The Americas

by Michael Frewston

  While some are proceeding, many will likely die, as American taxpayers baulk at the possibility of tax rises to pay for them (that in Cincinnati almost got cancelled well into construction, and only continued with the help of some last-minute private-sector funding). In America, for the most part the private car still rules.

  CANADA

  Our odyssey reaches its final country, Canada. For me it is a special country, one I am a citizen of (as well as the UK), but it is also special for other reasons as well. I always feel that Canada suffers by having to live in the shadow of the USA, however much it tries to differentiate itself from its ten times larger neighbour to the south.

  The country does try to carve out its own destiny, sometimes to the exasperation of the USA in the process, especially when Canada’s goals and those of America do not coincide (such as Canada’s insistence on running a government health care system, rather than leave it to private interests, as in the US). Its citizens however tend to trumpet their achievements quietly, as opposed to the brash ‘in-your-face’ chest-thumping that America’s citizens are rather disposed towards.

  For these, and many other, reasons, it is one of the most respected and revered countries in the world. It is therefore quite surprising to learn that the first railways in Canada were actually offshoots of Canadian-owned railways in the USA.

  Unlike America, however, where the first railways were essentially commercial operations through and through, railways in Canada were very much a part of the very formation of Canada itself – in fact, without the railway, Canada as a country, at least as we know it today, would simply not have existed. It is therefore no surprise to learn that government involvement in Canadian railways was a fundamental part of their development almost from the very beginning.

  Just like America, however (as well as Australia), Canada also endured its own internal ‘gauge wars’, as railways started out at one gauge, and then later converted to another, not only to facilitate interchange with other, usually by now Standard gauge, railways, but also through a number of government edicts. In many ways, while Canada’s various ‘gauge wars’ were as turbulent and chaotic as those in the USA or Australia, in this regard, Canada, in the form of its government, was probably wielding far more influence at this time over its railways than were either America or Australia over theirs.

  Many of the reasons for this high level of government intervention in Canada’s railways can be traced back to the War of 1812. Initiated by America as a result of tensions on many fronts between the USA and the British Empire (but particularly by Britain’s imposed restrictions on US trade with France, with which Britain was at war), there was very real concern that America would invade Canada (which was thought to be an easy thing to do – the 49th parallel delineating the border between Canada and the USA was not established until some six years later) and claim the country for itself. The government’s involvement in controlling the building of the country’s railways was very much as a result of those concerns as to the USA’s intentions following the War.

  Early history:

  Ignoring some crude wooden-tracked industrial or logging lines in the early 1830s, the railway arrived in Canada, specifically in the Province of Québec, in 1836, in the form of the Champlain and St Lawrence Railway.

  It was Canada’s first public railway, running between Montréal and La Prairie along the St Lawrence River. It was built from the start to 1676 mm broad gauge, in anticipation of linking up with the emerging railways of this gauge in the neighbouring US state of Maine, where the city of Portland offered a shorter distance to a major port that was ice free for longer in the year. The type of track construction was the same as that in Ohio – wooden rails with iron strap-rails as a running surface.

  Next to follow was the Albion Mines Railway, in Nova Scotia, opened in 1839.

  This railway however was built to 1435 mm Standard gauge. Subsequent railways in Québec, encouraged by government guarantees, stuck to the broad gauge. Already differences in what was the best gauge appeared to be emerging.

  That issue was resolved in July, 1851, when the 1676 mm broad gauge was officially adopted by the Canadian provincial government of the day. In fact, the subsidies and guarantees that the government of Canada was handing out to fledgling railways to encourage them to build and expand were denied to anyone who built to anything other than 1676 mm gauge.

  Two years later, in 1853, the province of Ontario received its first railway, the Ontario Simcoe and Huron Union Company, which metamorphosed five years later into the Northern Railway of Canada. The line ran between Toronto and Aurora, now a satellite town of the big city. This railway further affirmed the use of the 1676 mm broad gauge.

  In the same year, 1853, Canada saw two of its most important railways opened – the Grand Trunk Railway and the Great Western Railway (no relationship with the GWR in Britain!). The GTR was formed by amalgamating six regional railways in Québec and Ontario, as well as leasing a railway in Nova Scotia that enabled it to access the 1676 mm gauge lines in Maine. It also had subsidiaries in a number of New England and mid-west states, which gave it access to the US, from Vermont to Illinois. Many – but far from all – of these US subsidiaries operated on the same 1676 mm gauge.

  The GTR was probably one of the first railways to experiment with variable gauge bogies. Called ‘adjustable gauge trucks’ they were not a success, as other railways in the US had found (see above), and were ultimately abandoned.

  By contrast the GWR was essentially a new line operating within south-western Ontario, as far as the US border at Windsor. Stretching over 1400 km, it too was built to the now-obligatory broad gauge. It was eventually merged with the Grand Trunk Railway.

