CANADIAN RAILROAD HISTOlUCAL ASSOCIATION I NCOEPOR.Al'!D. P .o. BOX 22. STATION " B " MONTREAL 2, QUEBEC NEWS REPORT NO. 87 MARCH 1958 ) Canadian National 1 s engine 1395 leading a double-header at Ballantyne tower in Mon­ treal in 1947, brings to mind our spring excursion which should include at l east one member of the ubiquitous H-6 class at . the head end. C.R.H • .'-\.. __________________ Pa~_3_0 The ilarch r.1eetint% o f the _'l.s ,s ociation \" lill be hel d in room 203, Transporta tion BuildinG, 159 Craig Str eet -Jest , on -,Jednesday, rIarch 12, 1958, at 8 :15 Pr,I . The entertain..rn ent had not been d isclosed at tiDe of publ ication. ,~~~~~~~~~~~~'~~~'--- , CHlJADIAH !lh.ILROAD I·II3rrUltICAL 1 TI-:IS :IOlHi-I' S COV!!:R: News H e p::~O::~T:~E II In vie" of the plan to hol d Harch , 195 e our Jprinc railway excursion over the lines of the Caaaclian National ,tailirlays ~ditor i a l Address : with ~ double-headed steam tra in, Ye P . O. Box 22, J tation 0, Editor took a look through his old r,iontreal 2, Canada . photo files for an appropri ate l·1arch cover. The result was the picture of Editor; Orner S . A. Lavallee .c.N . 11 . } 1395 and unidentified friend , Deputy ~d itor-: Dou[~ l a s BroNn pulling a freiGht tra in near Ballantyne Asst . l£ditor: I,'orster Kemp to\,ler at : Iontreal, back in 1947. Ho . Committee : K. F . G. Ch ivers , 1395 is a H6 class 4- 6- 0, and it is Anthony Clege, expected that an eneine of the s am e i,J. L • Pharoah cla ss ""ill form one unit of the double­ Hesearch Historian : header on }Iarch 30th . •{obert ~ L Brovm. Photograph by O. S.A . Lavallee Due l a r gely t o the record sn01o1fall , the Au ct ion Association NeVIS held on -.:-8Jnesclay, Febr uary 19th , did not match .. the previous auction in ter;ns of attendance • This was rath€r u nfortunate as there 1;1as a good selection of material for s a l e . In spite of the s~a ll attendance, hovlever, the sum of .,{;21 . 60 was r a ised, v,'hich, cO ::-.1b ined \tIlth t h e ,aO. OO r ealized on the previous occasion , was sufficient to purchase a steel filing cabinet for OUI" Z-Iontrea l LO C01:-lotive '[orks collection of negatives. This i.'rill ease t1:le task of sorting, filing and cata loguine the ne g~ tives some what , and '-'lill ensure their permWlent and safe preservation . ''.Ie would like to express our thanks to those members \'Iho braved the elem­ ents to turn out and support the auction. In cel ebration of its 20th Ann iversary, the Central ~le ctric ! ~ a ilf ans' As s ociation, P . D.Box 503:p Chicago 90 , Illinois , U. S . A., will hol d a vleekend of activities in Chicago , on nay 23, 24 and 25 . There 'T,'lill be a banquet and meeting on the Friday night , Eay 23 , folloVied by :Zxcursions on Saturday and Sunday, the 24th and 25th. Further deta ils may be had from the Association, at the address g iven. I NTeRNATIONAL OF IL\IHE - Following publication of our not es l ast month on this topic , tie rece ived some a dditional information from Hr. GeorgeL. Bx-own , of 379 I'.)c>,pl e Rov" Lancaster, N. B. "'lhich we include. \1e gave t h e en[~' L1 e numbers and ere"! men f or the first train to cross ) I-laine , between 1'.Iegantic a nd McAdam . Er. 3rovm tells us that the train was handled f rom Zie /dam to Saint John 'j"J enc:;ine 174, Engineer Thomas McKenna and Conducto r Fred I,~cLel l an . C. R. }; .Ii. ~!e1"1S .eport - 19 5$ PaEe 31 ort----===_~ =_=_========~O ___ __ ..,.., I+ 1 00000000 0 I THE I N T ERe 0 L 0 • I A L by Leonard A. Seton, B.A., B.C .L. p~ 0113 - Genesis of the Project. Tll.!!i IlTTERCOr,ONIAL RAILilAY HAS NEv:t:R re-;;H the subject of a lest-seller or of a aook-of-·th&-month. It has likeuise been overlooked Iy writers of rome.ntic raihlay histories and popular novelists, and even by film producers. As the l atter gen tl"y t·Tould , j.n all prorabili ty, saylit has no "box-office-appeal". A super.ftclp. 1 exa.!!line.tion of the facts \·rould seeD to l ear out the truth of that sta telflt;lnt: the Intercolonial Railway t·,as not constructed in spectacular f e.shion, the time element vIas not a pressing question and there were no financial crises, feu outstanding personalities, and no sca.