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RAILWAY'S ROSTER
As the railway companies expanded across the country, thousands of employees were hired. The railways drew remarkable personal support and loyalty from the workers as the companies promoted community service, introduced school cars and Red Cross units to serve children and the sick in remote regions and sponsored hockey teams for their employees. If it hadn’t been for the railways, players would never have been able to travel between cities in hockey’s formative years to compete against each other. Many employees remained with the railways preferring the stable employment and well paying jobs. For some, the railway hockey teams were a stepping stone to playing professional hockey.
The Canada Car & Foundry (CC & F) was established in 1909 with the amalgamation of Canada’s three largest railway rolling stock manufactures; Rhodes Curry Co. of Amherst, N.S., Canada Car Co. of Turcot, Montreal and Dominion Car & Foundry Co. of Montreal. CC & F then purchased Pratt & Letchworth Co., a railcar manufacturer in Brantford, Ont. and in 1912 built a plant in Fort William, Ont. The factory was designed to build railcars, but fell victim to a depressed market and finally closed in the early 1920’s, reopening in 1937 to build aircraft and buses. Following WW II the CC & F returned to its root business of manufacturing luxury wooden railcars, steel passenger and sleeper cars, grain and freight rolling stock, and streetcars. Aircraft, buses and transport trailers were produced at Fort William, railcars were built in Montreal.
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