John Egan was General Superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

's Western Division from 1882 to July 1886 with headquarters at Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba. He was succeeded by William Whyte

William Whyte (CPR executive)

Sir William Whyte was a Canadian railway executive.Born in Charlestown, Scotland, the son of William Whyte and Christina Methven, Whyte attended public school in Charlestown before becoming a junior clerk in the office of the factor of Lord Elgin's estate...

.

Formerly with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, Egan was hired by William Cornelius Van Horne

William Cornelius Van Horne

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, KCMG was a pioneering Canadian railway executive.-Life and career:Born in 1843 in rural Illinois, he moved with his family to Joliet, Illinois when he was eight years old...

to oversee the completion of the first transcontinental rail link in Canada. He was present at the driving of the last spike on November 7, 1885.

Egan returned to the United States where he held executive positions with the St Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway amongst others.