The Making of a Great Canadian Railway (1912, first edition)

Frederick Talbot's illustrated account of the making of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

First edition. Hardback, red cloth binding with gilt titling and design to spine and upper board. 23 × 14.5cm, 349pp.

Full title: The Making of a Great Canadian Railway; The Story of the Search for and Discovery of the Route, and the Construction of the Nearly Completed Grand Trunk Pacific Railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with Some Account of the Hardships and Stirring Adventures of its Constructors in Unexplored Country

A narrative detailing the planning, survey, and early construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) across Canada, written towards the end of the line's completion and offering an eyewitness account of building a transcontinental railway through dense wilderness, mountain passes, and unmapped territory. Written in 1912, it was published two years before the completion of the line, so captures something of the optimism and industrial ambition of early 20th-century Canada.

Illustrated with 43 photographs and a fold-out map of the route.

There is a previous owner's gift label to the front pastedown. This copy was given to Herbert Duncombe Bindley (from his mother) in 1914. He served in the Great War with the Royal Engineers before a career on the railways, including a stint on the North Stafford Railway, and on the Sudan Railways (after which he published an article in 1935 in the Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers).

Condition

Fair condition, but remaining in good readable condition. The red cloth is heavily faded to the spine, bumped to the corners, and has one small dent to the right of the gilt design to the front cover. The hinges are cracked but secure, leading to some movement in the textblock (which itself remains in well-bound condition). Light foxing throughout the book. All plates are present but not quite as the plate index states—the plate at page 50 is instead at plate 60 where the publishers have put both images on one sheet. One plate is neatly detached.

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