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Construction and Operations

Work on the section between London and Hamilton began in early 1851. By May, fifteen hundred to two thousand men were at work. Parties involved felt that trains would be running by December 1, 1852, an extremely optimistic prediction, indeed.

Westward from Paris, Ontario, most of the construction work was performed by an American company, Ferrell and Van Voorhis. The contract for the eastern portion was given to Farewell and Company, in which the dominating figure was Samuel Zimmerman. Zimmerman, from Pennsylvania, had come to Canada “having no capital but his own energy and farsightedness,” and gained construction experience during construction of the Welland Canal. Aggressive, unscrupulous, and, ultimately, notoriously wealthy, Zimmerman was the subject of controversy among his contemporaries and later writers (see Introduction). The contractors’ interest in the railway was sustained by the $800,000 in stock that they held as partial payment for their services. The actual work was done by local subcontractors and transient labourers. The latter frequently went on strike for higher wages and resorted to violence to prevent non-strikers (“scabs”) from working. As early as February 1851 a petition from Hamiltonians to the government reported that

already many of the men engaged on the work have twice left their employment on a demand for higher wages, and armed with bludgeons and threats of violence have drawn off and effectually prevented the peaceable and industrious laborers from earning a livelihood for themselves and their families.

The petition requested that the government send troops to maintain order. The government recognized the problems in Hamilton and did remedy the situation with additional troops. However, problems arose and/or continued elsewhere. On April 10, 1851, the editor of the Dundas Warden indicated the deep concern of a small community subjected to unruly labour thugs.

We deeply regret to state that our peaceful town has again been the scene of strife. Some further difficulty having arisen between the contractors and laborers on the Great Western, a portion of the latter came into town yesterday, armed with bludgeons, and drove off those employed on the works hereabouts. Two or three of the overseers were brutally maltreated and abused. We have no knowledge of the grounds of difficulty between the employers and employed … but this we must say, that the frequent repetition of scenes of violence is positively disgraceful.

Within a week, the municipal council of Paris would forward another petition for military protection to the government.

There is no reason to believe that labour strife was more serious on the Great Western than on other railway or canal projects of the era. No doubt, feuds among the many Irish immigrants were partially responsible. Workers took advantage of the difficulty the company had securing labourers. The boom period, with its extensive railway building, not only caused wages to soar but made it very difficult to obtain the quantity and quality of men needed. There is evidence that some of the supervisory personnel ruled with an iron fist and tried to take advantage of the immigrant workers. Regardless of who was at fault and to what extent, labour strife certainly delayed construction, increased costs, and left an unpleasant legacy in many southwestern Ontario communities.

By the end of 1852 progress, as measured by grading alone, had occurred on only a few very small and detached portions of the line. This was despite the request by company officials that the contractors start much earlier in the year (as early as February). The Hamilton-to-Twenty-Mile-Creek section had only been lightly graded and the procrastination of the contractors assured that it would be May 1853 at the earliest before rails could be laid.

Grading on the section from the Detroit River to one hundred miles east had also commenced. The original plan to build pile trestles over fourteen miles of the wet prairie west of Chatham was slow in its initiation. As engineers re-examined this plan they decided to modify it substantially. Instead of temporizing with pile trestles, the area was permanently graded using fill removed adjacent to the line and/or by hauling beach sand from nearby lakes.

Grading and masonry work on the eastern division, both east and west of St. Catharines, were problematic. Temporary grade and wooden pile trestles were to be used at Ten and Twelve Mile creeks. West of Hamilton there were more problems: the gorge of the Desjardins Canal, the ascending grade out of Dundas, and a deep quicksand deposit near Copetown. Costs skyrocketed due to the massive amount of overburden that had to be moved or excavated, by the huge and continuous earth slides in the deep cuts, and by the number/depth of wooden piles necessary to protect the foot of the slopes. In section 11, the sinking of an embankment into a deep morass or subterranean lake, not unlike muskeg, forced adoption of a new tactic. An extensive platform of coniferous trees and bushes, interwoven with earth so as to prevent the loss of ballast by its own displacement, proved the solution.

The area around London had but two cuttings with which to contend. West of London work proceeded around the clock.

Copetown was the most problematic site on the entire main line. The quicksand swallowed everything placed in it, and was so deep that a twenty-foot-long rod did not reach bedrock. Work was frustrating. After excavation of the roadbed to a depth of five or six feet during the day, the excavation would be reversed overnight by the weight of the adjoining banks. By the next morning it was as if nothing had been excavated the previous day!

This area led to the first major delay in the construction schedule for 1853. Roadbed was graded and rail was laid in a westerly direction from the edge of the quicksand. On Saturday May 14, 1853, with approximately 2.5 miles of line laid from Copetown westward, the first impromptu excursion was held. The directors and significant others arrived by carriage along the Governor’s Road to attend. The excursion train was locomotive #4, Niagara. Participants rode in the tender. Several round trips were made over the line and all proceeded to celebrate with food, drink, speeches, and toasts. Rails would be laid to Fairchild Creek and then Harrisburg, a full seven miles, by the end of the week.

July 1853 saw work progressing at full speed, in some locations around the clock, and Sunday alone brought rest. Tracks had been laid out of Hamilton, along the waterfront, for one mile, intersecting the Desjardins Canal. The plan had been to bridge the canal on its old route but, after the expenditures of many hours and a large sum of money, a bridge of permanent structure proved elusive. The canal was described as a “bottomless pit.” Engineers and officers decided to cut a new channel for the canal through the heights and built a beautiful suspension bridge for carriage traffic across this new gorge. The old channel was to be eventually filled to create a solid roadbed.

The route now wound around and started its ascent of the Niagara Escarpment toward Dundas. At Dundas, a gorge approximately six to seven hundred feet long and one hundred feet deep had to be crossed. A masonry culvert costing $70,000 was built to convey water, large embankments were filled, and a bridge was erected over the Flamboro Road. July 1853 saw rails laid thirteen miles to the edge of the Grand River, at which point another excursion was run to Harrisburg followed by dinner at the Sawmill Hotel.

In July 1853 a branch line from the Great Western main line to a wharf on Lake Ontario (named Port Ontario) was under construction. This branch, less than one mile in length, was built to allow contractors to land locomotives, rolling stock, rails, and other materials close to the jobsite. This became the site of the Ontario depot, renamed Winona in 1867. Vessels with a draft of up to ten feet could dock at the wharf. July 25 saw the arrival of the steamer Traveller at 1030 hours. The locomotive Middlesex (#7) and its tender were off-loaded. Track was laid on the wharf, and the locomotive with tender was pulled up the gradient, using rope and tackle, in less than six hours. The steamer Ontario then arrived with a load of rails.

As construction proceeded west after crossing the Grand River, few problems were encountered in this straight stretch. By September 1853 a bridge had been built across Cedar Creek and Mill Street. It comprised five massive stone abutments, each reaching beyond the ordinary high-water mark, which were topped with five timber bents. It was originally planned to construct the entire bridge of stone. However, its massive size and the lack of stone in the area caused a change in plans.

Tuesday, November 1, 1853, was a day for celebration. The Great Western was opening the section between Hamilton and Niagara Falls (Ontario). A train with five cars waited at the Hamilton station. Local dignitaries boarded and the train proceeded east over the section from Hamilton to Ontario (Winona), which had been laid with a new compound rail developed locally. A stop was made at St. Catharines before proceeding over the Welland Canal and up the escarpment. Four miles from the falls, in a deep cut, the locomotive derailed and hit the embankment, becoming submerged in gravel and clay and breaking the centre driver pin. A few passengers detrained and began walking the remaining four miles. Once they arrived at the station, another train was quickly dispatched to bring in the remaining passengers. All marched down to the Clifton House, owned by the contractor Samuel Zimmerman, to partake in a sumptuous feast, with drink, speeches, and toasts. During celebrations a track crew was busy repairing the line for the return trip. In fact, a new track had been laid around the wrecked locomotive.

***

The following are examples of shipping manifests for Great Western-contracted vessels during the construction phase of the main line (month/day/year):

From Cape Vincent, two locomotives (12/22/1852)

From Cape Vincent, two locomotives (Hamilton and Middlesex)(7/22/1853)

From Cape Vincent, two locomotives and tenders (12/9/1853)

From Cape Vincent, one locomotive and tender, three firepans, four pilots, eight castings, three smokestacks, 65 pairs of trucks (12/12/1853)

From Montreal, two locomotives and tenders, one hundred fifty tons of coal, sixty tons of axles, thirty-eight tons of pig iron, one hundred barrels of resin, ten tons of iron pipe (10/11/1854)

From Montreal (three ships): ship number one = two locomotives, one hundred twenty tons of pig iron; ship number two = two locomotives, one hundred ninety-four tons of pig iron, two hundred twenty-six kegs of blasting powder; ship number three = two locomotives, two boilers, three tenders, seventeen pairs of wheels and axles, twenty cases of machinery, eight chimneys, six rods, eight buffers, forty-two pairs of wheels and axles, sixty-five tons of pig iron (all on 6/19/1855)

An example of a manifest of a vessel contracted to transport materiel from Hamilton to drop-off points near the western construction zone is that of the schooner London on December 3, 1853: three hundred fifty tons of rails, fifty-nine kegs of spikes, and one ton of furniture to Chatham.

In late December 1853 three Great Western locomotives were on the dock at Cape Vincent, New York (southeastern end of Lake Ontario). Winter had arrived and most ships were in winter quarters. However, the locomotives were needed for the winter construction season. The steamer Magnet was contracted to cross the lake, secure the locomotives, and bring them to the wharf at Port Ontario. In January 1854 the railway chartered the steamer Princess Royal to transport locomotives from Rochester to Burlington Beach at the canal. Four locomotives were delivered this way, with the last one arriving in late March.

A bird’s-eye view of the Hamilton yard facilities of the Great Western, with the photograph being taken from atop a grain elevator. The depot is evident in the left side of the photograph. The presence of dual rails indicative of dual-gauge trackage should be noted. This allowed simultaneous use of broad-gauge (five-foot six-inch gauge) and standard-gauge (four-foot eight-and-a-half-inch gauge) motive power and rolling stock. It also allows one to roughly date this photograph to the period between late 1866 and June 1873.

Canada Science and Technology Museum.

The Great Western shops and yard in Hamilton were erected on reclaimed land in Burlington Bay, at its western end. Excavated material from railway construction was used for reclamation, pushing the new shore some seven hundred feet into the bay, creating forty new acres of land. All major buildings were built using solid stone. The locomotive shop was mammoth in size, being three-storeys tall and having twelve tracks exiting from a turntable and running one hundred fifty yards into twelve work bays. Each work bay could hold two locomotives. The ground floor had ponderous lathes to turn crankpins or driving wheels, as well as planing machines, drill presses, and cylinder-boring machines. The second floor had rows of lathes and woodworking machines. At the back was the

Great Western erecting shops, Hamilton, circa 1862. Note, from left to right, the A-frame for heavy lifting, three newly built or newly outshopped broad-gauge locomotives (4-4-0s or 2-6-0s), two sets of driving wheels, and a handsome, open-ended passenger car in this staged photo shoot with shop personnel.

Stratford-Perth Archives, Stratford, Ontario.

Great Western station, St. Thomas, circa 1890s. View of the north side, looking southeast. The station was located opposite the north end of Station Street. The photographer was likely located on top of a rail car.

Ian Cameron Collection, Elgin County Archives.

blacksmith shop with twenty-six smithy fires and a huge steam forging hammer. A stationary sixty-horsepower steam engine provided power for all machines in the locomotive and car departments via a complex system of pulleys and belts. To the west of the locomotive shop were the car shops housed in a wood frame building three hundred feet long by fifty feet wide.

Although construction of the Great Western did not require major physical barriers to be overcome, costs continued to climb, as did the concern/anxiety of shareholders and directors. At first their solution was dismissal of the chief engineer, whose estimates proved displeasing. When Charles Stuart was replaced by Roswell Benedict in 1851, the latter assured the directors that Stuart’s estimates were reasonably accurate. By September 1852 Benedict reported that costs would exceed Stuart’s

Plan of 1879 Hamilton, Ontario, Great Western Railway facilities: 1 = passenger station (stone); 2 = coal shed (wood); 3 = roundhouse (stone); 4 = locomotive shop (stone); 5 = two attached foundries (one brick, one stone); 6 = moulding shop/carpentry shop (latter stone); 7 = erecting shop/blacksmith and machine shop (both stone); 8 = car shops (wood); 9 = freight shed (stone); 10 = grain elevator (wood); 11 = baggage/freight/express building; 12 = coal sheds (not GWR-owned). Identities of other buildings cannot be verified.

From The 1879 New Topographical Atlas of the Province of Ontario (Burland Desbarats Lithography Co., Montreal, PQ).

estimates by as much as £286,000 ($1.393 million U.S.). Benedict was shown the door. The next chief engineer, J.T. Clark, had an estimate £336,000 ($1.636 million U.S.) higher than that of Benedict and £621,000 ($3.024 million U.S.) higher than that of Stuart. Of course, this was not an issue unique to the Great Western. Most early railways found that original estimates fell far short of the actual costs. In any case, George L. Reid had become chief engineer by 1854. Apparently, the shareholders and directors came to the conclusion that frequent dismissals of chief engineers would not solve their financial problems, since Reid maintained his position until at least 1870.

