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Canadian Rail A Canadian Rail a No. 396 JANUARY­ FEBRUARY 1987 • 25 - F eet Close d El ectr i ":: Mot or C a r No. 539 . • Com b ined Passen ger and Baa-gage Car N o. 574 . • Published bi - monthly by the Canadian Railroad Historical Association P.O. Box 148 St . Constant P. Q. JO L 1 XO . Subscription rates $25.00 ($22.00 US funds if outside Canada) ISSN 0008-4875 EDITOR: Fred F Angus CO- EDITOR: M. Peter Murphy NEW BRUNSWICK DIVISION OFFICIAL CARTOGRAPHER: William A Germaniuk P.O. Box 1162 Saint John. LAYOUT: Michel Paulet New Brunswick E2 L 4G 7 ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY DIVISION P. O. Box 22 Station ' B' Montreal. Que . H3B 3 J5 BYTOWN RAILWAY SOCIETY P.O. Box 141 . Station A Ottawa. Ontario K1 N 8 V1 TORONTO & YORK DIVISION P. O. Bo x 5849 . Terminal A. Toronto. Ontario M5 W 1 P3 WINDSOR- ESSEX DIVISION 300 Cabana Road East. Windsor. Ontario N9 G 1 A 2 GRAND RIVER DIVISION FRONT COVER: P.O . Box 603 High above the old B. C. Electric right of way, the new Cambridge. Ontario N1 R 5 W1 Sky train carries passengers sWiftly and smoothly between NIAGARA DIVISION P.O. Box 593 Vancouver and New Westminster. This view, taken on May St. Catharines. Ontario L2 R 6 W 8 27 1986, shows the B. C. Hydro line (directly beneath the RIDEAU VALLEY DIVISION second cal' of the Sky train) as well as the overhead wires for P.O. Box 962 Vancouver's trolleybusses. Smiths Falls. Ontario K 7 A 5 A 5 Photo by Mark Paul. ROCKY MOUNTAIN DIVISION P. O. Box 6102. Station C. Edmonton. Alberta T5 B 2 NO CALGARY & SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION 60 - 6100. 4th Ave. NE . Calgary. Alberta T2 A 5 Z8 INSIDE FRONT COVER: CROWSNEST & KETTLE - VALLEY DIVISION One hundred years ago the first train arrived at the newly­ P.O. Box 400 founded city of Vancouver British Columbia. Within five Cranbrook. Britis h Columbia V1 C 4 H 9 PACIFIC COAST DIVISION years an electric interurban line was in operation between that P.O. Box 1006. Station A. city and New Westminster. These wood-cut drawings of1892 Vancouver. British Columbia V6 C 2 P1 show in considerable detail the type of cars which began the KEYSTONE DIVISION service on the Westminster and Vancouver Tramway Company, 14 Reynolds Ba y the predecessor of the B. C. Electric and the ancestor of the Winnipeg. Manitoba R3 K 0 M 4 KINGSTON DIVISION Sky train which now runs over much ofthe original interurban P. O. Box 103 right of way. Kingston. Ontario K 7 M 6 P9 CA NAD IAN 6 R A L tions. It became the Ottawa & Prescott in 1855 and the St. allowing a reasonable connection to the Canadian Pacific Train Lawrence & Ottawa in 1867. After the Grand Trunk standard 80 which departed at2: 40 pm. for Smiths Falls, Carleton Place gauged its line in 1873 , both lines co-operated to provide and Ottawa. At Smiths Falls, Train 80 made connections with through sleeping car service bet ween Ottawa and Toronto. CP's Train 4, a Detroit - Montreal train which included in its The second line to reach the capital was the Brockville & consist a Chicago - Montreal sleeping car, thereby offering an Ottawa - Canada Central Railways which completed their alternative to the GTR Montreal- Chicago trains. Needless to Brockville - Carleton Place - Ottawa route in 1870. Built to say, those travelling from southern Ontario over CP were broad gauge , the system interchanged cars with the G TR until guaranteed a firm connection to the capital! the GTR standard gauged its line . Due to its poor financial To the chagrin of the GTR, CP chose that fall to reschedule position, it was not until 1880 the money was available to start Train 80 to leave Brockville at 2: 20 pm. which eliminated the standard gauging the Canada Central. connection to any GTR train. Under the new schedule, the In 1881, the syndicate which would successfully complete GTR Train 4 would arrive in Brockville at 2: 30 pm . some ten the Pacific Railway took over the faltering transcontinental minutes after the CPR train had steamed out from the north side project from the Dominion government. They early recogTlized of the Brockville station towards the nation's capital. Supposedly the importance of developing a network of lines in the the CPR would hold No. 80 for ten minutes if they were industrialized eastern portion of the nation. The earnings from informed there were passengers aboard No.6 for Ottawa. the eastern lines would generate the funds to carry the trans­ Seemingly some things never change, as the GTR train was continental line until the prairie provinces became settled and quite often more than ten minutes late which meant the CPR traffic built to renumerative