What was the grand trunk railway

Thomas , Ontario and was killed. The scale of these investments was such that no major upgrades were needed until after the Second World War. It was placed under the management of the Canadian National Railways on 30 Jan Atlas of Alberta Railways Online collection of numerous historical maps, documents, and images pertaining to the major railways that criss-crossed Alberta since the early days of train travel.

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Accessed 12 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. In , the Central Vermont Railroad entered receivership. Additionally, it connected with the Grand Trunk at its northern terminus in St. Lambert, Quebec. The existing connection with the GTR meant no further track was needed to connect the two systems. Despite no longer being independent, the CVR retained much of its corporate identity and was still mostly separate from the GTR.

The Great Fire of Toronto in was a mixed blessing for Toronto its railways. It freed up a chunk of real estate to the immediate east of Union Station, which the GTR acquired as soon as possible.

The following year, the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific made an agreement to design and build a third union station. The current station, even after the recent upgrades, was still overcrowded and suffering from its poor design. A new station would need to be spacious enough with a significant number of platforms to allow for the vast crowds of commuters and visitors.

On July 13, , the Toronto Terminals Railway was incorporated to build the station. The design of the station would be based upon the Beaux-Arts architecture style, a recent fad among major railways in North America.

A similar development was occurring in Ottawa. Construction began in , simultaneously with the Chateau Laurier hotel across the street. This hotel, also being built by the Grand Trunk, was to be the crown jewel of the railway. Charles M. Hays visited often to see the progress being made on it, as it was to be his proudest achievement. Naturally, politics would reduce the effectiveness of the railway. Hays would also make a critical mistake by choosing to build to the port of Prince Rupert instead of Vancouver.

Hays believed that the location of Prince Rupert would provide a shorter shipping route to ports in Asia. Hays sought to find other ways to go about building a transcontinental railway. He attempted to acquire the Canadian Northern Railway, which had already established a large system of branch lines in the prairies and connected with the GTR at Toronto. The CNoR turned them down, with the plans of directly competing with the GTR by building their own transcontinental railway.

The government portion, starting near Quebec City, would be built by the National Transcontinental Railway Company, but ownership would eventually be transferred to the Grand Trunk after completion. A new bridge would be built across the St. Lawrence River, called the Quebec Bridge. It would be and still is the longest cantilever bridge in the world. From there, the NTR would be built north through Ontario wilderness, much farther north from the existing Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern lines.

It would be the worst bridge construction accident in history at the time. Prime Minister Laurier was the one who turned the sod. At the same time, construction was beginning in Winnipeg as well. A new union station was being built to be shared with the Canadian Northern Railway, built in the Beaux-Arts style like other stations built around this time. The CNoR had already established a line in Edmonton in but had not yet taken the initiative to build west through the mountains.

During this time, the GTPR would fail to build branch lines through the profitable farmland of the prairie provinces, contributing to the future unprofitability of the line. As a result, the GTPR would place stations in the middle of nowhere, planning the towns that they presumed would grow around them.

Many of these places were named alphabetically after Grand Trunk executives. Locomotive facilities would be located at several areas along the way. Construction began eastbound from the west coast in , with the intention of meeting the westbound work crews.

After the two lines met, the last spike ceremony was held on April 7, just one mile east of Fort Fraser. The Toronto Belt Line was a suburban railway that looped around Toronto. It was built in , sharing trackage with the Grand Trunk to serve their Union Station in downtown. Their line was the first to utilize the lower Don Valley two more railways would eventually build their lines and use the ex-TBL right-of-way and the company also encouraged housing development along their line north of the city.

While the main loop, also referred to as the Don Loop, was the largest another loop was also built from the Grand Trunk ex-GWR mainline just west of Sunnyside. The line would then curve to the east and connect with the Grand Trunk mainline at West Toronto. Almost immediately, the company ran into financial troubles and found itself unable to complete construction. The Grand Trunk agreed to lease the line for 40 years, and on June 1st they would also agree to complete the construction.

Charles shops specifically for use on the belt line. Conventional steam locomotives were terrible at reversing, so tank engine steam locomotives were built specifically to be effective travelling forwards or backwards. Later, some would be used in Montreal commuter service while three of them would be sold off to the Thousand Islands Railway.

A noble effort, but unfortunately one that would fail very quickly. The TBL would go out of business in , just two years after starting. The line would rot away for over a decade afterwards, causing the rails to warp and bend out of shape from exposure to the elements.

The areas north of the city were still too underdeveloped for any kind of passenger service on the line to be effective, but new industries springing up nearby could potentially be lucrative. The same went for the Humber Loop, whose southern end near Grenadier Pond and northern end near West Toronto Junction were located very close to existing industry. Almost all of the line was repaired for freight service, except for the portion in the Don Valley near Moore Park which had difficult 4.

