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54-547: The legal name of this railway was the Halifax & South Western Railway, as is defined in various Acts of the Nova Scotia Legislature, such as 1902 c.1, Act respecting the Halifax & South Western Railway Co.. However, Halifax & Southwestern Railway is also sometimes also used. The H&SW was created in spring 1901 when William Mackenzie and Donald Mann approached the provincial government with plans to finish

108-563: A rail trail (paved recreational pathway). The railway's history is preserved at the Halifax and Southwestern Railway Museum in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia . In addition to the network of recreational trails built on the former H&SW roadbed, several stations have survived and been given alternative use. They include the French Village station, which is now a cafe and the Liverpool station which

162-736: A charter to build westward to the mouth of the Skeena River was alarmed, but in no hurry, because it believed the GTPR would choose one of the more northerly passes to cross the Canadian Rockies , leaving the Yellowhead Pass for the CNoR. Despite promptings, the GTP was unwilling to collaborate with the CNoR in any joint construction. In 1905, CNoR reached Edmonton , just as part of the old NWT had changed into

216-441: A condition for further funding, the government became the majority shareholder. On September 6, 1918, the directors, Mackenzie and Mann, resigned, replaced by a government-appointed board. Subsequently, CNoR executive David Blyth Hanna and his team managed not only CNoR operations but also the federally owned Canadian Government Railways (CGR). On December 20, 1918, a Privy Council order directed CNoR and CGR to be managed under

270-466: A series of contracts for provisioning food for the railway contract. Burns would go on to build one of the World's largest meat empires. Mackenzie and Mann were knighted in 1911 for their efforts in the railway industry, but personal and company financial difficulties led to the bankruptcy of the CNoR. The system was nationalized by the federal government on September 6, 1918, and subsequently became part of

324-511: A shopping mall developer. In the early 1990s, even that trackage was eliminated, as Michelin began to use trucks to service its plant and CN's last remaining customer in Lunenburg County was the forest products company at East River. In 1993 the former H&SW trackage was abandoned west of Halifax's Lakeside Industrial Park, leaving only a 7-mile spur as the last reminder of this once important railway network in southern Nova Scotia. Called

378-453: A trans-Pacific service were mothballed. In 1914, to develop a resort on Grand Beach , CNoR bought a 150-acre (0.61 km ) homestead north of Winnipeg on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, By 1914, with the company's financial predicament threatening the solvency of its major financier, the Bank of Commerce , the CNoR appealed for government help. The last spike of the CNoR transcontinental railway

432-492: Is the Hank Snow museum. The Chester stn. exists today as a tourist bureau, Oak Island museum and art gallery, and farmer's market. William Mackenzie (railway entrepreneur) Sir William Mackenzie (October 17, 1849 – December 5, 1923) was a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur. Born near Peterborough , Canada West (now Ontario ), Mackenzie became a teacher and politician before entering business as

486-533: The Annapolis Valley and Lunenburg , by way of Bridgewater , on December 23, 1889. In 1893, the Coast Railway Company of Nova Scotia was incorporated under a charter to build a narrow gauge line between Yarmouth and Lockeport , by way of Barrington and Shelburne . Construction took place very slowly and what little trackage had been already built was converted to standard gauge in 1895. In 1899

540-635: The Canadian National Railway . Mackenzie died in Toronto , Ontario. He was inducted into Ottawa 's Canadian Railway Hall of Fame in 2002 along with partner Mann. Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway ( CNoR ) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway . At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway ( reporting mark CN ), the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa , Winnipeg , and Edmonton . The network had its start in

594-582: The Chester Spur in its employee timetable, CN freight operations to the Bayers Lake Industrial Park and Lakeside Industrial Park were focused on serving a cement depot, a scrap dealer and several other customers through a team track. In 2006, as part of its "Three-Year Rail Network Plan", CN declared its intention to discontinue service on the Chester Spur, this being the last remaining portion of

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648-628: The First World War . Encumbered by construction debts and low traffic, the CNoR was bankrupt and requested financial aid from the federal government in 1918. On September 6, 1918, CNoR was nationalized and placed under a Board of Management by the Department of Railways and Canals . On December 20, 1918, CNoR, along with the Canadian Government Railways were placed under a new company named Canadian National Railways (CNR). Under CNR,

702-471: The Mount Royal Tunnel project. CNoR was heavily indebted to banks and governments, and its profitable branchlines in the prairie provinces — "Canada's breadbasket" — would not generate enough revenue to cover construction costs in other areas. Unable to meet its debts, the company became desperate for financial aid. In 1917, the federal government effectively took control of the company. As

