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56-514: The original railway station was located about 800 meters to the east of the present day station, on the north side of the railway tracks, behind Warren Clarkson's store and Post Office on the west side of Clarkson Road (Today Clarkson Road North). It was built in 1853 by the Great Western Railway at the corner of the property which became known as Clarkson's Corner. The apostrophe in Clarkson's

112-519: A hard rock trio from Flint, Michigan , called itself Grand Funk Railroad in 1969. Like the CPR and CNR, the GTR began building and operating hotels during the first two decades of the 20th century. Most of the hotels survived the takeover of the GTR by CNR in 1923 and were operated by Canadian National Hotels : Grand Trunk Railway was built fully a century before major property and highway development took place in

168-584: A result of the GTPR, and its shareholders, primarily in the United Kingdom, were determined to prevent the company from being nationalized as well. Eventually on July 12, 1920, GTR was placed under control of another federal government Board of Management while legal battles continued for several more years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, GTR was fully absorbed into the CNR on a date when all constituent companies were merged into

224-517: A signal for an open drawbridge on the Richelieu River near the present-day town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec , plunging onto a passing barge and killing 99 German immigrants. Canadian Rail speculated in 1963 that an independent GTR might have survived had it always used standard gauge. The GTR was a private company headquartered in England that received heavy Canadian government subsidies and

280-462: A switch from the mainline to the bridge was broken by the train as it passed through the switch; the rail ties were damaged from before the switch to the bridge; the rails were bent to the east of the switch. He attributed it to a broken truck-wheel on the engine. Andrew Talcott the chief engineer of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad , examined the engine and the bridge. He testified that an axle had broken on

336-588: Is the Oakville Subdivision, and the Sarnia branch is the Strathroy Subdivision (which also includes a short piece of the mainline, from London to Komoka ). Early in the morning of October 27, 1854, a Windsor-bound passenger train collided with a gravel train backing eastward, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of Chatham by Baptiste Creek. According to passenger W. O. Ruggles, there was dense fog and

392-690: The Bruce Peninsula . MacNab's dismissal was directly related to a proposal from Zimmerman to purchase assets in the Niagara area, the Erie and Ontario Railway, a shortline around Niagara Falls; and the Niagara Harbour and Docks Company. In 1853, threatening to use these assets to start a competing railway with a shorter line between Niagara and Detroit, Zimmerman presented to the GWR board a proposal to instead sell them to

448-525: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to meet British Columbia's conditions for joining Confederation. By the early 20th century, GTR desired to operate in Western Canada , particularly given the virtual monopoly of service that CPR maintained and the lucrative increasing flows of immigrants west of Ontario. The federal government encouraged GTR to co-operate with a local railway company operating on

504-558: The Continental Divide in North America at Yellowhead Pass . GTR's cost-conscious president Charles Melville Hays was one of the victims on board RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. His death is speculated to have contributed to poor management of GTR over the ensuing decade, and also contributed to the abandonment of the uncompleted Southern New England Railway to Providence, Rhode Island , begun in 1910. Construction started on

560-761: The Prairies , the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), but an agreement was never reached. CNoR decided to build its own transcontinental system at this time, forcing GTR in 1903 to enter into an agreement with Wilfrid Laurier 's government to build a third railway system from the Atlantic to the Pacific. GTR would build (with federal assistance) and operate the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR) from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Prince Rupert, British Columbia , while

616-511: The St. Lawrence River . It quickly expanded its charter eastward to Portland, Maine , and westward to Sarnia , Ontario. Over time it added many subsidiary lines and branches, including four important subsidiaries: A fifth subsidiary was the never-completed Southern New England Railway , chartered in 1910, which would have run from a connection with the Central Vermont at Palmer, Massachusetts , to

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672-423: The gauge difference , the GTR experimented with a form of variable-gauge axles called "adjustable gauge trucks", but these proved unreliable. The GTR system expanded throughout southern Ontario , western Quebec, and the U.S. state of Michigan over the years by purchasing and absorbing numerous smaller railway companies, as well as building new lines. GTR's largest purchase came on August 12, 1882, when it bought