Great Western Railway Hamilton Works, circa 1862.

Stratford-Perth Archive, Stratford, Ontario.

In actual fact the unexpected costs of construction, although partly the result of unrealistic estimates or unjustified charges by contractors for “unforeseen conditions,” were largely the result of increasing costs of land, labour, and materials; exceptionally cold winters; and unforeseen physical barriers. The section immediately west of Hamilton presented a number of engineering problems: bridging of a marsh, a wide cutting, a stream diversion, deepening of the Desjardins Canal, construction of a bridge over the canal, another long bridge over a ravine, heavy embankments and formidable stretches of retaining wall. The decision to build across the marsh through which the Desjardins Canal passed proved exceptionally costly. Although an easier route from Dundas to Hamilton existed,

all of this trouble was brought about by a desire … to please two Canadian Directors, Sir Allan MacNab and Dr. Hamilton. MacNab wanted the line near or through Dundurn, which he then owned, and Dr. Hamilton owned the Fisher property at Dundas. He thought that by running the line along the mountain side he could open up building stone quarries.

In spite of such self-imposed engineering problems, the Great Western was truly fortunate that its route through southwestern Ontario presented few major physical barriers. There remained, however, the problems of crossing the rivers at both ends of the main line. The Detroit River was the lesser of the two problems. Although consideration was given to both a tunnel and a bridge, engineering and economic factors caused both to be abandoned in favour of a ferry service between Windsor and Detroit, as detailed in chapter 5. Unfortunately, until railway cars could be ferried across the river year round, break-bulk shipping by ferries and sleighs resulted in delay, damage, and dissatisfaction. Ultimately, the issue would cause the Great Western to come dangerously close to losing the support of the American roads on which it was so dependent.

An engraving of a Great Western passenger train proceeding from the U.S. to the Canadian side of the Niagara River gorge over Roebling’s historic Suspension Bridge. The American and Canadian (Horseshoe) falls can be seen in the background.

Canada Science and Technology Museum.

The Niagara barrier was more effectively overcome but not without an engineering feat that received worldwide acclaim. A suspension bridge was required by the circumstances at the building site. However, suspension bridges at that time had an alarming safety record of multiple collapses. After the failure of Charles Ellet Jr., John Roebling successfully built the world’s first railway suspension bridge, a two-tiered, eight-hundred-seventy-foot-long, thousand-ton structure supported by four ten-inch-diameter cables of wrought iron (each cable was comprised of 3,640 No. 9 wires), which would be used until 1897. Its replacement would be warranted only because of the heavier weights of locomotives, rolling stock, and car loadings of that era.

A magnificent view of the Suspension Bridge over the Niagara River gorge. The unidentified locomotive appears to be a Great Western 4-4-0. The photograph can be approximately dated by the absence of multiple (four) rails to accommodate multiple (three) gauges (i.e., four feet eight and a half inches, five feet six inches, and six feet), to 1871 or later. The colossal strength built into the bridge is echoed in the twin towers at each end.

McCord Museum, Montreal, Quebec.

Roebling Suspension Bridge over the Niagara gorge, 1869. Note the interesting train-signal arrangements in the pre-semaphore era. The triple rails indicate that the line is open to locomotives and rolling stock of two gauges.

Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Promoters of the Great Western had confidently (recklessly?) predicted that trains would be running by December 1, 1852. However, one full year after this date, only the short section between Hamilton and Suspension Bridge (Niagara Falls) was, in fact, completed (the inaugural train ran on November 1 and regular service commenced on November 10). Not until December 15, 1853, did the inaugural train run from Suspension Bridge to London (with regular service commencing on December 21). This was followed on January 17, 1854, by the inaugural train from Suspension Bridge to Windsor (with regular service commencing on January 27).

The delay, however, in no way diminished the enthusiasm of the crowds turning out to welcome the first “iron horse” in southwestern Ontario. Dundas, Paris, Woodstock, Ingersoll, and London all made elaborate preparations that clearly demonstrated how well their citizens understood the importance of the completion of the railway. The Globe (December 19, 1853) described the reaction of the crowds along the line: “Joy and expectation lighted up every face. Each man appeared to feel that some great good had been conferred on him, and was now within his grasp.”

The same author found it difficult to restrain himself from what might well be considered national pride:

My English readers might well imagine from the heading that I had been on an excursion from Bath or Bristol to the Great Metropolis [London, U.K.]. But it is not so. We now possess in Canada, not only a London, but a Great Western Railway, which though not quite so broad [five feet six inches versus seven feet in gauge], is much longer than its English namesake.

Somewhat less impressed, however, was William Bowman, mechanical superintendent of the Great Western, who wrote in 1903:

The weather was cold and raw, and the mud along the line was simply appalling…. We left Hamilton early in the afternoon, and it was near dusk when we arrived at London. The time was very slow, slow even for those days, owing to the condition of the roadbed; and it was my opinion at the time that it was a foolhardy notion to attempt the trip on such a roadbed. The rocking of the coaches was frightful, and I thought at times we would go into the mud in the ditch. We stopped at all stations along the line but it was difficult to leave the coaches, as there were no platforms as yet erected, and the mud was too deep to wade into.

— London Advertiser, December 19, 1903

During the Suspension Bridge to Windsor inaugural service, two trains of twelve coaches each conveyed four hundred guests from New York State and three hundred guests from Hamilton and Toronto. Arriving at 1700 hours in Windsor (three hours late), a magnificent banquet was served in the Michigan Central freight shed in Detroit. Two thousand guests attended the latter celebration.

A rare photograph depicting the British directors of the Great Western gathered outside of Dundurn Castle. The legend identifies some of those present. MacNab is just to the right of the two ladies in white. Also to be found are Isaac Buchanan (#4), C.J. Brydges, Great Western then later Grand Trunk manager (#14), and George Reid, engineer (#15). This photograph was taken before mid-1862.

Dundurn National Historic Site.

Two days later a similar celebration occurred in Hamilton. An excursion from Detroit was given a twenty-one gun salute followed by a public procession. Sir Allan MacNab was confined to bed but a company of artillery, along with a large crowd, went to Dundurn to honour MacNab, who thanked them from his bedroom window. After arrival of another train with guests from Milwaukee and Detroit, all sat down to a sumptuous feast.

Despite the enthusiastic welcome to the “iron horse” in southwestern Ontario, the first year of operations on the Great Western would be a difficult one. As alluded to in William Bowman’s reaction to the Hamilton-to-London inaugural trip, the railway was unfinished when opened to traffic. The line had been opened in an unballasted state with many deficiencies in the roadbed, including collapsed embankments, subsided fill, mud three feet deep in some cuttings, and a profile “like the side view of a sea-serpent.” The quality of the work was truly abysmal, especially work performed by Zimmerman’s crews. The cost of renovating and maintaining the roadbed would be enormous, as would the cost in broken-down locomotives and rolling stock. The most appalling feature of the first year, however, was the frequency of accidents on the line and the attendant fearful human cost, virtually all of which were due to either deficiencies in the roadbed due to poor workmanship and premature opening of the railway or errors on the part of railway employees. The reader is referred to chapter 6 for a complete discussion of these issues.

May 12, 1854, saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the Galt and Guelph Railway and was considered a holiday in the town of Preston. Stores were closed and throngs of people milled about. At 1400 hours a procession formed at Klotz’s Hotel and proceeded to the site of the railway grounds, where Sheriff Grange addressed the crowd and then a quantity of earth was dug and tossed into a wheelbarrow. A cannon fired, the band played, more speeches were made, then all returned to the hotel for the usual celebration of food, drink, speeches, and toasts. This branch would not open for business until September 28, 1857.

The first non-roadbed-related infrastructure disaster occurred on Thursday July 30, 1854, when the St. George depot was destroyed by fire. The new locomotive Jupiter (#38) along with a number of cars were also lost. The locomotive had been expected in Galt, hauling a load of rails.

The Hamilton-to-Toronto branch was important in establishing that the Great Western was a “Trunk Line.” By June 1855 grading had been completed from Hamilton to Port Credit (twenty-six miles), including widening the Great Western embankment around Hamilton Bay to accom­modate double-tracking of the main line. Four cuttings required the removal of massive amounts of mat­erial. Cuttings on the west side of the Credit River, the east side of the Etobicoke River, and at the Mimico River required removal of four thousand cubic yards each, while the cutting through the Garrison Common at Toronto required removal of twenty-eight thousand cubic yards. Bridges were required at the old Desjardins Canal/gorge; Applegarths, Twelve Mile and Sixteen Mile creeks; and the Credit, Humber, and Etobicoke Rivers. Combination passenger/freight stations were built at Wellington Square (Burlington), Bronte, Oakville, and Port Credit. Water tanks and woodsheds were built at Bronte and Port Credit. At Toronto a permanent brick engine house and turntable and temporary passenger depot were located at Queens Wharf on eleven acres of Ordnance land adjoin­­­ing the Old Fort. In fact, the first passenger depot in Toronto was a six-by-ten-foot ticket box adjacent to a small engine shed, between Brock and Front Streets. The Great Western had hoped to go east along the Esplanade to use the Northern Railway station, but this move was held up by Toronto City Council.

The grand celebration of the opening of the Hamilton-to-Toronto line took place on December 3, 1855. The celebration train, full to capacity, left Toronto at 0810 hours on its westward trip. All went well until the train slowed at Port Credit. A fence had been built across the right-of-way! A farmer, by the name of Cathew, had a dispute with the railway over the price paid for his land and the Railway Act and he wanted to make a point that he still owned his land. The locomotive obliterated the fence and the train proceeded to Hamilton, where a large crowd was waiting to greet their new visitors from Toronto. After speeches, Hamiltonians boarded the enlarged eastbound train, now ten cars long. With foresight, the conductor requested a constable to accompany the train. Leaving at 1045 hours, the train passed Wellington Square (Burlington) where a small crowd stood and a cannon was fired in salute. Farmer Cathew had been busy. Not only was the fence rebuilt, but now heavy stakes were driven into the middle of the roadbed. After stopping the train, the constable arrested Cathew and the fence and stakes were removed. The train arrived in Toronto at noon.

If the first year of operation brought about many self-inflicted problems and difficulties, it also brought traffic and financial success exceeding all expectations. In fact, Scobie’s Canadian Almanac of 1854 reported that “the capabilities of the Great Western Railway are already strained in the endeavor to conduct the business which presses upon it from the West.”

Passenger traffic was especially heavy, with up to 790 passengers being conveyed per train! The traffic in freight and livestock became of increasing importance as farmers of the American Midwest and Canada West came to realize the value of the new road. Bumper crops and tremendous British demand occasioned by the Crimean War were also significant factors in the rapidly increasing freight traffic. In response to this traffic growth, the Great Western constructed the Komoka-to-Sarnia branch line, opening it for business on December 27, 1858. In retrospect, double-tracking of the main line would probably have been the wiser response. Table 2-1 illustrates the phenomenal early growth of traffic on the railway. With dividends of 8 percent (1855) and 8.5 percent (1856), branch-line construction proceeding, and rapidly increasing passenger and freight growth, the future looked quite bright despite a shaky first year.

In Toronto, city council finally relented, allowing the Great Western access to the station built by the Northern Railway of Canada in May 1853. The Great Western used the station from December 1855 until 1858. This station was a simple wooden structure that was located on the site of the current Toronto Union Station.

There were three locations on the Great Western that required pusher (helper) locomotives for all through- freight and express passenger trains and a large proportion of local trains:

 An incline starting half a mile east of St. Catharines and extending to within three miles of the Suspension Bridge (rise to the east = 261 feet in 7.5 miles or 0.66 percent). The series of gradients ranged from one foot in 156 feet (0.64 percent) to one foot in 135 feet (0.74 percent), with a level break at Thorold station. Pusher service was generally needed between St. Catharines and Suspension Bridge (11.25 miles).

 An incline starting at Hamilton station and extending to Copetown (10 miles) (rise to the west = 494 feet). The series of gradients ranged from one foot in 116 feet (0.82 percent) to one foot in ninety-four feet (1.06 percent). This incline was followed by a second one to the west of Harrisburg station (rise of 116 feet in 5,065 yards, or nearly three miles. average of one foot in 131 feet [0.76 percent]). Pusher services were needed over this second grade as far as Paris station, which was twenty-nine miles from Hamilton, especially with express passenger trains.

 There was a rise of 106 feet in two and a half miles (mean of one foot in 123 feet or 0.81 percent) to the west of London. At the summit, the grade was one foot in ninety-six feet (1.04 percent). Pusher services were needed up to the summit of the grade (4.25 miles). With westbound express passenger trains, pusher services were needed to Komoka (eleven miles). This grade passed through two of the deepest clay cuttings on the line, which were full of springs and quicksand, leading to high maintenance costs.

