Aboard for Railroad Memories

■rtcHs zfljiw All aboard for railroad memories Railwayman Tom Allison loaded us whenever there was a blockage on the dorado, providing a link from North Hast aboard the Historical Society Special on main lines. ings to Belleville, although it didn’t ac January 21 and chugged down the track of His topic for the evening was Quinte tually go to either location. It was a nostalgia. He’s retired from the railway, Railways, and Tom ran us down to Pic- scheme promoted by entrepreneurs Mack of course, but once a railwayman, always ton and up to Bancroft and beyond on the enzie Bowell and Billa Flint. a railwayman. And loyal to the company, Central Ontario Railway. He gave us a Many local railways had nicknames. too. He chided President Orland French little tour of the Bay of Quinte Railway, The Kingston and Pembroke, for instance, for wearing a CP engineer’s hat because which he believes was one of the neatest was known as the Kick and Push. Tom was an employee of Canadian Na little railways in the area. If you go to They were notoriously slow, which tional. Bannockburn and search the bushes off didn’t matter much when they carried To prove he was on the job, Tom showed the highway, you can find the remains of freight. But passengers soon forgot that a picture of him standing, ready and in an old turntable and engine house. the former alternative had been horse and uniform, outside a special train parked Entrepreneurs of yesterday were like the buggy rides over bumpy gravel roads, and on Pinnacle Street. He described how the dot.com promoters of today, he said, al they complained about the railways’ snail- trains used to run down the side of Pinna ways dreaming of running their little rail like pace through the forests of eastern cle to Meyers Pier before the tracks were way beyond the furthest horizons. Such Ontario. moved to the centre of the street. The Pin were the Napanee, Tamworth and Quebec As highways and cars improved, pas nacle Street route also served as an emer Railway, or the Kingston, Westport and sengers gave up on the railways. Trucks gency detour for both CN and CP trains Sault Ste. Marie. hauled freight and by the 1960s and The Irondale, Bancroft and Ottawa bare 1970s, CN and CP gave up on trying to ly staggered into Bancroft from Irondale make a dollar on the branch lines. Some before dropping of exhausted resources. lines had been marginal operations at the Next Meeting The same with the COR, which ran out best of times. Today just two railways of money a few kilometres short of J. R. continue to operate through Quinte, both Special Heritage Booth’s line through Algonquin Park. The of them carrying freight only. Via, the Belleville and North Hastings ran only passenger service, carries people, but not Day Meeting from Madoc Junction near Stirling to El- nearly as many as Highway 401. M onday, February 17, 2003 Guest Speaker Ron Reid Topic Hastings County Museum of Agricultural Heritage Refreshments Meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. Monthly meetings are Mackenzie Bowell held in the Auditorium of the Quinte Living Centre 370 Front Street, Belleville Billa Flint. How the Grand Trunk Railway came to Belleville The Coming of Railroad Although there had been talk of constructing a by Gerald E. Boyce railroad from Cobourg to Peterborough as early as 1831, Canada’s first operational railroad had been the October 27,1856, was an historic day for nineteenth Champlain and St. Lawrence railway. A portage line, century Hastings County. On that day a distinguished it linked the Montreal area with St. John’s on the group of local dignitaries supported by hundreds of Richelieu River, a distance of less than fifteen miles. district onlookers, many of them wondering chil Following its historic first trip on July 21, 1836, dren, witnessed the arrival of the first railroad train interest grew in railroading and the railroad dream at Belleville. The Iron Horse, as it was to be known ers began to envisage a system of railroads to link affectionately, ushered in a new era for Hastings the chief Canadian towns and villages. In December, County—an era of rapid transportation. Montreal and 1836, The Intelligencer came out strongly in favour Toronto were now only hours away. of a railroad from Belleville to Madoc and Marmora. New members always welcome Psst. Tell a friend you’ve already joined and you’d like them to come aboard Please complete this form, or a photocopy of the form if you wish to save your newslet ter, and bring it with your payment to the Society’s next general meeting (third Tuesday of each month except June July, August and December), or send it by mail to the Hastings County Historical Society, 154 Cannifton Road North, General Delivery, Cannifton, Ontario KOK 1K0 Name Address City Postal