian National Railway. Corporate history after 1923; privatization
Hofsommer, Don L. Grand Trunk Corporation: Canadian National Railways in the United States, 1971–1992. GTC; GTW, Central Vermont, DW&P
Canadian National Railway Company Act, June 6, 1919; Order in Council December 20, 1918 (name); Orders in Council January 19–30, 1923 (Grand Trunk)
CN Commercialization Act, S.C. 1995, c. 24 (assented July 13, 1995). IPO November 17, 1995
Official Guide of the Railways, 1930. 23,400 miles
Surface Transportation Board, CN–KCS voting trust rejected August 31, 2021; Illinois Central, Finance Docket 33556, July 1, 1999; Wisconsin Central, October 9, 2001
Canadian Encyclopedia, “Canadian National Railways.” 1917–23 amalgamation; 1995 sale
American-Rails.com: Grand Trunk Railway; Illinois Central; Wisconsin Central; CN privatization anniversary; Class I railroads

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