Grand Trunk Railway of Canada
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Transcontinental Railways and Canadian Nationalism Introduction Historiography
©2001 Chinook Multimedia Inc. Page 1 of 22 Transcontinental Railways and Canadian Nationalism A.A. den Otter ©2001 Chinook Multimedia Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited. Introduction The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) has always been a symbol of Canada's nation-building experience. Poets, musicians, politicians, historians, and writers have lauded the railway as one of the country's greatest achievements. Indeed, the transcontinental railway was a remarkable accomplishment: its managers, engineers, and workers overcame incredible obstacles to throw the iron track across seemingly impenetrable bogs and forests, expansive prairies, and nearly impassable mountains. The cost in money, human energy, and lives was enormous. Completed in 1885, the CPR was one of the most important instruments by which fledgling Canada realized a vision implicit in the Confederation agreement of 1867-the building of a nation from sea to sea. In the fulfilment of this dream, the CPR, and subsequently the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk systems, allowed the easy interchange of people, ideas, and goods across a vast continent; they permitted the settlement of the Western interior and the Pacific coast; and they facilitated the integration of Atlantic Canada with the nation's heartland. In sum, by expediting commercial, political, and cultural intercourse among Canada's diverse regions, the transcontinentals in general, and the CPR in particular, strengthened the nation. Historiography The first scholarly historical analysis of the Canadian Pacific Railway was Harold Innis's A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In his daunting account of contracts, passenger traffic, freight rates, and profits, he drew some sweeping conclusions. -
Historical Outlines of Railways in Southwestern Ontario
UCRS Newsletter • July 1990 Toronto & Guelph Railway Note: The Toronto & Goderich Railway Company was estab- At the time of publication of this summary, Pat lished in 1848 to build from Toronto to Guelph, and on Scrimgeour was on the editorial staff of the Upper to Goderich, on Lake Huron. The Toronto & Guelph Canada Railway Society (UCRS) newsletter. This doc- was incorporated in 1851 to succeed the Toronto & ument is a most useful summary of the many pioneer Goderich with powers to build a line only as far as Guelph. lines that criss-crossed south-western Ontario in the th th The Toronto & Guelph was amalgamated with five 19 and early 20 centuries. other railway companies in 1854 to form the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada. The GTR opened the T&G line in 1856. 32 - Historical Outlines of Railways Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada in Southwestern Ontario The Grand Trunk was incorporated in 1852 with au- BY PAT SCRIMGEOUR thority to build a line from Montreal to Toronto, assum- ing the rights of the Montreal & Kingston Railway Company and the Kingston & Toronto Railway Com- The following items are brief histories of the railway pany, and with authority to unite small railway compa- companies in the area between Toronto and London. nies to build a main trunk line. To this end, the follow- Only the railways built in or connecting into the area ing companies were amalgamated with the GTR in are shown on the map below, and connecting lines in 1853 and 1854: the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Toronto, Hamilton; and London are not included. -
Death Knell on the Hamilton & North Western Railway
Death Knell on the Hamilton & North Western Railway By H. David Vuckson In the 19th Century, railways were the last word in transportation on land when there was nothing faster to compare them to. The few roads that existed were often impassable during winter and spring because of deep snow or mud and ruts but a railway meant year-round convenience and progress for the communities it passed through and decline or, at the very least, inconvenience for those it bypassed. The Hamilton & North Western Railway which, at its peak, connected Lake Erie (at Port Dover), Lake Ontario (at Hamilton), Lake Simcoe (at Barrie-on the main line) and Georgian Bay (at Collingwood-on the branch line from Beeton [Allimil] Junction on the main line), was, in the minds of the citizens of Simcoe County, supposed to be a grand alternative to the monopoly held by the Northern Railway of Canada. The Northern which had linked Toronto and Collingwood since 1855 was not universally praised or admired by those it served because it was the only game in town and could charge whatever rates it wanted and offer whatever level of service it cared to give. The concept of another railway linking Toronto’s great rival, Hamilton, with Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay in the 1870’s persuaded Simcoe County and 1 of 11 the townships the line would pass through to give financial bonuses for the construction of the H&NW in the hope of having another option to the rates and service dictated by the Northern. As history has recorded, within a few months after the railway from Hamilton arrived in Collingwood in 1879 it merged, mainly for financial reasons, with its rival to whom it was intended to offer stiff competition. -
