Canadian Railways 2-Book Bundle. David R.P. Guay
Eastern Railway and recruited a new assistant mechanical superintendent, John Ortton, from the London and South Western.
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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