The Great Western Railway was a railway that operated in Canada West, today's province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first railway chartered in the province, receiving its original charter as the London and Gore Railroad on March 6, 1834, before receiving its final name when it was rechartered in 1845.
Great Western Railway station in Toronto in 1867 (later as Toronto Wholesale Fruit Market and now the site of Meridian Hall)
At its peak, the Great Western system stretched 1,371 kilometres (852 mi) with its main operating base in Hamilton. The city at the head of Lake Ontario was pivotal in opening up the unpopulated and heavily wooded interior of what was then known as Canada West. A substantial part of its revenue was from serving as a bridge line between the New York Central and Michigan Central Railroads, making it significant in North American history. Its lines remain in use, part of Canadian National Railway's network.
Sir Allan MacNab was the driving force behind the financing of the railway in Canada (and less so in the United States and England), although he was pushed out of the company in 1854.[1] Entrepreneur Samuel Zimmerman was instrumental in promoting its construction and Roswell Gardinier Benedict, a friend of Zimmerman's, was the assistant chief engineer and later the chief engineer.
Although it received the first charter to operate in Canada West, it was the second to begin operation. Due to the length of time to construct its lines, it was beaten into service by six months by the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway. The original line completed in 1853–54 connected Niagara Falls to Windsor, running by way of Hamilton and London. In 1855 two important additions were made: the opening of the branch to Toronto[2] and rail connections over the newly opened Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge. Further branches were opened to Sarnia and communities in the Bruce Peninsula.
McNabb's dismissal was directly related to a proposal from Zimmerman to purchase assets in the Niagara area, the Erie and Ontario Railway, a shortline around Niagara Falls; and the Niagara Harbour and Docks Company. In 1853, threatening to use these assets to start a competing railway with a shorter line between Niagara and Detroit, Zimmerman presented to the GWR board a proposal to instead sell them to the GWR. McNabb was against the proposal; it failed. As a consequence, GWR managing director Charles John Brydges, who had negotiated a purchase agreement with Zimmerman would engineer McNabb's dismissal from the board.[3]
In 1855, traffic has risen to the level that GWR made plans to double-track its lines. As this required Legislature approval, Zimmerman was retained to secure its approval through his influence. In turn, Zimmerman would receive the contract to double-track the line. A clause of the approval granted an exemption for the GWR from the regulation for all trains to stop at all drawbridges.[4]
The GWR used multiple stations in Toronto. Its first was a depot at the Queen's Wharf, then it secured the use of the Canadian Northern station at York Street. It built its own station at Yonge Street and the Esplanade in 1866.[5] The GWR also used the Union Stations built in 1858 and 1873, built by the Grand Trunk Railway.
Advertisement for Great Western Railway travel via the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, c. 1876.A map of the Great Western Railway in Ontario, Canada, as it was at its height in 1879.
The railway merged with the Grand Trunk Railway in August 1882, and ultimately became a major part of Canadian National Railway's southern Ontario routes. The majority of the mainlines remain in use. The main Niagara Falls–Windsor line is now the Canadian National Railway's Grimsby Subdivision, Dundas Subdivision, Chatham Subdivision, and CASO Subdivision. The Toronto branch is the Oakville Subdivision, and the Sarnia branch is the Strathroy Subdivision (which also includes a short piece of the mainline, from London to Komoka).
