Hurray for the Dorchester! is a Children's Picture Book by Anne Fotheringham and Michael Martchenko.
Long ago, in the early days of the country of Canada, there was a lot of country and not a lot of ways to travel over long distance. There were horses and peoples' own two feet, but some people just couldn't be bothered to deal with the hassle.
What Canada needed was a railway. So, they set out to build the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad
, which connected Montreal to Lake Champlain, speeding travel south to New York City.
They also needed a locomotive to pull trains. That's where The Dorchester came in. And so, this book chronicles the struggles of the first Canadian railway.
The book was published in 1986.
Hurray For The Dorchester! contains examples of:
- Based on a True Story: That of the first locomotive of the first Canadian Railway.
- Black Bead Eyes: On the cover, at least, the humans are portrayed as having black dot eyes.
- Black Dot Pupils: On the cover, the Dorchester's eyes are drawn this way.
- Dawn of an Era: It's stated in the last page of the book that the Dorchester "made a name for himself in history and brought the railway age to Canada" as the Dorchester is happily sleeping.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: At the end of the book, after having successfully pulled two trains, the Dorchester is happily sleeping and dreaming of Via Rail, which is meant to symbolize how The Dorchester helped bring railways to Canada.
- Sentient Vehicle: The Dorchester is presented here as a steam locomotive with a face.
