Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway ( GTR ) is a former railroad company based in Canada and the United States . The company was based in London , England, but its administration was in Montreal . It existed from 1852 to 1923.
Historical meaning
The GTR was one of the main factors that led to the unification of the Canadian colonies into the Colony of Canada. After the individual colonies began to build up trade relations with each other, the desire for their own railroad arose. The most ambitious project was the Grand Trunk Railway, which was to connect western Canada with the Atlantic near Halifax . In 1860, however, GTR was on the verge of bankruptcy. At that time, the track network extended from Sarnia near the Great Lakes to Rivière-du-Loup at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River . However, many residents feared an attack by the United States in winter once the St. Lawrence River froze over, and saw that the only railroad the British could use from the Atlantic was in the United States. The only way to save the Grand Trunk Railway - and Canada - was to unite the colonies and sign a federation treaty (British North America Act) so that the colonies could share the cost of continuing to build the railway.
history
Foundation and expansion
The company was founded on November 10, 1852 as the "Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada". You should first build a railway line between Montreal and Toronto . A short time later, however, the concession was expanded in both directions and the planned route was to connect Sarnia and Portland in the US state of Maine .
On August 5, 1853, the GTR therefore leased the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad , whose route from Portland to the Canadian border had been completed in the same year. In 1855 the railway built a line from Montreal via Richmond to Lévis , part of the planned Atlantic connection in the British part of North America. In the same year there was a merger with the Toronto and Guelph Railroad , whose railway line was already under construction. However, the GTR decided to change the route and built the route from Toronto to Sarnia on the Michigan border to have a hub for traffic to Chicago . This line was opened in July 1856, the Montreal – Toronto section followed in October of the same year. In 1859 the GTR set up a ferry service across the St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot (today Port Huron ), which was replaced by the St. Clair Railway Tunnel in August 1890 .
The lines of the GTR were initially built in the gauge of 1676 mm (5 feet 6 inches) common in many British colonies . In order to have better transition options to the other railways, the company switched its routes to standard gauge (1435 mm) until 1873 .
As early as 1867, the GTR had grown into the largest railroad system in the world at the time, connecting three US states with the Canadian provinces of Québec and Ontario over a route length of over 2000 kilometers. In 1880 the company's route network covered the entire area from the Atlantic to Chicago. The Port Huron – Chicago section located in the USA traded as the Grand Trunk Western Railroad . In 1879 the railway line between Lévis and Rivière-du-Loup along the St. Lawrence River became the property of the state-controlled Intercolonial Railway of Canada (IRC), which from 1889 also received a right of use for the Montreal – Lévis line. On August 12, 1882, the GTR merged with the Great Western Railway , which operated a 1371-kilometer route network that stretched between Niagara Falls and Toronto and also served London , Windsor and many cities on the Bruce Peninsula .
The GTR as a transcontinental railroad
As the leading railroad company in Canada, the Grand Trunk was asked by the Dominion Government shortly after the unification of the colonies in 1867 to build a railway line to the Pacific coast in British Columbia . The company refused to do so, forcing the government to set up the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in order to meet the conditions that British Columbia had attached to joining the Federation.
At the beginning of the 20th century, however, the desire developed on the part of the GTR to expand the route network to the west and so break the relative monopoly of the CPR in this area and take advantage of the lucrative income that could be expected from the countless immigrants west of Ontario, to be able to participate. The Dominion Government then suggested that the GTR should work with the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), but an agreement could not be reached. At that time, the CNoR was planning to build a transcontinental railroad network itself, which in 1903 forced the GTR to sign a contract with the government for the construction of a third transcontinental railroad in Canada. The GTR was to build and operate the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR), which should run from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert . The government, in turn, wanted to build the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR), which would connect Winnipeg via Québec to Moncton to the Atlantic. This railway should also be operated by the Grand Trunk. The routing of this route was very speculative, as the GTPR was supposed to be more northerly than the profitable main route of the CPR and the route of the NTR was even supposed to lead north past the densely populated areas in Ontario and Québec. The calculated construction costs rose more and more, although one could choose the best possible crossing of the North American Cordillera at the Yellowhead Pass .
Construction of the transcontinental GTPR / NTR project began in 1905 and the GTPR line was completed in 1914, the NTR the following year. The only gap in the line was the fateful Quebec Bridge , which took several years to complete. Charles M. Hays , the president of the GTR, who was very skeptical of the construction costs, died on the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. It was later speculated that his death contributed to the GTR's management deteriorating in the following years and that finally even the construction of the Southern New England Railway to Providence , which had started in 1910, had to be stopped.