Locomotive manufacturing at the Great Western Hamilton shops begins.[12]
The Great Western forecloses on the Galt and Guelph Railway's mortgages and takes it over directly.[9]
1861: Scotia, built at the Great Western Hamilton shops, is the first locomotive in Canada built with a steel boiler.[12]
1863: The Great Western has 83 first-class cars, including six sleeping cars.[11]
1866: A dedicated Great Western station is constructed in Toronto at Yonge Street and the Esplanade.[5]
1867: The Great Western mainline from Windsor to Niagara Falls is dual gauged.[12]
1870: Legislation mandating use of provincial gauge is repealed, and the Great Western is the first railway in Canada to begin track gauge conversion to standard gauge.[12]
1871: Eleven almost-new broad-gauge locomotives are sold by the Great Western to the Grand Trunk.[13]
Early in the morning of October 27, 1854, a Windsor-bound passenger train collided with a gravel train backing eastward, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of Chatham by Baptiste Creek. According to passenger W. O. Ruggles, there was dense fog and the gravel train's light could not be seen in time. The passenger train's locomotive collided at about 32 km/h (20 mph), derailing to the right. The four first-class cars were crushed into splinters. Thirty-five passengers were killed at the time of impact, and many remained in the ruins of the train for several hours before being extricated.[15] Two second-class cars at the rear of the train landed on top of the first-class cars.[16]
A grand jury found that Twitchell, conductor of the gravel train and Kettlewell, engineer of the train were criminally responsible for the death of 52 persons and they were charged with manslaughter. According to the jury, the gravel train had entered onto the track in contravention of the rules of the Great Western, and in any case, should not have proceeded onto the track in the dense fog.[17]
On March 12, 1857, a train crashed into the Desjardins Canal railway swing bridge in Hamilton, causing its collapse and the train to plunge into the icy waters of the canal. The accident, known as the "Great Western Railway disaster", claimed 59 lives and injured 18 of the approximately 100 people aboard.[18][19] One of the dead was Samuel Zimmerman,[20] who had himself arranged the exemption clause to allow GWR trains to not stop at drawbridges. Had the train stopped, the loss of life might have been avoided.[21] It was determined that an axle broke on the engine, causing the derailment.
As the train from Toronto approached the bridge, it derailed, crashing into the bridge. The bridge collapsed and the engine, the tender, a baggage car and two passenger cars crashed down to the thick ice of the canal below. The engine and tender fell through the ice. The baggage car bounced off the tender and fell to one side. The first passenger car landed upside-down on its roof, breaking into pieces and sinking through the ice. The second fell and rested vertically on one end.[20] Several persons escaped from the second car as it started to sink; a conductor asleep in the baggage car was thrown from the wreck and woke up lying on the ice.[20]
A coroner's inquest into the disaster began immediately.[20] The switch tender on duty testified that a switch from the mainline to the bridge was broken by the train as it passed through the switch; the rail ties were damaged from before the switch to the bridge; the rails were bent to the east of the switch. He attributed it to a broken truck-wheel on the engine.[22] Andrew Talcott the chief engineer of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, examined the engine and the bridge. He testified that an axle had broken on the engine, causing the cowcatcher on the front of the train to dip and rip up the timbers of the bridge, leading to its collapse.[23]
Clowes, Art (March 1996). (PDF). Rail & Transit. Upper Canada Railway Society. pp. 9–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 16, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
Corley, Raymond F. (Autumn 1982). "The Grand Trunk Railway: Motive Power Acquisitions". Railroad History. No. 147. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. pp. 31–41. JSTOR 43520914.
Greenhill, Ralph (Spring 1993). "Early Sleeping Cars in Canada". Railroad History. No. 168. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. pp. 73–75. JSTOR 3521636.
Guay, David R. P. (2015). Great Western Railway of Canada: Southern Ontario's pioneer railway. Toronto, Ontario: Dundurn Press. ISBN9781459732834.
Lavallée, Omer; Corley, Raymond F. (Autumn 1982). "The Grand Trunk Railway: A Look at the Principal Components". Railroad History. No. 147. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. pp. 19–30. JSTOR 43520913.
McIver, Don (2013). End of the Line: The 1857 Train Wreck at the Desjardins Canal Bridge. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN9781459702226.
Smith, Edward (2007). "All My Politics Are Railroads". Dundurn Castle: Sir Allan MacNab and his Hamilton Home. James Lorimer & Company Ltd. pp. 75–84. ISBN978-1-55028-988-6.
Spriggs, W. M. (February 1940). "Great Western Railway of Canada". The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin. No. 51. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. pp. 7–59. JSTOR 43519873.
Further readingEdit
Ashdown, Dana (1988). Railway Steamships of Ontario, 1850–1950. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press. ISBN0-919783-80-5.
Benidickson, Jamie (1996). "Aemilius Irving: Solicitor to the Great Western Railway, 1855–1872". In Wilton, Carol (ed.). Inside the Law: Canadian Law Firms in Historical Perspective. Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. University of Toronto Press. ISBN978-1-4426-3291-2. JSTOR 10.3138/j.ctt15jvx7n.
Freeman, Bill (2006). "Chapter 3: The Railroad Town (1840 – 1865)". Hamilton: A People's History. James Lorimer & Company. ISBN978-1-55028-936-7.
External linksEdit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Western Railway (Ontario).
