This painting, Applying the Tracks, by Frederick B. Taylor shows Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) workers at the Angus Shops in Montreal fitting the tracks on a Valentine tank. Some fourteen hundred Valentine tanks were built by the CPR between 1941 and 1943. Thirty were retained for training, and the rest were sent to the Soviet Union.
Another tank, a medium cruiser known as the Ram, was also built in Canada. It was unique in that it was the first welded tank and was therefore relatively free of the sharp edges and many bolts and rivets typical of other tanks. The Ram did not enter combat as a tank, however. With their turrets removed, Rams were converted into self-propelled guns, armoured personnel carriers and flame throwers.
In Taylor's painting, the workers in the foreground clench their teeth in strain while the foreman and superintendent observe. Denied government support as a war artist mainly because of his association with Communist organizations, Frederick Taylor was the younger brother of E.P. Taylor, a famous Canadian entrepreneur and millionaire. He entered the factories on his own initiative to portray the contribution by Canadian workers to the war effort. So that his subjects could see his work, he displayed his paintings in union halls and factory lunchrooms.
Courtesy: Canadian War Museum, National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada (S83-12)