~dals of sufficient prominence to have made their mark upon written history. The story of the Intercolonial is obvious­ ly not, then, one of gripping romance and pulsating excitement. The construction of an lIinter-colonis l n raihray became a necessity to the provinceG of ~ritish North America, add, as a necessity, was built by them with the assistance of the I nperial Government. Governcent enterprises have leen heralded hy oore fanfare and have aroused more excitement in later times, but per~~ps t hey might have learned something from the quiet, efficient, comparativ­ ely inconspicuous career of the I.O.R., and of its able, conscientious Ohief Engineer, Sir Sandford Fleming. Thus , the I.C.R. \-Ias built with relatively little publicity and acclaim. There was no gol den spike to signalize the com­ plete linking of Ral1f8J: and Q.uebec, and there was no official first through train with flo,.,.ers , decorations and brass bands. 'rhe history of the I.C.R. t herefore, is very little known and. discussed today in print. Fe", people know , I suppose, that the train which \'fS.S depicted upon a Canadian Governoent f1v~ I dollar note ,..rhich \-Iaa withdralm a.bout t wenty years p...go , was photographed on the ! I'i'ent,.,..orth Valley section of the I.C.R. in Nova Scotia. The I.O.R., nevertheless, ! I possesses a very Int e resti~~ history, and much effort and exertion, perseverance and persistence, failure and success were necessary before the ultimate complet­ ion of the work could be brought about, and yet the public generally today think of the Intercolonial as a r a ihrB.¥ ,.,hich has never paid for itself. The genesis of the idea for p~ intercolonial railway, linking the waters of the A tlfL~tic Ocean with the tity of Q.ue~ec, goes ) ack to the year 1832 at least. At that date, Canada bad not yet perfected her great canal system, let alone bu ilt a single raih{e.y. The Stockton & Darlington, the world I s first passenger-carrying raihray, had only been completed in Zngland seven years "tef­ I,I ore, and railt"ays the worl d over ,.,..ere still in their very infancy. 1/ II The proposal in question of 1832 came from the pen of one , Henry Fairl a1m, I who expressed it in a cont ribution to the United Services Journal of that year. I I He advocated a raili"/2.Y link between the Oity of Q.uebec , and the tOtrn of Saint 1 1 Andrews on the Eay of Fundy, as a prime necessity to the British North American Oolonies, i f they de sited to maintain a commercial equality wi th the United I I; States, i-lhiclt at that time were projecting to run railways in every direction. I Saint Andrews was a prominent and ioyortant trading and commercial town i 1 !I , ' at the time , and public interest was immediately aroused at the prospect of '1-1 _ ; O~-_-________-=-_-_- __ __ _10 C.R . H.A. News :1eport - 1951 PClli.?~ caking its port as great a shipping centre as advance calculations promised that it would become . An association "las formed in 1835 for the promotion of the scheme , and support was obtained f r om the Governments of New Brunmfi ck and Nova Scotia, Canada and Gre~t 3ritain, the latter advancing ooney for a prelimi nary survey. This Surv2y was executed by one Capta in Yul e of the Roya l Engineer s, and by 1837, a sati sfactory route had been l ocated, reasonably free of outstanding obotacl es. The same year saw t he outbreak of reblHlioDS in the Canadas, end taking advan­ tage, no doubt, of the consequent unsettled affairs prevail ing in ~r i tish North Amer­ ica, the United States protested that the projected St.Andre\fs - Q;ue\ ec Ra ilway would be 'built on AJ:l.erican ter ritor y. At this time, t he Maine Boundary question had not been definitely settled, and so, pending the final adjustment of this matter, the enterprise was obliged to mark tice. Tne re\ ellions referred to above, resulted, hmfever, in the tnvestigation conducted by Lord Durham, and, among the var ious recom­ mendations submitted by him in 1839. was one for an intercolonial raih.-ay between Ealifa.x and ~e'bec , ,(hich he said, 11,<;o uld render a genf'ral union absolutely necess­ aryll. The Aroostook 11ar, ,.,hich followed closely, involving local skirmishes over the disputed territory, gave fur ther evidence of the necessity of a military r oad of some sort. connecting the various 3 ritlsh Uorth Ar:ler1.can colonies, and pr eferably well reooved from the Anerican frontier.