728-541: The 1,371-kilometre (852 mi) Great Western Railway , running from Niagara Falls to Toronto, and connecting to London , Windsor , and communities in the Bruce Peninsula . The company sold the line along the St. Lawrence River between Rivière-du-Loup and Lévis in 1879 to the federal government-owned Intercolonial Railway (IRC), and granted running rights in 1889 to the IRC on trackage between Lévis and Montreal (via Richmond); however,

784-556: The CAR in 1905, although the purchase was not ratified by Parliament until 1914. The routing of these systems was extremely speculative, as GTPR's main line was located farther north than the profitable CPR main line in the Prairies, and NTR was located even farther north of populous centres in Ontario and Quebec. Construction costs on the GTPR escalated, despite having the most favourable crossing of

840-708: The Château Laurier in Ottawa. Hays blundered in 1903 by building a subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company some 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi) long; it reached Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia in 1914. The government built and the Grand Trunk was to operate the National Transcontinental to link the main Grand Trunk with its Pacific subsidiary. The very expensive subsidiary

896-534: The Conservative party. Carlos and Lewis (1995) show that it managed to survive because its British investors accurately assessed the corporation's value and prospects, which included the likelihood that the Canadian government would bail out the railway should it ever default on its bonds. The government had guaranteed a very large loan and had enacted legislation authorizing debt restructuring . These arrangements allowed

952-592: The Crown corporation. At the time that the GTR was fully merged into CNR, approximately 125 smaller railway companies comprised the Grand Trunk system, totalling 12,800 kilometres (8,000 mi) in Canada and 1,873 kilometres (1,164 mi) in the United States. Canada's worst railway accident based on loss of life happened on the GTR, occurring on June 29, 1864, when a passenger train operating between Lévis and Montreal missed

1008-455: The GTPR and the limited financial returns being realized, GTR defaulted on loan payments to the federal government in 1919. GTPR was nationalized on March 7 of that year, being operated under a federal government Board of Management until finally being placed under the control of the Crown corporation Canadian National Railways (CNR) on July 20, 1920. GTR underwent serious financial difficulties as

1064-516: The GTPR/NTR in 1905, and the GTPR opened to traffic in 1914, followed by the NTR in 1915. It was a transcontinental system, with the only exception being the NTR's ill-fated Quebec Bridge , which would not be completed for several more years. The first indication the arrangement with the government was faltering came when GTR refused to operate the NTR, citing economic reasons. With the enormous cost of building

1120-450: The GWR. MacNab was against the proposal; it failed. As a consequence, GWR managing director Charles John Brydges, who had negotiated a purchase agreement with Zimmerman would engineer MacNab's dismissal from the board. In 1855, traffic has risen to the level that GWR made plans to double-track its lines. As this required Legislature approval, Zimmerman was retained to secure its approval through his influence. In turn, Zimmerman would receive

1176-645: The Grand Trunk Corporation as a Class I railroad . The Portland, Maine-Chicago, Illinois mainline of the Grand Trunk is or was known by the following names: The Montreal-Toronto segment had been known by the following names: The Grand Trunk Railway Building on Warwick House Street in London continues to stand. Built by Aston Webb , the 7 storey building was built in 1907 with the banner The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada on 4 Warwick House Street and Canadian National Railway on Cockspur Street. CN no longer owns

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1232-603: The Grand Trunk was on the verge of bankruptcy and in no position to expand further east to Halifax . On the eve of the American Civil War , it stretched from Sarnia in the west to Rivière-du-Loup in the east and Portland in the southeast. Colonists in the United Province of Canada, some of whom had experienced their territory being attacked by the United States fifty years earlier (in the War of 1812 ), were uncomfortably close to

