, By Balph Beaumpnt aqd Thomas ft^cHwraith Cardwell Junction, in Caledon Township an hour's drive northwest of Toronto, is one of the more mysterious and fascinating places in the rail• way geography of Ontario. At least we think so (map at right). Tom speaks: "Cardwell is a favourite stopping place as our cycling group rides eastward from Inglewood along the Caledon Trailway rail-trail, on WG&B the one-time CNR line between Hamilton and AUandale. Riders ditch ORIGINAL CORPORATE NAMES their bikes and scramble up the embankments on either side to stand atop —m BECAME PART OF the abutments that supported the CPR bridge which once spanned the CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS CNR Une below. It's a fine view." • GTR GRANDTRUNKRWY. Ralph adds: "Indeed, the CNR Une is a wonderful trail. But when I stand . GWR GREATWESTERN RWY. • H&NW HAMILTON & NORTH on those abutments I have to ask myself what has happened to the old WESTERN RWY. CPR grade? There have been a lot of changes since the line was dismantled • WG&B WELLINGTON, GREY I BRUCE RWY. during the Depression. In fact the roadbed has simply vanished in many ' BECAME PART OF places. No one can cycle the old CPR route, but it's a great place for our CANADIAN PACIFIC R AILWAY 'abandoned fines' hiking group to explore (with landowner permission!)." . CPR CANADIAN PACIFIC RWY. ESTABLISHING CARDWELL . CVR CREDIT VALLEY RWY. • TG&B TORONTO, GREY The intersection of two railways in a remote part of southern Ontario & BRUCE RWY. Cartography by Byi encapsulates so much of Ontario's railroad history. First came the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (TG&B). In 1870 that 3'6" narrow gauge outfit 1 - Cardwell Junction within southern Ontario. (disparagingly called 'that wheelbarrow road' by its detractors) was aimed Thus, a nameable place had come into existence by 1878. Canadian Time• from Toronto up through the Caledon Hills towards Orangeville, and by table and Tourist Companion of July II, 1881, lists 'H&NW Junction on 1873 had reached Owen Sound on Georgian Bay. From this point, 1.6 the TG&B; the H&NW does not reciprocate, and no physical connection miles north of Mono Road station (on Airport Road), the TG&B began its could be made so long as the two roads were of different gauge. This place climb over the Niagara Escarpment. The grade was more than two per cent was a junction only for pedestrians and the term 'H&NW' made little sense and included the severe curvature of the famous Horseshoe Curve. At this when, by 1881, both fines had fallen under the control of the Grand Trunk early date Cardwell was just an unnamed clickety-clack along the way. Railway (although the H&NW was not officially acquired by the GTR until In 1877, along came the Hamilton and North Western Railway (H&NW), 1888). Cardwell became the label that stuck, the site being central to the a standard gauge line running from Hamilton to Lake Simcoe at AUandale, federal electoral riding of that name. We do not know when either railway skirting along the base of the Niagara Escarpment. At mile 52 its builders first chose to fist Cardwell on its timetable, or establish a flag-stop there, came face-to-face with the TG&B, carried through the newly identified but there can be no doubt that the crossing had symbolic importance from intersecting point on an embankment some ten or twelve feet above the the outset. To stand at Cardwell at this time was to experience the ongoing general terrain. Having gained 120 feet of elevation between Bolton and rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto. Northeast of here the H&NW Mono Road, the TG&B was well on its way up the Caledon mountain, intruded into Toronto's hinterland; to the northwest the TG&B was aimed another 430 feet of climbing before Orangeville. When the construction squarely at Hamilton's inland domain. dust of the encounter had settled, it appears that the H&NW had dug All that changed in December 1881 when the GTR widened the TG&B down a bit, and perhaps the TG&B had lifted up a bit, all presumably at the to standard gauge and suddenly - and as it turned out only briefly - both financial expense of the H&NW. It was standard practice for the newcomer railway lines at Cardwell were of the same gauge and under a single GTR at railway crossings to foot the biU. Five wood trestle spans, totalling 82 feet corporate influence. The Grand Trunk moved swiftly. The Markdale in length, gave the TG&B clearance of 17'I" over the H&NW. Standard reported on December 16,1881, that the TG&B - the old name lingered on - would operate a through coach daily, making a round trip between Owen Sound and Hamilton, via Cardwell and the H&NW. Thus, did the Grand