Code I also enclose a donation of $ toward the work of the Society Membership Categories Individual $ 20 Family $ 25 The Hastings County Historical Society Senior/Student $ 15 is a registered charity. Senior Family $ 20 Official receipts for Income Tax purposes Life Member $150 will be forwarded to you with your mem- Corporate Sponsor $ 50 bership card Women’s Institute/Organization $ 20 The cost was estimated at £28,000, but as the editor in 1851 stood prepared to support by subscribing pointed out, the “extensive Iron Mines in the rear £35,000 in stock. Out of these railroad schemes grew part of the County of Hastings would become a mine the idea of the Grand Trunk Railway. Chartered in of wealth to Belleville.” Unfortunately, the cost esti 1852, and largely financed by British capital, this line mates steadily increased as experienced surveyors was ready between Toronto and Montreal in time for studied the proposed routes. R. L. Innes set the cost of the inaugural run on October 27, 1856. The adver this 46 mile line at £225,000 in 1859. Such a sum was tisements proclaimed that the trains ran on Montreal not available and this, coupled with friction between time which was fourteen and one-half minutes faster groups campaigning for rival routes, prevented the than Belleville time, a problem solved only in 1884 successful inauguration of the “Moira Valley Route” when Sandford Fleming’s idea of standard time zones before Confederation. Moreover, many businessmen was accepted at an international conference. along the Front of Hastings County were more con cerned with the east-west route than they were with These early trains only distantly resembled the the northern one, feeling the latter to be a secondary modern trains. The coaches were open platformed or branch line to be undertaken after the centres along and hand-braked. A stove at each end of the coach the north shore of Lake Ontario had been united by provided warmth, and kerosene wall lamps provided rail. some light. “The toilet facilities were primitive but considered adequate for the period.” Nevertheless, the As early as 1845, meetings were held in connec first trains attracted much favourable attention and tion with a proposed Toronto to Kingston Railroad. A excursions to Toronto were organized from Oshawa, general committee meeting for this railroad was held Belleville and other centres. The maximum speed of on October 23, 1845 in the county court room at Bel 35 miles an hour was slow by modern standards, leville, described by the Kingston press as “the most but rapid by comparison to stage coach travel of the central Town on the intended line.” Delegates from 1850’s where 75 miles a day was a good rate of Kingston came by boat, being met by a large number speed. of interested persons from Belleville and points west. John Counter of Kingston was chosen chairman of Belleville has always had a close tie with the Grand the general committee of the Wolfe Island, Kingston Trunk Railway, now a part of the Canadian National and Toronto Railroad Company and a sub-committee Railway system. John Bell of Belleville was the first was formed in each of the districts to keep up public solicitor of the Grand Trunk Railway and played an ity, undertake surveys, and raise money. important role in shaping the company’s policies. During the years of construction, Belleville was a Further encouragement was to be found in the reac surveying and contracting centre, and in 1855 the tion of Hastings County residents to a second meeting town was named an official divisional point, a small held at noon on the same day. At this “GREAT RAIL switching yard being laid out. One of the Grand ROAD MEETING” chaired by Edmund Murney Trunk’s first three locomotive shops was located at M.L.A., with George Benjamin as secretary, resolu Belleville, under the management of Samuel Phipps. tions in support of the railroad were moved by Fran By 1864, about one hundred persons were employed cis McAnnany, Dr. Hope, Dr. Lister, Henry Corby at the shops and yards and the station was described and several other prominent citizens, some of whom as “one of the most profitable on the line”. More also spoke of a branch line to Marmora where con over, because the early trains did not run on Sundays, vict labour might be used to work the mines and the train leaving Toronto Saturday evening stopped at the iron might then be taken to Belleville to be Belleville. The Grand Trunk operations at Belleville manufactured. These resolutions passed with “great continued to expand, and this centre and Brockville enthusiasm”, whereupon the members of the general remained the divisional points on the 335 miles of committee adjourned to Harper’s Hotel and “after main line from Montreal to Toronto.

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