Intercolonial Railway
standard gauge | |
Previous gauge | sections built to 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) but converted in 1875 prior to opening |
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The Intercolonial Railway of Canada (reporting mark IRC),[1] also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely owned and controlled by the Government of Canada, the Intercolonial was also one of Canada's first Crown corporations.
Origins
The idea of a railway connecting Britain's North American colonies arose as soon as the railway age began in the 1830s. In the decades following the War of 1812 and ever-mindful of the issue of security, the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada (later the Province of Canada after 1840) wished to improve land-based transportation with the Atlantic coast colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and to a lesser extent Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. A railway connection from the Province of Canada to the British colonies on the coast would serve a vital military purpose during the winter months when the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River were frozen and shipping was impossible, but it would similarly serve an economic purpose for the Maritimes by opening up year-round access to new markets.[2]
Significant surveys were conducted throughout the 1830s–1850s. Several rival routes emerged: a southern, a central, and a northern route. In 1849, Major William Robinson recommended the northern route as most secure from American attack.[3] Funding talks were established between the various colonial administrations and the British government, but progress remained slow and little was accomplished beyond talk.
Pre-Confederation components
Railway construction came to the
- The Pictou. Pictou soon became an important ferry port for steamships servicing Prince Edward Island. The NSR also built northwest from Halifax to the town of Windsor, a port on the Bay of Fundy and gateway to the agricultural hinterland of Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.
- The Shediac. The Saint John–Shediac line opened on August 20, 1857, and eventually other companies built separate sections of railway linking Saint John west through Maine to the New England network, however the E&NA remained solely a Saint John–Shediac connection, with a number of minor feeder lines, and never reached a port in Nova Scotia.
An intercolonial rail system in the British North American colonies was never far from the minds of government and civic leaders and in an 1851 speech at a Mason's Hall in Halifax, local editor of the Novascotian, Joseph Howe spoke these words:
I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, yet I will venture to predict that in five years we shall make the journey hence to Quebec and Montreal, and home through Portland and St. John, by rail; and I believe that many in this room will live to hear the whistle of the steam engine in the passes of the Rocky Mountains, and to make the journey from Halifax to the Pacific in five or six days.[4]
But a rail connection between the Maritime colonies and the Province of Canada was not to be for another quarter century. Central Canada's dominant railway player in the 1850s was the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) and its profit-driven business model chose the U.S. Atlantic port of Portland, Maine, over a much longer journey to a Maritime port. As a result, Portland boomed during the winter months when Montreal's shipping season was closed.
Confederation
Nevertheless, the geopolitical instability in North America resulting from the American Civil War led to increased nervousness on the part of British North American colonies, particularly wary of the large Union Army operating south of their borders. The demands for closer political and economic ties between colonies led to further calls for an "Intercolonial Railway". An 1862 conference in Quebec City led to an agreement on financing the railway with the Maritime colonies and Canada splitting construction costs and Britain assuming any debts, but the deal fell through within months.[citation needed]
It is speculated that this failure to achieve a deal on the Intercolonial in 1862, combined with the ongoing concerns over the American Civil War, led to the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, and eventually to Confederation of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec) in 1867.[5]
Section 145 of the British North America Act, 1867 created a constitutional requirement for the federal government to build established the Intercolonial Railway:
- 145. Inasmuch as the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have joined in a Declaration that the Construction of the Intercolonial Railway is essential to the Consolidation of the Union of British North America, and to the Assent thereto of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and have consequently agreed that Provision should be made for its immediate Construction by the Government of Canada; Therefore, in order to give effect to that Agreement, it shall be the Duty of the Government and Parliament of Canada to provide for the commencement, within Six Months after the Union, of a Railway connecting the River St. Lawrence with the City of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and for the Construction thereof without Intermission, and the Completion thereof with all practicable Speed.[6]
Despite being enshrined in the BNA Act of 1867, it would still be another decade before a route was finally selected and construction was completed; however, as a start, the federal government assumed the operations of the NSR and E&NA which were to be wholly absorbed into the ICR. The route connecting the NSR and the E&NA was not contestable as the line had to cross the Cobequid Mountains and the Isthmus of Chignecto where options were limited by the local topography. In New Brunswick, it was a different story, as the choice was narrowed to three options. A commission of engineers, headed by Sandford Fleming had been unanimously appointed in 1863 to consider the following:
- The "Frontier Route"—surveyed in 1836 by Captain Yule (Saint John River valley to Canada East, not far from the International Boundary which had been recently decided in favour of the United States during the Webster–Ashburton Treatyof 1842.
- The "Central Route"—surveyor unknown, running north from a point near Sussex, passing near Grand Lake, and north to Canada East.
- The "Matapédia River valley Kempt Road before heading up the St. Lawrence River valley to the rail connection with the GTR at Rivière-du-Loup.
