 "Trans-Canada Express" was part of the wartime "Canada Carries On" propaganda short film series.The film was produced with financial backing from the Wartime Information Board for the Director of Public Information, Herbert Lash.Typical of the NFB's series of morale-boosting films, "Trans-Canada Express" used the format of a compilation documentary, relying heavily on newsreel material, including a sequence from Buster Keaton's "The General" (1926), as well as a re-enactment of Lord Strathcona driving the final spike into the Canadian Pacific Railway Line.