Bankruptcy and nationalization
The first sign that the contract with the government was wavering came when the GTR no longer wanted to run the NTR for economic reasons. After the immense costs that the construction of the GTPR had devoured and the low income that this railway generated, the GTR could no longer pay the leasing costs to the government in 1919. On March 7 of that year Canada nationalized the GTPR, which from then on was operated under an administrative consortium of the government. On July 20, 1920, the government finally placed the railway under the control of the Canadian National Railway (CNR), which worked with the British Crown.
As a result, the Grand Trunk experienced more serious financial difficulties and the shareholders and partners, mainly based in the UK, were called upon to prevent the nationalization of the company. In 1920, however, control of the railway was taken over by an administrative consortium of the government, which resulted in countless legal disputes over several years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, the GTR and the 125 smaller railway companies operated or leased by it were taken over by the CNR with a total of 12800 kilometers in Canada and a further 1873 kilometers in the USA.
Grand Trunk today
The Grand Trunk was built about 100 years before the rise of automobile traffic in the areas in which it operated. This made it possible to choose the direct geographic route. The result is that large parts of the former main network of GTR are still operated today by CNR (CNR from 1960). This includes the main Québec – Chicago axis via Montreal, Toronto, London and Sarnia. However, many branch and parallel routes have since been shut down or sold to smaller operators due to the sharp drop in transport numbers, including the original route between Toronto and Sarnia via Stratford . Instead, the trains on this route now use the former route of the Great Western Railway .
The name of the company "Grand Trunk" is still used today by the CN. The US subsidiary Grand Trunk Western Railway , which mainly operated the main Port Huron – Chicago line, was under the administration of this railway until the CN was privatized in 1995. At that time, the GTWR was transformed into the still existing holding company Grand Trunk Corporation , under whose management the CN placed a few other US railroad companies that they acquired after 1995, including the Illinois Central Railroad , Wisconsin Central and Great Lakes Transportation .
structure
At the end of 1910, the Grand Trunk Railway was divided into 5 divisions and these in turn were divided into a total of 32 districts. Then there was the Pontiac, Oxford and Northern Railroad , which was also included in the actual network of the railway. The following table shows the administrative structure and the classified routes at this time.
| District | stretch | Length in km |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Division | ||
| 1 | Portland (Maine) –Island Pond, plus Lewiston Branch, Norway Branch | 251.73 |
| 2 | Island Pond (1st District) - eastern end of the Victoria Bridge in Montreal | 228.62 |
| 3 | Port Levi – Richmond (2nd District), Hadlow – Chaudiere Curve, plus Three Rivers Branch | 210.63 |
| 4th | St. Lambert (2nd District) –Massena Springs, plus Rouse's Point Branch, Hemmingford Branch, Beauharnois Branch | 253.36 |
| 5 | Eastern end of Victoria Bridge in Montreal (2nd District) –Brockville, plus Bonaventure Branch, Jacques Cartier Branch, St. Paul Branch, Lachine Wharf Branch | 236.41 |
| 6th | Brockville (5th District) –Belleville Junction, plus Kingston Branch | 156.57 |
| 7th | Belleville Junction (6th district) –East Semaphore near York (15th district) | 171.67 |
| Northern Division | ||
| 8th | Belleville Harbor – Lindsay, Port Hope (7th District) –Peterboro, Millbrook Junction – Omemee Junction, plus Madoc Branch, Lakefield Branch | 266.76 |
| 9 | Lindsay (8th district) -Midland, Blackwater Junction (10th district) -Lorneville, plus Coboconk Branch | 180.39 |
| 10 | Scarboro Junction (7th district) –Lindsay (8th district), Whitby Harbor – Manilla Junction, plus Haliburton Branch, Sutton Branch | 282.34 |
| 11 | North Parkdale Junction (15th District) –Allandale | 97.22 |
| 12 | Allandale (11th District) –North Bay (including the CPR section Nipissing Junction – North Bay), plus Muskoka Wharf Branch | 262.34 |
| 13 | Burlington Junction – Georgetown – Allandale (11th District) | 135.18 |
| 14th | Allandale (11th District) –Meaford, plus Penetang Branch, Beeton Branch | 206.04 |
| Middle and Southern Division | ||
| 15th | York – Sarnia (including tunnel), plus Galt Branch, Elmira Branch, London Branch | 369.04 |
