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Date: 01/30/25 11:42
Mileposts in Canada
Author: P

Random question: Do Canadian railroads use mileposts, or kilometer posts? I think they use mileposts, but I'd be interested to hear insight on how that reconciles with the fact that Canada uses kilometers as a standard unit of measure.

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Date: 01/30/25 11:47
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: hoggerdoug

Mile(s) post, miles per hour speed, tons, pounds per square inch pressure, length measured in feet., The railways never went "metric"  for train operations.
Doug



Date: 01/30/25 19:37
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: Mudrock

kilometers



Date: 01/30/25 20:16
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: kgrantly

I have an Ontario Northland Rlwy ETT  effective June 5th, 1977 which uses Imperial and Metric
for distances, also the Footnotes use both systems regarding speeds, locations, etc.
Subsequent ETTs, no idea as to when they stopped using Metric and went back to just using Imperial.

Can, Trackside Guide 1992/1993 I see Cape Breton Development Corp. used KMs for distance measurements. No idea subsequent years.
And in the  2024 CTG KMs are used by Capital Rail, in Ottawa, Cap Rail is the commuter rail system there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/25 11:58 by kgrantly.



Date: 01/30/25 21:28
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: jbwest

Many years ago I noticed that QNSL units had fuel tanks marked in Imperial gallons.  Was that typical?

JBWX



Date: 01/31/25 00:16
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: railsmith

kgrantly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can, Trackside Guide 1992/1993 I see Cape Breton
> Development Corp. used KMs for distance
> measurements. No idea subsequent years.
> And in the  2024 CTG KMs are used by Capital
> Rail, in Ottawa, Cap Rail is the commuter rail
> system there.

Metric distance is also used by Vancouver's SkyTrain metro system, which is an enclosed system isolated from any heavy-rail operations.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/25 04:25 by railsmith.



Date: 01/31/25 05:29
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: jeffgeldner

A friend of mine who retired as a conductor from the Canadian Pacific said the Canadian railways continued to use miles due to their interchange with U.S. railroads. One analogy for this is the fact that wineries in the States went metric due to sales abroad since most other nations use the metric system of measurement.



Date: 01/31/25 05:43
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: Lackawanna484

jeffgeldner Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- One analogy for this is the
> fact that wineries in the States went metric due
> to sales abroad since most other nations use the
> metric system of measurement.

Yes, although the US makers squeezed some profit out of the conversion by going to 750 milliliters instead of the much simpler one liter.

That let them sell 25.6 oz for the former price of a 32 oz quart.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/25 13:23 by Lackawanna484.



Date: 01/31/25 06:50
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: DrawingroomA

When VIA published timetables, in the early days they gave the distances in miles as  CN and CP did.  For a short while they started to show kilometres and miles.  Then they went to kilometres only. Finally there were no distances shown.

The tsimobile site shows the speed of the train in kilometres per hour. 



Date: 01/31/25 08:33
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: WP17

hoggerdoug Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mile(s) post, miles per hour speed, tons, pounds
> per square inch pressure, length measured in
> feet., The railways never went "metric"  for
> train operations.
> Doug

And canadian footall still uses yards

























 



Date: 01/31/25 09:13
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: briancdn

I have never considered Canada to be a metric country, despite the attempt by Candian politicians who wanted to be 'different' to the rest of North America. Having distances marked in kilometers and forcing car makers to install speedometers in km's, at tremendous cost to both buiders and consumers does not make your country metric.. The country is half metric, half imperial, which just adds cost and confusion in many areas of the economy. Given that we are trading partners with two countries that are still using imperial measurements, it made no sense at all to be 'different'. It was forced down our throats with no public consultation. Changing a 2 x 4 piece of lumber to metric makes no sense at all. And we export a huge amount of lumber to the U.S..
Most manufacturing in Canada is imperial based. It was just too expensive to even consider converting machine tools and gauges to metric. So they just ignored the metric mandate, with no reprocussions from government. I worked in the aircraft engine profession as a planner and tool designer, and in 36 years saw only one metric drawing, a joint project with MTU in Germany. We struggled with trying to work in metric!
Chemistry and biology based professions have always been metric, it's an international standard. Automotive uses both, depending on the car maker and part source. All car mechanics still need both metric and imperial tool sets.
European countries are metric, with all technical drawings and machine tools in metric.
North America should be using the same measurement system to provide ease of trade and joint construction and manufacturing projects. But no, a few eliteist politicians decided that Canada had to be 'different'. It did not then, and does not make sense now, to be considered a metric country.
I am quite sure that if you poll 100 men over the age of 50 what their weight is (never ask women this question!), they will repsond in pounds, not kilograms. I have no idea what my weith is in Kg's.
OK, rant over.

Brian N.



Date: 01/31/25 09:16
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: TAW

jeffgeldner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A friend of mine who retired as a conductor from
> the Canadian Pacific said the Canadian railways
> continued to use miles due to their interchange
> with U.S. railroads. One analogy for this is the
> fact that wineries in the States went metric due
> to sales abroad since most other nations use the
> metric system of measurement.


US interchanges with Mexico as well. Mexico is metric.

A CN engineering department guy I worked with said that the government mandated metric. The industry responded with You're going to pay for redoing all the engineering drawings, right? End of mandate.

A Washington State Department of Transportation engineer I worked with said that the state mandated conversion to metric. That would involve changing the engineering drawings. They found that imperial-size material didn't convert nicely into metric-size material (a one inch bolt in a bridge is a 25.4 mm bold and there is no such, etc.) and the idea was scrapped.

TAW



Date: 01/31/25 21:58
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: P

Interesting discussion. It sounds like abandoning the metric system to create synergies with the US might not be all that difficult. Sure,there would be some pain, but if a new leader is elected, they could push the change. Has that been a topic of discussion in recent Canadian elections?

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Date: 01/31/25 23:43
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: railsmith

P Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting discussion. It sounds like
> abandoning the metric system to create synergies
> with the US might not be all that difficult.
> Sure,there would be some pain, but if a new
> leader is elected, they could push the change.
> Has that been a topic of discussion in recent
> Canadian elections?

No. The metric system has been taught in schools for 50 years now, so multiple generations know nothing else. Only boomers and what's left of their parents' generation would have any interest in re-converting.

And what would be the gain?  The U.S. auto manufacturing industry has used metric fasteners for decades, and Canadian (and Mexican) auto plants operate in metric and are fully integrated into the supply chain.

Leaving the metric system aside, Canadian and U.S. measures were not identical before Canada went metric, the gallon being a prime example.  No synergy with the U.S. there.

 



Date: 02/01/25 00:00
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: railsmith

jbwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Many years ago I noticed that QNSL units had fuel
> tanks marked in Imperial gallons.  Was that
> typical?
 
That's standard fare  -- Canadian railways measure fuel in Imperial gallons.



Date: 02/01/25 00:13
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: dan

Trump will convert you back,   the trans canada highway, will  be renamed interstate 100



Date: 02/01/25 01:42
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: railsmith

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Trump will convert you back,   the trans canada
> highway, will  be renamed interstate 100

Interstate 100 -- how metric.



Date: 02/01/25 04:24
Re: Mileposts in Canada
Author: Ray_Murphy

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