Despite pressure from commercial interests in the Maritimes and New England who wanted a rail connection closer to the border, the Chaleur Bay routing was chosen, amid the backdrop of the American Civil War, as it would keep the Intercolonial far from the boundary with Maine.[citation needed]
Construction
Fleming was appointed "engineer in chief" of the ICR project by the federal government. The majority of the construction was to be tendered to local contractors, with engineering oversight to be provided by Fleming's staff, however political interference and contractor negligence (or incompetence) led to escalating costs on some of the contracts, forcing Fleming to assume some of the direct contractor duties as violators were discovered and purged from the project.[citation needed]
Perhaps the greatest case of cost overruns was caused by political interference during construction of the section of new line between the NSR trackage at Truro and the E&NA trackage near Moncton. This resulted in several diversions from the most direct route:
- From Debert to the Wentworth Valley running a circuitous route known as "The Grecian Bend" through the iron mining community of Londonderry on the southern slope of the Cobequid Mountains.[7] An iron trestle was required to cross the Folly River and to this day the diversion adds 5 kilometres to the mainline.[citation needed]
- From Oxford to Amherst, running near the coal mining community of Springhill, along the northern slope of the Cobequid Mountains.[citation needed]
- The section running from the interprovincial boundary at the Missaguash River near the town of Amherst to Moncton was diverted further west to run into the Memramcook River valley to service the village of Dorchester at the insistence of an influential politician, A. J. Smith. The alignment is known as the "Dorchester Diversion".[7]
To Fleming's credit, he insisted upon a high quality of workmanship in designing the route, using fills several metres higher than the surrounding landscape, where possible, to prevent snow accumulation, and mandated the installation of
Sections of the railway opened as follows:
- Truro to Moncton in November 1872. A major obstacle involved crossing the Cobequid Mountains with the Intercolonial's route running through the "Folly Gap", also known as the Wentworth Valley.
- Rivière-du-Loup to Ste-Flavie (now Mont-Joli) in August 1874. This portion of the route is entirely in the lower St. Lawrence River valley.
- Moncton to Campbellton in 1875. A major obstacle involved bridging the northwest and southwest branches of the Miramichi River near their confluence at Newcastle.
- Campbellton to Ste-Flavie on July 1, 1876. The main obstacle involved running the line through the Matapedia River valley where deep cuts would prove to be a problem for years during the winter months. Problems with clearing snow in some of these areas were resolved with the construction of extensive snow sheds—the only ones in eastern Canada.[citation needed]
The ICR was initially built to
Operation and expansion
In 1879, the ICR purchased the GTR line between Rivière-du-Loup and
The main line of the ICR competed directly with the steamship service of the Quebec & Gulf Ports Steamship Company, which was reorganized in 1880 as the Quebec Steamship Company. By the late 1880s, this concern operated only one steamer, the Miramichi, between Quebec and Pictou; all of its other vessels had been shifted to service between New York and the West Indies.[10]
In 1884, the ICR built a branch from its mainline east of Campbellton to service the port and forest industry town of Dalhousie.
At Rivière du Loup, in the 1880s the ICR made connections with the steamers of the St. Lawrence Steam Navigation Company. This steamship line was absorbed by the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company in 1886.[11]
In the late 1880s, the ICR received running rights over the GTR main line between Levis and Montreal (via Richmond), allowing passengers and cargo from the Maritimes to Canada's then-largest city to transit without interchanging.
In 1887 the ICR took over and completed construction of a line running from
The
In 1890, the ICR completed construction of what had begun as the
In 1899, the
The ICR opened a branch of 10.06 kilometres (6.25 mi) on June 22, 1903, between Rivière Ouelle Station and Pointe St. Denis on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence. In 1904 the ferry Champlain entered service between Pointe St. Denis and the North Shore ports of St. Irenée, Murray Bay and Cap à l'Aigle.[14]
Also in 1904, the ICR purchased the Canada Eastern Railway, giving it a connection to the Fredericton area.
Moncton became the headquarters for the company and extensive shops and yard facilities were built, as well as a grand station, built to rival the
As a result of the ICR with its subsidized freight-rate agreements, as well as the
Passenger trains
Passenger trains on the ICR operated between all points on the system which included the following major sections:
- Halifax–Truro
- Truro – Pictou County – Sydney
- Truro–Moncton
- Saint John – Moncton
- Moncton–Newcastle–Bathurst–Campbellton–Rivière-du-Loup–Lévis–Montreal
Several "
ICR passenger trains also connected with
First World War
As a government-owned railway and the only operator of a rail connection to the port of Halifax and the extensive defence establishment there, the ICR became a lifeline for the Canadian and British war effort throughout the First World War, particularly since as the CPR line to Saint John ran through the state of Maine on its eastward route from Montreal, thereby any war shipments on CPR would violate the United States' neutrality.[15]
Halifax grew in importance, particularly as Germany introduced use of submarines for the first time to a large-scale conflict, requiring the
The tragedy of the
Herald and reporting marks
For most of its history the Intercolonial reporting mark was ICR, but was changed to IRC during the First World War.[17] Intercolonial publications, newspaper reports and popular usage used ICR. The railway's logo was a large bull moose herald, part of a campaign to promote hunting and fishing tourism traffic. It appeared on many promotional publications but seldom appeared on rolling stock.