Trunk gain its own access to Owen Sound, jumping-off point for Lake Superior and beyond. This was seven months before the Toronto Globe, on July 10,1882, reported that a union had been consum• mated with the opening of a connecting curve in the northwest quadrant. Cardwell became truly 'Cardwell Junction,' a designation that it would hold for a quarter century. CARDWELL IN ITS BROADER CONTEXT In its early 1880s bid to dominate the southern Ontario railroad scene, the Grand Trunk absorbed a number of lines that reached ports on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. It became overextended financially by doing this, however, and was forced to draw back elsewhere. Now having access to Georgian Bay timber and trade by way of a new fine to Wiarton, and already having access into CoUingwood by a branch of the H&NW, the TG&B became surplus to GTR needs. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), incorporated in 1881 and seeking roots in eastern Canada, was quick to act. In July 1883 the TG&B through Cardwell was folded into the 2 - 'Caledon,' celebrated double engine of the Fairlie patent, built in 1871 for the Ontario and Quebec Railway, itself part of the emerging CPR system. At Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway. It was the most powerful locomotive on the line, this time the Canadian Pacific also acquired the Credit Valley Railway, hauling heavy trains northward over its namesake Caledon mountain, passing including the branch from StreetsviUe through Inglewood to Orangeville, through the site that would become Cardwell when the Hamilton and North Western where it could connect with the line to Owen Sound. Railway was laid beneath the TG&B in 1877. Drawing by Robert Sandusky, 1962. Seeking to accelerate the proce.ss of reaching British Columbia by rail May/June, 2021 3 between the station building of about 1,000 square feet and the freight house about two-thirds the size. Wood platforms totalled about 6,200 square feet, and a stand for milk cans and a WC. or typical railway out• house filled out the scene. The station was divided into four compartments - refreshment room, waiting room, office and baggage room - presumably with many doors opening on both sides. A 1907 GTR building inventory shows that all structures were single storey, frame and recorded as built in 1890. Their identical construction date may represent a concerted effort to replace less adequate facilities at the site. According to the 1894 Rand, McNaUy and Company's Ontario Shippers Guide, Cardwell Junction had a telegraph office and handled shipments for both Canadian Express (GTR) and Dominion Express (CPR). Although the GTR constructed the actual buildings, it was a "joint" station with the costs of maintenance and opera• tion shared by the CPR. The refreshment room is acknowledged by the "Refreshments" symbol displayed in period GTR timetables. It was presumably run solely by the GTR because Cardwell was not listed as a refreshment stop in CPR timeta• bles, in deference to their own lunch room just a few miles to the north in Orangeville. A farmer named Thomas Cunnington who Uved immediately 3 - Wood-burning H&NW locomotive No. 5, named 'Halton', poses with a passenger east of the CPR line entered into a novel agreement with the railway in train at an unidentified location on June 14th, 1880. Andrew fderrilees Collection, June 1893. According to Peel County Land Registry Office Abstract No. Library and Archives Canada. 9119, in addition to negotiating a new farm lane level crossing, the railway and thereby fulfill the terms of Confederation legislated in 1871, the CPR agreed to provide a stile "for the purpose of making use to convey farm set about establishing a seasonal Great Lakes steamship service from a produce to and from the Company's station known as Cardwell Junction". new eastern terminal to be built at Algoma Mills (about midway between Apparently Cunnington supplied the restaurant with fresh produce (and Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie). This site on the north shore of Lake Huron maybe home baking too) delivered by him or his family on foot, and the would be connected through Sudbury to the Ottawa valley and Montreal. practice had become so established that the railway built a stile across their With CPR's acquisition of the TG&B, however, the existing port of Owen fence to accomodate it. A story is told that local boys used to hang around Sound on Georgian Bay became the preferred, ready option. The lowly the station and would be given pieces of pie should any be left over after all TG&B, bmlt for regional settlement purposes, abruptly became an integral the trains had departed for the day.