rare photograph depicting the British directors of the Great Western gathered outside of Dundurn Castle. The legend identifies some of those present. MacNab is just to the right of the two ladies in white. Also to be found are Isaac Buchanan (#4), C.J. Brydges, Great Western then later Grand Trunk manager (#14), and George Reid, engineer (#15). This photograph was taken before mid-1862.Dundurn National Historic Site.
Two days later a similar celebration occurred in Hamilton. An excursion from Detroit was given a twenty-one gun salute followed by a public procession. Sir Allan MacNab was confined to bed but a company of artillery, along with a large crowd, went to Dundurn to honour MacNab, who thanked them from his bedroom window. After arrival of another train with guests from Milwaukee and Detroit, all sat down to a sumptuous feast.
Despite the enthusiastic welcome to the “iron horse” in southwestern Ontario, the first year of operations on the Great Western would be a difficult one. As alluded to in William Bowman’s reaction to the Hamilton-to-London inaugural trip, the railway was unfinished when opened to traffic. The line had been opened in an unballasted state with many deficiencies in the roadbed, including collapsed embankments, subsided fill, mud three feet deep in some cuttings, and a profile “like the side view of a sea-serpent.” The quality of the work was truly abysmal, especially work performed by Zimmerman’s crews. The cost of renovating and maintaining the roadbed would be enormous, as would the cost in broken-down locomotives and rolling stock. The most appalling feature of the first year, however, was the frequency of accidents on the line and the attendant fearful human cost, virtually all of which were due to either deficiencies in the roadbed due to poor workmanship and premature opening of the railway or errors on the part of railway employees. The reader is referred to chapter 6 for a complete discussion of these issues.
May 12, 1854, saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the Galt and Guelph Railway and was considered a holiday in the town of Preston. Stores were closed and throngs of people milled about. At 1400 hours a procession formed at Klotz’s Hotel and proceeded to the site of the railway grounds, where Sheriff Grange addressed the crowd and then a quantity of earth was dug and tossed into a wheelbarrow. A cannon fired, the band played, more speeches were made, then all returned to the hotel for the usual celebration of food, drink, speeches, and toasts. This branch would not open for business until September 28, 1857.
The first non-roadbed-related infrastructure disaster occurred on Thursday July 30, 1854, when the St. George depot was destroyed by fire. The new locomotive Jupiter (#38) along with a number of cars were also lost. The locomotive had been expected in Galt, hauling a load of rails.
The Hamilton-to-Toronto branch was important in establishing that the Great Western was a “Trunk Line.” By June 1855 grading had been completed from Hamilton to Port Credit (twenty-six miles), including widening the Great Western embankment around Hamilton Bay to accommodate double-tracking of the main line. Four cuttings required the removal of massive amounts of material. Cuttings on the west side of the Credit River, the east side of the Etobicoke River, and at the Mimico River required removal of four thousand cubic yards each, while the cutting through the Garrison Common at Toronto required removal of twenty-eight thousand cubic yards. Bridges were required at the old Desjardins Canal/gorge; Applegarths, Twelve Mile and Sixteen Mile creeks; and the Credit, Humber, and Etobicoke Rivers. Combination passenger/freight stations were built at Wellington Square (Burlington), Bronte, Oakville, and Port Credit. Water tanks and woodsheds were built at Bronte and Port Credit. At Toronto a permanent brick engine house and turntable and temporary passenger depot were located at Queens Wharf on eleven acres of Ordnance land adjoining the Old Fort. In fact, the first passenger depot in Toronto was a six-by-ten-foot ticket box adjacent to a small engine shed, between Brock and Front Streets. The Great Western had hoped to go east along the Esplanade to use the Northern Railway station, but this move was held up by Toronto City Council.
The grand celebration of the opening of the Hamilton-to-Toronto line took place on December 3, 1855. The celebration train, full to capacity, left Toronto at 0810 hours on its westward trip. All went well until the train slowed at Port Credit. A fence had been built across the right-of-way! A farmer, by the name of Cathew, had a dispute with the railway over the price paid for his land and the Railway Act and he wanted to make a point that he still owned his land. The locomotive obliterated the fence and the train proceeded to Hamilton, where a large crowd was waiting to greet their new visitors from Toronto. After speeches, Hamiltonians boarded the enlarged eastbound train, now ten cars long. With foresight, the conductor requested a constable to accompany the train. Leaving at 1045 hours, the train passed Wellington Square (Burlington) where a small crowd stood and a cannon was fired in salute. Farmer Cathew had been busy. Not only was the fence rebuilt, but now heavy stakes were driven into the middle of the roadbed. After stopping the train, the constable arrested Cathew and the fence and stakes were removed. The train arrived in Toronto at noon.
If the first year of operation brought about many self-inflicted problems and difficulties, it also brought traffic and financial success exceeding all expectations. In fact, Scobie’s Canadian Almanac of 1854 reported that “the capabilities of the Great Western Railway are already strained in the endeavor to conduct the business which presses upon it from the West.”
Passenger traffic was especially heavy, with up to 790 passengers being conveyed per train! The traffic in freight and livestock became of increasing importance as farmers of the American Midwest and Canada West came to realize the value of the new road. Bumper crops and tremendous British demand occasioned by the Crimean War were also significant factors in the rapidly increasing freight traffic. In response to this traffic growth, the Great Western constructed the Komoka-to-Sarnia branch line, opening it for business on December 27, 1858. In retrospect, double-tracking of the main line would probably have been the wiser response. Table 2-1 illustrates the phenomenal early growth of traffic on the railway. With dividends of 8 percent (1855) and 8.5 percent (1856), branch-line construction proceeding, and rapidly increasing passenger and freight growth, the future looked quite bright despite a shaky first year.
In Toronto, city council finally relented, allowing the Great Western access to the station built by the Northern Railway of Canada in May 1853. The Great Western used the station from December 1855 until 1858. This station was a simple wooden structure that was located on the site of the current Toronto Union Station.
There were three locations on the Great Western that required pusher (helper) locomotives for all through- freight and express passenger trains and a large proportion of local trains:
An incline starting half a mile east of St. Catharines and extending to within three miles of the Suspension Bridge (rise to the east = 261 feet in 7.5 miles or 0.66 percent). The series of gradients ranged from one foot in 156 feet (0.64 percent) to one foot in 135 feet (0.74 percent), with a level break at Thorold station. Pusher service was generally needed between St. Catharines and Suspension Bridge (11.25 miles).
An incline starting at Hamilton station and extending to Copetown (10 miles) (rise to the west = 494 feet). The series of gradients ranged from one foot in 116 feet (0.82 percent) to one foot in ninety-four feet (1.06 percent). This incline was followed by a second one to the west of Harrisburg station (rise of 116 feet in 5,065 yards, or nearly three miles. average of one foot in 131 feet [0.76 percent]). Pusher services were needed over this second grade as far as Paris station, which was twenty-nine miles from Hamilton, especially with express passenger trains.
There was a rise of 106 feet in two and a half miles (mean of one foot in 123 feet or 0.81 percent) to the west of London. At the summit, the grade was one foot in ninety-six feet (1.04 percent). Pusher services were needed up to the summit of the grade (4.25 miles). With westbound express passenger trains, pusher services were needed to Komoka (eleven miles). This grade passed through two of the deepest clay cuttings on the line, which were full of springs and quicksand, leading to high maintenance costs.
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