756-621: The Second World War , requiring construction of a short 1 mile spur. Heating oil and gasoline distribution terminals operated by various oil companies in communities along the lines. A distillery in Bridgetown generated some traffic, as did a forest products plant in East River . In the early 1980s a large Michelin tire factory opened in Bridgewater and required rail service. The development of

810-680: The Toronto Transit Commission ) in 1891 and in 1899, helped found the precursor to Brazilian Traction , for which he was the first chairman. In 1895, together with Donald Mann , Mackenzie began to purchase or build rail lines in the Canadian prairies, which would form the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), a company that would stretch from Vancouver Island to Cape Breton Island and form Canada's second transcontinental railway system. He started Pat Burns' career by giving him

864-476: The 1890s and 1900s had been relatively frugal, largely by acquiring bankrupt companies or finishing failed construction projects. By the 1910s, significant expenses were accumulating. The CNoR started construction west of Edmonton in 1910, fully two years later than GTPR. The construction through the Rockies, which was expensive, largely paralleled the GTPR line of 1911, creating about 100 miles of duplication. However,

918-558: The 1890s, they reached Swan River , and continued building north between the Porcupine Hills to the west and Lake Winnipegosis to the east. In 1900, Mackenzie and Mann directed this northern line west into the Northwest Territories (later Saskatchewan ), where it eventually terminated at E.R. Wood (later Erwood ). This northwestern line mainly carried lumber and was extended to Melfort between 1903 and 1905. In 1907,

972-586: The Annapolis Valley were proving uneconomic by the early 1980s, even for freight service. In 1982, permission was given to abandon the far end of the mainline from Liverpool to Yarmouth as well as the branch line of the former NSCR line between Bridgewater and Bridgetown via Middleton, as well as the New Germany to Caledonia. Reduced to a line running from Halifax to Liverpool, CN depended on the Bowater paper mill and

1026-559: The CNoR, the line extended south of Lake of the Woods into northern Minnesota before heading northeast through Rainy River District to the head of navigation on the Great Lakes . The Winnipeg-Port Arthur line was completed on December 30, 1901, with the last spike being driven just east of Atikokan station by Ontario's Commissioner of Crown Lands , Elihu Davis . Meanwhile, Mackenzie and Mann expanded their prairie branch line operations to feed

1080-563: The Canadian Parliament pressured Mackenzie and Mann to continue building more rail towards Hudson Bay. In that year, they created a junction on the Erwood to Melfort line near the mouth of the Etoimami river, where Fort Red Deer River existed, and a line was extended north to The Pas . By 1910, the settlement at this junction was renamed Hudson Bay Junction , and the line was completed between

1134-453: The H&;SW also purchased the H&YR with major upgrades being done to this line between Barrington and Yarmouth over the next year. Also in 1905, the H&SW purchased the charter for the incomplete Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway (M&VBR) in the western Annapolis Valley. The 40 mile M&VBR line was opened by the H&SW to connect an iron ore mine at Torbrook , near Middleton on

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1188-550: The H&SW in 1906, the system was merged into Mackenze and Mann's Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) transcontinental system. The H&SW, along with the Inverness Railway , were isolated from the rest of CNoR's trackage which ran from Montreal to Vancouver , not unlike rival Canadian Pacific Railway 's Dominion Atlantic Railway . The CNoR, along with several other railway lines in Canada, entered financial difficulties during

1242-576: The H&SW trackage saw significant infrastructure improvements to ballast, drainage, sleeper ties, rails, switches and bridges. The line still had significant curvature throughout, a result of the rugged local topography on the South Shore (locals called the H&SW the "Hellish Slow & Wobbly"), but the improvements brought respectable track speeds and service improvements. The Intercolonial Railway / Canadian Government Railways Halifax terminal trackage inherited by CNR underwent significant change in

1296-627: The Lakeside Industrial Park near the Beechville area in the 1960s create several large industrial customers. One of them, a Volvo assembly plant attracted steady strings of autorack cars until it closed in 1998. CN passenger service ended on the South Shore on Saturday October 25, 1969, and its stations fell into disuse. The historic H&SW passenger station in Bridgewater was destroyed by an unexplained fire on December 22, 1982. CN's former H&SW lines on Nova Scotia's South Shore and in

1350-587: The Michelin tire plant, but even these customers were unable to keep the line generating positive income. By the late 1980s, CN was given permission to abandon the remaining line from Bridgewater to Liverpool as the Bowater pulp mill in Liverpool shifted its transportation to ocean shipping and trucks. At Bridgewater, CN built a small yard on the east side of the Lahave River and sold its extensive former yard property to

