shops (wood); 9 = freight shed (stone); 10 = grain elevator (wood); 11 = baggage/freight/express building; 12 = coal sheds (not GWR-owned). Identities of other buildings cannot be verified.From The 1879 New Topographical Atlas of the Province of Ontario (Burland Desbarats Lithography Co., Montreal, PQ).
estimates by as much as £286,000 ($1.393 million U.S.). Benedict was shown the door. The next chief engineer, J.T. Clark, had an estimate £336,000 ($1.636 million U.S.) higher than that of Benedict and £621,000 ($3.024 million U.S.) higher than that of Stuart. Of course, this was not an issue unique to the Great Western. Most early railways found that original estimates fell far short of the actual costs. In any case, George L. Reid had become chief engineer by 1854. Apparently, the shareholders and directors came to the conclusion that frequent dismissals of chief engineers would not solve their financial problems, since Reid maintained his position until at least 1870.
Great Western Railway Hamilton Works, circa 1862.
Stratford-Perth Archive, Stratford, Ontario.
In actual fact the unexpected costs of construction, although partly the result of unrealistic estimates or unjustified charges by contractors for “unforeseen conditions,” were largely the result of increasing costs of land, labour, and materials; exceptionally cold winters; and unforeseen physical barriers. The section immediately west of Hamilton presented a number of engineering problems: bridging of a marsh, a wide cutting, a stream diversion, deepening of the Desjardins Canal, construction of a bridge over the canal, another long bridge over a ravine, heavy embankments and formidable stretches of retaining wall. The decision to build across the marsh through which the Desjardins Canal passed proved exceptionally costly. Although an easier route from Dundas to Hamilton existed,
all of this trouble was brought about by a desire … to please two Canadian Directors, Sir Allan MacNab and Dr. Hamilton. MacNab wanted the line near or through Dundurn, which he then owned, and Dr. Hamilton owned the Fisher property at Dundas. He thought that by running the line along the mountain side he could open up building stone quarries.
In spite of such self-imposed engineering problems, the Great Western was truly fortunate that its route through southwestern Ontario presented few major physical barriers. There remained, however, the problems of crossing the rivers at both ends of the main line. The Detroit River was the lesser of the two problems. Although consideration was given to both a tunnel and a bridge, engineering and economic factors caused both to be abandoned in favour of a ferry service between Windsor and Detroit, as detailed in chapter 5. Unfortunately, until railway cars could be ferried across the river year round, break-bulk shipping by ferries and sleighs resulted in delay, damage, and dissatisfaction. Ultimately, the issue would cause the Great Western to come dangerously close to losing the support of the American roads on which it was so dependent.
An engraving of a Great Western passenger train proceeding from the U.S. to the Canadian side of the Niagara River gorge over Roebling’s historic Suspension Bridge. The American and Canadian (Horseshoe) falls can be seen in the background.
Canada Science and Technology Museum.
The Niagara barrier was more effectively overcome but not without an engineering feat that received worldwide acclaim. A suspension bridge was required by the circumstances at the building site. However, suspension bridges at that time had an alarming safety record of multiple collapses. After the failure of Charles Ellet Jr., John Roebling successfully built the world’s first railway suspension bridge, a two-tiered, eight-hundred-seventy-foot-long, thousand-ton structure supported by four ten-inch-diameter cables of wrought iron (each cable was comprised of 3,640 No. 9 wires), which would be used until 1897. Its replacement would be warranted only because of the heavier weights of locomotives, rolling stock, and car loadings of that era.
A magnificent view of the Suspension Bridge over the Niagara River gorge. The unidentified locomotive appears to be a Great Western 4-4-0. The photograph can be approximately dated by the absence of multiple (four) rails to accommodate multiple (three) gauges (i.e., four feet eight and a half inches, five feet six inches, and six feet), to 1871 or later. The colossal strength built into the bridge is echoed in the twin towers at each end.
McCord Museum, Montreal, Quebec.
Roebling Suspension Bridge over the Niagara gorge, 1869. Note the interesting train-signal arrangements in the pre-semaphore era. The triple rails indicate that the line is open to locomotives and rolling stock of two gauges.
Canada Science and Technology Museum.
Promoters of the Great Western had confidently (recklessly?) predicted that trains would be running by December 1, 1852. However, one full year after this date, only the short section between Hamilton and Suspension Bridge (Niagara Falls) was, in fact, completed (the inaugural train ran on November 1 and regular service commenced on November 10). Not until December 15, 1853, did the inaugural train run from Suspension Bridge to London (with regular service commencing on December 21). This was followed on January 17, 1854, by the inaugural train from Suspension Bridge to Windsor (with regular service commencing on January 27).
The delay, however, in no way diminished the enthusiasm of the crowds turning out to welcome the first “iron horse” in southwestern Ontario. Dundas, Paris, Woodstock, Ingersoll, and London all made elaborate preparations that clearly demonstrated how well their citizens understood the importance of the completion of the railway. The Globe (December 19, 1853) described the reaction of the crowds along the line: “Joy and expectation lighted up every face. Each man appeared to feel that some great good had been conferred on him, and was now within his grasp.”
The same author found it difficult to restrain himself from what might well be considered national pride:
My English readers might well imagine from the heading that I had been on an excursion from Bath or Bristol to the Great Metropolis [London, U.K.]. But it is not so. We now possess in Canada, not only a London, but a Great Western Railway, which though not quite so broad [five feet six inches versus seven feet in gauge], is much longer than its English namesake.
Somewhat less impressed, however, was William Bowman, mechanical superintendent of the Great Western, who wrote in 1903:
The weather was cold and raw, and the mud along the line was simply appalling…. We left Hamilton early in the afternoon, and it was near dusk when we arrived at London. The time was very slow, slow even for those days, owing to the condition of the roadbed; and it was my opinion at the time that it was a foolhardy notion to attempt the trip on such a roadbed. The rocking of the coaches was frightful, and I thought at times we would go into the mud in the ditch. We stopped at all stations along the line but it was difficult to leave the coaches, as there were no platforms as yet erected, and the mud was too deep to wade into.
— London Advertiser, December 19, 1903
During the Suspension Bridge to Windsor inaugural service, two trains of twelve coaches each conveyed four hundred guests from New York State and three hundred guests from Hamilton and Toronto. Arriving at 1700 hours in Windsor (three hours late), a magnificent banquet was served in the Michigan Central freight shed in Detroit. Two thousand guests attended the latter celebration.