The rails in this portion would be torn up and melted down for use in the war effort in Most of the stations were demolished, though a few were kept and either left abandoned or converted into residences. Clair Avenue to Keele Street where it curved north to connect with their mainline.

This remaining portion of the belt line would be used by the GTR until their bankruptcy in Canadian National would acquire it on December 31, and use it until it was abandoned in its entirety over the next several decades. In , the Grand Trunk would reorganize its operations in Michigan and Illinois.

In , new locomotive shops were built in Battle Creek, Michigan. These shops were accompanied by a roundhouse and a massive new Italianate station. The waiting room of the station alone was very large, 90 feet by 32 feet with foot vaulted ceilings.

The track between Port Huron and Fort Gratiot remained to serve industry, but it would rarely be used outside of that capacity. Much like the Battle Creek shops, these new shops were built with some of the latest technology for servicing locomotives at the time. With construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway well on its way, Hays was in England soliciting financial support for the railway in April Naturally, Hays was eager to get back to Ottawa for the opening of the Chateau Laurier hotel, scheduled to be opened on April The Titanic was the flagship vessel of White Star Line.

Vivian Payne, and his maid Mary Anne Perreault. The ship struck an iceberg at pm that night. All of them, along with 1, other passengers and crew died when the ship sank.

Bruce Ismay would survive the disaster, and several White Star Line ships would be chartered to recover the bodies of the victims of the disaster. He died 11 days before the grand opening of his hotel in Ottawa, and two years before the opening of the GTP. On the same day as the opening, work was stopped for 5 minutes on the Grand Trunk Pacific in his memory.

The period in which Charles M. Hays was president of the Grand Trunk was the most prosperous in its history. No expense was spared in building the GTPR and NTR, a rare practice at the time as most were built at a lower quality and upgraded after the railway became profitable. In , the NTR along with the Intercolonial Railway and several other government-owned railways were amalgamated into a new company called the Canadian Government Railways for administrative and financial purposes.

Over the following years, the GTPR would fail to make much profit, travelling north of most major population centers. It was fully nationalized by Its parent company, the GTR, followed in along with its other subsidiaries. The entire system was merged into the Canadian National Railways, a government-owned company that succeeded the earlier Canadian Government Railways in Since the Grand Trunk was one of the earlier railways in Canada, it largely had access to the most direct routes.

As a result, much of the Grand Trunk system is still in active use by Canadian National today. The railway stations built under Charles M. Hays after are mostly still around today, some being repurposed and others still in use as railway stations to this day. Even though the company itself is long gone, the infrastructure that the Grand Trunk had built in its lifetime helped make Canada an independent nation and continues to help Canada develop today.

Grand Trunk Railway. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada. The bay window, semaphore signal and telegraph wires were all added decades after it was first built. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library. This was one of only two stations built in this style with two floors instead of one. Negotiations failed, and the Grand Trunk agreed to a scheme for a new national transcontinental. The eastern division from Moncton to Winnipeg through northern Quebec and Ontario, known as the National Transcontinental, was to be built by the Dominion government; the western division from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert was to be built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk.

The results of this venture were disastrous. The Grand Trunk Pacific had to be relieved of its obligation to operate the National Transcontinental when it was completed in , and after having been kept alive for some years by government assistance the directors of the Grand Trunk Pacific informed the government in that they could not operate any longer, and the railway passed into the hands of the minister of Railways as receiver.

The negotiations were protracted, and it was not until January 30, , that this system, with an operating mileage of 4, miles, became a part of the Canadian National Railways. The Grand Trunk Railway was built before the days of government subsidies and guarantees. It was privately owned; practically all the capital came from private investors in England ; and the head office and board of directors were in London.

When the railway was first proposed, a Canadian company was formed, headed by the president of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway, but difficulties were met with in securing capital, and finally the charter was awarded to an English company of contractors, aided politically by Francis Hincks, inspector-general in Canada.

In its early years the credit of the company was not sufficiently established to permit easy marketing of securities, and the sum resulting from their sale was far less than the capital liability created by their issuance. Lawrence river system and the Great lakes , the volume of traffic failed to come-up to expectations. Government aid was therefore urgently required. In the company was unable to pay the interest on its bonds, and the government withdrew its interest claims on loans until the earnings of the company were sufficient to pay dividends on its common stock.

No interest payment was ever made on these loans, for the holders of common stock never received any dividends. Further capital was acquired by the issuance and sale of second preference bonds, in England. The company was reorganized in , the bonds being converted into preferred stock. It was also held that the failure of the Grand Trunk was in large part due to its management outside Canada.

Up to the Grand Trunk Railway had received direct government aid apart from aid to its subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Pacific as follows:. Loan :. Canadian Gov. Following the report of the Commission of Railway Inquiry, negotiations were commenced by the government with a view to the acquisition of the Grand Trunk and its subsidiaries.