New Brunswick and Canada Railway

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The New Brunswick and Canada Railway (NBCR) was a railway company in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and in Maine ( United States ). It was founded on October 5, 1835, initially as the St. Andrews and Québec Railway and planned to connect the port of Saint Andrews with Québec . Construction began in 1851 and was very slow. As was common in the British colonies at the time, the decision was made to use the colonial track (1676 mm).

When the company was renamed the New Brunswick and Canada Railway in 1856 , the trains drove only about 35 kilometers to Dumbarton . In July 1862, Richmond on the Maine border was reached. In 1866, a 19-mile branch to Saint Stephen , another port city west of St. Andrews, went into operation, owned by the St. Stephen Branch Railway and leased by NBCR from its opening. Two years later, another branch line followed, which branched off from the main line in Debec Junction and led over 18 kilometers to Woodstock . Also in Debec Junction, a line to Houlton branched off from 1870 . The approximately five kilometers long section in Maine belonged to the Houlton Branch Railroad , which was formally leased from June 28, 1873. The part of the main line from Debec Junction to Richmond was then apparently closed, this almost ten kilometer long section is only found in the timetables until 1870. The branch to Woodstock was integrated into the main line, the trains then ran from St. Andrews to Woodstock . The continuation of the line north was built in the 1870s and 1880s by the New Brunswick Railway .

After the European and North American Railway, which had been crossing in McAdam since 1869, had been switched to standard gauge in 1877 , the NBCR line was without connection to other railways in the same gauge. So it was decided to convert their own lines to standard gauge, which was completed in 1879.

On July 1, 1882, the NBCR in turn was leased by the New Brunswick Railway for 999 years. This contract went to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1890 . From the end of the 1980s, the routes were extended to the McAdam – St. Stephen shut down. This section is now used by the New Brunswick Southern Railway .

literature

  • Charles Wassermann: Canadian Pacific - The great railroad. Herbig, Munich and Berlin 1979. ISBN 3776609354
  • F. Robert: Railways of Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1987. ISBN 0888945817