There were additional secondary class grades on the main line that did not require pusher services:

 Primarily between Paris and Princeton, with a rise to the west of sixty-five feet in 3,012 yards (average of one foot in 139 feet or 0.72 percent)

 East of Hamilton, rising one foot in 151 feet (0.66 percent) for three quarters of a mile.

The aggregate length of inclines on the main line requiring pusher services was twenty-three miles. However, pusher locomotives actually worked over forty to fifty miles in three separate sections. These would include eleven and a quarter miles for eastbound

Joint Great Western/Buffalo and Lake Huron (GTR) station in Paris. The presence of three rails on the Great Western line date this photograph to the period of 1866 to 1871.

Paris Museum and Historical Society, Paris, Ontario.

trains, thirty-three and a quarter miles (or forty miles for express passenger trains) for westbound trains. Pushers would return light so mileage would actually double, thus becoming an average of forty-five miles each way or nearly 20 percent of engine mileage of all main-line through trains! Table 2-2 provides elevation profile data for the Great Western main line and its affiliated railways.

The building of the railway had cost a great deal more than was expected. The first two hundred thirty-nine miles (Suspension Bridge to Windsor) had cost £2,705,264 ($13.175 million U.S.) up to April 30, 1854, and, by 1857, the cost of three hundred fifty miles, including the fifty miles of the Sarnia branch under construction and the seventeen miles of the Galt and Guelph branch, had cost an astounding £5,267,944 ($25.655 million U.S.).

The considerable costs of construction and maintenance of the Great Western can be explained by a number of factors. All rails, fasteners, and other materials had to be imported from Great Britain, being sent over in sailing ships to Montreal, where they were transferred to schooners and other small vessels capable of reaching ports on Lakes Ontario, Erie, and St. Clair and the Thames River. From these ports, they were hauled by oxen or horses over execrably bad roads to their final destination.

Grading and laying of tracks comprised the most laborious work, being performed with primitive equipment such as picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. Most labourers and supervisory personnel originated from the British Isles.

Ties were of white oak, measured six inches by nine inches by nine inches, and were spaced thirty inches centre-to-centre. In the era before creosote and other wood preservatives, ties had a lifespan of approximately eight years. Buildings, bridges, and viaducts were virtually entirely of wooden construction when first built and constantly required renewal and were subject to damage by fire. In many cases, these fires originated from sparks emitted by locomotives fired with wood. Wooden bridges were gradually replaced by iron truss spans with stone abutments or were filled in as embankments, both methods being expensive improvements. In some cases, embankments were widened from fifteen feet to eighteen feet at the top due to the collapse of some of the earlier narrow embankments.

Iron rails used on the main line were of three types:

 Flange or T rail with fish joints (weighing sixty-five pounds/yard)

 U or bridge rail, fastened at the joints with wrought iron plates on which the ends of the rails rested, which were spiked down to the ties and bolted together with bolts and nuts (weighing sixty-six pounds/yard)

 Light and heavy compound rail (weighing sixty-six and eighty pounds/yard, respectively). The two halves of these compound rails were riveted together and spiked directly to the ties.

On the main line, at the time of the railway opening for business, there were thirty-four miles of fished T rail, 156 miles of U rail, twenty-three and a half miles of light compound rail, and fifteen miles of heavy compound rail. The sidings (approximately eighteen miles) were laid with common T rail with cast-iron chairs at the joints (weighing sixty-two and a half pounds/yard). Like other railways of the era, the Great Western suffered severely from poor-quality rails. By the end of July 1860 the track composition had changed substantially so as to consist of 116 and 115 miles of fished T rails (weighing sixty-five pounds/yard) and U rails (sixty-six pounds/yard), respectively. Thus, over a span of six and a half years, all of the compound rails and forty-three miles of U rails had been replaced by fished T rails. The Hamilton-to-Toronto branch was laid with fished T rails throughout. Obviously, the Great Western had spent a great deal of money for rails while serving under quasi-experimental conditions as a pioneer Canadian railway.

Maintenance costs for locomotives and rolling stock were enormous, especially during the first winter of 1853–54. Owing to intense frosts, uneven track was the cause of many locomotive and rolling-stock breakdowns. The rough use of locomotives and rolling stock by contractors in building the road and in hurriedly ballasting it after it had opened for business led to frequent breakdowns as well. In the future, railways would demand that contractors provide their own locomotives and rolling stock during construction. As a result, motive power short­ages were commonplace in the early days. For example, in July 1854, out of a total of thirty-four locomotives only twenty-six (not counting the eight locomotives assigned to ballast trains) were in working order.

At this time, locomotive cost per mile was one shilling and 3.5 pence, mileage was thirty-seven and a half miles per cord of wood (which increased by 1858 to forty-three and a half miles per cord), and locomotives averaged only a modest fifteen thousand miles annually. Rolling stock at this time comprised fifty passenger and 736 freight cars. Rough track and light construction of early rolling stock not only led to the need for heavy repairs but also rebuilding and strengthening of the original designs.

Weather contributed to high maintenance costs. The following extract from the directors’ report of June 30, 1857, provided a synopsis of the severe preceding winter and its consequences:

The locomotive expenses at a rate of one shilling and 7.5 pence per mile have been rendered heavy by the very severe winter weather during December and January. The breaking of wheels, tyres [tires], axles and various parts of the machinery, nearly all caused by the extreme cold have been of daily occurrence and far greater than during previous winters, the intense frost and quantity of snow on the ground prevented the engines from hauling their usual loads and caused extra consumption of fuel, viz–26,893 cords of wood against 20,969 of the last half year, the price also was 8 pence per cord more.

Compounding the difficulties of the Great Western in the late 1850s was the rise of unexpectedly severe competition. In the mid-1850s, the Grand Trunk Railway was rapidly pushing its way from Montreal into Ontario, reaching St. Marys by November 1856. Construction continued on segments from St. Marys to Sarnia and Port Huron to Detroit (the latter as the affiliated Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railway), both segments being completed and opened by 1859.

The Great Western had to recognize the Grand Trunk for what it was: a vigorous competitor for the trade of southwestern Ontario and through traffic between Chicago/Detroit and the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The only aspect of this rivalry that could not be clearly seen in 1856–57 was how completely ruinous it would be, especially for the Great Western.

It was with a view to becoming part of the Canadian trunk line — while remaining a link in the American one — that the Great Western undertook the construction of a branch line between Hamilton and Toronto. Although the line was technically built by a separate company, the directors of this Hamilton and Toronto Railway Company were virtually all Great Western directors as well. Its acts of incorporation made it eligible for benefits under the Guarantee Act because, even though it was less than seventy-five miles long, it was considered fundamentally to be a part of the Great Western. Details regarding this and other affiliated lines are provided in chapter 3.

The Grand Trunk had originally intended to use the Great Western as its western section. Why it abandoned this proposed mutually beneficial strategy is a complicated question.

Certainly there was little economic justification for constructing another through line west of Toronto. Negotiations for the amalgamation of the two companies failed, however, perhaps partly because of the influence of New York capital in the management of the Great Western … partly because the Grand Trunk directors had convinced themselves that they required their own independent connection with Detroit. The influence of Canadian contractors also may have been important.

— W.T. Easterbrook and H.G.J. Aitken, Canadian Economic History (Toronto: 1958).

The Great Western’s efforts to convince the government that the Grand Trunk was guilty of a breach of faith were to no avail.

Although the directors of the Great Western made many attempts to come to some sort of understanding with the directors of the Grand Trunk, the latter never showed any willingness to co-operate and adopted an aggres­sive attitude toward the Great Western that was maintained until amalgamation of the two lines in 1882.

By this time, it was clear that the Great Western would probably be challenged by rivals to the south. This was largely attributed to an unwise decision made by the Legislature of the Province of Canada regarding the five-foot-six-inch (or broad) gauge to be used by provincial railways. The American railways with which the Great Western would connect at both ends used a four-foot eight-and-a-half-inch (or standard) gauge (exception: Erie Railroad at the Niagara River used a gauge of six feet). It was natural that the Great Western should plan to use the same standard gauge and, indeed, all plans were drawn up with this in mind. Corning and Forbes had warned the company of the consequence of using a different gauge.

It is certain that the New York Railroad Companies, who are authorized by law to subscribe to your stock, and who at best will require urging on our part to induce them to do so, will positively refuse their aid if you cut them off from the western connection they are seeking, by adopting a different gauge.

— Letter to R.W. Harris, GWR president, dated June 26, 1851

In what proved to have a painfully negative impact on British North American railways and the Canadian economy, broad gauge was imposed upon the Province of Canada by selfish commercial interests and a provincial government duped by “glib talk.” The Great Western Railway of Canada, which had developed all of its plans with the standard gauge in mind, was forced to scrap these when it was forced against its will by the government to abandon this gauge. In addition, for a line designed as a “bridge line” for east-west continental U.S. traffic between the two dominantly standard-gauged transition points of Detroit and Niagara Falls/Buffalo, forced use of the broad gauge was a recipe for potential disaster. The slow, uneconomical break-bulk transshipments neces­sitated by the change in gauge proved almost fatal to the Great Western. The bitterness engendered in its allied American railways would, in a few years, take the form of transfer of their traffic and financial support to the standard gauge Canada Southern in Ontario and the standard gauge Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway south of Lake Erie. In any case, the use of the broad gauge and eventual conversion to standard gauge led to economic pressures which severely weakened the Great Western and probably hastened amalgamation with the Grand Trunk.

***

Great Western Labour Pool

When the Great Western commenced operations in the 1850s there was no pool of experienced railway workers in Ontario. The company had to either import a labour force or create one. It did both. Managers, superintendents, and foremen were recruited from U.K. railways as were skilled tradesmen such as engineers (engine drivers), fitters, boiler-makers, and other shop crafts. Central office clerks were also recruited from the U.K. as were several of the original stationmasters.

Innovation by the Great Western in locomotive and rolling stock development was due, in large part, to the importation, from the U.K., of gifted and skilled men such as Richard Eaton, Samuel Sharp, foreman Joe Marks, and many of the mechanics. This set the stage for numerous improvements and modifications in engine building and fuel economy.

Jobs requiring commercial skills or local knowledge without technical expertise — conductors, baggagemen, and freight clerks — were more often filled locally. Less-skilled manual workers and trainees for skilled jobs were also hired locally: brakemen, yardmen, engine cleaners/wipers, car repairers, switchmen, watchmen, porters, trackmen, shop helpers, and apprentices. Although the Great Western would look more locally during the 1860s and 1870s, it would still look to U.K. railways for some of its skilled mechanics. For example, in 1873 the London Board sent out five locomotive fitters from the North Eastern Railway and recruited a new assistant mechanical superintendent, John Ortton, from the London and South Western.

***

In addition to the antagonistic Grand Trunk, other problems began to surface in the late 1850s. The prosperity of the early 1850s was abruptly shattered in 1857 by a general commercial depression (panic). During the upswing in the business cycle, the Great Western had suffered from rapidly rising costs of construction and locomotives/rolling stock. In the succeeding depression, it suffered from a steady decline in freight and passenger traffic. As the depression deepened in the U.S., through-freight traffic almost ceased. The demand for North American wheat fell with the end of the Crimean War. A poor harvest, followed by an especially severe winter, further reduced traffic. The earnings of the company for the first half of four successive years illustrates the degree to which traffic declined: 1856 ($1,169,592), 1857 ($1,065,720), 1858 ($854,608), and 1859 ($725,904). Anxious shareholders, alarmed by falling prices, declining traffic, and widespread pessimism regarding investments, were pleasantly surprised by the 5.75 percent dividend paid in 1857. However, despite dramatic reductions in expenses, the dividend fell to 3.5 percent in 1858 and no dividend at all was paid in 1859. Although the depression was relatively short-lived, dividends would be very modest or non-existent during the remainder of the railway’s independent existence.

The presence of railway management on different continents was a distinct disadvantage: directors and the majority (92 percent) of shareholders in England and management and the minority (8 percent) of shareholders in Canada. Obviously, the British directors and shareholders had no idea about the climatic and economic conditions in Canada or how business was conducted between Canada and the U.S. A great deal of angst may have been avoided had they been more in touch with these issues. For instance, they knew nothing about the possibility of a light, improperly ballasted track being practically raised out of the ground by a period of severely cold weather. Nor could they understand the North American practices of liberally issuing free passes for travel or payment of royalties to agents selling tickets (including Great Western employees who sold tickets on their own railway).

Examples of Great Western passes for free travel. Unlike most Canadian roads, the Great Western was very conservative in issuing passes, due in part to the control of the British board of directors, since such passes were rare in the U.K.

Author’s collection.

Early in the railway’s existence semi-annual meetings took place in Canada with a Canadian board of directors, which sent a report to the shareholder meeting in London, U.K. However, the English shareholders were really the financial backbone of the company (owning 92 percent of shares) and finally became so restive about what they considered to be the extravagant spending of the Canadian executive that they decided to take back more control into their own hands. From early in 1857 the Canadian board was gradually superseded by the English board and responsible, practical men in Canada were left to manage day-to-day operations.

