In fact, the mill was closed for Great Western use on March 8, 1872. Mothballed for seven years, the railway leased the mill to the Ontario Rolling Mill Company in 1879 for custom steel rolling. This company eventually became a division of the Steel Company of Canada (STELCO) in 1909 and the former Great Western mill was enlarged and modernized. For many years it was in use as the Ontario Works of STELCO rolling, among other items, tie plates.
In a now familiar tune, the chief engineer complained about the much poorer quality of the fished rails in 1864 compared with those purchased only five to ten years previously. The iron rails being laid in the early to middle 1860s lasted but a few years. These rails were so poor in quality that freight trains of twenty to twenty-four cars running at thirty miles per hour were too much for them.
In 1864 the U.S. government instituted a passport system that, to a great extent, curtailed through-passenger traffic between eastern and western U.S. states. Fortunately, it was discontinued on March 8, 1865.
In 1865 the city of Toronto granted the Great Western the right to run a line along the Esplanade fronting Lake Ontario to a new terminal station to be built at the foot of Yonge Street. This station, which opened on March 5, 1866, was a great improvement on the previous shared station, which was out of the way and inconvenient. In addition, the provincial government and railway had
Great Western’s impressive downtown Toronto station at the corner of Yonge and Esplanade Streets, built in 1866.
Canada Science and Technology Museum.
View of the Great Western Railway station in downtown Toronto at Yonge and Front Streets in 1867. An unidentified Great Western locomotive (likely a 4-4-0) followed by a probable baggage or baggage-mail-express car are also visible.
Archives of Ontario.
finally agreed on terms for a mail contract that would pay the railway $124 per mile per year, from September 1, 1865, for a term of four years.
In 1866 a dividend of 5 percent was paid to shareholders due to better economic conditions, but the company was still experiencing serious losses upon conversion of American to Canadian funds. Also at this time, new rails began arriving from England for use in laying the third rail planned months earlier.
On Saturday, March 3, 1866, the Great Western finally opened its own Toronto depot at the base of Yonge Street on reclaimed land. The extension to Yonge Street served two purposes. First, it gave the Great Western independent access to a number of wharves previously inaccessible.
View of the Great Western freight house at Toronto in 1873.
Toronto Reference Library.
Second, the railway secured accommodation in a depot entirely its own. The depot was supported by fifteen-foot-long timber pilings driven to bedrock. The base was built on large tiles due to its nature as reclaimed land. The depot had a large footprint of 150 by 211 feet. On the north side was the passenger station, including waiting rooms, a telegraph office, and refreshment areas. The south side was restricted to the freight offices. Between the passenger and freight operations was an enclosed trainshed that protected persons and materiel from the elements. This central portion was sixty-four feet wide with the side walls and top of the arch being thirty-four and fifty-four feet tall, respectively. The passenger platform was thirty-five feet by 195 feet. The depot was constructed using wood and was painted a neutral stone colour.
The opening of the Toronto depot was marked by excursion train service from the new depot to the Toronto Board of Trade thence to Niagara Falls. The train comprised five new elliptical-roofed passenger cars followed by the official (business) car at the rear. It was pulled by 4-4-0 #8 (Dakin). Departing at 0900 hours, it stopped at Hamilton to pick up Hamilton Board of Trade and Great Western officials. It then proceeded to Erie Junction, where the train used the Erie and Ontario line to stop in front of the Clifton House in Niagara Falls. After roaming about the falls area, including travelling over the ice bridge to the U.S. side, guests returned to the Clifton House for a banquet replete with speeches and toasts. Departing at 1800 hours, the train carrying tired but happy guests arrived at the Toronto depot at 2200 hours.
A view down the platform of the original Clifton (Niagara Falls, Ontario) Great Western passenger station. The passenger deck (platform) was erected in 1855, followed by the station in 1863. In spring 1879 a fire razed the entire structure. A replacement station was opened on the site before New Year’s Day 1880. All stations were located at the foot of Bridge Street, site of the current VIA station as well.
Niagara Falls (Ontario) Public Library.
December 18, 1866, witnessed the advent of signal systems on the Great Western at the junction going into the major junction at the Toronto depot. The new signal tower used interlocking rods, which controlled all switches and signals.
January 9, 1867, saw the celebration of the opening of the Blue Line in Hamilton. Finally, the Great Western had been able to participate in a co-operative freight-hauling arrangement with U.S. railroads (for further details, see chapter 4). This celebration was attended by a large contingent of U.S. financiers and railroad owners/presidents who arrived in luxurious Michigan Central sleeping cars. Boarding in Chicago, they proceeded east to Hamilton and then to Rochester, New York. Passenger cars from Chicago arrived about 1500 hours, with Thomas Swinyard, general manager of the Great Western, meeting attendees at the Hamilton depot.
Third rail laying between the Suspension Bridge and Windsor was completed and opened for traffic on January 1, 1867, at a cost of £145,817 ($710,000). The Petrolia branch, extending five and a half miles from Wyoming to Petrolia, was opened for business in November 1867. McDonald and Brown of Hamilton had been the contractors on this tiny branch line.
The years 1867 and 1868 were difficult ones for the Great Western. The harvest was much smaller than expected and the continued rate-cutting war of the American roads reduced income substantially. A terribly hard winter resulted in numerous total interruptions of traffic due to snow storms and floods, culminating on March 12, 1868, with the Thames River overflowing its banks near Prairie Siding and destroying a four-foot-high railway embankment for half a mile. A dividend of only 2 percent was paid.
The opening of the U.S. transcontinental railway in 1869 was greeted with enthusiasm by Great Western officials, who felt that this road would bring considerable additional traffic that was formerly conveyed across the Isthmus of Panama or by ship around Cape Horn. The chief engineer strongly advocated adoption of new steel rails produced by the Bessemer process as they would be one-half the cost of English iron rails and would last at least five times longer. This year also saw a wage increase of ten to twenty cents daily for track (maintenance of way) men, in order to stem the wholesale emigration of men to the western U.S. where railway men were in real demand and commanded top wages. This modest wage hike raised track expenses by £2,504 ($12,200) annually.
In 1870 the Great Western, Detroit and Milwaukee, and Michigan Central signed a traffic agreement with respect to the splitting of profits of through traffic. The two-year agreement was based on the profits of each road compared with the other two roads over the preceding two years. Profits were to be split as follows: Great Western, 48.5 percent; Michigan Central, 44.5 percent; and Detroit and Milwaukee, 7 percent. The Detroit and Milwaukee received a much smaller proportion since through traffic was so infrequent on its line (most of its remuneration