569 946. the Total Mileage of the Intercolonial System, on 30Th June
RAILWAYS. 569 J.870-1871- Battle of iron versus wooden bridges waged, 1870-71. Windsor Branch, 32 miles, transferred to Windsor and Annapolis Railway for operating purposes. 1872. Railways in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia reconstructed and called Intercolonial Railway by Order in Council, 9th November, 1872. 1874. Railway transfeiTed to Public Works Department, Act of 1874. 1875. Change of gauge between Halifax and St. John, 18th June. 1876. Whole line of Intercolonial opened 1st July. 1879. Purchase of Riviere du Loup line, 126 miles, from Grand Trunk Railway, for $1,500,000, 1st August. Department of Railways and Canals organized with ministerial head, May 20th, 1879. 1884. Eastern Extension (80 miles) purchased from the Government of Nova Scotia 9th January. Cost on 30th June, 1884, of line and equipment $1,284,311. 1885. Cape Traverse Branch (13 miles) completed. St. Charles Loup Line (14 miles) completed. Dalhousie Branch (7 miles) completed. 1886. Riviere du Loup (town) branch (4 miles) completed. Dartmouth (town) branch (4 miles) completed. 1887. Carleton Branch incorporated with Intercolonial Railway by Order in Council 8th October. Pictou (town) branch (11 miles) completed. 1888. Cars lighted with electricity and heated by steam. 1890. Oxford Branch opened for traffic. Accounts for maintenance and operation of Eastern Extension merged^ u^ f similar accounts of the Intercolonial Railway, 1st. July, "W390. ' t. 1891. By Act 54 Vic, chap. 50, the following works were, tog«*$i» jvith-«Ea«e>d ' Extension embodied with the Intercolonial system ; Oxford Junction (72^ miles) opened on 15th July, 1890 ; Cape Breton Railway, 52^ miles of which were opened on 24th November, 1890, and 46 miles on 1st January, 1891. -
Intercolonial Railway Was Undertaken by the Dominion Government to Link the Maritime Provinces with Quebec and Ontario
The Newsletter of the Canadian R.P.O. Study Group (B.N.A.P.S) Volume 37 - No. 1 Whole No. 198 September - October, 2008 In this issue, we examine the early railway post office postmarks used in Nova Scotia. Also there are a number of new reports, a short article from Bob Lane about an interesting bisect on a post card and a report of the Study group meeting at BNAPEX-2008 held in Halifax on August 30. Early Railways in Nova Scotia In 1854, the Nova Scotia Government Railway was organised to build from Halifax to three loca- tions; (1) the New Brunswick border, (2) Pictou Harbour and (3) Victoria Beach in the Annapolis Valley near Digby. In 1858, the line was completed from Halifax to Truro, as well as a branch line to Windsor from Windsor Junction. The extension of the line from Truro to Pictou Landing was finished in June,1867, just prior to Confed- eration. After Confederation, the Intercolonial Railway was undertaken by the Dominion Government to link the Maritime provinces with Quebec and Ontario. It absorbed the Nova Scotia Government Railway, as well as the New Brunswick government owned European and North American Railway, between St. John and Shediac. In 1869, the I.C.Ry. completed a 37 mile section in New Brunswick between Painsec Junction, on the E. & N. A. Ry. and the Nova Scotia boundary. The remaining 56 miles from the boundary to Truro, via Amherst, were finished in 1872. Intercolonial Railway - Halifax & Pictou (Landing) The first postmark used between Halifax and Pictou Landing is known from November 5, 1869 until September 1, 1873, with EAST or WEST direction indicators. -
Moving Natures: Mobility and Environment in Canadian History
University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2016-05 Moving Natures: Mobility and Environment in Canadian History Bradley, Ben; Young, Jay; Coates, Colin M University of Calgary Press Bradley, B., Young, J. & Coates, C.M. (2016). "Moving Natures: Mobility and Environment in Canadian History." Canadian history and environment series; no. 5. University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/51203 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca MOVING NATURES: Mobility and the Environment in Canadian History Edited by Ben Bradley, Jay Young, and Colin M. Coates ISBN 978-1-55238-860-0 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. -
Timeline of the Harbour Grace Railway Station