levels. During the I alter portion of train was gone by the time the GTR train made its belated the 1870' s, Duncan McIntyre, a member of the syndicate, had arrival. Thus the mail from points east of Toronto often had to acquired the controlling interest in the Central Canada and in the spend the night in Brockville awaiting the first departure of a CP early 1880's in the St. Lawrence & Ottawa . The Canada train the following morning. As Train 80 was the last train of the Central, which had almost reached Mattawa in 1881 , was day to Ottawa, the unfortunate passengers had the choice of a amalgamated into the CPR that year to form part of the main line hectic eastward journey along the Grand Trunk hoping to make between Montreal and Vancouver. The western division of the connections with an Ottawa bound train at one ofthe intervening grandiloquently titled Quebec , Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental junctions or spending the night in Brockville . Railway between Montreal and Ottawa was purchased from the Detailed in the august pages of Hansard for all members of Quebec Government in 1882. With the completion of the the House of Commons to contemplate, is the tale of two groups Ontario & Quebec Railway between Smiths Falls and Toronto of travellers , who having missed the connection with the CPR , in 1884, CP had its own Montreal- Ottawa - Toronto route. set out from Brockville on the GTR to make a connection to the Recognizing that its monopoly on traffic in the Montreal­ capital. On December 4, 1907, Mr. D. Henderson, the Ottawa- Toronto area was about to be broken , the Grand Trunk member for Halton outlined his ordeal in making the trip from opened negotiations with the bondholders of the St. Lawrence& Toronto to Ottawa: Ottawa during 1882-1883. However, Mr. McIntyre remained " ... the [CP] Chicago train for Toronto was upwards strongly in control and in 1884, CP leased the St. Lawrence & of an hour and three - quarters late, [so we] preferred to go Ottawa for 999 years. While it parallelled the Canada Central, on by the Grand Trunk. We left twenty - five minutes late the lease provided CP with complete control over terminal and made up twenty minutes between [Toronto] and facilities in Ottawa and would prevent the GTR from securing Brockville. There were about eight passengers for the line to access the capital. Once CP took over the line, it Ottawa, and the conductor of the Grand Trunk train was rescheduled the passenger trains to avoid connections with the good enough to wire to Brock ville to ask them to hold the GTR at Prescott and ceased to stop at the GTR station. train, at least that he told me that he did so . .. We reached In the fall of 1907 , the Grand Trunk revised the schedule of Brockville, according to my watch, about five minutes local Train6 between Toronto and Montreal. To promote better late by the schedule time and on alighting we discovered service to the smaller communities of eastern Ontario, Train 6 the CPR had pulled out ten minutes previous to our was detained at Kingston to permit connections with Train 4, arrival. " the" Atlantic Express" a Chicago- Montreal express train . Undaunted, Mr. Henderson and his wife returned to the Passengers who boarded Train 4 west of Kingston could transfer GTR train to make the dash to Cornwall Junction where they to the express to complete their journey to Montreal thereby hoped to connect with the New York Central train to Ottawa . saving over an hour's travelling time. As well, passengers from An accident on the GTR at Cardinal prevented their train from Toronto could change to Train 6 to reach small communities in reaching Cornwall Junction. The couple had to spend the night eastern Ontario. at Prescott and complete their journey on the Prescott local the This step, which shortened trip times along the GTR's nex t morning. Montreal-Toronto main line, should have been well-received. A little more than a month later, on January 17 , 1908, Mr. Howe",r, the move adversely affected those passengers Taylor related his travails on his recent trip from his home in travellmg from points on the GTR line west of Brockville to Gananoque to Ottawa: Ottawa. Formerly, Train 6 arrived at Brockville at 2: 15 pm. " When we [Mr. Taylor, and the MP's for Brantford, CANADIAN 7 R A L This circa 1920 photo shows the Brock ville station during a lull in activity. The view is/rom the Grand Trunk side. The trains o/the Canadian Pacific operated from a pocket track at the rear o/the station. Photo: Canadian National. Toronto Centre, and Belleville) arrived at Brockville at another ticket from Cornwall to Coteau.
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