Growing wheat for local consumption characterized grain production on the prairies prior to the 1885. In that decade the railway began to transform the West. It made possible the settlement of vast new areas. It permitted the importation of large quantities of household goods and farm machinery. Above all, it made possible the establishment of links with outside economies. Grain was an ideal product for the region. It was needed in Eastern Canada and especially Europe where the demand for white bread and pasta was growing at a rapid rate. It could be shipped relatively easily and cheaply. As the wheat economy developed, shipping points emerged along the railway at intervals of sixteen to twenty kilometres. In the days when horses and wagons brought wheat to market, twenty kilometres round trip was the maximum convenient distance a farmer could travel in a day and have time for unloading grain. Many farmers, however, did not live along the railway line. For them, overnight trips sometimes were necessary. The farmers who lived well away from railways resented the inconvenience and expense long trips caused and demanded the construction of branch lines. They also were the most bitter opponents of the monopoly position held by the Canadian Pacific Railway in much of the prairies for many years. Similarly, they supported the railway expansion of the early twentieth century, the expansion that brought two new railway trunk systems to the prairies. This photograph shows the freight yards of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Transcona, Manitoba, in 1925. It gives an indication of the large number of freight cars needed to transport the prairie harvest.
