"HANDSOME IS AS HANDSOME DOES"

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 2816

AND IF THAT DOES NOT FIT YOUR IDEA OF HANDSOME
YOU ARE WRONG!

To-day , courtesy of my Wife, a childhood regular event came forcefully back into my mind. I must have been about 6 yrs old - just after the War (WW II), and, for some months in the late afternoon, I used to sit on the floor in our old fashioned eat-in Kitchen , right up against the black wooden cabinet of the upright Wireless  (Radio for you moderns!)And, with its numerically calibrated semi-circular dial softly glowing from the warm yellow light of its globe, I was entirely captivated by the broadcast of the serial play "Canadian Pacific" which came through the fancy cloth covering the speakers behind a simple wooden grill .

I was completely hooked on the heroic stories of the construction of the Canadian trans-continental railway, and its leading man the American born William Cornelius Van Horn. It was a tale of struggles against seemingly insuperable odds, and of ultimate costly victory.Just how great, how costly in terms of human lives - I had either forgotten or never fully appreciated.

Then, last week a Quilting friend of my wife Robyn , gave her a flyer advertising the I Max documentary "Rocky Mountains Express". Robyn brought it home and it was quickly agreed that we would see it on Saturday 20th August. This was a great and noble sacrifice for Robyn whose Steam Locomotive tolerance is......... not impressive(!).

We had to completely re-jig our Saturday because to-day is our fortnightly Supermarket shopping day. So we went into the City early in the morning  and sought to have our usual Coffee at "Pain Quotidien" in the Westfield Centre - only to find it has closed and will be replaced by a menswear store. Well, that is what happens when one's visits to the City are at many months intervals!  We finally found another old haunt the Coffee Shop on the basement Level of David Jones Department store . DJ's was originally founded in 1838, but lately has itself become a victim of change - it has been takenover by South African Woolworths (no connection to our WOOLWORTHS) and to add insult to injury , it is moving its Head Office to.......Melbourne (Aaaaaarrrrrgggggh!) and there is rumour of the Women's Store building being sold. (The only thing constant is change.) 

We then walked down to the I Max Theatre which is  in the Darling Harbour precinct and took a look at the new International Convention Centre and adjoining  new lofty International Hotel

View of the new International Convention Centre with the
adjoining International Hotel looming in the background.

We were still a tad early so we wandered around to kill time checking out the Darling Harbour Shopping Mall - a tourist trap writ large to see how it has fared with all the construction going on in its "backyard' - not so well it would seem , but I suppose they are hanging on until the new "neighbours" become operational and the glory days return (hopefully).

At last it was showtime and we trekked into the  I Max Theatre which we had only visited once before. The interior is quite striking as th picture shows:

Said to be the largest I Max Screen in the World - easy to say when you are at the "end of the Earth"!

From the very beginning the 45 minutes long film was enthralling. It features the very highest production values, extraordinary special photography and the scenery through which it passes is grandeur itself. After unusual scenes of close-ups on the locomotive in action, whether looking onto the huge 75 Inch 

Driving Wheels and the massive Connecting and Piston Rods moving slowly and then at speed which were awesome on the great I Max Screen. The film then covered the extraordinary history of the Canadian Pacific , its great leader the American born Cornelius Van Horn, the search for an acceptable route through the various massive mountain  ranges, the mistakes made, the tragic accidents, the routine deaths of the construction workers. The lengths to which they went in securing an acceptable route were astounding. But finally it was complete and then they faced the problem of operating it through the Canadian Winters. Easier said than done. In one of the previously unused Passes the line now used, they found that Winter snowfalls reached 60 feet!

The whole of this story is told with great authority and attention to detail and recognition for all those involved in its construction including the many Chinese labourers. The film also makes it clear how the Railway ensured the viability of Canada as a Nation and how the construction of its own tourist Hotel at Banff and Lake Louise for example made the Railway itself viable. It is an epic tale well told. And the magnificent hero of the telling is the great steam locomotive - now 80 years old- with which we thunder through long and dark tunnels, climb steep grades , fly across prairies and wend our way through improbable passes.

Did you not get the idea? It is a great movie awesome in many ways -including the awe -inspiring Canadian Rockies and the gorgeous turquoise waters of Lake Louise. Go - see it whenever it is showing and take your sons and grandsons with you!