Timeline of the Harbour Grace Railway 1847 In its May 22 edition, the Morning Post recommends building the first rail line in Newfoundland. The Post advocates the railway connecting with a steamer, which could serve the populous centres of Conception Bay. 1865 The Legislature passes a resolution offering to give land and grants to any company willing to construct a railway in Newfoundland. 1868 Sanford Fleming, engineer for the Canadian Intercolonial Railway, makes a proposal to the Newfoundland Government for a trans-island railway. At his own expense, Fleming sends an engineer to determine if a Newfoundland railway is feasible. 1874 Frederic B.T. Carter is elected premier. 1875 Carter recommends money be voted for a railway survey. Supervised by Fleming, this survey advocates a short line terminating at St. George’s, on Newfoundland’s west coast. Due to its location on the French Treaty Shore, the British Government rejects this location as a western terminus. 1878 William V. Whiteway leads the Liberals to victory in the general election on a platform that includes a promise of action on a railway. Whiteway appoints a joint committee of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly to study the question. 1880 The committee report of April 2 recommends a narrow-gauge (3’6”) railway be constructed from St. John’s to Halls Bay, with a branch line to Harbour Grace. The survey commences in the spring under the supervision of Sanford Fleming. On June 26, the inhabitants of Foxtrap, Conception Bay, believing they will lose their land to the railway, stone surveying engineers, take away their instruments and drive them from their work. -
Evidence from the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railway Companies
This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel Volume Author/Editor: Claudia Goldin and Hugh Rockoff, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-30112-5 Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/gold92-1 Conference Date: March 1-3, 1991 Publication Date: January 1992 Chapter Title: The Profitability of Early Canadian Railroads: Evidence from the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railway Companies Chapter Author: Ann M. Carlos, Frank Lewis Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c6970 Chapter pages in book: (p. 401 - 426) 14 The Profitability of Early Canadian Railroads Evidence from the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railway Companies Ann M. Carlos and Frank Lewis 14.1 Introduction It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that Canada moved into the railroad era. Although railroads had been built in the United States some twenty years earlier, it was during the decade of the 1850s that Canadian construction began in earnest. With only sixty-six miles of track in 1850, Central Canada had, within ten years, nearly 2,000 miles of track, or three quarters of a mile per thousand inhabitants.’ But far from bringing the share- holders the 11 to 15 percent rates of return anticipated, these early railroads teetered on the brink of bankruptcy for most of their lives and were national- ized in 1917. Yet when it comes to discussions of Canadian railroads, economists have shown far greater interest in the transcontinental or post-Confederation (1867) phase.2 This is not to say the earlier railroad boom went unnoticed. -
Railway Station Architecture in Ontario, 1853-1914
Durability and Parsimony: Railway Station Architecture in Ontario, 1853-1914 c S £<.:0NO CLASS '!Y A Y :; 1 r) t·: !i .... (.A"T I flr'l !0-: ... 1 ~ d.fl ~ i tv "1\r ; 11 r l• / ~ - ) ·~ ' ELEVAT I ON Figure 1. Grand Trunk Railway Type C Second Class S E.CTION wayside station, ca. 1853. (Ontario Archives, Shanly Papers, MU 2701, Toronto and Guelph drawings); inset Sl Marys Junction station. (Regional Collection, by Anne M. de Fort-Menares University of Western Ontario) 21:1 SSAC BULLETIN SEAC 25 orporate railway history in Ontario can be charted as a tree, from many roots up Cthrough three main branches. Dozens of short local lines were initially chartered, construction began on some, and a few even operated, only to be bought out by a larger line whose directors had ambitions to develop a system. Strategies for connect ing key shipping nodes drove most company development. By 1882, the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) had bought up most of the smaller lines and competing systems in Ontario, leaving the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the Canada Southern as its chief com petitors. The urge to build to the Pacific resulted in three trans-national lines operat ing by the First World War: the CPR, the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP), and the Canadian Northern (CNoR). Overextension and the huge costs of building and operating railways through the Rockies caused the bankruptcy of the CNoR in 1918, followed by the GTP in 1920 and the Grand Trunk, its parent, in 1923. From the crisis was created Canadian 1 Rowland Macdonald Stephenson, Railways: An Intro National Railways. -
Railroad Crossings: the Transnational World of North
