George Everett Mayne

Life and Career with the CPR

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 G E Mayne – Life and Career with the CPR

George Everett Mayne, or ‘Everett’ as he was known through his life, was born in 1901 at his
family’s farm in Potter Settlement, near Tweed, Ontario. The farmhouse he was raised in is
shown in this photo of it taken in the 1940s.

It had been built by his father in 1897 so he could have a separate home from the nearby family
log homestead he himself had been raised in.

Everett’s love of railways started in early school years, when he would draw maps of the railway
lines in his exercise books. He is shown as sitting 2nd from left in front row of his village school
in 1907.

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 Everett (right) as a boy with his family, ca. 1913

Everett’s schooling was interrupted by farm work required for the First World War effort and he
did not finish high school. Aged 16 when the war ended, he joined the Canadian Pacific Railway
as Assistant Agent at their small rural station of Actinolite (then Sulphide). The duties included
sweeping the platform and lighting the gas lamps on them. His beginning salary in June 1918
was $45 a month.

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The first of eight pages of Everett Mayne’s CPR service record showing him commencing
in June 1918 as Assistant Agent in the Operating Department at Sulphide at a salary of
$45 per month.
.

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 Everett dressed up standing next to the family farmhouse

He was transferred to Agincourt in March 1919 (age 17), as Assistant Agent, but with a big hike
in pay to $87.50 a month. However, in this year and early in 1920 he was off on sickness leave
for over 3 months, all with no pay. He had caught the dreaded Spanish flu and returned to the
family farm to convalesce. Although desperately ill, he pulled through and returned to his job in
Agincourt.

Everett’s early work and much of the subsequent work was in the Operating Department
involved in station and train yard operations. His work in Agincourt would have included
involvement in switching freight cars in the marshalling yard there, where arriving freight cars
were sorted and put on trains going to their destinations. He was promoted to an Operator
position in 1920-21. Canadian Pacific Railway had its own telegraphy network to manage their
rail traffic. The railway also offered to send messages for a price to the general public and
private businesses. Everett also learned Morse Code and worked the telegraph machines as
part of his job.

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It was at his lodging house in Agincourt that Everett met Eva Jane Harris. They married in 1923,
when he was a telegrapher with the CPR. Eva’s father, William Richard Harris, worked as a
Section Man, and later as a Pump Man for the CPR. Three of William’s five daughters married
railwaymen, two were with CPR and one with CNR.

William Harris’s Agincourt home in the 1920s where Everett lodged and met his wife Eva

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 William Richard Harris with moustache in the foreground on his Section Gang

Everett and Eva wedding, Agincourt 1923

After moving to other stations (Trenton, Cobourg and Toronto Terminals) Everett was
transferred to Peterborough in 1924, where his and Eva’s children Jack and Gwen were born,
and where he continued working as an Operator.

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 Everett and Eva in Peterborough

In this photo, taken about 1929, Everett is shown standing on the left with family and
friends in front of a CPR caboose.

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For the five years from 1928 on, Everett was posted to other stations, notably London, where he
had graduated to Ticket Clerk at a salary of $100/month. In 1933, during the Great Depression,
he was laid off from the railway, but continued to be available at all times to be called back. Eva
worked part-time and Everett worked as a salesman. When they needed a new place to live in
Agincourt, the only one they could find was an inn with a soda fountain and ice cream parlour,
so they rented that and Eva took over the running of it, inclusive of offering meals, with some
help from children Jack and Gwen.

The Inn at Agincourt which Eva ran while Everett worked as a salesman during the
Depression

Everett was finally called back to the CPR in December 1939, the year the Second World War
started. The railway played an important role in the war transporting freight and soldiers. Further
promotions and transfers (including to Belleville, London and Schreiber) ensued for Everett. In
1944 he was a dispatcher in Toronto at a salary of $277.43/month, before being promoted later
that year to be Assistant Superintendent, Bruce Division, and then going on to similar positions
in Sudbury, North Bay and Schreiber.

His work required Everett to be away from the family home in Agincourt, either at his various
postings or at overnight stays at hotels where he had work to attend to. In one instance, he
overheard that another man was being turned away because there were no vacancies
anywhere, so Everett told the man that he could have the other bed in the hotel room he had for
that night. The man gratefully accepted. However, Everett was notorious for his loud snoring
and the man in the other bed could not get a wink of sleep.

In 1948 Everett was promoted to the post of Superintendent, Montreal Terminals, and he was
allocated his own private railway car when in this post. He had subsequent ones as a General
Superintendent and, finally, as a Vice President. In Toronto, there was a separate siding on the
lake side for the locally based CPR executives’ private cars. The interior layouts of these cars
were similar, but the one kept for the President’s use was the most prestigiously appointed.