By the end of 1856 locomotive and rolling stock numbers had increased to eight-six and 1,786 units, respectively. At this time, the company began planning and construction of a car works in Hamilton in which the company would build its own freight and passenger cars. There was also interest in the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway and the Great Western loaned £150,000 ($731,000 U.S.) to this line to assist in its completion across the lower peninsula of Michigan (Detroit to Grand Haven on Lake Michigan; see chapters 3 and 5).

In 1858 the company erected grain elevators in Hamilton and Sarnia, as well as a viaduct at St. Catharines and a steam hammer at the Hamilton Car Works. The Hamilton grain elevator was supported by forty-foot pilings underneath the stone foundation. It was one hundred feet tall with a capacity of 125,000 bushels. Water depth at the wharf was fourteen feet. A siding entered the building, which had three elevator machines. Three cars could be unloaded at the same time. Ships could be loaded directly from the elevator at dockside.

The first Toronto Union Station was erected in 1858 by the Grand Trunk, fifty feet west of Bay Street along Front Street. A small frame building, it housed two waiting rooms, a lunch room, a barber shop, a ticket office, a baggage room, and a telegraph office. The Great Western and Northern railways joined the Grand Trunk in joint use of this station on June 21, 1858.

Disaster struck again when the Chatham depot burned down on the night of Monday, November 15, 1858.

January 18, 1859, marked the opening of the Komoka-Sarnia line. A special excursion train left Sarnia at 0730 hours on a miserable cold and rainy day carrying about 250 passengers. It arrived in the “Forest City” (London) at 1130 hours. During the festivities in London, Great Western directors left in an official train travelling from London to Sarnia. Departing at 1400 hours and arriving in Sarnia at 1700 hours, Sarnia Mayor Henry Glass and a number of town councillors welcomed the directors at McAvoy’s Hotel. Customary speeches and toasts followed. The depot was located at the foot of Cromwell Street. The Grand Trunk reached Sarnia in 1859 and erected an opulent depot. Traffic between the two depots mandated an easy means of transportation for customers and their baggage. Omnibuses fulfilled the need initially but, by 1875, a horse-powered street railway (Sarnia Street Railway Company) began operations between the depots. Its two cars were named Sarnia and Huron.

At the time of construction of the Great Western, a large wooden trestle had been erected over Twelve Mile Creek north of St. Catharines. Together with its approach tracks, it resembled a large letter S in the middle of a very straight line of track. In March 1859 this obstacle was

Photograph of the London Great Western station, date unknown.

Library and Archives Canada, C-053563.

removed by the erection of a new tubular bridge of riveted wrought iron at a new crossing a little downstream from the old trestlework. This resulted in a straightening of the east-west line. Heavy masonry abutments supported the cast-iron tubular beams at a span of about 184 feet. Trains passed over the bridge starting on March 18, 1859.

Residents of Windsor were aroused from their slumber during the early morning hours on April 25, 1859, by the shrill whistles of a fire alarm. An inferno was raging in the repair shop and other buildings of the Great Western along the shore of the Detroit River. Firemen from Detroit came to the aid of their sister city using the ferry steamer Windsor. The fire quickly consumed the repair shop, which was located about a quarter mile east of the depot, including its valuable supply of tools and machinery and four locomotives: #72 Medea (2-2-2), #73 Medusa (2-2-2), #79 Erebus (0-6-0), and an unidentified locomotive built by Norris. The blacksmith shop and a

View of Windsor Great Western yard in the 1870s, facing west. Note dual-gauge track. On the left is Sandwich Street (Riverside Drive today) and the tallest building (top left) is the old city hall between Windsor Avenue and McDougall Street.

Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, University of Windsor.

View of Windsor Great Western yard, facing east. Various sheds (likely freight) and numerous examples of rolling stock can be seen. The many sheds were probably necessitated by the need to break bulk with the change in gauge at this terminal, until the third rail was installed so that standard gauge railcars could be interchanged. Note the two early cabooses near the centre of the image.

Windsor Community Museum.

five-hundred-foot-long woodpile were soon consumed as well. Firemen were able to contain the blaze, protecting the roundhouse farther to the east. The cause of the fire was unknown, although some believed that it was the result of arson.

The year 1859 was a gloomy one for all railways, as the depression continued and a rate war was initiated by American railroads. Table 2-3 illustrates a summary of the Great Western public timetable of 1859, including the main line and three branches (Guelph, Sarnia, and Toronto). In 1860 large payments were still being made as a consequence of the Desjardins Canal and Flamborough accidents (see chapter 6). No dividend was paid. Table 2-4 provides a summary of Great Western operations and financial data for 1860. The average annual dividend paid to shareholders during the previous seven years had been 4.75 percent. In spite of this, the affairs of the company were not satisfactory to a large proportion of the shareholders and a committee of investigation was appointed. Further gloom was caused by the fact that passenger travel was severely depressed and that the cost of re-rolling damaged iron rails to allow them to be reused was very expensive (£6 per ton in Canada versus £3 per ton in England). The railway would react to these latter findings, although its response would be delayed until 1864.

Great Western Detroit ticket office in 1859, located at the corner of Third and Woodbridge.

Burton Collection, Detroit Public Library.

The year 1860 saw a “bountiful harvest” and continued development of the first Canadian Oil Patch, discovered in 1858 in the area between the main line and the Sarnia branch around Petrolia. Conveyance of petroleum products in tank cars would become quite important to the company. Actually, a group led by John Henry Fairbank commissioned the building of the Petrolia–Wyoming spur line, which was taken over by the Great Western at a cost of approximately £10,000 ($48,700). Mr. Fairbank also donated the land upon which the Petrolia station was erected. This line was fully open for business in November 1867. London business interests apparently influenced the Great Western to charge more to ship refined oil than crude oil, thus encouraging shipment of crude oil to east London refineries at the expense of Petrolia refineries. Traffic receipts for the first six months were almost £9,000 ($44,000 U.S.) and for the first four years were nearly £30,000 ($146,000). Complaints about unfair freight rates continued until 1877 when the Canada Southern built a spur line into Petrolia, thus ending the Great Western monopoly. Mr. Fairbank was instrumental in this latter action as well.

Great Western Petrolia depot sometime between 1875 and 1898.

Glenbow Museum.

March 22, 1860, witnessed the opening of the new Desjardins Canal Swing Bridge. It had been tested the day before with the two heaviest locomotives on the roster: Titan (#75) and Pollux (#78) (total of one hundred tons).

Mr. Charles J. Brydges, managing director, resigned his position owing to his appointment as manager of the Grand Trunk Railway. (Obviously non-compete clauses were not used in managerial employment contracts in the mid-nineteenth century!) Mr. Thomas Swinyard of the London and North Western Railway of England was appointed general manager of the company on September 2, 1861.

Numbers of Great Western Railway personnel in 1860 included:

Head office = 38

Telegraphers = 43

Station agents = 90

Switchmen = 70

Others at stations = 218

Mechanics/others in shops = 602

On permanent way and works = 740

Enginemen = 51

Firemen = 51

Brakemen and baggagemen = 113

Conductors = 33

Total = 2,049

By 1860, the railway was finally beginning to emerge from the doldrums of the 1857 panic.

The departure of C.J. Brydges from the Great Western signalled the beginning of a general restructuring of railway personnel. The office of traffic superintendent was abolished. There was a very large turnover in personnel at all levels. As the editor of the Essex Record newspaper would note, on January 8, 1875, the directors had initiated an extensive movement to “sweep away the chaff.” In addition, the “doubling-up” process initiated by Brydges was expanded by Swinyard, the new general manager. Most employees could expect sizeable increases in workload, since the positions of many employees who had been terminated would not be refilled. For example, a Mr. Levissey, a track inspector based in Windsor, had nearly the entire adjacent section of line added to his responsibilities. Due to the great length of line for which he was then responsible, he was forced to move to Chatham.

A bridge inventory effective January 11, 1861, read as follows:

 Wood (186 bridges): trestles (223 spans, 5,218 feet in length), pile (36 spans, 439 feet in length), bent & beam (359 spans, 9,213 feet in length), and arch & truss (61 spans, 6,014 feet in length)

 Iron (1 bridge): tube (1 span, 180 feet in length) and brick or stone arch (2 spans, 184 feet in length)

 Swing (wood or iron, 2 bridges): 2 spans, 232 feet in length

 Total bridging: 189 bridges, 684 spans, 21,480 feet in length

(Data compiled from the Report of Samuel Keefer, Inspector of Railways, for the years 1859 and 1860 to the Board of Railway Commissioners of Canada. Reproduced in Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, No. 51, 1941.)

Great Western wood-steel trestle bridge, St. Thomas, 1872. Staged photograph, looking northeast, of the newly completed bridge, with a construction train and gandy dancers on top.

Ian Cameron Collection, Elgin County Archives.

This inventory illustrates the ingredients for future financial woes, revealing a preponderance of wooden bridges that would soon have to be rebuilt due to the short lifespan of timber structures erected in the era before wood preservatives such as creosote. From a single firm (Phoenixville Bridge Works, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania), the Great Western would purchase 14,385 lineal feet (2.72 miles) of wrought-iron bridgework!

Toward the end of 1861, traffic again declined precipitously, this time due to the American Civil War. No dividend was paid in 1861. The chief engineer was still complaining bitterly about the quality of the iron rails. It was decided to erect a rail re-rolling mill in Hamilton to “rehabilitate” old rails more economically.

By 1862 traffic north-south via the Mississippi River had practically stopped. Canadian and “east-west” American roads now came into the welcome position of taking over this business. The very serious and ongoing loss of £7,000 ($34,000) by the Great Western alone during the first half of the year due to the depreciated value of the American dollar (below 30 cents to the Canadian dollar) led to a proposal. In it, the Grand Trunk, Great Western, and Buffalo and Lake Huron railways would combine to obtain prepayment of freight from Canada to the U.S. A bill to permit this arrangement was submitted to the Legislature of the Province of Canada but was rejected. Toward the end of 1862 Richard Eaton, locomotive superintendent, resigned and Samuel Sharp, car superintendent, replaced him. Although it was impossible at this time to raise freight rates, the recent large increase in traffic was gratifying.

On the afternoon of February 17, 1862, the Hamilton grain elevator, containing 30,000 bushels of grain, burned to the ground in a spectacular blaze. It was rebuilt on the same site and completed in the same year.

In 1863 the Grand Trunk terminated the agreement with the Great Western with regard to competition, much to the regret of the latter. New iron and stone bridges were erected over the Thames River at Woodstock, Ingersoll, and London, replacing wooden ones.

During 1864 the president of the company, Thomas Dakin, and director, Thomas Faulconer, visited Canada, inspecting the entire railway and its connecting lines (Michigan Central, New York Central, and Detroit and Milwaukee). It was made abundantly clear to them that, unless some drastic changes were made in the facilitation of transfer of passengers and freight between the Great Western and its U.S. affiliates, the Great Western was going to lose most of its valuable American business.

The principal cause of this trouble was the break in gauge between the broad-gauge Great Western and the standard-gauge American roads. This had become such a cause of delay, damage to goods, and inconvenience, generally, that the American roads concerned were offering to help finance the laying of a third rail on the Great Western to accommodate the interchange of American standard-gauge cars. The chief engineer of the Great Western estimated that this would cost $700,000.

The iron rail re-rolling mill established in the area of the Great Western Hamilton shops opened in 1864. The complex’s footprint measured one hundred seventy feet by one hundred feet. The height to the roof was thirty-two feet at the side walls and the roof was supported by seven trusses. The main building was one hundred feet by one hundred feet with one-hundred-foot by thirty-two-foot lean-tos at both ends. The cupola was one hundred feet by twenty-two feet with six-foot-high side walls. Erected using 153,063 board-feet of pine and 5,477 board-feet of oak, the structure cost approximately $90,000. Goldie and McCulloch of Galt were responsible for supplying the machinery and boilers while John Gartshore of Dundas supplied castings. G.L. Reid, Great Western engineer, planned the building and supervised its construction.

On September 13, 1864, the steamer Ottawa arrived with the steam hammer. Built by Morrison and Co., its cylinder measurements were thirty-six inches (dia­meter)by sixty inches (stroke) and the main bracket base weighed nine tons. The side frames and bedplate weighed ten tons. The piston and piston rod were made in one solid forging, the rod being fourteen inches in diameter, seventeen feet long, and the forging weighed five tons. Its anvil was cast in two pieces by Dundas Foundry and had been delivered previously to the mill. The mill’s annual capacity was 7,000 tons (seventy miles of track). At peak capacity, it employed 108 workers. It was operated under contract by Ward, Clement, and Potter of Detroit and Chicago. With the advent of steel rails in 1869, it became obvious that an iron rail re-rolling mill would not be needed much longer. In fact, the mill was closed for Great Western use on March 8, 1872. Mothballed for seven years, the railway leased the mill to the Ontario Rolling Mill Company in 1879 for custom steel rolling. This company eventually became a division of the Steel Company of Canada (STELCO) in 1909 and the former Great Western mill was enlarged and modernized. For many years it was in use as the Ontario Works of STELCO rolling, among other items, tie plates.

