Carriage The Canadian state landau was originally purchased by Governor General
the Earl Grey from the
Governor-General of Australia, where the carriage had been built during the 1890s (made by Ewing Brothers Carriage Builders in
Melbourne, Australia, from hand-carved wood and wrought-iron), and it was gifted by Lord Grey to the Crown in right of Canada in 1911. Except for a period during the
Second World War, the landau has been used for ceremonial processions through Ottawa by the governor general or members of the royal family, typically between the royal residence of
Rideau Hall and
Parliament Hill. Members of the royal family have also used
a landau owned by the
Woodbine Entertainment Group (formerly the Ontario Jockey Club), which was imported from the United Kingdom by
E.P. Taylor in the 1960s. It has been used during the
Queen's Plate at
Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.
Automobile during her 2010 royal tour. The sovereign's car bears a red licence plate with a gold
St. Edward's Crown. Cars have been employed frequently to transport members of the royal family and governors general around localized areas of Canada. In 1926, in anticipation of the 1927 royal tour of Canada undertaken by Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later
Edward VIII and then
Duke of Windsor) and his brother
Prince George, Duke of Kent, the first state cars of Canada (two
McLaughlin-Buick seven-passenger open touring cars) were constructed for their use by
General Motors Canada. McLaughlin Motor Car Company was a Canadian automobile company that produced cars under the marque McLaughlin, later branded McLaughlin-Buick, which was purchased in 1918 by
General Motors and became its Canadian subsidiary, General Motors Canada. Elizabeth II's car bore a licence plate with a gold
St. Edward's Crown on a red field.
Rail Railways were a frequently used mode of transportation for royal and vice-royal parties from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries; though, until the completion of the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), the viceregal party would have to pass through the
United States in order to reach the western parts of Canada. Dedicated carriages were constructed and special trains reserved for official and private trips, but, unlike other vehicles, were never owned by the monarch, either as head of state or in a private capacity; instead, they were built and maintained by the railway companies—the
Canadian National Railway (CNR) and the CPR—each always attempting to better the other in terms of luxury and conveniences. Prince Albert Edward was in 1860 the first royal to use a train in Canada; the CPR constructed for his tour two railway cars, one specifically for a sightseeing journey across the
Victoria Bridge in
Montreal after its opening by the Prince. Then, in the 1880s, Governor General
the Marquess of Lorne and his wife,
Princess Louise, were supplied with a
railway car named
Victoria for use in both travelling around the
provinces and territories and as a mobile royal and vice-royal residence in parts of the country where amenities were minimal. When it was stopped at Pile o' Bones, which had just been designated the capital of the
North-West Territories, it was in this car that the Princess in 1882 named the new community
Regina, after her mother, the Queen. For the 1901 tour of the
Duke and
Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary), two railway cars were specially built by the CPR to serve as mobile royal quarters. One, named
Cornwall, served as the day car, with a reception room panelled in
Circassian walnut with blue and gold
Louis XV ornament and fitted with a
piano, as well as a dining room painted in a
Watteau style, and a boudoir for the Duchess lined in silk. consisted of ten cars totalling in length, the remainder being
Canada, with an additional five sleeping cabins;
Sandringham, the staff dining car;
South Africa, housing the secretaries' offices and medical dispensary; and
Australia and
India, with further sleeping quarters. Four years later, the Prince briefly took the controls of the CPR
4-6-2 engine pulling the royal train. and
Queen Elizabeth on the platform of the royal train during the
1939 royal tour of Canada In 1926, two other carriages were built for state use: the
Mount Stephen—which was used by the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor;
Princess Elizabeth and
Prince Philip;
Princess Margaret; and
Princess Anne—and the
Wentworth—which served as car number 5 (the accommodation for Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King) of the royal train for the
1939 tour of King
George VI and
Queen Elizabeth. During that journey, the King, somewhat of a
railbuff, rode in the engine cab when possible, and at the end of the trip gave his permission for the CPR both to use the prefix
royal before the locomotive class' name of Hudson and to display the royal crown on the running boards of these engines. The engines and cars were sold and dispersed in later years; the
Mount Stephen and
Wentworth today form a part of the CPR's
Royal Canadian Pacific train; the Royal Hudson No. 2850 resides at the
Canadian Railway Museum; and the car
Pacific, purchased by Paul Higgins, the former chairman of Mother Parker's, now sits unused on a
spur line in
Ajax, Ontario. Until 1959, royal trains operated by the
Canadian Pacific Railway and the federally-owned
Canadian National Railways were used to transport Queen Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, across the country. For them, and all royal parties before them travelling by train, precautions were taken ahead of the locomotive; railway line staff would be placed at platforms and on bridges for crowd control, a scout train would check for problems ahead of the royal train's arrival, and other trains that might be running parallel with the royal train were made to move at a different speed to prevent passengers looking into the royal carriages. Today, the
Royal Canadian Pacific train service operates in Western Canada and was given the 'Royal' designation in 2000. ==Water==