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 Private Car 23

The cars had 3 bedrooms, the biggest one for the manager’s use. They also had a galley
kitchen, a large dining room next to it, and a lounge at the end. There was a balcony platform
outside at the back (see photo of Everett on the balcony). The lounge had a desk at the end
which Everett used for work, and an armchair and two sofas (see the photo showing Everett
smoking his pipe in the lounge).

The car was usually attached to freight trains and pulled to wherever the CPR executive had
business to attend to. Its main function was for meeting with and entertaining business
customers of the railway. The private cars were staffed with a secretary and cook. The
secretary would set up the meetings with company owners or managers in the towns and cities,
and the executive would be taken there in the private car. Many reasonably-sized companies
then had their own railway sidings for deliveries and shipments. The meetings would normally
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take place during lunchtime, but occasionally be for dinner. The cook would prepare and serve
rather elegant three to four course meals on white linen tablecloths, set with fine china and
silverplated cutlery. Those were the days when finer dining was unlikely to be available in many
of these locations, so it was an impressive occasion for these CPR customers.

The private car was also used when required for on site management of recoveries at
derailments and accidents. Everett’s son Jack recalled a time following a rail collision when
Everett worked for three days and nights straight.

1954 dining car menu on CPR’s premier ‘Dominion’ transcontinental passenger train

While in Montreal, Everett played a major role in the construction of the St. Luc freight terminal,
which opened in July 1950 (Note 1). This state-of-the-art push button terminal with electrical
braking cost $12,000,000. It was the first of its kind in in Canada and replaced 3 other nearby
Canadian Pacific yards which had play important roles in Canada’s war effort.

The terminal was laid out in receiving, classification and departure track sections comprising 75
miles of new trackage on 682 acres of land. It could handle about 3,000 cars in 24 hours and
was equipped with a 37-stall engine house with machine shop, a diesel engine service shop, car
weighing, inspection and repair facilities, and accommodation for train crews. The receiving yard
had 15 tracks and a capacity of 1,151 cars and the classification yard had 40 tracks and a
capacity of 1,550 cars.
Before reaching the hump, there was an inspection pit built of reinforced concrete under the
track with shatterproof plate glass on top in which 3 men could inspect the underside of each

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car. Cars requiring repairs or maintenance were diverted to the repair yard. The scale on the
hump would weigh cars while they were in motion. Cars were uncoupled before the crest of the
hump and routed to a destination track by the pushing of a button on the switch panel in the
hump office. They then travel down the hump by gravity without further human intervention. The
retarder mechanism on the tracks after the crest of the hump was activated by the weight of the
car and how far it must travel to its destination in the classification yard.

Canadian Pacific St. Luc Yard Diagram of Receiving and Classification Yards

Canadian Pacific St. Luc Yard Diagram of Departure End

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 Looking down the hump into the St Luc Classification Yard with scale retarder in the
foreground

(Photos and diagrams of the St Luc Marshalling Yard are from Railway Age, August 12, 1950)

During his tenure as Superintendent, Montreal Terminals, it was confusing that some of the staff
worked in French and others in English, so he made it a rule that everyone must work in
English. But when he was transferred to Calgary, the staff gave him a special “Bon Voyage” by
delivering their farewell to Everett in French. Upon arrival in Calgary, he was made General

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Superintendent for the Alberta Division. As one who was not afraid of a practical joke, he
enlisted someone from the local First Nations to write his thank you for the French farewell in
their native language.

While in Calgary, Everett was assigned CPR’s Business Car Alberta [renamed business car 9 in
the 1960s]. It has been restored and features an expanded lounge with comfortable sofas and
tables, a large dining/meeting room designed to seat 12 – 14 with a buffet china cabinet. [see
photos from West Coast Railway Heritage New, March 2011]

In 1951, personal tragedy struck when his spouse Eva died suddenly. Everett, aged 50,
accompanied the coffin in his private rail car first to Saskatchewan to pick up his son Jack and
then to Toronto. Everett’s automobile was in a separate freight car. News of Eva’s death had
preceded the train’s journey, and local CPR staff greeted the train at each of its stops to pay
their respects. Everett later commissioned a stained glass window for Eva’s family church, St.
Timothy’s, in Agincourt.

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Immediately following her mother’s death, daughter Gwen quit her job to be with her father, and
she stayed on looking after him and his different homes for the next six years, until her own
marriage in 1957. In the early 1950s Everett and Gwen visited Tokyo, Japan, travelling by CP
Air. And Everett travelled to Rio de Janeiro in 1955 at the invitation of the local rail industry to
give them advice. Soon after this, the several separate private railways there united into a single
network.

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 Everett with daughter Gwen at her wedding reception, Royal York Hotel, August 1957

Everett went on to become a Regional Manager of CPR’s Eastern Region (1953), based in
Toronto, and then Prairie Region (1955), based in Winnipeg.

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This was the decade when the older coal-fired steam locomotives were being replaced with
newer diesel ones and CPR began its piggyback service of carrying truck trailers on flatbed
cars. The Engineering Institute of Canada’s Engineering Journal, Vol. 36 of February 1953
noted Everett’s talk in Calgary on the testing and introduction of diesel engines:

A regular branch meeting was held at the Palliser Hotel, December 4, 1952.

