Series consists of records created and maintained by the Canadian National Railways System. These records cover all aspects of Canadian National Railway activities. Some major categories are construction and repairs of structures and roadbed, specification data for locomotives, budgets, visits and liaison, relations with other railways, shipping operations, equipment records, charters and special trains, records of the Montreal and Southern Counties Railroad, leases and agreements, legal records and operating statistics for the periods 1900-1960 and 1979-1982.
Also included within these files are a number of containers (Volumes 11518-11523) that have records relating to the Canadian National Railways services in Newfoundland 1949-1960. There are many records for CN steamship services in Newfoundland and Labrador, including correspondence, memos, drawings of ships, ports of call (of particular interest are the ones for the Labrador coast), information on crew member's salaries, some schedules for steamships for 1957-1958, a report on the St. John's Drydock including 15 photographs and various drawings, and petitions from various communities in favour of receiving steamship service. There are also photographs of snow clearing equipment and a report on the potential to change from narrow gauge rail to standard gauge rail.
Another block of records relate to the Operation and Construction Department activities from the 1920s-1950s. Volumes 11448-11465 generally contain records relating to the maintenance or reconstruction of bridges and other structures such as culverts, and there are numerous plans and some maps. A number of containers hold plans relating to the Victoria Bridge and the Quebec Bridge, and there are number of containers with files relating to bridges in the prairies, including an album of photographs showing the destruction, by spring flooding, of a trestle bridge near Red Deer, Alberta in April 1952 (see Vol. 11459).
An additional block of records (Vols. 11471-11484) contains specifications for locomotives (from locomotive number 45 to 5609) created by the CN Mechanical (or Motive Power) Department, and some files include erecting cards showing various views of portions of the locomotive. More specifically, volume 16252 (material formerly from Vol. 11544) contains 7 drawings for conversion of coal to oil locomotives at Edson, Alberta and Port Mann, B.C. in 1949.
There are other records relating to the Prince Rupert Drydock (includes photos and plans, Vol. 15551), plans and textual records relating to Halifax wharves and Western Canada Car Ferry slips (Vol. 11560), 50 photographs showing the construction progress of the Abegweit Car Ferry for use from Cape Tormentine to Prince Edward Island, 1946 (Vol. 11566), various textual records relating to steamship services in Eastern and Western Canada as well as the West Indies, including names, occupations, and pay scales of employees, ca. 1940s and ship plans for three ferries (Milwakee, Madison, and Grand Rapids) operated by the Grand Trunk Western Railway, ca. 1940s (Vol. 11573).
There is also correspondence, reports, and memos relating to the Montreal and Southern Counties Railway (1920s-1940s) (Vol. 11587 and 11591); correspondence and related documentation from the Passenger Traffic Department documenting special parties travelling on trains (Vol. 11588-11590)
Additionally, there are some 19th and early 20th century records, including:
1. original land deeds for areas of St. Anne's Ward (Griffintown) in Montreal, dating from 1825-1912 (Vols. 11598-11600).
2. original share transfers and cancelled bonds for the Montreal and Champlain Railroad, 1850s-1860s (Vol. 11577)
3. cancelled bonds for various railways, including Grand Trunk, St. Clair Tunnel Company, Canadian Northern Railway, Galt and Guelph Railway, and Midland Railway (Vol. 11584), 1850s - 1919.
4. agreements and leases, mostly between Canadian Northern Railway and various individuals (1899-1920) (Vol. 11594-11597).
There are also file classification index cards pertaining to various records classification systems set up by the Records Management Department. These index cards may be particularly useful for identifying what kinds of documents were created by CN, particularly between 1920s and the 1970s, and for information about constituent, affiliated, and subsidiary companies. Additionally, there are file index cards for some of the books compiled by the CNR Library. For further information, please see lower level sub-series MIKAN 5098850, and volumes 15886 -- 15913.
Additionally, volume 16165 contains records on contracts relating to coal purchased in the 1940s.
Cartographic material, architectural and technical drawings, (RG30M 79003/45), consist of a site plan of totem pole preservation at Kitwanga, B.C., plans showing the terminal layout in Montreal, and floor plans showing office layout for CN headquarters buildings.
Additional photographic material consists of copies of telegraphs issued by the Montreal Telegraph Company (1859) (one photograph) and the Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Line (1849) (two photographs).