, from Niagara Rails
Great Western Railway in the Canadian Encyclopedia February 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
Great Western Railway of Canada history by the Toronto Railway Historical Association
Great Western Railway March 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
great, western, railway, ontario, several, terms, redirect, here, other, uses, great, western, railway, disambiguation, great, western, railway, railway, that, operated, canada, west, today, province, ontario, canada, first, railway, chartered, province, recei. Several terms redirect here For other uses see Great Western Railway disambiguation The Great Western Railway was a railway that operated in Canada West today s province of Ontario Canada It was the first railway chartered in the province receiving its original charter as the London and Gore Railroad on March 6 1834 before receiving its final name when it was rechartered in 1845 Great Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway s Spitfire locomotive OverviewHeadquartersHamilton OntarioLocaleSouthwestern Ontario Niagara PeninsulaDates of operation1853 1853 1882 1882 TechnicalTrack gauge4 ft 8 1 2 in 1 435 mm standard gaugePrevious gaugeBuilt to 5 ft 6 in 1 676 mm but converted by the 1870sGreat Western Railway station in Toronto in 1867 later as Toronto Wholesale Fruit Market and now the site of Meridian Hall At its peak the Great Western system stretched 1 371 kilometres 852 mi with its main operating base in Hamilton The city at the head of Lake Ontario was pivotal in opening up the unpopulated and heavily wooded interior of what was then known as Canada West A substantial part of its revenue was from serving as a bridge line between the New York Central and Michigan Central Railroads making it significant in North American history Its lines remain in use part of Canadian National Railway s network Contents 1 History 1 1 Timeline 2 Accidents and incidents 2 1 Jeannette s Creek crash 2 2 Desjardins Canal disaster 3 See also 4 References 4 1 Citations 4 2 Bibliography 5 Further reading 6 External linksHistory EditSir Allan MacNab was the driving force behind the financing of the railway in Canada and less so in the United States and England although he was pushed out of the company in 1854 1 Entrepreneur Samuel Zimmerman was instrumental in promoting its construction and Roswell Gardinier Benedict a friend of Zimmerman s was the assistant chief engineer and later the chief engineer Although it received the first charter to operate in Canada West it was the second to begin operation Due to the length of time to construct its lines it was beaten into service by six months by the Ontario Simcoe and Huron Railway The original line completed in 1853 54 connected Niagara Falls to Windsor running by way of Hamilton and London In 1855 two important additions were made the opening of the branch to Toronto 2 and rail connections over the newly opened Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge Further branches were opened to Sarnia and communities in the Bruce Peninsula McNabb s dismissal was directly related to a proposal from Zimmerman to purchase assets in the Niagara area the Erie and Ontario Railway a shortline around Niagara Falls and the Niagara Harbour and Docks Company In 1853 threatening to use these assets to start a competing railway with a shorter line between Niagara and Detroit Zimmerman presented to the GWR board a proposal to instead sell them to the GWR McNabb was against the proposal it failed As a consequence GWR managing director Charles John Brydges who had negotiated a purchase agreement with Zimmerman would engineer McNabb s dismissal from the board 3 In 1855 traffic has risen to the level that GWR made plans to double track its lines As this required Legislature approval Zimmerman was retained to secure its approval through his influence In turn Zimmerman would receive the contract to double track the line A clause of the approval granted an exemption for the GWR from the regulation for all trains to stop at all drawbridges 4 The GWR used multiple stations in Toronto Its first was a depot at the Queen s Wharf then it secured the use of the Canadian Northern station at York Street It built its own station at Yonge Street and the Esplanade in 1866 5 The GWR also used the Union Stations built in 1858 and 1873 built by the Grand Trunk Railway nbsp Advertisement for Great Western Railway travel via the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge c 1876 nbsp A map of the Great Western Railway in Ontario Canada as it was at its height in 1879 The railway merged with the Grand Trunk Railway in August 1882 and ultimately became a major part of Canadian National Railway s southern Ontario routes The majority of the mainlines remain in use The main Niagara Falls Windsor line is now the