1288-652: The Great Western Railway routing instead. CN continues to use the "Grand Trunk" name for its holding company the Grand Trunk Corporation . The corporation was created in 1971 to provide autonomy in operation for CN's US subsidiaries: Grand Trunk Western Railroad ; Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway ; and the Central Vermont Railway . The main goal of the corporation, headquartered in Detroit ,

1344-520: The IRC's construction of a more direct line from Lévis to Saint-Hyacinthe in 1899 saw most of this traffic transferred to that line. As the dominant railway in British North America, GTR was reportedly asked by the federal government soon after Confederation to consider building a rail line to the Pacific coast at British Columbia but refused, forcing the government to enact legislation creating

1400-509: The St. Lawrence River on August 25, 1860, with the opening of the first Victoria Bridge at Montreal (replaced by the present structure in 1898); the bridging of the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York ; and the construction of a tunnel beneath the St. Clair River, connecting Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan. The latter work opened in August 1890 and replaced

1456-772: The Union Stations built in 1858 and 1873, built by the Grand Trunk Railway . The railway merged with the Grand Trunk Railway in August 1882, and ultimately became a major part of Canadian National Railway 's southern Ontario routes. The majority of the mainlines remain in use. The main Niagara Falls–Windsor line is now the Canadian National Railway's Grimsby Subdivision, Dundas Subdivision, Chatham Subdivision, and CASO Subdivision. The Toronto branch

1512-571: The United States. Many citizens thought that the only way to finish the Grand Trunk – and protect the country – would be to unite all the colonies into a federation so that they could share the costs of an expanded railway system. Thus the British North America Act, 1867 included the provision for an Intercolonial Railway to link with the Grand Trunk at Rivière-du-Loup. The end of the American Civil War saw British North America on

1568-513: The company to float new bond issues to replace existing debt and to issue securities in lieu of interest. Charles Melville Hays joined the Grand Trunk in 1895 as general manager (and in 1909, president, based in Montreal). Hays was the architect of the great expansion during a colourful and free-spending era. He upgraded the tracks, bridges, shops and rolling stock, but was best known for building huge grain elevators and elaborate tourist hotels such as

1624-619: The contract to double-track the line. A clause of the approval granted an exemption for the GWR from the regulation for all trains to stop at all drawbridges. The GWR used multiple stations in Toronto. Its first was a depot at the Queen's Wharf, then it secured the use of the Canadian Northern station at York Street. It built its own station at Yonge Street and the Esplanade in 1866. The GWR also used

1680-557: The deep-water, all-weather port of Providence, Rhode Island . The company was incorporated on November 10, 1852, as the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada to build a railway line between Montreal and Toronto . The charter was soon extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia, Canada West . In 1853 the GTR purchased the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad from Montreal to the Canada East – Vermont border, and

1736-577: The dense fog. On March 12, 1857, a train crashed into the Desjardins Canal railway swing bridge in Hamilton, causing its collapse and the train to plunge into the icy waters of the canal. The accident, known as the "Great Western Railway disaster", claimed 59 lives and injured 18 of the approximately 100 people aboard. One of the dead was Samuel Zimmerman, who had himself arranged the exemption clause to allow GWR trains to not stop at drawbridges. Had

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1792-564: The engine, causing the cowcatcher on the front of the train to dip and rip up the timbers of the bridge, leading to its collapse. Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (( reporting mark GT ); French : Grand Tronc ) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut , Maine , Michigan , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , and Vermont . The railway

1848-534: The existing 1,500-space parking structure, an additional garage with 1,200 spaces was built between June 2012 and April 2014. In 2018, Fortinos signed a deal with Metrolinx to have a PC Express kiosk at this station for online orders. The station is served by MiWay and Oakville Transit routes: Great Western Railway (Ontario) The Great Western Railway was a railway that operated in Canada West , today's province of Ontario , Canada. It

