Clipping from an old Newspaper Article submitted by Leona Kidd Canada’s first great railway building decade came in the 1850’s construction of a railway to connect Smiths Falls, Perth, Carleton Place, Almonte and intervening points to the Grand Truck Railway at Brockville was begun in 1853 and completed in 1859. The Brockville and Ottawa Railway Company’s charter of 1853 authorized building of a line from Brockville “to some point on the Ottawa River”, and a branch line from Smiths Falls to Perth. By August the company was reported to have let a first contract to James Sykes and Company of Sheffield for building and equipping the line as far as Pembroke at a cost of £930,000, and to have received subscriptions for about a third of this amount, in shares of £5 each. The County Council of Lanark and Renfrew in January, 1854, was notified that its bylaw to loan up to £200,000 to the Brockville and Ottawa Railway Company had been approved by the provincial government. Sub-contractors were at work in the spring of 1854 at points between Carleton Place, Smiths Falls, Perth and Brockville. Reverses which delayed the project culminated in the North American financial crash of 1857, when Messrs. Dale and Ellerman and Sir Charles Fox soon appeared before Lanark and Renfrew’s County Council seeking renewed municipal financial aid. Further contracts for continuing construction finally were arranged before the end of the year. In a premature and unpromising official opening of the southern section of the line early in 1859, a wood-burning locomotive with two coaches filled with passengers had left Brockville on a bitterly cold midwinter day. At a safe speed of less than fifteen miles an hour Smiths Falls was reached in two hours. The troubles of the inaugural run came in continuing over the twelve icy miles of branch line between Smiths Falls and Perth. For a broken coupling between the two passenger coaches, repairs were made with a rope. Much time was spent in rural searches for water to replenish the supply for the engine. In this way the crew and passengers spent seven and three quarter hours in a sub-zero journey of twelve miles from Smiths Falls to the branch line’s terminus at Perth. *** The Iron Horse For Carleton Place the great day of 1859 arrived on June 21. In recording it James Poole, editor of the Carleton Place Herald said: A passenger train left here on Tuesday last for Perth, taking a number of members of the County Council, who are now in session, and several of our citizens who were anxious to get a ‘ride on the rail’. We have to congratulate the inhabitants of this village and the adjoining townships upon the arrival of the iron horse in our midst. It is somewhat refreshing to hear the old fellow whistle, as he passes and repasses several times a day with his heavy load of iron and gravel. The bridge on the Mississippi was passed over on Monday last for the first time, and was found perfectly secure. Although tried several times in succession with a train heavily loaded with iron, the centre of the long span was found, by a guage to not settle down more then about half an inch. The contractors Messrs. Scrimger and Farrell, deserve great credit for the substantial and workmanlike manner in which they have preformed their contract. The timber for the bridge had to be floated down from Caldwell’s mill at Lanark. The depot is nearly finished and will be ready for the reception of freight in a few days. Mr. Thomas Hughes, the station master, has arrived and is about entering on his duties. We are sorry to hear that the funds are running short, and that the supply of material on hand will not be sufficient to push the road much beyond Almonte. Something should be done to carry it through to Arnprior as soon as possible and secure the trade of the Ottawa, without which the road can scarcely be expected to pay. The matter will be brought before the County Council at its present sitting. So far as our own village is concerned we have the railway now. The lead mine is doing well and giving employment to a large number of hands. Some of the land holders there are laying out their property in village lots and offering them for sale. If the water power, now running to waste, was in the hands of some enterprising person who would erect factories and mills we might reasonably expect that the place would prosper. A week later he added with regret: We learn that nothing was done at the late meeting of the County Council to assist in extending our Railway to the Ottawa. There still remains, we believe, at the disposal of the Council a balance of the Municipal Loan Fund amounting to about $10,000, which would have gone very far towards completing the road to Pakenham or Arnprior., because it is graded nearly the whole distance, the ties are on hand and the iron on hand. To lay the track and finish the bridges at Almonte and Pakenham, both of which are pretty well advanced, would not have cost a very large sum. Passenger Excursions One of the first passenger excursions on the new railway was provided to serve the annual celebration of the “glorious 12th of July” by the many members of the Orange Order’s district lodges. From the temporary northern terminus at Carleton Place a trainload of six hundred persons, equalling the total of the village’s population, travelled to the day’s ceremonies and celebrations at nearby Franktown. Continuation of the line to Almonte was marked by a one dollar return fare excursion to Brockville on August 25, the announced travel time being one half hour between Almonte and Carleton Place and three hours from Carleton Place to Brockville. A Carleton Place notice of a third excursion a month later said: The last Railway excursion having occurred at a season of the year when most of the farmers were busy with their harvest, and consequently could not avail themselves of the pleasure of a cheap trip on cars, the Brockville & Ottawa Railway Company have resolved to give them another opportunity, and they have made arrangements with a steamer to carry the excursionists around among the Thousand Islands. The fare for the whole trip will be only 6 shillings and 3 pence. By 1864 the railway line reached the Ottawa River by extending the line from Almonte to Arnprior and Sand Point. It operated under the name of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway Company. In 1870 the line was completed from Carleton Place to Ottawa by the Canada Central Railway Company. The line was continued north through Renfrew Cty to North Bay in the 1870’s. The two companies joined the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in 1881. The last train on the Ottawa to Carleton Place route that opened in1870 was Jan. 15, 1990. The line was used for 120 years. 2010 saw the last train on the Brockville to Carleton Place railway that opened in 1859. The line was used for 151 years. .