| 16 | Bathurst St. Junction (15th District) - Port Dover, Hamilton (17th District) - Burlington Junction (13th District) | 148.20 |
| 17th | Suspension Bridge NY – Sarnia (15th District), plus Petrolia Branch, Point Edward Branch | 304.10 |
| 18th | Komoka (17th district) –Windsor | 161.11 |
| 19th | Fort Erie – Kingscourt Junction, plus Allanburg Branch, Welland Branch | 324.52 |
| 20th | Buffalo – Goderich (including the International Bridge and 6.18 km of the New York Central), plus Tillsonburg Branch, Brantford Branch | 340.86 |
| 21st | Port Dover – Tavistock Junction (20th district), plus Port Rowan Branch | 116.97 |
| 22nd | Harrisburg (17th District) –Southampton, plus Durham Branch, Owen Sound Branch, Wiarton Branch | 372.63 |
| 23 | Stratford (15th District) –Palmerston (22nd District), Listowel– Kincardine | 151.70 |
| 24 | Hyde Park (17th District) –Wingham | 110.85 |
| Western Division (Grand Trunk Western Railway) | ||
| 25th | Port Huron Tunnel (15th District) –Battle Creek, plus Saginaw Branch | 360.27 |
| 26th | Battle Creek (25th District) - Chicago | 283.50 |
| 27 | Detroit – Grand Haven (Michigan), Grand Rapids Terminal Railroad | 306.61 |
| 28 | Owosso (27th District) –Muskegon (including parts of the Ann Arbor Railroad ) | 187.34 |
| 29 | Port Huron (25th district) –Detroit (27th district), Lenow – Jackson, plus Fort Gratiot Branch | 266.51 |
| Ottawa Division | ||
| 30th | Swanton – Ottawa, plus Hawkesbury Branch, Rockland Branch | 290.25 |
| 31 | Ottawa (30th District) –Madawaska, plus Pembroke Branch | 244.85 |
| 32 | Madawaska (31st District) - Depot Harbor | 214.99 |
| Pontiac, Oxford and Northern Railroad | ||
| Pontiac-Cassville | 161.88 | |
Special structures
Some outstanding construction works are associated with the Grand Trunk. The first successful bridge over the St. Lawrence River took place on August 25, 1860 in Montreal. The first Victoria Bridge was replaced in 1898 by the structure that still exists today. The GTR was also the first to cross the Niagara River between Fort Erie and Buffalo . The already mentioned tunnel under the St. Clair River between Sarnia and Port Huron replaced a previous ferry connection from 1890.
Like other railway companies, the GTR also built several railway hotels , the most famous of which is the Château Laurier in Ottawa .
Misfortunes
The heaviest train accident in Canada, as measured by the number of people killed, occurred on June 28, 1864 at Belœil when a passenger train from Lévis to Montreal a stop signal in front of an open swing bridge ran over and in the Richelieu River collapsed. 99 German immigrants were killed.
The headlines were made by the famous circus elephant Jumbo , who was hit by a GRT train near St. Thomas , Ontario on September 15, 1885 and then killed. PT Barnum bought the elephant from the London Zoo in 1882 for his circus.
On September 21, 1906, a train accident occurred near Napanee , in which a passenger train ran into a stationary freight train at a track crossing. The driver of the passenger train had stayed in his place to slow down the train as hard as possible, making him the only fatality in the accident. The passengers of the train later erected a memorial to him in memory of this act.
statistics
At the end of 1910, 929 locomotives, 34 express cars, 536 passenger cars, 253 baggage cars, 84 mail cars, 28,098 freight cars and 1,638 company cars were in use on the GTR network. The net profit in 1910 was around £ 1.9 million. Around 31 million train kilometers were covered, transporting over 11 million passengers and 17.7 million tons of goods. The entire route network without side tracks had a length of 7657 kilometers, 1670 kilometers of which had two or more tracks.
literature
- George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. 2nd edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5
- JE Lilley: The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada: a financial review . Published by E. Wilson, London 1887 ( online at archive.org ).
- Canada and the Grand Trunk, 1829-1924: the genesis of railway construction in British America and the story of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada from its inception to its acquisition by Canada. - By HA Lovett (One of His Majesty's Cousel). Published 1924 ( online at archive.org ).
Web links
- Collections Canada - History of GTR
- Model Trains Museum - History of GTR
- Grand Trunk Railway of Canada ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Individual evidence
- ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, 1468.
- ↑ Across Niagara's gorge. by Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, Published 1900
- ^ Jumbo the Circus Elephant and His Tragic Death
- ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, 1469.