1904-460: The first-class cars. A grand jury found that Twitchell, conductor of the gravel train and Kettlewell, engineer of the train were criminally responsible for the death of 52 persons and they were charged with manslaughter. According to the jury, the gravel train had entered onto the track in contravention of the rules of the Great Western, and in any case, should not have proceeded onto the track in

1960-422: The giant Union Army and faced terrorist attacks during the mid-19th century in the form of Fenian raids . Such security concerns led to demands for a year-round transportation system that British reinforcements could use should their territory be attacked during winter when the St. Lawrence River was frozen, and the only railway for British reinforcements to use would be the Grand Trunk connection at Portland, in

2016-553: The government would build and own the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) from Winnipeg to Moncton , New Brunswick via Quebec City , which the GTR would also operate. As part of this program, the federal government encouraged the GTR to purchase the Canada Atlantic Railway (CAR) with lines southeast from Ottawa to Vermont, and west from Ottawa to Georgian Bay . The GTR took effective control of

2072-419: The gravel train's light could not be seen in time. The passenger train's locomotive collided at about 32 km/h (20 mph), derailing to the right. The four first-class cars were crushed into splinters. Thirty-five passengers were killed at the time of impact, and many remained in the ruins of the train for several hours before being extricated. Two second-class cars at the rear of the train landed on top of

2128-613: The original route of the T&;G and extended the line to Sarnia, a hub for Chicago -bound traffic. In October of 1856, the section from Montreal to Toronto opened, while the line from Toronto to Sarnia was finished in November of 1859. Also in 1859, a ferry service was established across the St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot (now Port Huron, Michigan ). The Grand Trunk was one of the main factors that pushed British North America towards Confederation . The original colonial economy structured along

2184-593: The parent company Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad through to the harbour facilities at Portland. A line was also built to Lévis , via Richmond from Montreal in 1855, part of the much-talked about " Maritime connection" in British North America . In the same year it purchased the Toronto and Guelph Railroad , whose railway was already under construction. But the Grand Trunk Railway Company changed

2240-456: The railcar ferry at the same location. Common during 19th century railway construction in British colonies, GTR built to a broad gauge ( Provincial Gauge ) of 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ); however, this was changed to the standard gauge of 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) between 1872 and 1885 to facilitate interchange with U.S. railroads. To overcome

2296-404: The railway industry in Canada and the United States, CN has abandoned or sold many former GTR and GTW branch lines in recent decades, including the former Portland–Montreal main line which had instigated the development of the system to a large degree. As well, a part of the original Toronto–Sarnia routing via St. Mary's Junction and Forest to Point Edward, Ontario , was sold or abandoned, using

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2352-452: The tender and fell to one side. The first passenger car landed upside-down on its roof, breaking into pieces and sinking through the ice. The second fell and rested vertically on one end. Several persons escaped from the second car as it started to sink; a conductor asleep in the baggage car was thrown from the wreck and woke up lying on the ice. A coroner's inquest into the disaster began immediately. The switch tender on duty testified that

2408-535: The three northern New England states, and much of the southern areas of the new provinces of Quebec and Ontario. By 1880, the Grand Trunk Railway system stretched all the way from Portland in the east to Chicago, Illinois, in the west (by means of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad between Port Huron and Chicago). Several impressive construction feats were associated with the GTR: the first successful bridging of

2464-435: The train stopped, the loss of life might have been avoided. It was determined that an axle broke on the engine, causing the derailment. As the train from Toronto approached the bridge, it derailed, crashing into the bridge. The bridge collapsed and the engine, the tender, a baggage car and two passenger cars crashed down to the thick ice of the canal below. The engine and tender fell through the ice. The baggage car bounced off

2520-521: The various jurisdictions it crossed and as such had the choice of geography in selecting the most direct routes. As a result, significant sections of GTR mainlines in Canada and Grand Trunk Western routes in the U.S. are still in active use by Canadian National (CN) today, particularly the Quebec City–Chicago corridor by way of Drummondville , Montreal , Kingston , Toronto, London, Sarnia /Port Huron, and Battle Creek . Following deregulation of

