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Illustrated History Of Canadian Railways by Mika w Wilson w Dust jacket
Illustrated History Of Canadian Railways
BY Nick and Helma Mika with Donald M. Wilson
Hardbound with dustjacket
288 pages
copyright 1986
Contents
Introduction 7
Portage Railroads in Canada 9
Railroading in the Early Days 22
The Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway 26
The Great Western Railway 36
The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada 46
The Intercolonial Railway 77
Some Railways of New Brunswick 102
Nova Scotia Lines 126
Railways of Southern Quebec 147
The Canadian Pacific Railway 161
More Rails across the Continent 203
Canadian National Railways 225
Rails in Western Canada 250
Rails to the North 262
Historic Train 275
Some Facts and Figures 277
Acknowledgements 283
Bibliography 284
Index 285
Introduction
The advent of railways in Canada was fuelled by the need and desire of pioneer communities to replace the cumbersome method of travelling by road and waterways with faster, all-season means of communication. The answer of course was a reliable mode of locomotion, the implementation of which did not happen by chance, but evolved over a number of years from modest beginnings that can be traced back to James Watt's discovery of the expansive properties of steam in the late 18th century.
By the 1820s the movement of goods and people by trains running on tracks and being hauled by steam-powered locomotives had become an established concept in England and continental Europe and was in the fetal stages of development in the United States. Canada was not far behind.
Rail transportation in Canada may have had its beginnings on Cape Breton Island where signs of a primitive railroad were discovered in the form of an ancient roadbed extending from an abandoned gypsum mine to the bank of the Mira River. It was believed to date back to the 1720s when. the French were building the fortress of Louisburg, then one of the most important strongholds in North America. To transport the building materials for the fort, engineers probably constructed simple wooden rails to guide the wheels of horse-drawn carts.
In Ontario a railway of sorts was in use as early as 1762. In September of that year, Major Wilkins, the commanding officer at Niagara, reported to General Amherst that he had constructed an incline portage railroad from the lower landing at Lewiston to the top of the Niagara escarpment. According to him, "the stores and provisions may be rolled up easily, which before was very difficult to do." He undoubtedly employed horses as the motive power to haul the loaded carts to the top.
Similarly, a railway was used for transporting materials in the 1820s during the construction of Quebec's Citadel. Here too, in the beginning, the motive force was horsepower, but eventually horses were replaced by a stationary steam engine which powered two cable cars operating on double wooden tracks, one going up the side
of the cliff loaded with building materials, the other coming down empty.
Another railway is known to have been in use by 1827 during the construction of the Rideau Canal under Colonel By and his Royal Engineers. To transport the enormous quantities of heavy stones needed for the canal's weirs and locks, a five-mile wooden tramway was built from a quarry at Hog's Back, south of present-day Ottawa, to the canal site. Carts loaded with stones and equipment were hauled by horses over this road. When they were no longer needed the rails were dismantled and used for firewood.
While Canadians continued their search for better ways to transport bulk material, mechanically-inclined men in England were experimenting with harnessing the power of steam for practical purposes.
In 1705, Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith in Dartmouth, Devonshire, got the idea of forcing a piston to move by using steam pressure. The result of his experiments was a primitive atmospheric steam engine. James Watt, a Scottish engineer following in Newcomen's footsteps, in 1763 constructed a low-pressure steam engine that was soon adopted as a stationary source of power for hauling coal from mines.
In 1796, Richard Trevithick, a Cornish inventor and mechanical engineer, exhibited a model of a high-pressure steam engine superior to the inventions of his predecessors. Trevithick's engine was not stationary but could move under its own power. On Christmas Eve, 1801, he demonstrated his locomotive in action but it stalled only 300 yards down the road. Undaunted by the failed attempt, he rebuilt the locomotive and in 1804 it successfully ran on rails at a speed of five miles per hour from Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan, South Wales, to Abercynon, a distance of 91/2 miles, hauling a ten-ton load of iron. In 1809, Trevithick built a circular track in Euston Square, London, and invited newsmen and the general public to take a ride for the price of a shilling in a carriage pulled by his snorting and puffing iron horse named "Catch Me Who Can", swinging around the track at the speed of 10 to 12 miles per hour. Among the people who were watching the locomotive's performance was young George Stephenson, an engineer from Wylam who worked at the Killingworth colliery. Greatly impressed by the demonstration, he began to think of ways that would further improve the workings of a steam locomotive.
Over the next decade Stephenson constructed several locomotives of his own and in 1823 he became technical manager of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, a line built for the purpose of transporting mineral products. Locomotives on this line, however, were used only to draw heavy freight while passengers still were conveyed in horse-drawn cars.
When the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the early 1820s proposed to build a line that was to be operated solely by steam haulage, stage and canal operators in the country at once voiced their objections. Asked one influential contemporary paper, "What could be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stage coaches?"
The opposition to passenger railway service was such that the British Parliament did not pass the Act clearing the way for the construction of the 31-mile double track until 1826. Shortly before the line was completed, the company staged a competition among steam locomotive builders of the day to determine which type of engine would perform best on their road. The event took place on October 6, 1829 at Rainhill near Liverpool. Involved in the great locomotive competition which lasted for eight days were Braithwaite
and Ericson's Novelty; Timothy Hackworth's Sanspareil; Burstall's Perseverance; and Stephenson's Rocket. It was Stephenson's Rocket which was declared the most advanced locomotive and he won the contest. Hauling a coach with 36 passengers, his locomotive sped to its destination at 29 miles per hour, marking the start of anew era in transportation.
The history of Canadian railways, illustrated with over 500 photographs, drawings and maps, both black and white and in colour, tells of Canada's first railway between Laprairie and St. Johns, Quebec inaugurating passenger service in 1836; of the Samson, Canada's oldest existing Iron Horse on display at New Glasgow, N.S.; of the early days of railroading and the pioneer lines in each of Canada's provinces.
In word and picture the story is told of the old Grand Trunk spreading its empire of steel; the Canadian Pacific welding together a new nation; the construction and expansion of the Canadian Northern, the National Transcontinental; the Intercolonial; railways opening up the North and the West and helping to settle vast new lands. Traced are the origins of Canadian National Railways and its continuing services to the nation.
The story of railways is an epic of man's dreams and ambitions, relating spectacular change and technological achievements in his never-ending quest for better and faster means of transportation.
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