In a now familiar tune, the chief engineer complained about the much poorer quality of the fished rails in 1864 compared with those purchased only five to ten years previously. The iron rails being laid in the early to middle 1860s lasted but a few years. These rails were so poor in quality that freight trains of twenty to twenty-four cars running at thirty miles per hour were too much for them.

In 1864 the U.S. government instituted a passport system that, to a great extent, curtailed through-passenger traffic between eastern and western U.S. states. Fortunately, it was discontinued on March 8, 1865.

In 1865 the city of Toronto granted the Great Western the right to run a line along the Esplanade fronting Lake Ontario to a new terminal station to be built at the foot of Yonge Street. This station, which opened on March 5, 1866, was a great improvement on the previous shared station, which was out of the way and inconvenient. In addition, the provincial government and railway had

Great Western’s impressive downtown Toronto station at the corner of Yonge and Esplanade Streets, built in 1866.

Canada Science and Technology Museum.

View of the Great Western Railway station in downtown Toronto at Yonge and Front Streets in 1867. An unidentified Great Western locomotive (likely a 4-4-0) followed by a probable baggage or baggage-mail-express car are also visible.

Archives of Ontario.

finally agreed on terms for a mail contract that would pay the railway $124 per mile per year, from September 1, 1865, for a term of four years.

In 1866 a dividend of 5 percent was paid to shareholders due to better economic conditions, but the company was still experiencing serious losses upon conversion of American to Canadian funds. Also at this time, new rails began arriving from England for use in laying the third rail planned months earlier.

On Saturday, March 3, 1866, the Great Western finally opened its own Toronto depot at the base of Yonge Street on reclaimed land. The extension to Yonge Street served two purposes. First, it gave the Great Western independent access to a number of wharves previously inaccessible.

View of the Great Western freight house at Toronto in 1873.

Toronto Reference Library.

Second, the railway secured accommodation in a depot entirely its own. The depot was supported by fifteen-foot-long timber pilings driven to bedrock. The base was built on large tiles due to its nature as reclaimed land. The depot had a large footprint of 150 by 211 feet. On the north side was the passenger station, including waiting rooms, a telegraph office, and refreshment areas. The south side was restricted to the freight offices. Between the passenger and freight operations was an enclosed trainshed that protected persons and materiel from the elements. This central portion was sixty-four feet wide with the side walls and top of the arch being thirty-four and fifty-four feet tall, respectively. The passenger platform was thirty-five feet by 195 feet. The depot was constructed using wood and was painted a neutral stone colour.

The opening of the Toronto depot was marked by excursion train service from the new depot to the Toronto Board of Trade thence to Niagara Falls. The train comprised five new elliptical-roofed passenger cars followed by the official (business) car at the rear. It was pulled by 4-4-0 #8 (Dakin). Departing at 0900 hours, it stopped at Hamilton to pick up Hamilton Board of Trade and Great Western officials. It then proceeded to Erie Junction, where the train used the Erie and Ontario line to stop in front of the Clifton House in Niagara Falls. After roaming about the falls area, including travelling over the ice bridge to the U.S. side, guests returned to the Clifton House for a banquet replete with speeches and toasts. Departing at 1800 hours, the train carrying tired but happy guests arrived at the Toronto depot at 2200 hours.

A view down the platform of the original Clifton (Niagara Falls, Ontario) Great Western passenger station. The passenger deck (platform) was erected in 1855, followed by the station in 1863. In spring 1879 a fire razed the entire structure. A replacement station was opened on the site before New Year’s Day 1880. All stations were located at the foot of Bridge Street, site of the current VIA station as well.

Niagara Falls (Ontario) Public Library.

December 18, 1866, witnessed the advent of signal systems on the Great Western at the junction going into the major junction at the Toronto depot. The new signal tower used interlocking rods, which controlled all switches and signals.

January 9, 1867, saw the celebration of the opening of the Blue Line in Hamilton. Finally, the Great Western had been able to participate in a co-operative freight-hauling arrangement with U.S. railroads (for further details, see chapter 4). This celebration was attended by a large contingent of U.S. financiers and railroad owners/presidents who arrived in luxurious Michigan Central sleeping cars. Boarding in Chicago, they proceeded east to Hamilton and then to Rochester, New York. Passenger cars from Chicago arrived about 1500 hours, with Thomas Swinyard, general manager of the Great Western, meeting attendees at the Hamilton depot.

Third rail laying between the Suspension Bridge and Windsor was completed and opened for traffic on January 1, 1867, at a cost of £145,817 ($710,000). The Petrolia branch, extending five and a half miles from Wyoming to Petrolia, was opened for business in November 1867. McDonald and Brown of Hamilton had been the contractors on this tiny branch line.

The years 1867 and 1868 were difficult ones for the Great Western. The harvest was much smaller than expected and the continued rate-cutting war of the American roads reduced income substantially. A terribly hard winter resulted in numerous total interruptions of traffic due to snow storms and floods, culminating on March 12, 1868, with the Thames River overflowing its banks near Prairie Siding and destroying a four-foot-high railway embankment for half a mile. A dividend of only 2 percent was paid.

The opening of the U.S. transcontinental railway in 1869 was greeted with enthusiasm by Great Western officials, who felt that this road would bring considerable additional traffic that was formerly conveyed across the Isthmus of Panama or by ship around Cape Horn. The chief engineer strongly advocated adoption of new steel rails produced by the Bessemer process as they would be one-half the cost of English iron rails and would last at least five times longer. This year also saw a wage increase of ten to twenty cents daily for track (maintenance of way) men, in order to stem the wholesale emigration of men to the western U.S. where railway men were in real demand and commanded top wages. This modest wage hike raised track expenses by £2,504 ($12,200) annually.

In 1870 the Great Western, Detroit and Milwaukee, and Michigan Central signed a traffic agreement with respect to the splitting of profits of through traffic. The two-year agreement was based on the profits of each road compared with the other two roads over the preceding two years. Profits were to be split as follows: Great Western, 48.5 percent; Michigan Central, 44.5 percent; and Detroit and Milwaukee, 7 percent. The Detroit and Milwaukee received a much smaller proportion since through traffic was so infrequent on its line (most of its remuneration was generated by local traffic).

Great Western station, St. Thomas, circa 1890s. View of the north side, looking southeast. The station was located opposite the north end of Station Street. The photographer was likely located on top of a rail car.

Ian Cameron Collection, Elgin County Archives.

The year 1870 saw the initial replacement of iron rails with 1,100 tons of steel rails. No dividend was paid again, due to the great expense of mixing and working on two gauges at once as well as higher operating expenses. This year saw the “final act” played out in the fiasco of the provincial gauge. An amended act in 1870 repealed the act of 1851 requiring the use of the broad provincial gauge and authority was given to alter the gauge to standard (Dominion of Canada Statutes, 33 Victoria, chapter 50, 1870). As a result, preparations were immediately begun to take up the outside (broad gauge) rail from Windsor to Komoka (just outside London) and to sell the worn-out iron rails. The proceeds of this sale were then applied to the purchase of sixteen standard-gauge locomotives from the U.S. In addition, construction began on five standard-gauge locomotives in the company’s locomotive works in Hamilton. The plan was then to take up the remainder of the outside rail on the main line and branches as broad-gauge locomotives were liquidated (converted to standard gauge, sold, or scrapped; see chapter 4). Around this time, planning was begun for the construction of the Wellington, Grey and Bruce (see chapter 3) and Canada Air Line (aka Glencoe loop line) branches.

The charter of the Glencoe loop line required it to pass “through” St. Thomas and Cayuga and “at or near” Simcoe. This obviously limited the routing of the line. However, the line was practically straight throughout, being only four miles longer than a so-called “air line” (as the crow flies) over the entire 146 miles between Glencoe and the International Bridge at Buffalo. Gradients of this line were far less (238 feet in 96 miles or 0.05 percent) than those of the main lines of the Grand Trunk (967 feet in 38 miles or 0.48 percent) or the Great Western (762 feet in 44 miles or 0.33 percent). There were actually only five grades on the entire line:

 East of St. Thomas station, rose over 1,760 yards by one foot in 150 feet or 0.67 percent (rose toward the east)

 Approximately one mile west of Tillsonburg station, rose over 1,500 yards by one foot in 150 feet (0.67 percent) and over 900 yards by one foot in 188 feet (0.53 percent) (rose toward the west)

 East of Fredericksburg (Delhi) station, rose over 1,666 yards by one foot in 151.5 feet (0.66 percent) (rose toward the east)

 East of Simcoe station, rose over 2,000 yards by one foot in 154 feet (0.65 percent) (rose toward the east)

 West of Cayuga station, rose over 4,167 yards by one foot in 157.5 feet (0.63 percent) (rose toward the west)

The aggregate gradient was only 6.4 miles long and no helper services were needed along the entire loop line.

The company’s rolling mill at this time was active night and day. A number of machines had been added, including a train of puddle rolls and a rotary squeezer for shingling the puddle balls; hot shears for cutting the puddle bars; a stationary engine of forty horsepower with two boilers; and an extension of the building to enclose the new machinery. The completion of these improvements had been one of the conditions of the contract entered into with Ward, Clement, and Potter in the previous March. The contract was for two years and specified re-rolling of all old iron rails with a very superior quality American iron at the rail heads at a cost of $27 (£5,11 shillings) per ton. It was also planned to replace iron rails with steel rails on the main line at a rate of five hundred tons per month.

By December 1870 alterations had been made to the Toronto depot, including an addition to the southeast corner of the Yonge Street building and one office being moved westward.

A dividend of 6 percent was declared for the final six months of 1870. By January 1, 1871, 111 miles of main line had been re-laid with steel rails or the best of the iron rails. Traffic had increased that winter with a reduction in accidents due to deficient rails. By this time, the following sections had been converted over completely to standard gauge:

 Windsor to Komoka (99.75 miles)

 Hamilton to Suspension Bridge (43.25 miles)

 Hamilton to Toronto (37.75 miles)

Revision of the gauge of the Sarnia, Petrolia, and Guelph branches (total of eighty-three and a quarter miles) would be the next track project. This would allow the car shops to convert all rolling stock over to standard gauge. At that time, the Wellington, Grey, and Bruce branch under construction (fifty and three quarter miles) was broad-gauged. The triple-railed section from Komoka to Hamilton (eighty-six and a half miles) would remain so in order to allow usage of the remaining broad-gauge locomotives until their standard-gauge replacements arrived on site. In a phenomenal feat of organization, revision of the gauge of the Hamilton-to-Toronto branch had interrupted traffic for only eight hours.

On January 21, 1871, a branch line was opened from Suspension Bridge to the city of Buffalo built by the Erie Railroad, producing a second eastbound connection in addition to the long-standing one with the New York Central. January 1871 witnessed the sod-turning ceremony initiating construction of the eight-mile-long Brantford branch. This branch left the Great Western main line at Harrisburg and ran south to Brantford on the Grand River. In the 1850s the city had backed the Buffalo, Brantford, and Goderich Railway (BB&G) over the Great Western. As a result, travellers had to journey west to Paris in order to board a Great Western passenger train to Toronto. The BB&G (later known as the Buffalo and Lake Huron) came under the influence of the Grand Trunk in 1864. Freight then had to travel west to Stratford before going east to Toronto. This short branch would eliminate these problems. See chapter 3 for further details regarding this branch.

A dividend for the first six months of 1871 of 5.5 percent annually was declared. A total of £5,895 ($28,710) was paid for repairs and victim compensation for the Nith River bridge accident on the night of June 5, 1871 (see chapter 6).

Some of the broad-gauge rolling stock that was not convertible to standard gauge was still in fair working condition and too good to scrap. It was decided that the triple-railed section between Komoka and Hamilton would remain in place for the present. Another factor supporting this decision was the inadequate number of standard-gauge locomotives to pull standard-gauge trains. Broad-gauge locomotives could be used with standard-gauge trains in this section of the railway.

A 6-percent dividend was declared for the last six months of 1871. Great satisfaction continued to be expressed regarding the performance of the steel rails, and steel replaced iron as quickly as the iron rails wore out. Steel rails allowed the passage of heavier locomotives, cars, and trains, with diminished wear and tear on the latter.

By January 31, 1872, the entire rolling stock of the company had been converted over to standard gauge. Arrangements were underway to purchase the Erie and Niagara Railway (31.25 miles), a line worked by the Great Western since the fall of 1866 (see chapter 3). At the October 16, 1872, shareholder meeting, a 6.5 percent dividend was declared for the previous six months.

Unfortunately, the proposed purchase of the Erie and Niagara fell through when no agreement could be reached. In place of this, the Great Western approached the Welland Railway and requested running rights over the approximately fifteen miles of line joining the eastern end of the Glencoe loop line with the main line at St. Catharines (see chapter 3).