2576-419: The verge of uniting in a single federation, and the GTR's financial prospects improved as the railway was well-positioned to take advantage of increased population and economic growth. By 1867, it had become the largest railroad system in the world by accumulating more than 2,055 km (1,277 mi) of track that connected locations between its ocean port at Portland, Maine , its river port at Rivière-du-Loup,

2632-553: The water route from the Maritimes up the St. Lawrence River and the lower Great Lakes was greatly expanded by the duplicate route of the Grand Trunk. The explosive growth in trade during the 1850s within the United Province of Canada and further east by water to the Maritimes demanded that a railway link the entire geopolitical region. During this time the GTR extended its line to Lévis further east to Rivière-du-Loup . By 1860,

2688-473: Was beaten into service by six months by the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway . The original line completed in 1853–54 connected Niagara Falls to Windsor , running by way of Hamilton and London . In 1855 two important additions were made: the opening of the branch to Toronto and rail connections over the newly opened Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge . Further branches were opened to Sarnia and communities in

2744-536: Was far north of major population centres and had too little traffic. Nearing bankruptcy in 1919, the entire system was nationalized: the government merged the Grand Trunk, the Grand Trunk Pacific, and the National Transcontinental lines into the new Canadian National Railways. The process was completed in 1923. The Grand Trunk lines in the United States, however, kept their distinctive name. The Grand Trunk legacy seeped into late 20th century popular culture, when

2800-540: Was never profitable because of competition from shipping and American railways. (In 1880 40% of the Grand Trunk traffic was from one or another American city to and from Chicago, taking a shortcut across Ontario.) Inflated construction costs, overestimated revenues, and an inadequate initial capitalization threatened bankruptcy for the Grand Trunk. Sir Joseph Hickson was a key executive from 1874 to 1890 based in Montreal who kept it afloat financially and formed an alliance with

2856-571: Was operated from headquarters in Montreal , Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London , United Kingdom (4 Warwick House Street). It cost an estimated $ 160 million to build. The Grand Trunk system and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway . The original charter was for a line running from Montreal to Toronto mostly along the north shore of

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2912-453: Was pushed out of the company in 1854. Entrepreneur Samuel Zimmerman was instrumental in promoting its construction and Roswell Gardinier Benedict , a friend of Zimmerman's, was the assistant chief engineer and later the chief engineer. Although it received the first charter to operate in Canada West, it was the second to begin operation. Due to the length of time to construct its lines, it

2968-435: Was removed from the sign in 1956, on the CNR station which burned down in 1962, although Corner had long since disappeared from usage. The station brought commerce to local fruit and vegetable farmers, with corn, apples and especially strawberries being the main produce in Clarkson. In 1915, a sign was erected at the station declaring "Through this station passes more strawberries than any other station in Ontario." To augment

3024-434: Was the first railway chartered in the province, receiving its original charter as the London and Gore Railroad on March 6, 1834, before receiving its final name when it was rechartered in 1845. At its peak, the Great Western system stretched 1,371 kilometres (852 mi) with its main operating base in Hamilton. The city at the head of Lake Ontario was pivotal in opening up the unpopulated and heavily wooded interior of what

3080-433: Was then known as Canada West. A substantial part of its revenue was from serving as a bridge line between the New York Central and Michigan Central Railroads, making it significant in North American history. Its lines remain in use, part of Canadian National Railway 's network. Sir Allan MacNab was the driving force behind the financing of the railway in Canada (and less so in the United States and England), although he

3136-429: Was to make GTW profitable and keep parent CN from having to subsidize GTW's losses. CN sold off the Central Vermont in 1995 when CN became a public traded company instead of a crown corporation. CN continued to place its US acquisitions as subsidiaries under the Grand Trunk Corporation which includes Illinois Central , Wisconsin Central , and Great Lakes Transportation . The Association of American Railroads considers

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