The largest railway archives center in Canada!

Archives Centre

Canadian Railroad Historical Association (CRHA) Archives and Documentation Centre

The archives acquire physical and virtual media relating to Canadian railway history, conserve these for posterity, and promote their use by making them known and accessible to students, historians, researchers, journalists, and other interested people.

The CRHA Archives and Documentation Centre houses more than 321 private archival fonds and collections from railway companies (Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, Grand Trunk, etc.), manufacturers (Montreal Locomotive Works, Canadian Car & Foundry, etc.), important people (Charles M. Hays, William C. Van Horne, etc.), former employees, and railway history buffs. These preserved documents illustrate in particular the technological genius, the history of the stations, the life of the workers, the growth of the companies, and the development of the regions; telling the history of transportation in Canada from 1780 to the present day.

In addition, the Centre holds a documentation section of more than 10,000 books and magazines on the history of rail transportation in Canada from 1773 to the present, making it the largest specialized collection of its kind in Canada.

The CRHA Archives and Documentation Centre currently houses (March 31, 2021)

Many of our archival documents are also disseminated on our various platforms: Facebook,  Instagram, Flickr, HistoryPin, and Twitter! Follow us so as not to miss anything!

Noteworthy:

• 1996: Mark Greenwald Collection is certified as cultural property by the Government of Canada.
• 2008: The CRHA Archives and Documentation Centre is officially recognized as an accredited archival centre by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ).
• 2014: Canadian Pacific Railway Company Fonds is certified as a cultural property of outstanding significance and national importance by the Government of Canada.
• 2017: Publication of the book Bibliothèques québécoises remarquables in which a chapter is dedicated to the CRHA Archives and Documentation Centre.
• 2018:
  • Canadian Pacific Railway Company Fonds is inscribed on the Canadian Commission for UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
  • The CRHA is awarded the “Significant Achievement Award – Archives” from Heritage Rail Alliance for preserving CP Archives.

The majority of documents kept by the CRHA Archives and Documentation Centre are available for consultation.

Online Searches

Descriptive records of fonds and collections processed using our ArchiLog database are available online. Some photos can also be viewed there in low resolution. Our new online search portal allows you to search all our databases in one place! Not only can you search our archival materials, but also our collection of books and magazines (Biblio-Tek) and back issues of Canadian Rail magazine, all with one click!

Consult our archives

Consult All Canadian Rail numbers

Searches On Site

It is possible to consult our documents in person. You can do this by making an appointment with the staff of the Archives Centre. Consultation, reproduction and user fees may apply. See the CRHA Pricing Policy for details.

See the Guide for Researchers for our opening hours, contact information for the Centre, consultation rules and much other useful information.

Requests for Research by our team from Archives Centre

It is possible to ask the archivist to carry out your required research, using the search request form. It should be noted that fees are charged for this service. Similarly, other fees may apply for the reproduction of documents found. See the CRHA Pricing Policy for details.

Genealogy

The Centre does not hold any documents that can assist in genealogical research or research on former railway employees. For other ways to access such information, please see our help document on this topic.

Legal rights

Even though most of the documents held by the archives are old, this does not mean that they are free to be used without any restriction. For an overview of the legal framework surrounding the use of the archives, please see our document on this topic

Archive donations

Our history is preserved through the various documents that are built up over time. Without them, it would be difficult for us – if not impossible – to understand the different developments that have helped make our world what it is today.

Whether you are a railway company, a manufacturer, an employee or former employee, or a railroad history enthusiast, your archives are important.

Do not neglect documents that can clutter your closets: they sometimes contain unknown treasures! Consider offering an archival donation to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association.

To do this, a process is in place:

• Contact the Archivist: The following form allows you to enter your contact information and details about the proposed donations. Give as many details as possible and do not forget to include some pictures of what you offer.
• The Archivist will evaluate your donation proposal and contact you for more details if needed.
• Your donation proposal and the archivist’s recommendation will be presented to the CRHA Collections Committee for consideration at one of its meetings. The Committee will decide whether to accept your donation proposal.
• Whether the decision is favorable or not, the archivist will contact you to let you know. If the decision is favorable, the archivist will prepare the documents necessary to formalize the donation. It is important to know that regardless of the size of the donation, it is a legal necessity to sign a donation contract for the CRHA`s records.

For more details, please refer to our acquisition policy.

Mailing address
110, Saint-Pierre Street
Saint-Constant (Québec) J5A 1G7

Phone number
450 638-1522, ext. 237

E-mail
service.archives@exporail.org

Archives donations form