  Many other railways opened up in eastern Canada in the 1850s and early 1860s, especially in the Maritimes, and virtually all to 1676 mm gauge. It looked as if this gauge was here to stay.

  Converting to Standard gauge:

  The end of the Civil War in the USA signalled the beginning of the rationalisation of America’s railways into a uniform 1435 mm Standard gauge, a process that lasted over twenty years. At the same time, the province of Canada was about to become a proper country. On 1st July, 1867, as proclaimed by Queen Victoria, the Dominion of Canada came into being, consisting of just four provinces – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario (these last two being known then as simply the Provinces of Canada).

  It was a start, but there was still a very long way to go. But most importantly, it was the beginning of the realisation among Canada’s leaders that the development of the railway was the key to the creation of the country itself. In fact, the British North America Act, which was the enabling legislation that created Canada, specifically called for the development of the railway as a founding component of Canada as a country:

  “145. Inasmuch as the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have joined in a Declaration that the Construction of the Intercolonial Railway is essential to the Consolidation of the Union of British North America, and to the Assent thereto of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and have consequently agreed that Provision should be made for its immediate Construction by the Government of Canada; Therefore, in order to give effect to that Agreement, it shall be the Duty of the Government and Parliament of Canada to provide for the commencement, within Six Months after the Union, of a Railway connecting the River St. Lawrence with the City of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and for the Construction thereof without Intermission, and the Completion thereof with all practicable Speed.”

  Thus was born the Intercolonial Railway, Canada’s first government-owned railway, and the country’s first Crown Corporation.

  With the memories of the War of 1812 beginning to fade, America and Canada started to begin to trade with each other in earnest. Most of the cross-border trade was by means of the railway, and America had already progressed quite considerably in standardising on 1435 mm gauge (or one of the variants of this gauge – see above), by the end of the 1860s
.

  The Grand Trunk Railway, seeing what was happening south of the border, was one of the first to start on a massive conversion program, in 1872, starting with those lines close to the US border. By 1873, most of its motive power and rolling stock had either been converted to Standard gauge or renewed altogether, while on the 4th October that year, the remaining 1500 km of track was similarly converted.

  But not all other railways in Canada got that message right away.

  The Intercolonial was initially built to the prevailing 1676 mm gauge. But the railway never operated at that gauge – prior to its opening in 1875, no less a person than Sir Sandford Fleming himself, Canada’s notable inventor and creator of the world’s time zones, converted it to Standard gauge, following GTR’s lead. Fleming was already famous as a surveyor for the Grand Trunk Railway, as well as becoming Chief Engineer of the Northern Railway of Canada.

  Canada’s 1676 mm gauge was now beginning to create headaches in the efficient transit of goods across the border. Further, even within Canada itself, the government was beginning to realise that the country could not run a railway system without connections to the US, and that the majority of these connections were at the 1435 mm Standard gauge.

  With the termination of the original edict that railways had to build to 1676 mm gauge (the government was running out of money to fund the guarantees that accompanied the edict), the Dominion government, in 1874, having decided to change the gauge of the Intercolonial to Standard gauge, instructed all other railways, but especially those in Ontario, to adopt Standard gauge.

  Some railways did lay dual gauge tracks, as a short term expediency, but, as we have seen in other places where this has been tried, while things are fine on simple trackwork, they become too complicated once switches and crossings enter the picture, and so such dual gauging quickly died out. By the beginning of the 1880s, Standard gauge ruled the day in most of Canada.

  The National Dream – the building of Canada:

  As noted above, the newly federated Dominion of Canada consisted initially of only four eastern provinces. Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald, in 1871, authorised the building of a transcontinental railway connecting the east and the west. But it would be some ten years before construction would actually start.

  At this time, the remainder of what was to become a greatly expanded Canada, north of the 49th parallel, was still being contested by the USA as to whether it was British territory, with the constant threat of America making incursions into this territory, and wanting to annex it for itself.

  The territories west of Ontario wanted nothing of this, and made representations to the Dominion government that they wanted to become part of Canada. Sir John A (as he is affectionately known) needed no more convincing that a railway connecting the east with the west coast was the only answer in addressing the west’s concerns, and to protect the territories west of Ontario against annexation by the USA.

  While Macdonald felt that the railway should be built by private interests, there was no question that such a railway had to be sanctioned by the Dominion government, and built according to its requirements, in order to satisfy the interests of the western territories. In particular, what was to become British Columbia (BC), on joining Confederation in 1871, was adamant that unless a railway connecting it with the east was built within ten years, it would secede from the new confederation, and throw in its lot with the Americans.

  Macdonald responded in kind. He invoked a clause in the BNA that allowed the Dominion government to designate anything it so chose as 'works for the general advantage of Canada,' and therefore subject to federal control. He was extremely vociferous in saying that a national railway, stretching from the east to west coasts, was the most fundamental factor in the creation of Canada as a unified and strong country, with a vision as to its future, and promised BC that such a railway would be built.

