From Early Stories to Today · Drawing 19
The early railway
1836
In 1836, a railway linked La Prairie and Saint-Jean. Carriages ran on rails behind a steam locomotive.
Look together
What is the locomotive pulling?
An idea to try
Use two long, parallel paper strips to make a track between two drawings of towns. Your child moves a small object representing a train along the route.
For the adult reading along
A little more to discover
The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad opened in 1836 between La Prairie and Saint-Jean. Exporail places this first Canadian railway within the railway history it preserves and presents. The date introduces a route between two places, with vehicles following a track built for them.
Rails and connected carriages are concrete details for a young child. Compare a train's route with a cart's: the train follows its track rather than choosing each turn in a street. The illustrated locomotive is inspired by older vehicles. It is not a technical portrait of the exact locomotive that opened the line.
Sources and context
These links lead to other websites. Explore them with an adult. Source titles appear in their original language; some linked pages are in French.
Source review: 2026-09-12. Illustrations simplify places and scenes; they are not historical documents.