Carillon and Grenville Railway
Overview | |
---|---|
Headquarters | Montreal |
Locale | Quebec, Canada |
Dates of operation | 1854–1910 |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) |
Length | 12 mi (19 km) |
The Carillon and Grenville Railway (CAGR) was a 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)
Although it was the shortest railway in North America,
History
Early efforts
The three sets of
For the passenger traffic,
Montreal and Bytown
A much more ambitious plan was hatched in August 1853, involving a large group led by W. A . Masson. This project, known collectively in the newspapers of the era as the "Montreal and Ottawa Valley Trunk Line", was actually a collection of three lines that all ended in Ottawa, at that time still known by its original name, Bytown. The first was the Montreal and Bytown Railway along the north shore of the river, the second was the Brockville and Ottawa Railway which ran to the Ottawa River at Pembroke, and the last was the Bytown and Pembroke Railway running north out of the city to Pembroke. The resulting network would form a large three-pointed star centred on Bytown, offering service over a large area while bypassing rapids on both the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers.[4]
The Montreal and Bytown route was originally estimated to be 110 miles (180 km) long along the mainline from Montreal to Hull, where it would enter Bytown via a bridge over the Ottawa. Another 23 miles (37 km) of feeders were also planned. A survey put the actual length of the mainline at 119.5 miles (192.3 km), and the total cost at £831,750 ($4,042,305). The contract for both the Montreal and Bytown and the Brockville and Ottawa was won by James Sykes of
Moving to Canada along with his two brothers and foreman Charles deBergue to oversee construction, the team began work on the Carillon to Grenville section. The 12.5 miles (20.1 km) route was completed on 25 October 1854 and opened for traffic when the locomotive arrived in early December. It ran a single 4-4-0 engine, the Ottawa. Over the winter, Sykes had sold £50,000 of bonds in England, enough for extensions on either side of the existing route. On his return to North America, his ship sank in a storm off Portland, Maine. His brother William took control of the railway on 1 August 1855 and attempted to operate it for his own profit. The company sued, and on 21 September 1855 a writ was signed to seize the equipment. The Sykes brothers moved to Toronto. The company, unable to afford to operate the line, left it dormant for a year.[5]
New Carillon & Grenville
In 1856 the line was handed to the wardens of Ottawa and Argenteuil counties, who organized a bank loan of $6,000 to pay farmers that had not received their payments for the right-of-way. They then operated the line to pay off the loan. This was successful, and a second locomotive was added in August 1858, the Grenville. By this time, bond holders in England had organized and sued the company, forcing them into bankruptcy. The entire line was put up for auction in January 1859, and John Abbot purchased it for $21,200. On 4 May 1859 he formed the second Carillon and Grenville Railway Company, with the new charter stating that the Montreal and Bytown could purchase the line if construction ever restarted.[5]
On 19 May 1860 the company rechartered, taking over the moribund Montreal and Bytown's land rights, with options to build westward to Ottawa if the Vaudreuil Railway had not done so within two years, and eastward to Montreal to join the Grand Trunk Railway at Pointe-Claire in Montreal, or alternately the North Shore Railway at Rivière des Prairies. A further extension in 1861 allowed a connection to the Montreal and Champlain Railroad at Lachine. In the end, none of these expansion plans would be built, leaving the CAGR isolated. It was given an enormous boost on 31 December 1857 when Queen Victoria announced Ottawa would become the new Canadian capital. Riverboat traffic increased almost immediately and the railway was able to operate one round trip per day as long as the river was passable.[5]
In 1864 the newly organized Ottawa River Navigation Company purchased the line from Abbott, who made a "handsome profit".[6] They operated it as part of an end-to-end network with both steamers and the railway. They added a third 4-4-0 locomotive, the Carillon, in 1874. In practice, the entire line was run by John Halsey, who was General Manager, Superintendent, Road Master, Master Mechanic and Engine Driver.[7]
Central Railway of Canada
In 1890,
As part of these plans, Armstrong purchased the Ottawa River Navigation Company in 1905, planning to use it as part of a southern route into Montreal. He continued running the line as before until 1910, when the steamer service ended in favour of the now multiple routes into Ottawa. The line was lifted in 1911 but the locomotives were not removed until 1914. By 1912, Armstrong' empire included the Ottawa River Railway, the Central Counties Railway, the Great Eastern Railway and the Ste. Agathe Branch of the Ottawa Navigation Company. These purchases were later declared illegal, and in December 1917 the company was declared bankrupt.[8]
Canadian Northern
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) had been considering the problem of their own route into Montreal for some time. In 1907 they purchased the Great Northern from Armstrong, in order to use his crossing at Hawksbury and the ultimate goal of adding the Carillon & Grenville as their initial approach to Montreal. They completed a new line from Ottawa to Hawksbury to 1909, but struggled to purchase the Carillon & Grenville from Armstrong, who still had plans to build up his competing network. These plans began to unravel, and CNoR finally took control of the CAGR in 1914, using only a small portion of the route before turning off its route to run northeast into the city.[7]
CNoR struggled during
Route
- From maps in Sandilands,[9] unless otherwise noted.
The railway originally ran west-northwest from Carillon to the Grenville Point, a short distance northwest of Grenville. From Carillon it passed through Monalea, Cushing, Watson, Stonefield and finally Grenville.
When the line was taken over by CNoR, a new Grenville station was built a short distance southeast of the town at the northern end of bridge to Hawkesbury. They laid new line for a short distance between the bridge and a location just to the east, where it joined the original CAGR. The line followed the CAGR alignment to a point just west of Cushing. From here they ran new line between the original alignment and the river, building new Cushing and Monalea stations slightly south of their original locations. The new line turned eastward and crossed the original about halfway between Monalea and Carillon, and from that point ran north of the original alignment. The original section from Cushing Junction to Carillon was abandoned, but the section between the new Grenville Station and Grenville Point remained in use as a spur.[7]
The Great Northern originally ran just south of the CAGR to a point just east of the bridge, where it turned east, crossed the CAGR, and then ran to a point just north of Watson where it turned northeast. In 1919, CNoR built a 1.1 miles (1.8 km) line from a point some distance west of Watson, confusingly named Cushing Junction,[b] northeast to meet the rest of the Great Northern. The 4.98 miles (8.01 km) section of the Great Northern from the bridge to this new junction was then abandoned. This entire section of the Great Northern, as far as Lachute, was abandoned in 1940.[7]
The remaining portion of the original CAGR route remained in use as a through route from Ottawa to Montreal until 26 July 1939, when the original
See also
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ Puffert 2009, p. 142.
- ^ Wade 1912, p. 221.
- ^ Sandilands 2016, p. 1.
- ^ a b c Sandilands 2016, p. 2.
- ^ a b c Sandilands 2016, p. 3.
- ^ Halpenny 1990, p. 5.
- ^ a b c d e f Sandilands 2016, p. 7.
- ^ a b Sandilands 2016, p. 6.
- ^ Sandilands 2016.
Bibliography
- Sandilands, Jim (2016). "The Carillon & Grenville Railway". Jim Sandilands' Canadian Railroad Pages.
- Halpenny, Francess (1990). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Springer. ISBN 9780802034601.
- Puffert, Douglas (2009). Tracks Across Continents, Paths Through History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226685090.
- Wade, Gerald (1912). "The Smallest Railway in America". The Railway Magazine.