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The guest speaker of the evening was G. E. Mayne, general superintendent, Alberta
District, Canadian Pacific Railway. He gave a very interesting and enlightening discussion on
the background of the dieselization of the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

He outlined the development and trials carried out before diesel-electric type locomotives were
accepted. The trials were carried out on Vancouver Island so as not to interrupt any mainline
operations and their results were far more beneficial than had originally been expected.

With these results, the railroad then decided to forego any glamorization of its trains and apply
dieselization to the areas where the most benefit could be obtained both economically and
efficiently. A great deal of planning was necessary in establishing maintenance depots,
stores handling and servicing. The diesel electric locomotive has an operating range of 400
miles without service, compared to the steam locomotive's 70 miles.

There are four sizes of diesel locomotives in service; approximately 800 hp.,1000 hp., 1600 hp.
and 2200 hp., each having its specific job to do.

As this was an Alberta group, he enlarged on the utilization of diesel power on the Calgary to
Revelstoke run, giving some very significant comparisons on the operation of steam versus
diesel electric. The talk was completed with a very scenic colour picture of our own Canadian
Rockies which had the odd diesel electric powered passenger train passing through it.

After a very intense question period, the speaker was thanked by Mr. T. D. Stanley, Branch
chairman, and the meeting adjourned.

In 1956, while in Winnipeg, Everett was promoted to Vice President, Prairie Region. His duties
included being a Director of Canadian Pacific Transport and of Dench of Canada (a trucking firm
associated with CPR), Chairman of Northern Alberta Railways, and Director of Public Markets
Limited. He also assumed CPR’s role as chairman of the non-profit educational Prairie
Provinces Forestry Association (Note 2). Winnipeg’s CPR marshalling yard was one of
Canada’s largest.

“Another important feature of the stagecoach was for regular mail service. This important early
means of delivering mail was commemorated on June 6, 1958 when a Wells-Fargo stagecoach
pulled up to the city’s new $11.5-million downtown post office, disembarking were then
Canadian post-master general William Hamilton, postmaster G.A. 
Foord, Manitoba Historical Society president Dr. Murray Campbell and CPR vice-president
G.E. Mayne.”
https://www.winnipegregionalrealestatenews.com/publications/real-estate-news/322

During this time, Everett lived in a large CPR company house in Winnipeg’s Tuxedo district,
where he hosted annual company Christmas parties for the city mayor and other prominent
locals. He also was in charge of much of the rail part of the Queen’s 1959 Royal Tour of
Canada.

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 Everett Mayne centre 2nd row between Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the 1959
Royal Tour of Canada

Everett sent envelopes specially stamped ‘FROM ROYAL TRAIN 1959’ he was managing
to each of his grandsons

Everett met his second wife, Swea, while in Winnipeg and they married there in 1960.

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Swea, Everett, 1960 wedding with Everett’s daughter Gwen

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 Canadian Who’s Who 1961-3

In 1962, Everett was transferred and promoted once more to his final posting with CPR as Vice
President and General Manager of the Eastern Region, based back in Toronto. In this position
he was responsible for a staff of about 5,000. His duties included being Vice President and
Director of the Lake Erie and Northern and Grand River Railways. His office, Room 354 in
Union Station, overlooked the city. In this office he had a large closet in which he kept a made-
up camp bed in case he had to work late in emergencies.

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Everett was well known enough at CP’s Royal York Hotel, Toronto, by 1962 that a letter
addressed to him with just his photo as addressee was delivered to him.

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G E Mayne receiving Order of St. John Medal
from Governor General Georges Vanier

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 G E Mayne, 2nd from left with other medal recipients

Everett was pensioned early in 1963 for health reasons. Including the period he had been laid
off during the Depression, Everett's career with the CPR had spanned just over 45 years. He
retired to Winnipeg, spending summers at a cottage in Kenora, where Swea’s family were
based, and part of most winters in Lahaina, Hawaii. He continued to travel extensively, including
by rail in North America and Europe, until his death in 1975.

Everett and Swea during his retirement

Everett was interred at Park Lawn Cemetery, in Toronto, with his first wife, Eva.

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Everett’s second wife, Swea, outlived him by just over 40 years. She passed away peacefully in
a nursing home near family in Kenora in 2016 at the age of 105.

Notes
Note 1: A write-up with illustrations of the St. Luc Freight terminal when it opened can be seen
at http://quebectrain.com/regle105/pdf/Rly_Age_1950-08-12_pp28-33_St-Luc.pdf

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Note 2: A write-up of the Saskatchewan Forestry Association, which supplanted the
Saskatchewan part of the Prairie Forestry Association, can be seen here and notes the gift from
the CPR of a Tree Planting Car: http://econet.ca/sk_enviro_champions/sfa.html

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