In July 1872 it was reported that the Great Western would be moving its car shops to London, as part of the deal to lease the London and Port Stanley Railway. Over the next two years, despite the large number of cars that were needed due to gauge conversion, plans to enlarge the Hamilton car shops, even temporarily, were never acted upon. The car shops were easier to move than the locomotive shops for two major reasons. First, the tools, jigs, patterns, etc., were much larger for locomotive construction/maintenance than for car construction/maintenance. Second, the car shops were housed in inexpensive frame buildings as compared with the massive stone buildings housing the locomotive shops.

A dividend of 6 percent was declared for the last six months of 1872. Traffic had increased to such an extent during this period that consideration was being given to double-tracking the main line from Windsor to its junction with the loop line at Glencoe (eighty miles) and creating more and larger sidings.

The Wellington, Grey, and Bruce was completed and opened for business on November 29, 1872, from Guelph to Southampton on Lake Huron (102.25 miles). The Great Western worked this line from its opening. The same arrangement was pursued for the South Bruce division of the line from Palmerston to Kincardine (sixty-seven miles), which was expected to be completed and opened in the fall of 1873. A new line, the London, Huron and Bruce Railway, was under construction from near London to Wingham, a station on the Wellington, Grey, and Bruce (seventy miles) (see chapter 3 regarding all of these affiliated roads). On the Welland Railway, laying of a third rail to create a standard-gauge line was completed on the section between the Great Western main and loop lines.

In late 1872 rumours began circulating regarding the integrity of the Suspension Bridge built twenty years previously. Passenger traffic was interrupted until the rumour could be refuted or corroborated. The Great Western under­took a critical investigation of the bridge to reassure the public of its safety. Competent, independent engineers were chosen to carry this out. Inspection of the caps on the towers revealed no untoward findings. The cable anchorages were thoroughly inspected and, in fact, twelve feet of the masonry over one of these anchorages was removed, which was below the point where the wires were attached to anchor chains. This portion of the cable had been embedded in water lime cement. The exposed wires were “as bright and perfect as the day that they were installed.” These findings were widely disseminated and served to reassure an anxious public. Passenger traffic over the bridge recommenced immediately.

The Detroit Tunnel project was abandoned toward the end of 1872, owing to tremendous water and sand leakage at several points. The tunnel had progressed 1,200 feet from the Detroit side and 350 feet from the Windsor side when the project was stopped. A rail tunnel below the Detroit River would not be successfully pursued until the Michigan Central Railroad opened its tunnel in 1910.

A 4.5 percent dividend was announced for the first six months of 1873. The year 1873 was marked by two important events. First, the outer line of rail for the broad gauge between Komoka and Hamilton was gradually taken up when the use of broad-gauge locomotives ceased, the last rail being removed at the end of June. Second, the rapid replacement of iron rails with steel ones meant that by June 30 only thirty miles of main line still had iron rails, and by the end of 1873 the entire main line had been laid with steel rails. In addition, the Hamilton-to-Toronto branch was converted to all steel rails by the end of 1873.

It was unfortunate for the Great Western that its gauge conversion took some seven years to accomplish when other railways of comparable length managed to complete theirs in much shorter periods of time. The third-rail method was the only course available to the company as it was completely unprepared with standard-gauge locomotives and rolling stock when the quick decision to change the gauge was made in 1866. It was fortunate that broad-gauge locomotives could easily haul American standard-gauge cars. An expensive, gut-wrenching experience had been precipitated by a colossal government blunder!

The wooden bridge at Oakville, approximately 575 feet long and sixty feet high, caught on fire and burned in its entirety on May 29, 1873. As a result, the Great Western Hamilton-to-Toronto branch was severed and somehow service had to be maintained while the bridge was rebuilt. Stairways were built up and down the embankments with adjoining chutes to handle baggage transfer. Omnibuses were provided for first-class passengers. Freight was sent from Hamilton to Toronto via steamships. It took approximately one month to build the replacement bridge.

On May 27, 1873, a government inspector went over the Glencoe loop line as far as it had been completed (Welland Junction, 128 miles) and was pleased with what he saw. An attempt was made to use it under unballasted conditions but that was soon given up. Why the company would even attempt this after the experience of 1853–54 is beyond comprehension. The full value of the line could not be realized until the Buffalo International Bridge was opened and a direct connection was made with the Suspension Bridge. In order to permit “immediate” use of the loop line for through-freight service via the Suspension Bridge and at the same time utilize that bridge for interchange traffic with the New York Central and Erie Railroads, a short branch, nine miles in length, was built. It ran from the main-line terminus at Suspension Bridge to the town of Allanburg on the Welland Railway. By this branch a through connection was formed from the loop line to the Suspension Bridge, making the distance to Detroit as short as that from the International Bridge in Buffalo and five miles shorter than the previous main-line route between those points. This branch benefitted the company greatly by facilitating through traffic along a line of much easier gradients than the main line east of London and the avoidance of tolls levied at the International Bridge at Buffalo. However, it was still recognized that the latter bridge was important for local and stockcar (cattle) traffic. Construction of the Allanburg branch was commenced on August 19 and the branch was opened to traffic on November 3, 1873.

The last section of the loop line from Welland Junction to the International Bridge at Buffalo was opened to traffic on December 15, 1873.

Old iron rails taken up on the main line were used, where possible, on branch lines and sidings. In 1873, 15.25 miles of new sidings were built, seven miles of which were at the Windsor and Suspension Bridge terminals.

During the winter of 1873–74, the easy gradients of the loop line enabled the company to run trains of twenty-seven loaded cars from Windsor to the Suspension Bridge via the Allanburg branch with only one locomotive. The previous “record” for the main line was twenty-four cars with the assistance of a helper locomotive at some locations. This additional three cars per train translated into a saving of 152 trains, or nearly two trains per day, during the period of observation.

An agreement was concluded with the London city council regarding the London and Port Stanley Railway on March 24, 1874, allowing the Great Western to lease the twenty-seven-mile north-south road for twenty-one years. Immediately upon taking possession of the property on September 1, 1874, the conversion to standard gauge was begun, a task completed by October (see chapter 3).

By mid-1874 the infrastructure of the railway had matured as evidenced by the following:

 Rail joints: along the main line, were strong fish plates, well-bolted and secured by lock washers and supported by a wrought-iron chair under each end. Along branches/sidings, were the same except for the absence of chairs.

 Ties: along main line, were white oak, eight inches wide by six inches thick by eight feet long, two feet centre-on-centre (no longer two and a half feet centre-to-centre). Along branch lines/sidings, were the same except could use additional species of wood.

 Bridges: all principal ones had been rebuilt in recent years, many in iron and stone. Only a small number (mainly west of Chatham) required heavy repairs or renewal in the near future (all were low structures).

 Toronto branch: with few exceptions were masonry piers/abutments

 Galt and Guelph branch: half had been renewed, including all principal ones but one

 Sarnia branch: majority needed rebuilding but some had already been done and it was planned to do the rest before safety issues arose

 London and Port Stanley: all were in excellent condition (iron and masonry)

 New double-tracking; loop line; Brantford branch; Wellington, Grey, and Bruce (over half were new) — basically new stock

Trouble had been brewing for some time among some of the shareholders, regarding the condition and management of the company. As a result, a committee was appointed to examine the affairs of the company (called the Committee of Investigation). Also, the attitude of the Grand Trunk toward the Great Western was not at all friendly and was getting worse. By 1874 wood was becoming a problematic fuel due to its poorer quality, greater scarcity, and higher price. The chief engineer submitted a report to the directors and shareholders on the mileage of the Great Western’s affiliated roads as of March 6, 1874 (Table 2-5).

A special general meeting of the shareholders was held in London, U.K., on August 26, 1874. Extreme dissatisfaction was expressed by some of the shareholders regarding company affairs. The Committee of Investigation recommended, among other measures, a complete turnover of the board of directors. After a heated debate at a meeting on September 9, a vote was taken and practically an entirely new board of directors was appointed. The shareholders immediately voted to increase the salaries of the new directors before seeing what improvements, if any, they could make, a deal that rankled the old board members.

The new board of directors, as recommended by the Committee of Investigation and a committee of shareholders, included:

 The Right Honourable Hugh Childers, MP, as president;

 Lieutenant-Colonel Grey as vice-president;

 T. Barkworth;

 Seymour Clarke;

 James Bald;

 L.W. McClure;

 John Stitt; and

 The Honourable W. McMaster (only Canadian) (three vacancies were left unfilled)

Table 2-6 illustrates the capital expenditures of the Great Western over the preceding five years (1870–74), which had been a factor in the British shareholder revolt, appointment of the Committee of Investigation and its subsequent adverse report, and mass resignation of the entire board of directors under Thomas Dakin.

The new president replacing Dakin, who had been president for the previous twelve years, was the Right Honourable Hugh C.E. Childers, MP (Member of British Parliament). He promised to visit Canada very soon. No dividends were paid for the first six months of 1874.

On October 1, 1874, there was a fire in the Clifton-Niagara Falls car shop that destroyed the 360-foot-long structure. Great Western baggage and passenger cars (one of each) and an Erie Railroad sleeping car were also consumed in the fire. Things were not going well due to a new financial panic in the U.S. A provisional agreement with the Canada Southern, by which it would gain access to the Suspension Bridge, was hammered out by the board. Double-tracking the main line had begun, with the Glencoe-to-Chatham and Windsor-to-Belle River segments (total fifty-one miles) being completed by early 1875. These were the first sections of double track in Canada.

President Childers travelled to Canada in the summer of 1875. He found relations with the Grand Trunk to be unsatisfactory, although they had recently improved a bit. Traffic had fallen off in the wake of the panic, though the effects were still acutely present. It is significant that three major managers of the railway resigned early in 1875: General Manager Price, Chief Engineer John Kennedy, and Locomotive Superintendent W.A. Robinson. No explanation is available for the resignations and no regrets were mentioned in the minutes of subsequent company meetings.

In May 1875 the Great Western Railway had requested relief from its property tax burden in Windsor at the Court of Revision (of Tax Assessment). This was flatly refused, considering that the real market value of the company’s property of nearly one mile of waterfront was certainly around $700,000, far above the assessed value of $160,000.

By mid-1875, all main line, loop line, and branch mileage were laid with steel rails (513.75 miles). Sidings were of a total length of 178.33 miles. Average speeds of passenger and freight trains were twenty-six and thirteen miles per hour, respectively. By October 1875 F. Broughton had been appointed general manager and operating expenses (wages) and staff members had been cut back substantially. With the railway’s extensive experience using steel rails, steel rail lifespan was estimated as being sixteen years, certainly an advance upon the one to three years seen with iron rails. Their cost had fallen to a very reasonable £3 ($14.60) per ton.

During 1875 President Childers spoke of the desirability of setting aside monies each year for rail renewal (£45,000 or $219,000) and bridge renewal (£15,000 or $73,000). At Hamilton, a brick passenger station three hundred fifty by forty feet was completed, as were additional tracks at the London car shops. A half-mile branch was opened at Southampton from the station to a new pier built by the Dominion government. The Kincardine branch was the victim of monstrous snowfalls that could not be overcome by the most powerful snow ploughs and a large workforce. It remained closed from the beginning of February until about the third week of March, while the line between Guelph and Southampton could be kept open only for light passenger traffic.

August 1875 saw the Great Western in the midst of an embarrassing controversy regarding passenger tickets. The controversy surrounded the question of the length of time that a ticket remained “good.” The usual legal decision up to that time was that a ticket remained “good” until it was used, even if an expiration date existed on the ticket and that date had passed. The Great Western’s policy was to refuse to accept a ticket after its expiration date had passed. Sheriff McEwen of Windsor personally objected to this company policy, and when he had a ticket refused by the company for this reason he entered into a legal action against it. There is no record regarding the outcome of this action.

Starting in 1875 a potentially explosive situation had developed wherein the Great Western was accused of obstructing navigation on navigable rivers in Essex and Kent counties. At the November 1875 Essex County council meeting, Mr. Chartrand gave notice that he would be introducing a resolution authorizing the county clerk to contact the Great Western Railway regarding its bridges built over Belle River and Ruscom River. The next day the resolution was introduced that railway bridges over navigable rivers are obstructions to navigation and violate the Railway Act. He had no problem with railways bridging waterways, but leaving only two or three feet of clearance made navigation impossible, seriously impacting the lumber/wood industries. The resolution was seconded and carried. It was also mentioned that the Baptiste Creek bridge, being constructed at that time, would block up the creek entirely.

At the June 1876 meeting, the county clerk read a letter from the county council’s solicitor (lawyer) concerning the Great Western bridges over navigable waterways in Essex County. This letter was accompanied by extensive correspondence between the Grand Trunk and Kent County council where a similar situation existed. Councillor Trembly expressed hope that Essex County council would join with their Kent colleagues in resisting the encroachment of the railways on the rights of citizens negatively impacted by the bridges. The next day John Langford, warden of Essex County, addressed the county council on the obstruction to navigation by the new Great Western bridge across Baptiste Creek. He explained the character of the obstruction, those who were impacted by it, and what Kent County had done to induce the railway company to modify bridges in its district in such a way as to allow small vessels to pass beneath. County council was left with a decision of whether or not to take legal action against the railway in order to compel it to remove the obstructions.

