http://wiki.keithl.com SigRail
Please forward this question to historian - Canadian Pacific passenger service direct to Portland in 1911?
I hope you can delegate the following quest to a PPRA member, perhaps someone with Scandinavian ancestry.
My grandfather Sig Lofstrom immigrated to Oregon in 1911. He traveled from Sweden to Trondheim Norway, then from there to Liverpool England, where the Canadian Pacific Railroad steamship! Empress of Britain took him to Quebec. From there by Canadian Pacific rail to Portland, via Spokane. Here is a photo of his steamship and rail ticket.
I hope to learn whether Sig traveled the entire transcontinental distance on a train operated by the Canadian Pacific, or changed trains in Spokane to S.P.&S and Portland.
Page 1175 of a 1952 Canadian Pacific timetable shows an 8 hour stop in Spokane. It is possible that the CP "Colony car" with bunks for 100, see photo that brought him to Spokane in 1911 was recoupled to an S.P.&S. train. It is also possible that CP ran their own passenger train direct to Portland, transporting hundreds of Scandinavians per week in the early 20th century. CP did have a storefront office in downtown Portland; the Oregon Historical Society has a picture of it.
Tens of thousands of Oregonians descended from those immigrants. It would be amusing to hire an off-season Canadian excursion train to transport many of us from Quebec to Portland over the same rails that our grandparents (or great-grandparents or great-greats) traveled. Google Maps shows 5 sidings at the US border at Eastport Idaho, so a southbound passenger train could stop there for customs and travel document inspection, and to let the higher priority freights pass by.
I've made a copy of this email at http://wiki.keithl.com/SigRail, where you can share it with others.
Thank you for your time.
Keith Lofstrom, Beaverton Oregon (hearing loss, email preferred)