Railway history

Introduction

Tracking the history of Canada’s railway companies is like trying to follow a complicated family tree. The last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railroad was hammered into the ground in 1885 but over one hundred years of rail history preceded that steel wedding band committing the western provinces to Confederation and political matrimony.

            Rail lines had been used for many years before Canada tied the knot. An early rail line, dating back to the 1720s was discovered in Cape Breton. Used by the French during the construction of the Fortress of Louisburg, it consisted of two rails that guided the wheels of vehicles pulled by horses. Something similar was in use during the construction of the Rideau Canal. A five-mile wooden tramway ran from a quarry to the construction site. Operated by horses, it served until the completion of the canal in 1832 when it was abandoned.

Admiral Vansittart, credited with founding the city of Woodstock in Oxford County, owned great tracts of forests east of the city. In order to get the felled lumber to the sawmill at Eastwood he built his own rail line. Carts of lumber were pulled along the rails by horses.

In 1820 an incline railway was used during the construction of Quebec’s citadel. It ran up the side of the cliff to transport stone to the top. A stationary steam engine supplied the power for two cable cars which operated on double tracks, one going up loaded with building material, the other coming down empty. Then, in 1836, the first iron horse made its appearance in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. This rail line was initially built to carry coal from the mine to the river where the cargo was transferred to a sailing vessel, but it wasn’t long before passenger accommodation was added. And great monolithic machines billowing clouds of steam set a new era rolling. 

Until then rivers, canals and lakes were the main thoroughfares for people. Overland travel was muddy, uncomfortable, time consuming, difficult and impractical. Rail lines moved freight, mostly wood and construction materials. And now, people.

The list of small rail lines blossomed, steel ribbons wrapping up the province: Ontario Simcoe and Huron, London Port Stanley, Fort Erie, Erie and Ontario, Northern, Buffalo and Lake Huron, Great Western, Credit Valley, Toronto Grey and Bruce, Cobourg and Peterborough, Midland Toronto and Nipissing, Whitby Port Perry and Lindsay, Prince Edward county, Lindsay Fenelon Falls and Ottawa River Valley, Champlain and St. Lawrence, Port Dover and Lake Huron Railway.

Soon many of the smaller companies were amalgamated into larger companies. In 1853, for example, the Quebec and Richmond, St. Lawrence and Atlantic, the Grand Junction Railway Company, and the Toronto and Guelph Railway Company were all amalgamated into the Grand Trunk Railway.

The train station at many small communities provided a sense of community, growth, and purpose. They were often the only place where one could find telegraph or telephone service. Most rural stations included living quarters for the stationmaster and family. Stationmasters were highly regarded and held an elevated social position within these small rural communities.

  Over the years, railway services to rural communities dwindled and the horses Mr. Ford tucked under the hood replaced the iron horses. From the 1930s onward the railways began to abandon unprofitable lines. Slowly stations began to disappear. Today only a handful stand and few remain in use.

While urban stations were often designed by top name architects and built in an opulent style befitting the times, such as Victorian Romanesque, Greek revival or Art Deco, rural stations were far more sedate. Generally built of frame or brick, they were still occasionally adorned with Victorian gingerbread, small turrets, or other decorative elements from the period. The turrets served a twofold purpose: adding design and visual appeal, and providing a point of reference to the locomotive engineer.

Flag stops served many rural communities. At Flag stops the train would only stop if it was flagged down. Flag stops were little more than unmanned huts with benches pushed against each wall and a timetable tacked up near the door. Some of the larger ones boasted small pot-bellied stoves so passengers wouldn’t freeze to death during the winter.

The grandeur or humility of the station was not the point, the fact that these small rural communities were now connected, that travel was possible, expanded worlds. These rail companies crossed the county north-south, east-west and diagonally. Sometimes they were connected by spur lines and sometimes they shared tracks.

In many cases that rail connection is no longer. Still, shadows of that time remain. Stations may have been closed but occasionally they were given new life as homes and barns or dismantled for their lumber. The railway tracks that opened up the world and led to new adventures may have also been removed however the stretch of land that housed metal rails now often provide cross country ski/hiking trails allowing people to rediscover the world just outside their door.