One railway, two ends of the city

I noticed it by accident, reading two Wikipedia articles back to back: the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway turns up in both.

At the east end: Transcona

In 1908 the Grand Trunk Pacific and the National Transcontinental Railway picked a flat, unoccupied area east of Winnipeg as the site for repair and maintenance of their lines, and planned a townsite for the workers beside it. Wikipedia's timeline says the Transcona Shops opened on 18 January 1913 and that, in 1915–1918, part of the shops turned to munitions.

The town's name is itself railway history — Transcontinental plus Strathcona, after Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona, of Canadian Pacific fame.

The clearest object from that era is a locomotive. The Transcona Museum explains that CN 2747 was the first steam locomotive built in Western Canada and the first constructed at the CN Transcona Shops, in April 1926. It was retired in 1960 and has stood outdoors in what is now Rotary Heritage Park. The museum took ownership of it in late 2015. The museum itself is at 141 Regent Avenue West — the same avenue as the hotel.

At the west end: The Forks

Downtown, at the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, The Forks describes its own transformation from an "abandoned railyard" into Winnipeg's main gathering place over the last 35 years. Wikipedia adds the detail I was after: The Forks Market was formed by joining two stables, one belonging to the Grand Trunk Pacific and the other to the Great Northern.

The Manitoba Children's Museum at The Forks is housed in the former Kinsmen Building, built in 1889 and described as the oldest surviving train repair facility in Manitoba.

Why it matters to a hotel guest

It gives the drive between the two a shape. You leave a neighbourhood the railway built to fix its engines, and you arrive at a market made from the railway's stables. Both are on the same company's map from a hundred-odd years ago.

It also explains the landscape. Transcona is flat and open because the railways wanted flat, open land. The wide lots around Regent Avenue — including the one the casino and hotel stand on — belong to that tradition.

A half-day for railway fans

1. Morning: the Transcona Museum (check it's open; it closes during its 6–11 November exhibit at Kildonan Place).
2. CN 2747 in Rotary Heritage Park.
3. Drive west to The Forks; lunch in the Market.
4. The Children's Museum building, if you have children with you, for the 1889 repair shop itself.