Table 2-7 illustrates a summary of the passenger timetable for 1875 for the Great Western and its affiliated lines, including the Sarnia; Toronto; Petrolia; Wellington, Grey, and Bruce (including south extension); Glencoe loop line, Welland; Brantford; London and Port Stanley; and Detroit and Milwaukee branches.

December 15, 1875, witnessed the completion of a new Great Western depot in Hamilton. It was a massive structure, thirty-six feet wide by three hundred fifty feet long, with the one-hundred-foot centre portion being two storeys high. The entire structure was built of red pressed Aldershot brick, with an ornamental roof of blue, red, and green slate shingles.

In 1870 work had commenced on the third Welland Canal, sponsored by the Dominion government under the auspices of the Department of Public Works. Railway-canal intersections had been the source of a number of railway mishaps over the years, with Desjardins Canal and Beloeil being the most tragic. To avoid this, the Great Western planned to dig a stone-lined tunnel only ten feet below the bottom of the canal. Commencing construction in 1875, the tunnel was completed in just one year. It was six hundred and sixty-five feet long and lined with limestone blocks shipped to the Queenston dock. It ran under locks 18 and 19.

The tunnel allowed only a single track. The line left the original alignment at Merritton, just east of the Welland Railway junction, and swung south in a downward arc, entering the tunnel. It emerged to climb up to the north and a connection with the original alignment near St. Davids. This single line became a traffic bottleneck and the tunnel was closed to traffic in 1915.

The London, Huron, and Bruce Railway was partially opened to traffic over sixty-nine miles of line in January 1876. Total cost was expected to be £170,000 ($828,000). In 1876 the conversion from pounds-shillings-pence to dollars-cents began in earnest in company financial documents.

The year 1876 saw a return to the rate wars of old between competing roads, leading to heavy losses in working the affiliated lines. Relations with the Grand Trunk continued to be unsatisfactory. Management of the Grand Trunk would not agree to any arrangement of fixed tariff rates and insisted on a pooling of traffic, which was not acceptable to the Great Western. Finally an accommodation was arrived at between the two lines, but it could not be depended upon until the disastrous rate war between the Grand Trunk and certain American lines came to an end. It should be noted that the Great Western directors were willing to pool traffic with the Grand Trunk, which was actually competitive. However, the Grand Trunk wanted, in the interests of some large Grand Trunk shareholders, to force the Great Western to accept a pooling of traffic over the entirety of the compact and reasonably prosperous Great Western and the entirety of the Grand Trunk, much of which it may be doubted had ever paid for itself. Of course, the Great Western could not agree to this. At this time, a few shareholders proposed to amalgamate the two companies, but this attempt was not successful.

An American railway trade journal in 1876 did not mince words about the precarious position of the Great Western:

Its revenue is insufficient to pay the interest on its mortgage debt by over £100,000 a year. It has the Canada Southern on its south, controlled by Vanderbilt. It has an internal cancer of its own in the form of the loop line, and it has the Buffalo and Lake Huron section of the Grand Trunk running side by side, while the Grand Trunk proper has the shortest line to the seaboard, viz, from Chicago to Montreal. The Great Western of Canada has felt some of the plagues of Egypt, not the least of which are a president and general manager [and a board of directors] who know nothing of American railway administration.

The Toronto Globe newspaper contracted with the Great Western in August 1876 to operate a special early morning train from Toronto to London via Hamilton for the exclusive delivery of the newspaper. The Globe set the rules, prohibiting passenger and mail traffic between Toronto and Hamilton and specifying the departure time from Toronto (0500 hours) and arrival time at London (1000 hours). The “Globe train” was the best-known of all of the Great Western “flyers.” Occasionally, passengers would be carried west of Hamilton. The “Globe train” always had a clear track!

Starting in 1876 and continuing into 1877, the Great Western began filling in the mouth of the Desjardins Canal with earth. There was great difficulty in finding a solid bottom (similar to the case near Copetown in 1853). When an attempt was made to build a bridge on wooden piles, it gained the nickname “bottomless pit,” for it was found that as fast as piles were driven down during the day, they would disappear during the night in the quicksand on the canal bottom. As a consequence, the old canal was filled in and a new one was cut through Burlington Heights to the west.

On the Toronto branch at the outlet of the Desjardins Canal into Hamilton Bay, the Great Western still had a wood trestle built in 1855. This had not been planned to be a permanent structure and the railway was determined to fill in the old canal and dispense with the bridge, thus securing a permanent line. Immense quantities of ma­terial were thrown into the gulch. By the end of summer 1877 the embankment had risen two-thirds of the height from the water to the rails (about eighty feet). The huge amount of fill caused some curvature in the trestle, which worsened as the fill amount increased over time.

On Wednesday September 19, 1877, while a large number of men and teams were at work under the trestle, there was a large subsidence of the fill which extended from the centre of the trestle for several hundred feet to the western edge near Hamilton. In only one hour, the embankment subsided twenty-two feet. A large mound was raised several feet from the bed of the adjacent marsh on the side of the embankment next to the bay. The trestle was left twisted, with a large bow into the bay. At one point the trestle sank two feet. Work began immediately on filling and repairing the wooden structure so as to allow trains to creep across the bridge.

On Saturday December 22, 1877, shortly after 2200 hours, the watchman at the trestle over the old canal discovered that another earth slide had occurred. The previous slide in September had occurred on the Hamilton side. This slide had occurred at the eastern (Toronto) end. Great Western personnel were immediately summoned. The amount of damage was impossible to ascertain in the dark of night. It was decided to not let the night train pass. Omnibuses were dispatched from Hamilton to transport passengers in the early morning. Although examination the next day revealed that a large slide had occurred, the actual damage was modest. Slowly, a heavy freight train with twenty full cars and two locomotives passed safely over the remaining wood trestle. Some 6,000 to 7,000 yards had given way, but since nearly 200,000 tons of clay and gravel had been deposited the actual proportion lost was quite small. It appeared that finally the fill had reached the bottom of the old canal/swamp and the embankment had become more stable.

The cut between the west main line at the west junction (Hamilton West Junction) and the Toronto line at Junction Cut (later known as Bayview Junction) was completed. Completion of the remainder of the work took about three weeks.

The winter of 1876–77 was extremely severe and, for weeks, the interchange of traffic with railroads in New York State was significantly compromised and even stopped on some days. As many as three thousand cars were, at one time, detained between Detroit and Suspension Bridge, resulting in a loss to the company of £28,000 ($136,000). The company continued to suffer as a result of the Grand Trunk versus American railroads rate war. The Brantford, Norfolk and Port Burwell Railway was acquired for £12,000 ($58,400), forming another connection between the main line and air line divisions (see chapter 3).

The Great Western in 1877 proposed to lease the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway and issue first mortgage bonds in the amount of $2 million and second mortgage bonds in the amount of $3 million, all guaranteed by the Great Western. In return, it would take up the entire indebtedness of the line. The proposition was laid before the English Detroit and Milwaukee shareholders who were “disposed to accept it.” The English Detroit and Milwaukee and Great Western bondholders owned a controlling interest and, acting together, would undoubtedly win.

John S. Newberry, on behalf of Detroit capitalists, offered to buy the Detroit and Milwaukee for $4.5 million ($500,000 in cash, $4 million as 5 percent bonds). In this case, the railway would end up with “home management.” The whole matter was referred to a committee of Henry N. Walker, S.T. Douglass, H.B. Ledyard, Captain F. Davy, E.W. Meddaugh, and F. Martin. The bondholders met on September 28 and assigned yet another committee to review all offers (Douglass, Taylor, Ledyard). Finally, the committees and shareholders voted in favour of the Great Western offer late in the year.

In early June 1877 trains on the Sarnia and London and Port Stanley branches were very delayed by caterpillars on the rails, since when they were crushed, locomotive traction was substantially reduced. Crews began on August 10 to convert the old wooden trestle bridge on the Toronto branch across the old outlet of the Desjardins Canal into an embankment. It was hoped that the project would be completed before winter. Ballasting of the London, Huron, and Bruce line was proceeding very slowly due to a lack of labourers. A small fireproof building, thirty feet by twenty feet in size, was erected near the general offices in Hamilton for the storage of old books and other company records.

On October 1, 1877, the Michigan Central withdrew from all passenger agencies in eastern seaboard cities that were being operated in conjunction with the Great Western. The Great Western continued these agencies on its own. The Michigan Central continued its western agencies. Up to this time, the Michigan Central and Great Western contributions to joint agencies had been 55 and 45 percent, respectively.

In October 1877 the situation continued poorly for the company. Traffic was still poor and rates were low. The agreement with the Grand Trunk was presented to the shareholders. The mileage report noted a total of 866.22 miles of line, the Great Western proper having 590.07 miles and the four affiliated lines (Wellington, Grey, and Bruce; Galt and Guelph; London and Port Stanley; and London, Huron, and Bruce) having 276.15 miles. The embankment at the Desjardins Canal was not completed until January 15, 1878, using material obtained from the excavation for a quarter-mile loop line joining the Hamilton-to-Toronto division with the main line. A new wooden passenger depot, forty-seven feet by twenty feet in size, was erected at Welland Junction.

In 1878 the embankment of the Great Western at Jarvis was raised in order to allow an underpass for the Hamilton and North Western Railway. The Hamilton and North Western and Great Western Railways contributed $2,000 and £920 ($4,500), respectively, to pay for this improvement. The Detroit and Milwaukee defaulted on its interest payment and was placed in receivership. An agreement was reached between the Great Western and bondholders of the Detroit and Milwaukee, allowing it to be reorganized under the new title of the Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee Railway. From this time forward, the railway would be run as part of the Great Western system rather than as a semi-autonomous organization dealing at arm’s length with the parent company. Traffic arrangements with the Canada Southern, also recently reorganized, were completed on August 1, 1878.

On April 27, 1878, the new permanent drawbridge (as required by the Dominion government) over the newly enlarged Welland Canal on the loop line was ready for traffic, a mere six days before the canal would be opened for the navigation season. The draw girders of this bridge were those formerly used in the infamous 1858 Desjardins Canal bridge (the latter having been converted from a drawbridge to an embankment). New stations had also been completed at Nixon and East London. The double-track iron superstructure built across the Desjardins Canal and the double-tracking of the Hamilton-to-Toronto branch were opened for traffic on October 12, 1878. These did away with the need for day and night telegraphers and switchmen at the old junction, prevented delays, and removed all risk of collision. The quarter-mile loop line at Burlington Heights was opened on September 16, 1878, connecting the main line to the Hamilton-to-Toronto branch. Trains could now run between Toronto and stations west of Hamilton without having to enter Hamilton yard, saving three miles on their journeys. Also in 1878 the Brantford, Norfolk and Port Burwell branch was substantially improved, new sidings being installed and the line being extended to the Glencoe loop line (extension was opened on December 19, 1878).

July 1878 was a time of tension between the Credit Valley Railway and the Great Western in the environs of Woodstock. The Credit Valley had built west from Toronto to the north of the Great Western main line but, as it proceeded toward St. Thomas, a crossing of the two lines was planned one mile west of Woodstock. The Great Western objected to this plan since the crossing would be located on a rising grade on the Great Western, making it difficult for Great Western trains to proceed after having come to a complete stop at the crossing. The Great Western wished it to be relocated. However, the Credit Valley was seeking its bonuses/subsidies for completing construction and would brook no delay. On Saturday July 20, 1878, the Credit Valley attempted to lay track over the Great Western main line. Expecting this move, the engineer of Great Western freight train #36 was told to “hold the fort” and wait for reinforcements. Shortly afterward, a special train arrived with Mr. Domville (mechanical superintendent), Mr. McGuiness (roadmaster), and a number of men. The Great Western put locomotives from passing freight trains on the crossing to prevent use by the Credit Valley. Although a fight would eventually develop, the Great Western prevailed until the matter could be settled in Chancellery Court.

In November 1878 the Maidstone (Essex County) town clerk was instructed by county council to notify the Great Western that it must remove certain obstructions at the Great Western bridge over “Brown’s Creek,” and also that a culvert just west of the bridge needed to be repaired.

The year 1879 was to be a significant year in the history of the Great Western. The first serious discussion of amalgamation with the Grand Trunk would occur during this year. In May the annual shareholder meetings of both railways occurred simultaneously. Sir Henry Tyler of the Grand Trunk supported amalgamation while the Honourable Mr. Childers did not. Mr. Abbott (London, U.K.), on behalf of the Grand Trunk shareholders, put together a proposal for amalgamation of the two roads. The proposal included a proposition to place the two lines under one authority, in the form of a joint committee formed out of the two boards of directors. The proportions of revenue division would be settled by arbitration.

