Rails to the Atlantic. Ron Brown

      Kentville was the centre of the Dominion Atlantic Railway operation in Nova Scotia, with offices housed in this large station.

      The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR), Nova Scotia’s most iconic rail line, was incorporated in 1895. It had absorbed a number of earlier lines and charters, including the West Counties Railway, the Cornwallis Valley Railway, and the Midland Railway. By the time the CPR took out a ninety-nine-year lease on the railway in 1912, the line could count forty-eight station stops between Windsor Junction and Yarmouth. The Halifax and Southwestern Railway operated on the opposite of the province, running from Halifax along the south coast also to Yarmouth. It fell into the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) network in 1915. Both lines are now abandoned and have become rail trails with a handful of stations and bridges still in place.

      In the 1870s and 1880s Quebec began encouraging colonization rail lines of the Laurentians, often led by parish priests, to help ease congestion on the overcrowded farmlands of the St. Lawrence Valley. Colonization rail lines were built to connect the region to the rest of Quebec. These lines extended variously to Lac-Saint-Jean, to Labelle (later known as the iconic P’Tit Train du Nord), to Huberdeau, and to Waltham, where the line was known as the Pontiac and Pacific Junction Railway. Another line stretched from Hull to Maniwaki. It is now abandoned, although a small section continued to host steam excursions between Hull and Wakefield. Originally part of the Quebec Montreal Ottawa and Occidental (QMO&O) system, these colonization lines were little more than branch lines, leased by the CPR.

      One of New Brunswick’s key railway men was the irrepressible Alexander “Boss” Gibson. He started his empire by creating a townsite around his cotton mills at Marysville, five kilometres from Fredericton on the opposite side of the St. John River. He then put his mind to creating a railway line. Starting in 1872 he began acquiring a number of shorter rail lines, and by 1892 his network encompassed much of western New Brunswick from St. Andrews to Edmunston. In short order it was acquired by the CPR, then expanding its empire eastward.

      Meanwhile, the CPR had completed its route to the west coast and was looking to expand eastward. It absorbed the DAR from Windsor Junction (its Halifax link) to Yarmouth, in western Nova Scotia. The CPR also took over the New Brunswick Railway, as well as the QMO&O along the north shore of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers and on to Ottawa with its branches into the Laurentians. Then, to complete its truly transcontinental link, the CPR acquired the charter of the Atlantic and Northwestern Railway, enabling it to open its Short Line from the west end of Montreal, via Farnham, Sherbrooke, and Lac-Mégantic, through Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick. The charter also called for a bridge over the St. Lawrence River at Lasalle, an impressive feat of engineering that is still used today by Montreal’s AMT commuter service as well as the CPR’s freights. The ICR continued to expand its own network and extended its lines into Cape Breton all the way to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

      Another addition to the growing network of rail lines was the Quebec Central Railway, which by 1895 had built lines south from Quebec City to Lac-Mégantic, and to the American border at Beebe Junction where it hooked up with the important Boston and Maine Railway.

      By 1900 rail lines were everywhere, often duplicating each other. But it wasn’t over yet. Two more ambitious transcontinental routes were still to come.

      In 1895 a pair of railway contractors for the CPR decided to strike out on their own. They were William Mackenzie and Donald Mann. Their method was to grab up unused charters and uneconomical lines. Beginning in Manitoba, they extended their way westward to Vancouver and eastward into Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes, where they obtained the charter of the Quebec and Lac-Saint-Jean Railway. From a junction at Rivière-à-Pierre on that line they established a line running westerly through Shawinigan Falls, Joliette, and on to the Ontario border at Hawkesbury. They further acquired the Halifax and Southwestern Railway, which ran along the south shore of the province from Halifax to Yarmouth.

      The next grand railway plan was that of the GTR and the Canadian government itself. Under the proposed scheme, the government would build and operate a new line that would travel from Moncton through Edmunston, before following the south shore of the St. Lawrence River and crossing into Quebec City over a new cantilever bridge. From there, it would angle northwest, well away from any settled area, through northern Quebec and into northern Ontario. It would then join with the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) at Winnipeg. But the GTP was not able to run the entire cross country route and the government took over the entire operation as the National Transcontinental Railway.

      In 1871 Prince Edward Island began building a rail line of its own. But it took the involvement of the Canadian Government to finish that line as well, which was used as the catalyst to persuade Prince Edward Island to join confederation in 1875. To help reduce costs, the line was narrow gauge, the rails being only three and a half feet apart. Political pressure forced the line to twist into as many of the scattered communities as possible, resulting in 180 kilometres being built to serve a string of communities only 120 kilometres apart. The line initially ran between Charlottetown, the provincial capital, and Tidnish, the island’s western terminal. By 1910 rails had been extended to Murray Harbour and the eastern terminus of Elmira. In 1915 the PEIR joined the ICR (also known as the Canadian Government Railway), which evolved shortly afterward into the CNR. However, with the arrival of the auto age, passenger service dwindled and in 1968, ended altogether. In 1989 the CNR abandoned the line and removed the tracks. Most of the route today forms the island’s popular Confederation Trail. Dozens of stations survive in a variety of uses.

      In 1898 the colony of Newfoundland entered the railway age as well. The idea for a rail line across the rocks of Newfoundland began with Sandford Fleming, Canada’s pre-eminent railway engineer, in 1868. But it took until 1881 for the colonial government to proceed. Construction made it only one hundred kilometres, from St. John’s to Whitbourne, when the builder A.L. Blackman went bankrupt and the government had to take over. In 1893 the government turned building over to Robert G. Reid, who constructed a number of branch lines, and in 1898 finally completed the line across the island to Port aux Basques.

      By 1923, however, the Reid family could no longer afford the costs and the government once again took control.