RAILROAD CROSSINGS: THE TRANSNATIONAL WORLD OF NORTH AMERICA, 1850-1910 By Christine Ann Berkowitz A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Christine Ann Berkowitz 2009. RAILROAD CROSSINGS: THE TRANSNATIONAL WORLD OF NORTH AMERICA, 1850-1910 By Christine Ann Berkowitz Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of History, University of Toronto, 2009 ABSTRACT The last quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of railroad building. More track was laid in this period in North America than in any other period. The building of railroads was considered synonymous with nation building and economic progress. Railway workers were the single largest occupational group in the period and among the first workers to be employed by large-scale, corporately owned and bureaucratically managed organizations. While there is a rich historiography regarding the institutional and everyday lives of railway workers and the corporations that employed them, the unit of analysis has been primarily bounded by the nation. These national narratives leave out the north-south connections created by railroads that cut across geo-political boundaries and thus dramatically increasing the flows of people, goods and services between nations on the North American continent. Does the story change if viewed from a continental rather than national perspective? Railroad Crossings tells the story of the people and places along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (and later of the Southern Pacific) between Benson, Arizona and Guaymas, Sonora. -
Michigan's Railroad History
Contributing Organizations The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) wishes to thank the many railroad historical organizations and individuals who contributed to the development of this document, which will update continually. Ann Arbor Railroad Technical and Historical Association Blue Water Michigan Chapter-National Railway Historical Society Detroit People Mover Detroit Public Library Grand Trunk Western Historical Society HistoricDetroit.org Huron Valley Railroad Historical Society Lansing Model Railroad Club Michigan Roundtable, The Lexington Group in Transportation History Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers Michigan Railroads Association Peaker Services, Inc. - Brighton, Michigan Michigan Railroad History Museum - Durand, Michigan The Michigan Railroad Club The Michigan State Trust for Railroad Preservation The Southern Michigan Railroad Society S O October 13, 2014 Dear Michigan Residents: For more than 180 years, Michigan’s railroads have played a major role in the economic development of the state. This document highlights many important events that have occurred in the evolution of railroad transportation in Michigan. This document was originally published to help celebrate Michigan’s 150th birthday in 1987. A number of organizations and individuals contributed to its development at that time. The document has continued to be used by many since that time, so a decision was made to bring it up to date and keep the information current. Consequently, some 28 years later, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has updated the original document and is placing it on our website for all to access. As you journey through this history of railroading in Michigan, may you find the experience both entertaining and beneficial. MDOT is certainly proud of Michigan’s railroad heritage. -
Railway Background V3
BACKGROUND READING for “Irrational Exuberance:” The Creation of the CNR, 1917 – 1919 The Impact of Railways on the World MGT 2917 Canadian Business History Professor Joe Martin This reading was prepared by Professor Joe Martin to supplement the class discussion on The Creation of the CNR case. Copyright © 2005 by the Governing Council of the University of Toronto.To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials write to the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, Business Information Centre,Toronto, M5S 3E6, or go to www.rotman.utoronto.ca/bic. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether by photocopying, recording or by electronic or mechanical means, or otherwise, without the written permission of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. The Impact of Railways on the World Railroads first appeared in the United Kingdom in the early 19th Century.This new transportation technology turned out to be revolutionary in more than one sense. Railroads not only reduced travel time for individuals and dramatically cut the costs of shipped goods, they also contributed to the creation of modern capitalism and even led to the acceptance of standardized time. Simply put, the demands for capital were so great (“about $36,000 a mile on average at a time when $1,000 a year was a middle class income”)1 old ways of providing capital, usually from wholesale merchants, were no longer sufficient. As for the standardization of time, a uniquely Canadian contribution,2 railway travel spanning thousands of miles and several time zones (as was the case in Canada) required that time be synchronized on a more widespread standard basis, rather than varying from city to city, as had been the case prior to the adoption of Standard Time.