Canadian National Railway s Grimsby Subdivision Dundas Subdivision Chatham Subdivision and CASO Subdivision The Toronto branch is the Oakville Subdivision and the Sarnia branch is the Strathroy Subdivision which also includes a short piece of the mainline from London to Komoka Timeline Edit 1834 London and Gore Railroad incorporated 6 1845 Reincorporated as the Great Western Rail Road Company 6 1847 Groundbreaking ceremony at London 7 1850 Branch line from Harrisburg to Galt is authorized 8 1852 Galt and Guelph Railway is authorized 9 1853 Renamed the Great Western Railway 6 November Hamilton Niagara Falls section of the mainline opens 7 1854 January Mainline opens 6 7 August Galt branch opens 8 October Jeannette s Creek train wreck 1855 Contracting out of rolling stock manufacturing is cancelled and rolling stock begins being manufactured in house 10 Toronto branch opens 2 7 March Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge opens 7 November first 6 4 kilometres 4 mi of the Galt and Guelph Railway from Galt to Preston opens 9 1857 Sarnia branch opens 7 March Desjardins Canal disaster June Preston and Berlin Railway is incorporated by petition of the Galt and Guelph Railway Company 9 September Galt and Guelph Railway extension to Guelph opens 9 1858 The first three sleeping cars are manufactured in house 11 1860 Locomotive manufacturing at the Great Western Hamilton shops begins 12 The Great Western forecloses on the Galt and Guelph Railway s mortgages and takes it over directly 9 1861 Scotia built at the Great Western Hamilton shops is the first locomotive in Canada built with a steel boiler 12 1863 The Great Western has 83 first class cars including six sleeping cars 11 1866 A dedicated Great Western station is constructed in Toronto at Yonge Street and the Esplanade 5 1867 The Great Western mainline from Windsor to Niagara Falls is dual gauged 12 1870 Legislation mandating use of provincial gauge is repealed and the Great Western is the first railway in Canada to begin track gauge conversion to standard gauge 12 1871 Eleven almost new broad gauge locomotives are sold by the Great Western to the Grand Trunk 13 1872 Acquisition of the London and Port Stanley Railway 12 Acquisition of the Wellington Grey and Bruce Railway 14 1873 The Long Depression begins negatively impacting the Great Western s finances 12 The last broad gauge track is removed from the Great Western system completing the process of gauge conversion 12 New line is constructed from London to connect with the Kincardine branch at Wingham 12 1874 82 kilometres 51 mi of the mainline is double tracked this is the first double track mainline in Canada 12 1882 Amalgamated with the Grand Trunk Railway 6 Accidents and incidents EditJeannette s Creek crash Edit Main article Jeannette s Creek train wreck Early in the morning of October 27 1854 a Windsor bound passenger train collided with a gravel train backing eastward about 24 kilometres 15 mi west of Chatham by Baptiste Creek According to passenger W O Ruggles there was dense fog and the gravel train s light could not be seen in time The passenger train s locomotive collided at about 32 km h 20 mph derailing to the right The four first class cars were crushed into splinters Thirty five passengers were killed at the time of impact and many remained in the ruins of the train for several hours before being extricated 15 Two second class cars at the rear of the train landed on top of the first class cars 16 A grand jury found that Twitchell conductor of the gravel train and Kettlewell engineer of the train were criminally responsible for the death of 52 persons and they were charged with manslaughter According to the jury the gravel train had entered onto the track in contravention of the rules of the Great Western and in any case should not have proceeded onto the track in the dense fog 17 Desjardins Canal disaster Edit Main article Desjardins Canal disaster On March 12 1857 a train crashed into the Desjardins Canal railway swing bridge in Hamilton causing its collapse and the train to plunge into the icy waters of the canal The accident known as the Great Western Railway disaster claimed 59 lives and injured 18 of the approximately 100 people aboard 18 19 One of the dead was Samuel Zimmerman 20 who had himself arranged the exemption clause to allow GWR trains to not stop at drawbridges Had the train stopped the loss of life might have been avoided 21 It was determined that an axle broke on the engine causing the derailment As the train from Toronto approached the bridge it derailed crashing into the bridge The bridge collapsed and the engine the tender a baggage car and two passenger cars crashed down to the thick ice of the canal below The engine and tender fell through the ice The baggage car bounced off the tender and fell to one side The first passenger