Legacy
The ICR was Canada's first national railway (although some might argue the case for the GTR), having pre-dated the CPR by nine years, and it was also the first significant
In 1915 the ICR, together with the federally-owned National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) and the Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR), as well as several bankrupt or defunct shortlines in New Brunswick, were grouped under the collective banner of the Canadian Government Railways (CGR) for funding and administrative purposes, although each company continued to operate independently.
On September 6, 1918, the bankrupt
The ICR had been called the "People's Railway" and this slogan was similarly applied to the CNR for a period.
Despite many claims of political interference in its construction and subsequent operation, the majority of IRC from an operations viewpoint remained economically self-sufficient. This was largely because ICR balance books never had to contend with falling freight and passenger revenues as a result of post-
Following its demise in 1918, the ICR trackage and facilities formed the majority of CNR's Maritimes operations and CN (acronym abbreviated post-1960) maintained Moncton as its principal regional headquarters well into the 1980s. Until the late-1970s, the ICR line through northern New Brunswick and eastern Quebec continued to host a large portion of CN's freight and the majority of its passenger traffic to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.
In 1976, a 48-kilometre (30 mi) "cutoff" was built from Pelletier, Quebec, to a point on the former ICR main line west of Rivière-du-Loup, eliminating 320 kilometres (200 mi) of mountainous trackage on the former NTR to Quebec City. Following this development, the majority of freight traffic to the Maritimes shifted to the NTR's line through central New Brunswick, relegating the ICR line east of Rivière-du-Loup to secondary main line status.
Following CN's privatization in 1995, the company undertook a network rationalization program which made the IRC line between Moncton and Rivière-du-Loup, along with its trackage on the
The former ICR main line from Sainte-Rosalie to Charny and the east end of Lévis to Rivière-du-Loup, as well as the ICR lines from Moncton to Saint John and Moncton to Halifax remain in operation under CN. A short section on the waterfront of Lévis was abandoned on October 24, 1998, due to network rationalization, resulting in the CN main line between Charny and the east end of Levis running on former NTR trackage.
Despite the replacement or upgrading of bridges and track since the 19th century, almost the entirety of Fleming's route continues to operate; its fills and rock cuts and iron bridges, once considered extravagant, remain much as they were when they were built.
Via Rail continues to operate the Ocean passenger train between Halifax and Montreal following the entire route of the ICR the entire way except for the waterfront section in Levis.
Former ICR stations in
See also
References
- ^ Railway Equipment and Publication Company (June 1917). The Official Railway Equipment Register. p. 364.
- ^ Legget, Robert F. (1973). Railways of Canada. Douglas & McIntyre. p. 56.
- ^ Underwood 2005, p. 29.
- ^ Dick, Lyle (2004). "'A New History for the New Millennium': Canada: A People's History". Canadian Historical Review. Vol. 85, no. 1. p. 98.
- ^ "Confederation and the Intercononial Railway". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on September 27, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
- ^ "Constitution Act 1867 (British North America Act) X, Sect. 145". Canadian Dept of Justice. Archived from the original on February 22, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
- ^ a b Wood, Shirley (1992). Cinders and Salt Water: The Story of Atlantic Canada's Railways. Halifax: Nimbus. p. 70.
- ^ "The Intercolonial Railway". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on June 4, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
- ^ Brookes, Ivan S. (1974). The Lower St. Lawrence, Cleveland: Freshwater Press, pp. 262, 267.
- ^ Brookes, pp. 21, 31.
- ^ Brookes, pp. 23, 31.
- ^ Brookes, p. 269.
- ISSN 0829-7983.
- ^ Brookes, p. 271.
- ^ Underwood 2005, p. 129.
- ^ *Conlin, Dan. "Vincent Coleman and the Halifax Explosion". Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008.
- ^ Gonard, G.P., ed. (April 1917). Official Railway Equipment Register. Railway Equipment & Publication.
- ^ Lévis Railway Station (Intercolonial) National Historic Site of Canada. Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. Parks Canada. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ Pictou Railway Station (Intercolonial) National Historic Site of Canada. Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. Parks Canada. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ Joffre Roundhouse (Canadian National) National Historic Site of Canada. Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. Parks Canada. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ Intercolonial Railway National Historic Event. Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. Parks Canada. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
Further reading
- Cruikshank, Ken (1986). "The People's Railway: The Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Public Enterprise Experience". Acadiensis. 16 (1): 78–100. JSTOR 30302736.
- Forbes, Ernest R. (1994). "The Intercolonial Railway and the Decline of the Maritime Provinces Revisited". Acadiensis. 24 (1): 3–26. JSTOR 30302862.
- Underwood, Jay (2005). Built for War: Canada's Intercolonial Railway. Railfare Books.
External links
- Works by Intercolonial Railway at Project Gutenberg
- "The Intercolonial Railway", Canada By Train, Library and Archives Canada
- Intercolonial Railway
- A Railway to Connect Nova Scotia with Canada: the complete text of sixteen official documents written during 1846, to explore the feasibility of a railway to connect Nova Scotia with Canada
- History of Railway Companies in Nova Scotia