Comments on: An early Canadian Pacific Railway 4-4-0 steams through the rough Rocky Mountain landscape out west, hauling two wooden passenger cars through mountainside wilderness cut through by steel rails laid over wooden trestles and through rock cuts, along the new transcontinental railway line spanning Canada from coast to coast. That was the intent the CBC’s film directors wanted to portray – a rocky, rough, sometimes treacherous, and vastly untamed mountain wilderness that the transcontinental railway line had to be built through in western Canada. And for that film crews (guided by technical consultants like Omer Lavallee) turned to the Carmi Sub in Myra Canyon (east of Penticton BC) for shooting various scenes for their 1974 film adaptation of Pierre Berton’s “The National Dream” book on building the Canadian Pacific Railway. CPR 4-4-0 136 (double-billed as both 136 and 148 for different scenes) was borrowed from the Ontario Rail Association and backdated to a late 1800′s appearance, and some vintage passenger and freight equipment was rounded up by CP from their work car fleet across the system and turned into close-to-period-correct cars for use during the different filming scenes. Operations on this section of the Carmi Sub (Beverdell to Pentiction) had recently been discontinued by CP, but the line was reopened one last time for filming all the mountain scenes. Upon completion of filming, a diesel locomotive and caboose were dispatched for one final movement in order to retrieve the film’s railway equipment and forward it to other parts of the system. A small section of the line to the east saw service for a short period longer, but The National Dream filming were the last train movements on the western part of the Carmi Sub. The line has since been converted into a popular walking/cycling trail. Eric W. Johnson photo, Dan Dell’Unto collection slide. More from The National Dream: Tracklaying: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=55064 Filming: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=55074 Prairie consist: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=56449

By: MrDan

MrDan — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 17:26:36 +0000

Steve, looks to be around the same area, although not the exact same spot shown.

One thing I noticed is the series often featured a who’s who of 70′s Canadian film and TV, including John Colicos, Ken Pogue, Robin Gammill, Chris Wiggins and John Horton.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 21:18:59 +0000

This looks like the spot

https://youtu.be/5maSp7OpE5c?si=NOXB3fZQVAMmii21&t=1553

By: Jacob Patterson

Jacob Patterson — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:54:21 +0000

Incredible.

By: Dave Brook

Dave Brook — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:48:22 +0000

IMHO, the greatest production to ever come out of the CBC. Also a must for anyone who wants to understand Canadian history.