car landed upside down on its roof breaking into pieces and sinking through the ice The second fell and rested vertically on one end 20 Several persons escaped from the second car as it started to sink a conductor asleep in the baggage car was thrown from the wreck and woke up lying on the ice 20 A coroner s inquest into the disaster began immediately 20 The switch tender on duty testified that a switch from the mainline to the bridge was broken by the train as it passed through the switch the rail ties were damaged from before the switch to the bridge the rails were bent to the east of the switch He attributed it to a broken truck wheel on the engine 22 Andrew Talcott the chief engineer of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad examined the engine and the bridge He testified that an axle had broken on the engine causing the cowcatcher on the front of the train to dip and rip up the timbers of the bridge leading to its collapse 23 See also Edit nbsp Railways portal nbsp Ontario portalHistory of rail transport in Canada List of defunct Canadian railways List of Ontario railways Rail transport in OntarioReferences EditCitations Edit Smith 2007 pp 75 84 a b Opening of the Hamilton and Toronto Branch The Globe December 4 1855 p 1 Guay 2015 pp 23 24 Guay 2015 pp 22 23 a b Guay 2015 p 107 a b c d e Baskerville 2006 a b c d e f Lavallee amp Corley 1982 p 19 a b Clowes 1996 p 9 a b c d e Clowes 1996 p 10 Greenhill 1993 p 74 a b Greenhill 1993 p 75 a b c d e f g h i Lavallee amp Corley 1982 p 20 Corley 1982 p 33 Spriggs 1940 p 20 The Dreadful Accident on the Great Western The Globe October 31 1854 p 2 The Dreadful Railroad Accident Further Particulars The Globe November 1 1854 p 2 Great Western Railroad Accident The Globe November 7 1854 p 1 Smith 2007 p 83 Bonikowsky 2013 a b c d Frightful Accident The Globe March 14 1857 p 2 Guay 2015 p 22 The Railway Accident No More Bodies Found The Inquest Evidence of the Switch Tender The Globe March 16 1857 p 2 Great Western Railroad Accident The Globe March 27 1857 p 2 Bibliography Edit Baskerville Peter A February 7 2006 Great Western Railway The Canadian Encyclopedia Historica Canada Retrieved April 22 2021 Bonikowsky Laura Neilson March 12 2013 Great Western Rail Disaster The Canadian Encyclopedia Historica Canada Retrieved April 22 2021 Clowes Art March 1996 Just A Ferronut s Railway Archeology PDF Rail amp Transit Upper Canada Railway Society pp 9 12 Archived from the original PDF on March 16 2017 Retrieved October 5 2020 Corley Raymond F Autumn 1982 The Grand Trunk Railway Motive Power Acquisitions Railroad History No 147 Railway and Locomotive Historical Society pp 31 41 JSTOR 43520914 Greenhill Ralph Spring 1993 Early Sleeping Cars in Canada Railroad History No 168 Railway and Locomotive Historical Society pp 73 75 JSTOR 3521636 Guay David R P 2015 Great Western Railway of Canada Southern Ontario s pioneer railway Toronto Ontario Dundurn Press ISBN 9781459732834 Lavallee Omer Corley Raymond F Autumn 1982 The Grand Trunk Railway A Look at the Principal Components Railroad History No 147 Railway and Locomotive Historical Society pp 19 30 JSTOR 43520913 McIver Don 2013 End of the Line The 1857 Train Wreck at the Desjardins Canal Bridge Toronto Dundurn Press ISBN 9781459702226 Smith Edward 2007 All My Politics Are Railroads Dundurn Castle Sir Allan MacNab and his Hamilton Home James Lorimer amp Company Ltd pp 75 84 ISBN 978 1 55028 988 6 Spriggs W M February 1940 Great Western Railway of Canada The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No 51 Railway and Locomotive Historical Society pp 7 59 JSTOR 43519873 Further reading EditAshdown Dana 1988 Railway Steamships of Ontario 1850 1950 Erin Ontario Boston Mills Press ISBN 0 919783 80 5 Benidickson Jamie 1996 Aemilius Irving Solicitor to the Great Western Railway 1855 1872 In Wilton Carol ed Inside the Law Canadian Law Firms in Historical Perspective Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History University of Toronto Press ISBN 978 1 4426 3291 2 JSTOR 10 3138 j ctt15jvx7n Freeman Bill 2006 Chapter 3 The Railroad Town 1840 1865 Hamilton A People s History James Lorimer amp Company ISBN 978 1 55028 936 7 External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Western Railway Ontario Great Western Railway from Niagara Rails Great Western Railway in the Canadian Encyclopedia Archived February 27 2014 at the Wayback Machine Great Western Railway of Canada history by the Toronto Railway Historical Association Great Western Railway Archived March 24 2012 at the Wayback Machine Timeline from St Thomas Public Library List of surviving Great Western Railway records held by the Hamilton Public Library Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Great Western Railway Ontario amp oldid 1159339449, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
