free travel.Author’s collection.
Locomotives — 36
Passenger coaches — 28
Baggage/mail/express cars — 16
Boxcars — 324
Stock (cattle) cars — 26
Flatcars — 124
Freight Total — 474
Service cars — 4
Further details regarding the locomotive and passenger car rosters of the Detroit and Milwaukee/Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee are available in chapter 4.
Erie and Ontario Railroad
Erie and Niagara Railway
In light of the revenue lost to the “new” Welland canal starting in 1829, several businessmen from communities along the Niagara River sought a charter to build a railway to bypass Niagara Falls. They were led by John and Alexander Hamilton, sons of the Honourable Robert Hamilton, the builder of the original Niagara Portage Road.
Due, at least in part, to the bitter fight waged by William Merritt and others of the Welland Canal Company, charter legislation failed in the Legislature of Upper Canada in 1831 and 1832. However, the Hamiltons and their colleagues were not to be denied, and assent to the charter of the Erie and Ontario Railroad occurred on April 16, 1835. Of interest, this legislation was delayed by the need to obtain the assent of the Board of Ordnance, which was responsible for military fortifications. Assent was given, provided the railway did not “intrude” within one thousand yards of military fortifications. It appears that the War of 1812 had not been forgotten. Capital stock for the railway was fixed at £75,000 ($365,250 U.S.) and it was to be completed by April 16, 1840 (Acts of the Legislature of Upper Canada, 6 William IV, chapter 19).
Construction began in 1835 but proceeded slowly. By 1837 the line was far from complete and money was running short. A provincial loan of £5,000 ($24,350 U.S.) was arranged. The line has been variously described as beginning operation in 1838 or 1839. Likely both answers are correct in that sections were probably opened as they were completed. The railway was “fully completed” by 1841. However, this may not be entirely correct since there is good evidence that the wharf at Queenston was not completed until 1846!
The railway was an animal tramway in the beginning. Railcars (coaches or freight wagons) were drawn by horses (two to four per car, draught horses for freight wagons and trotting horses for passenger coaches). Coaches/wagons rode upon wooden rails topped with iron strapping. Coaches had the appearance of Stockton and Darlington Railway coaches of 1840s England. Each held twenty to twenty-four people with baggage being carried on the roof. As one might imagine, on both economic and pragmatic bases, the railway closed for the winter, operating only in the high tourist season of summer. The line followed a path nearly parallel with Stanley Street in present-day Niagara Falls.
In 1852 the charter was revised to allow the line to be rebuilt and equipped with steam locomotives as motive power (Provincial Statutes of Canada, 15 Victoria, chapter 50, assent date November 10, 1852). In addition, the line was extended to Niagara-on-the-Lake, this section being opened on July 3, 1854.
The Erie and Ontario only owned one locomotive, Niagara, an inside-connected 4-4-0 with sixteen-by-twenty-inch cylinders and sixty-inch-diameter driving wheels. It was built in 1854 by Amoskeag Manufacturing Company of Manchester, New Hampshire. In all likelihood, this locomotive was the Clifton (Amoskeag construction number 169), built for Zimmerman and Balch, contractors. It was disposed of early in 1860 and replaced by the leased locomotive to be next described. Niagara (2nd) was an outside-connected 4-4-0 with eighteen-by-twenty-inch cylinders and sixty-six-inch-diameter driving wheels (Amoskeag 1854, construction number unknown). The identity of the locomotive’s owner is unknown.
In addition, the rolling stock of the road as of December 31, 1860, was as follows:
four first-class passenger coaches (six-wheeled trucks)
one baggage car (four-wheeled trucks)
one boxcar (four-wheeled trucks)
eight flatcars (four-wheeled trucks)
ten gravel cars (four-wheeled)
two handcars
The ever-present Samuel Zimmerman was involved in the rebuilding process of the railway, as well as in the ordering of the only locomotive on the railway’s roster (see above). Zimmerman took over the railway in 1854, but his ownership was cut short by his death at the Desjardins Canal disaster on the Great Western Railway on March 12, 1857 (see chapter 6). During the rebuilding process, the line was relocated closer to the villages of Clifton and Elgin and bypassed Queenston and its heavy grades.
In 1857 the Fort Erie Railway Company was formed to construct a line from Fort Erie to Chippewa (completed in 1860) (Provincial Statutes of Canada, 20 Victoria, chapter 151, assent date June 10, 1857). In 1862 the town of Niagara, which had previously acquired all of the assets of the Erie and Ontario Railroad, sold them to William A. Thomson of Fort Erie.
Legislation introduced in 1863 was to change the Erie and Ontario forever. This act empowered the Fort Erie Railway Company to build a line from “some point at or above the wharf of Samuel Cowtherd” (Fort Erie) to Chippewa and acquire the line of the Erie and Ontario Railroad, ending at Niagara-on-the-Lake. In addition, the name of the resulting railway was to be changed to the Erie and Niagara Railway Company. This railway was now capitalized at $2 million and could amalgamate with or engage in leasing arrangements with any other railway. The Erie and Niagara could likewise buy the Erie and Ontario from William Thomson. Branch lines were permitted to the Buffalo (New York) Railway Depot and to Port Robinson on the Welland Canal (as well as a junction with the Welland Railway). An optimistic completion date of October 15, 1865, was set. Lastly, provision was made for incorporating very broad-gauge track (six feet) with the normal Erie and Niagara broad gauge of five feet six inches, such that the Erie and Atlantic and Great Western Railways would be able to run trains over the Erie and Niagara (Provincial Statutes of Canada, 26 Victoria, chapter 59, assent date October 15, 1863).
At the London (U.K.) Great Western Railway shareholders meeting in April 1865, President Thomas Dakin announced that a twenty-one-year-long agreement had been concluded with the Erie and Niagara even before its thirty-one-mile line had been completed. The road would be operated by the Great Western. The advantage of this agreement for the Great Western lay in its provision of a direct line into Buffalo, and direct connections with the Erie and Atlantic and Great Western lines. This line would shorten the Buffalo-to-Detroit distance by twelve miles.
In the fall of 1867 the Great Western closed down the Erie and Niagara, bringing about legal action to reopen the line. The judge ruled in favour of the Erie and Niagara in 1868, forcing the Great Western to reopen the line, allow connections with other railways in the spirit of the agreement, run the line continuously, and give W.A. Thomson of Queenston his proper place as joint comptroller of the Erie and Niagara. If the Great Western failed to perform any of these required actions, the contract would be rescinded. Damages were also awarded to the railway for past Great Western misdeeds.
In 1872 the Great Western board of directors suggested that the Erie and Niagara be purchased, hopefully for a price of £75,000 ($365,250). The board wanted to join the eastern end of the main line to the Glencoe Loop Line using the Erie and Niagara. However, negotiations were to bog down due to the multiple “owners” of the Erie and Niagara. Finally, the Great Western achieved