The Great Western board meeting in Manchester, U.K., on July 25 featured a large attendance and unanimous passage of a resolution in favour of amalgamation. A committee was appointed to safeguard the shareholders’ interests and to urge the board of directors to approve amalgamation.

The Great Western board agreed to refer conditions of amalgamation with the Grand Trunk to arbitration. Five chairmen of important railways were nominated as arbitrators. It should be noted that fusion of the capital of both companies was not being entertained.

The Honourable Mr. Childers had had enough by this time and resigned from the presidency. The Great Western published its answer to the proposition of Sir Henry Tyler to fuse the receipts of both roads. The Great Western preferred a division of traffic at competitive points only, rather than a plan for a joint purse arrangement. In response, the Grand Trunk stated that if the Great Western board adhered to this decision, the Grand Trunk board would appeal to the shareholders of both companies to whom they could guarantee up to £200,000 ($975,000) as an immediate advantage of fusion. The Grand Trunk also offered to seek the formal sanction of the Canadian government for a joint purse arrangement “so as to guarantee the Great Western company against the risk of capricious withdrawal.” The Grand Trunk was even prepared to place the two roads under one management based in Canada.

Tyler responded that the Great Western had only two courses: continue the disastrous policy adopted over so many years, or join the Grand Trunk, which was then acquiring an independent position in Chicago and elsewhere.

Lieutenant-Colonel Grey, on behalf of the Great Western board, welcomed a detailed fusion proposal, which would be carefully considered by the board and then submitted to a special meeting of the shareholders.

The Great Western board released a special report on the proposal to fuse with the Grand Trunk, which was to be given to shareholders at a special meeting on October 2, 1879. This report stated that the Great Western had always demonstrated a peaceful response to Grand Trunk aggression. The inability of the Great Western to pay dividends had been due to the Grand Trunk’s persistent competition. The board insisted on the division of all competitive traffic and maintained that Tyler’s amalgamation proposals were illegal, since no such arrangement would be binding without the approval of the Canadian government. The Great Western would enter into any arrangement that would put an end to competition, but not on the terms proposed by the Grand Trunk.

The Great Western stockholders meeting adopted a resolution approving the board of directors’ policy on the question of fusion of net receipts with the Grand Trunk. Two members of the board of directors (Lieutenant-Colonel Grey and James Bald) left for the U.S. on October 4 to confer with W.H. Vanderbilt of the New York Central and other railway authorities. It was rumoured that the reason for the October trip was to take measures to protect the company from Grand Trunk attacks.

On April 2 a fire started in the early morning hours in the Great Western Clifton (Niagara Falls) depot. Starting in one of the wings, the fire soon overtaxed the local and Great Western fire brigades and razed the entire building. However, the heroic efforts of the firemen did save many buildings fronting on Bridge Street. On January 10, 1880, a new, large depot opened on the same site. Built of brick and stone in a semi-Gothic style, it was three hundred feet in length, comprising a central two-storey portion sixty feet in length and two single-storey wings, each being one hundred twenty feet in length. The building was thirty-five feet wide. Waiting rooms and the ticket office were located in the centre block. The east wing had a large dining room, lunch counter, wine room, and U.S. Customs office. The west wing had a telegraph battery room, agent’s office, baggage room, and Canadian Customs office.

In the summer of 1879 the Great Western was considering entering into a traffic arrangement with the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Railroad (RWO).

An eye-popping advertisement for the Great Western and Michigan Central Railways’ “Only Route Via Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge.” The bottom of the poster reads: “For Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, and all points west, take the Great Western and Michigan Central R Line. Palace, sleeping and drawing room cars between New York, Boston, and Chicago without change.”

Niagara Falls, Ontario Public Library collection.

This line stretched from the Suspension Bridge, along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, almost to Montreal. A connection with the New York, Ontario, and Western would open up the way to New York City. The two roads were examining the potential for a shared bridge at Lewiston, New York, on the lower Niagara River. Alas, it was not meant to be. The Vanderbilts would swallow up the RWO.

The town of Chatham and the Great Western Railway, the latter being represented by General Manager Broughton, celebrated the opening of the new Chatham depot on Friday September 27, 1879.

A very influential committee of shareholders of the Great Western was formed in December 1879 to arrange, with the Great Western board, a plan to end the unsatisfactory relations with the Grand Trunk. In 1880 the Great Western appealed its Windsor property tax assessment to the Court of Revision, saying that it was $32,000 too high. The appeal was rejected.

There had been fear for some time that Cornelius Vanderbilt, obtaining control of the Michigan Central, would cut off the Great Western from through-freight business between the west and east. In July 1878 his son W.H. Vanderbilt (representing the Canada Southern) and F. Broughton (representing the Great Western) and T. Scott as arbitrator came to an agreement on the division of Michigan Central business to the two roads. Broughton claimed that the Great Western was carrying 75 percent of the east-west business between Buffalo Suspension Bridge and Detroit, with the Canada Southern carrying only 25 percent. While not claiming that the same proportions should still apply, he felt that the Great Western was entitled to the largest share. Vanderbilt claimed that the relationship had changed, since the Michigan Central formerly had discriminated against the Canada Southern while they were now natural allies (both being under the control of the Vanderbilts). Mr. Scott announced the decision as follows: for through passenger traffic the Great Western/Canada Southern proportions would be 60/40 percent, and for through-freight traffic they would be 55/45 percent. The agreement was to last for six months and at the end either party could withdraw by giving three months’ notice (for practical purposes, it was a nine-month agreement).

On June 3, 1880, the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad and the Great Western signed a twenty-one-year traffic agreement with the following terms:

 The Wabash would pay a $20,000 annual fee plus $5/loaded twelve-ton car or $1.80/empty car for ferrying across the Detroit River from Detroit, transit across southern Ontario and transit across the International Bridge at Buffalo.

 Gross receipts of the traffic would be collected by the Great Western and, after expenses were deducted, the profits would be split 50/50 between the two railways.

 If the Great Western wished the Wabash to ship its through cars to/from Ashburn (south Chicago), it would have to pay a $10,000 annual fee plus $2.50/loaded twelve-ton car or $0.90/empty car. In this case, the Wabash would collect the gross receipts to be followed by the same division of the profits after the deduction of expenses.

 If the Great Western wished the Wabash to ship cars between Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, it would have to pay only the usual pro rata mileage divisions of rates and fares and no annual fee.

There is no mention in the document of binding the Wabash to send all through traffic via the Great Western. In fact, as it turned out, Wabash through traffic was almost equally split between the Great Western, Canada Southern, and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. In addition, how could the Great Western make such a favourable (to the Wabash) arrangement and not expect that the same would have to be granted to its old ally, the Michigan Central, especially with the huge through traffic forwarded by the latter over the Great Western? By making this agreement with the Wabash, would the Great Western reduce its profits on all through traffic by 50 percent? In any case, this is how the relationship would stand, at least until the 1882 Grand Trunk takeover.

A dividend of 1.5 percent for the half year was declared at the April 22, 1880, shareholder meeting. Traffic had increased by 28 percent and rates had improved. Despite this, the leased lines were still being worked at a loss although the Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee line was working satisfact­orily. Mr. Brackstone Baker, secretary of the company for twenty-six years, retired on January 1, 1880. In appreciation of his services, an annuity of £650 ($3,166) per year (50 percent of his annual salary) was voted for him. Mr. Walter Lindley became the new secretary.

Table 2-8 illustrates company financials for several years prior to amalgamation. The October 30, 1880, shareholder meeting was somewhat more cheerful. A surplus of £34,847 ($169,700) was shown and a dividend of 1 percent was declared. Earnings of the main line and branches showed an increase of £71,662 ($349,000) (19.5 percent) over the same period one year previously, while leased lines showed a deficit of £15,201 ($74,029). The Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee had better results and a 3 percent dividend was declared.

During 1880 the replacement of old wooden bridges by stone and/or iron structures was accelerated throughout the system. Wire fencing was also introduced on an experimental basis on a six-mile stretch and proved quite satisfactory. The Tillsonburg and Delhi viaducts were rebuilt with more permanent materials. The Tillsonburg viaduct was 1,287 feet long and 112 feet high, while corresponding figures for the Delhi viaduct were 1,087 feet and ninety feet. These were the two largest structures on the Great Western system.

In 1881 the Great Western appealed against the Court of Revision finding in terms of property tax levied for its Windsor properties. The mayor of Windsor voiced his doubts that railway personnel had honestly reported the extent of the railway’s property holdings. The mayor felt that this needed to be investigated before the trial began. Augustin McDonell was selected to conduct the survey of Great Western property.

By 1882 the juggernaut of the pro-amalgamation forces could not be stopped. In the final tally, the votes for amalgamation were a landslide, with 1,072 shareholders controlling 83,409 votes supporting amalgamation and eight shareholders controlling only 1,100 votes not supporting amalgamation. Amalgamation occurred at 2300 hours on August 11, 1882.

The first board of directors of the amalgamated company, split as one-third Great Western-affiliated and two-thirds Grand Trunk-affiliated, included:

Sir Henry W. Tyler, MP

Sir Charles L. Young

Baronet Lord Cland J. Hamilton, MP

Robert Young

Robert Gillespie

William U. Heygate

James Charles

Right Honourable David R. Plunket, MP

Honourable James Ferrier

Viscount Bury

Henry D. Browne

Colonel E. Chaplin

John Marnham and

Major Alexander G. Dickson, MP

Just two weeks after the August 12, 1882, amalgamation, the last ticket was sold at the Great Western Railway Toronto depot on Saturday night, August 26.

Posted on the door was a single note reading “Go to Union Station.” The dining room was locked and the staff had departed. The freight house would continue to be used. It would become a bonded freight warehouse for the Grand Trunk.

The loss of the Great Western as an independent line was bemoaned by the editor of the Acton Free Press in its editorial pages on August 17, 1882. Within this editorial the author warned that the Grand Trunk would become a virtual monopoly in the province of Ontario, since it would be years until the Canadian Pacific Railway would play any significant role in rail transportation in southern Ontario. The loss of the Great Western would be especially injurious to the large tract of counties that had formerly enjoyed the advantage and competition of two railway companies. The public could now expect higher freight and passenger rates, fewer trains, and less accommodation for local traffic. The Grand Trunk would only have its own interests to keep in mind in the future: “One can now only hope against hope that greater consideration will be given by the Grand Trunk than has heretofore been seen with other monopolies.”

***

The Appendix provides details of the ten extant Great Western stations in Ontario. These were built between 1855 and 1890. Half were of brick and half were of frame construction. Seven of ten are in either good (1) or excellent (6) condition, with the remainder in unknown (1), fair (1), or poor (1) condition at present. Details of two extant Detroit and Milwaukee/Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee stations in Michigan are also provided (1 each being in excellent and poor condition at present). The presence of these stations is a tribute to local citizens who organized and overcame sentiments to demolish these historic structures and then arranged for their restoration and subsequent use.

Table 2-1. Comparative Traffic Growth Over the First Two Years After Opening of the Great Western Railway

In addition, average weekly traffic receipts rose from £5,773 in 1854 to £13,633 in 1856. To convert £ to U.S. $, multiply by 4.87.

Table 2-2. Elevation Profiles of the Great Western Railway and its Affiliated Lines

Table 2-3. Summary of the 1859 Great Western Railway Public Timetable

Table 2-4. Summary of Great Western Railway Operations and Financials for 1860

Table 2-5. Summary of the Great Western-Affiliated Railway Mileage, Effective March 6, 1874

Abbreviations: WG&B = Wellington, Grey, and Bruce; G&G = Galt and Guelph; L&PS = London and Port Stanley; NA = not available (under construction); Jct. = Junction

Note that this summary from the chief engineer does not include Suspension Bridge to Windsor main line or siding mileage.

Table 2-6. Capital Expenditures of the Great Western Railway (1870–74, Inclusive)

Also done in these years: 20,020 tons of iron rails re-rolled, 22,916 tons of steel rails purchased, 707,225 ties purchased.

a Includes £113,513 ($552,808) for interest during construction and discounts.

b Included “doubling-up” of main line from London to Glencoe (79.25 miles); installation of sidings at virtually every station; improvements in roadbed; new station works/yards at Clifton, London, and Windsor; new car shops at London; new wharf at Sarnia; new warehouse at Detroit.

c N=113

d Passenger/baggage (N=74), Freight (N=2,119), Platform (Flat) (N=524)

e Michigan and Saginaw

f Saved £50,000 ($243,500) annually in bridge tolls

Table 2-7. Summary of the 1875 Great Western Railway Plus Affiliates’ Public Timetables

*Connections made with trains to/from Chicago via Detroit.

Railway connections:

Suspension Bridge — with New York Central and Erie RRs

St. Catharines — with Welland Railway

Toronto — with Grand Trunk Railway

Paris — with Grand Trunk Railway

London — with L&PS branch

Detroit — with Michigan Central, Detroit and Milwaukee, and Michigan Southern lines

Table 2-8. Summary of Great Western Railway Operations and Financials from 1872 through 1881 a

a Financial data are expressed as pounds Sterling (U.S. dollars).