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Cover
Great Western Railway of Canada
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the following persons/organizations for their assistance in bringing this book to a successful conclusion:
Don McQueen (whose careful review of the manuscript resulted in comments that substantially improved its quality)
Carl Riff (whose meticulous review of contemporary newspapers added significantly to the chapters regarding construction and accidents)
Richard McQuade
Andrew Merrilees (deceased)
Ted Rafuse
OurOntario.ca Community Newspaper Collection
Denis Hoffman
Goad fire insurance maps were kindly provided by:
Theresa Regnier, Archives and Research Collections Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Windsor Community Museum, Windsor, Ontario
Photographs were kindly provided by:
Canadian National Photo Archives (accessed via Marcia Mordfield of the Canada Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa, Ontario)
Cathy Roy, Niagara Falls Public Library
G.L. Smith
Joan Magee
Joseph P. Day (deceased)
John Speller
Malgasia Myc, Claude T. Stoner Collection, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Hamilton Public Library
Dana W. Ashdown
Patricia Lawton, Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Great Lakes Marine Collection, Wisconsin Marine Historical Society, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Robert Graham, Historic Ships of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio
Marlo Broad, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Database, Alpena Public Library, Alpena, Michigan
G.W. Hilton
Stanford University Press
Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library
Toronto Public Library
David Rumsey Map Collection
Buffalo Historical Society
Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Randy Goss, Delaware Public Archive, Dover, Delaware
Loutit District Library Collection, Grand Haven, Michigan
William Cunningham, City Archives, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario
Clinton Northern Railway, St. Johns, Michigan
Cindy Sinko, Stratford-Perth Archives, Stratford, Ontario
Gina Coady, Elgin County Archives, St. Thomas, Ontario
Karolee Tobey, Grand Rapids Public Library
Christine Riggle, Baker Historical Collection, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts
The author also wishes to thank David Henderson at Railfare DC books and Cheryl Hawley at Dundurn Press for transforming computer files and a collection of photographs and digital scans into a finished product of which we all can be proud. Dede Johnston, word processor extraordinaire, did a masterful job in preparing the manuscript in its entirety for subsequent production into the finished product, a feat for which I am truly grateful.
In this book, pounds sterling (£) are expressed as British units. Since Canada did not have the dollar as a form of currency until 1858, all dollars are expressed as United States units up to and including the year 1857, while Canadian units are used from the year 1858 and thereafter. Unless otherwise specified, all municipalities associated with the Great Western Railway are in the province of Ontario while those associated with the Detroit and Milwaukee/Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee railways are in the state of Michigan.
Introduction
The arrival of the railway as a practical and relatively inexpensive mode of transportation was the nineteenth-century technological equivalent of the computer and the Internet in the last quarter of the twentieth century. However, at least early on, it turned out to be a double-edged sword. The way that people lived and worked, their interactions with the world around them, and their economic base were transformed forever. Although steam transportation on water revolutionized the maritime industry, its effect was not nearly as transforming as that of the railway industry, at least on a national basis. However, the demands of railways placed unforeseen burdens on the rudimentary engineering of the time. Every year demands upon engineering and materials increased, as trains became heavier and faster. This, in turn, quickly exposed the absence of the scientific method in the design and maintenance of structures, roadbed, and equipment and the crudeness of materials. When early trains failed, they often did so in a spectacular fashion. The Great Western Railway of Canada as a pioneer railway had more than its share of spectacular failures. However, the vast majority were caused by a combination of failures of physical plant, as described above, and profound human error by workers and managers alike.
Human behaviour and morality were profoundly different in the Victorian era compared with today. These differences should be understood so that the reader can judge North American railway practices in the 1840s to 1880s using accepted norms of the period. Judging our ancestors using the norms of today is unfair. However, it should be stressed that this should not be used to excuse egregious behaviours, a few of which will be exposed in this book.
The Landscape in Victorian Canada
Railway promoters who were also parliamentarians were compelled by the politics of the day to at least put on the appearance of great concern for the public welfare while engaged in the very act of seeking to enrich themselves. They would always present themselves as lawmakers having the development of Canadian resources and expansion of the nation’s wealth at heart.
To understand the large and important role that legislators assumed as personal beneficiaries in the original promotion of railways, it is only necessary