  Macdonald initiated the formation of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a process that involved bribes and scandal, enough in fact to get Macdonald and his Conservative government thrown out of office in 1873, with the Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie assuming power. Not for too long however – in 1878, Macdonald and his Conservatives were back in power.

  The problem for the CPR however was the route that such a railway should take. A survey had already been undertaken by the British government, in 1863, under the authority of eminent engineer Captain Palliser. Palliser had concluded that no route through the Rockies was feasible without diverting south into the USA. This of course was anathema to Macdonald, and he looked for an all-Canadian route. He called upon Sir Sandford Fleming to undertake a new survey.

  Any route across Canada had to overcome vast expanses of the Canadian Shield, followed by endless kilometres of muskeg, all of which in itself was a challenge of no mean order. But the Rockies were an altogether different challenge. Fleming however was not to be deterred, and a route via the Yellowhead Pass was suggested.

  The challenge of the Rockies cannot be over-estimated. From the plains of Alberta to the coast in BC, with the mountains reaching almost right up to the coast, the distance as the crow flies is some 700 km, while the height difference between coast and typical mountain pass is over 1500 m.

  After the Conservatives were back in power, the CPR suggested a new route through the Kicking Horse Pass, that was shorter but more challenging, and this was the route that finally was built. Between 1881, when Macdonald gave the go-ahead to the CPR for construction to start, and 1885, when the railway was finished, some 12 000 migrant Chinese workers, paid as little as $1.00 per day, toiled night and day on the railway, doing the most dangerous of jobs. The conditions that these workers endured were really quite appalling, and a few years ago the government of Canada apologised to China for the way the workers were treated. (See also the Canadian Railroad Trilogy under Songs about Canada’s railways, below.)

  The railway was now stretching for over 4000 km between Montréal and Vancouver. In 1885, some four years after construction was started, Lord Strathcona drove the famous Last Spike, and Canada’s National Dream was complete.

  The completion of the Trans-Continental Railway in Canada was a forceful statement of national unity. The Provinces of BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan had demanded it, BC in particular laying down the completion of the CPR as a condition for both joining and then staying in Confederation. One can only contrast that vision of national unity with that in Australia some years later (see Part 6).

  The Kicking Horse Pass was to endure for many years. It had very steep grades however, and was eventually replaced in the twentieth century by an 8-km long system of spiral tunnels via the Rogers Pass, named after Albert Rogers, a surveyor who discovered it. There was of course no question that the CPR, government controlled, would be built from the outset to anything other than Standard gauge, this having been established by the federal government some years earlier, in 1874.

  Main-line railways today:

  Today, the name Canadian Pacific still exists (in the form of CP Rail), and has over 22 000 km of route distance, including cross border lines extending into the USA. Like railways south of the border, it has long abandoned any passenger services, other than some commuter services in Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal under contract to the respective authorities.

  CP is of course not the only main-line railway operator. Canadian National (CN) has a huge route network, totalling around 33 000 km, including extensive route distance in the US, where it owns, for example, the former Illinois Central Railroad, stretching all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

  CN dates from 1919, when it was created as a government-controlled Crown corporation by amalgamating a number of bankrupt railways. Privatised in 1995, it is today one of the most efficient and successful railways in North America, in spite of the fact that in its earlier years it suffered from poor route structures that had been imposed upon it when inheriting the original railways, and low traffic volumes, especially when
compared with its competitor, the CPR.

  While CN is primarily a freight railway, it does operate some long-distance passenger trains, including the Agawa Canyon Tour train.

  Narrow gauge:

  Not all of Canada’s railways were built to Standard gauge or wider. In spite of the country’s huge size, there were quite a few railways using the 1067 mm Cape gauge.

  I intentionally used that term in this context, for a certain Mr Carl Abraham Pihl, from Norway, visited Canada to advise on the building of the narrow gauge railways. This is the same Mr Pihl who was instrumental in persuading the whole of Southern Africa (see Part 3) to adopt this gauge (and, some say – but not me – whose initials gave this gauge its name).

  Two railways in the Toronto region were similarly persuaded to adopt Mr Pihl’s gauge – the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway, and the Toronto and Nipissing Railway. In spite of challenges from London, as well as vociferous criticism from other local railways, not to mention the local press, such as the Hamilton Spectator, that these railways should be built to a wider gauge, preferably the 1676 mm gauge now in widespread use in Canada, such opposition was strongly resisted.

  The old arguments (some say it was a ruse) were being bandied about, of the narrow gauge railways necessitating the make-work transhipment of goods, this time in Toronto. Nonetheless, the two railways’ choice of the Cape gauge prevailed, helped in no small measure by the Chief Engineer of the Queensland Railways, who visited Canada to lend his support, and the two railways were each granted a provincial charter, in 1868.