Background

Just about everyone in Canada has heard of Pierre Berton's The National Dream and The Last Spike, which tells the story of the construction of the CPR, with the last spike being driven in 1885. Because of this long history, their freight car history is more complex than most and I've only been able to pick up their story from circa 1905 to date.

CP was an adherent of the system whereby open top cars (flats, gondolas, hoppers, etc.) bore odd numbers and house cars (boxcars, stock, reefers, etc.) bore even numbers. Beginning between January 1913 and January 1914, CP undertook a major renumbering, leaving most box cars with their original 5 digit numbers, stock cars to the 270xxx series, reefers to the 280xxx series, automobile cars to the 290xxx series, and the open-top cars into the 300xxx series. New boxcars arrived in the 100xxx series. Older series retained their use of odd or even numbers only, but new series of cars arrived with consecutive numbers.

The CPAA reporting mark appeared in 1967 to cover U.S.-built cars in international service, and the companion CPI reporting mark covering Canadian-built cars appeared in late 1968.