1404-531: The NSCR with its line from Mahone Bay to Bridgewater, forming part of the new mainline between Bridgewater and Halifax. The new construction between Halifax and Mahone Bay was completed by 1904. On April 11, 1903, the H&SW purchased the Nova Scotia Southern Railway (NSSR). The NSSR had no trackage constructed, however it did have a charter to build from the NSCR at New Germany to Caledonia in what

1458-520: The NSCR, with port facilities at Port Wade on Annapolis Basin . Construction was completed in 1906 and H&SW tracks joined the Intercolonial Railway 's mainline in Halifax at Southwestern Junction at Africville and ran into the Intercolonial's North Street Station. On December 19, 1906, the first H&SW through train reached Yarmouth from Halifax. At some point after the completion of

1512-656: The Skeena, the CNoR accepted BC government subsidies to switch to the Vancouver area. When the GTPR selected the Yellowhead route, CNoR protests created some delay but could not overturn he decision. In 1911, CNoR workers started on a townsite named Port Mann on the Fraser River. This townsite would accommodate new car shops, and from there, rail-lines would extend to Vancouver and the Fraser River delta. CNoR's initial expansion in

1566-563: The Stony Plain line meant frequent crossings over the Grand Trunk Pacific line which had been laid in the meantime. Instead CNoR decided to leave Edmonton through St. Albert. (A bump on 124th Street near Stony Plain Road is remnant of the constructed but abandoned road-bed.) CNoR's terminus on the coast changed over time. Rather than competing with the GTPR in having a terminal at the mouth of

1620-472: The Toronto – Parry Sound line to Ottawa and on to Montreal . In 1910 a direct Toronto–Montreal line was built. In 1911, federal funding enabled construction of the line Montreal – Ottawa – Capreol – Port Arthur. In 1912, with GTR and CPR holding the ideal southern routes around Mount Royal to downtown Montreal, CNoR started building a double-tracked mainline north by excavating the Mount Royal Tunnel . In 1910

1674-498: The abortive plans for a railway from Halifax to Yarmouth along the province's South Shore . For many years, the line had significant curvature throughout its length, a result of the rugged local topography, which earned it the moniker, "Hellish Slow & Wobbly". The H&SW was not the first railway to build on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, as various charters for railway companies had preceded it. The Nova Scotia Central Railway (NSCR) had opened its line between Middleton in

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1728-599: The acquisition of branchlines in southwestern Nova Scotia (the Halifax and Southwestern Railway ) and western Cape Breton Island (the Inverness and Richmond Railway ). Other acquisitions were in southern Ontario and a connecting line was built from Toronto to Parry Sound . In 1908, a line, which under later CN ownership was known as the Alderdale Subdivision , was built east from a connection at Capreol, Ontario , on

1782-443: The community of Fairview , adjacent to a large new roundhouse complex. In the years before the domination of publicly funded highways, the H&SW formed a critical transportation link between the various communities, as well as steam ship connections at Yarmouth (to Boston and New York ) and Halifax (to Europe ). In the 1920s, the former M&VBR line was proving uneconomic after the closure of iron ore mines at Torbrook and

1836-689: The company entered the trans-Atlantic liner business with the founding of the Canadian Northern Steamship Company. The subsidiary acquired two liners from the Egyptian Mail Steamship Company and operated them under its Royal Line brand. The pair of ships were renamed upon purchase— Cairo became Royal Edward and Heliopolis became Royal George —and refitted for travel on the North Atlantic. In Royal Line service, Royal Edward sailed from Avonmouth to Montreal in

1890-520: The company was renamed the Halifax and Yarmouth Railway (H&YR) and received a new charter to build east from Lockeport to Liverpool , Bridgewater and Halifax. By 1903 the line had barely reached Barrington. The Liverpool and Milton Tramway also built a short railway up the Mersey River valley between Liverpool and a pulp mill near Milton in Queens County in 1896, opening on February 1, 1897. It

1944-576: The connection to Port Arthur. From a series of disconnected railways and charters, the network became 1,200 miles of profitable and continuous track that covered most of the prairies by 1902. After receiving grants from the Province of Manitoba and the Dominion of Canada in the 1890s, Mackenzie and Mann began building lines further north in Manitoba, with the intention of eventually reaching Hudson Bay . Throughout

1998-486: The independent branchlines that were being constructed in Manitoba in the 1880s and 1890s as a response to the monopoly exercised by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Many such lines were built with the sponsorship of the provincial government, which sought to subsidize local competition to the federally subsidized CPR; however, significant competition was also provided by the encroaching Northern Pacific Railway (NPR) from

2052-425: The junction and The Pas. The long section of rail between The Pas and Churchill was never completed by CNoR. However, after CNoR was acquired by CN , the line was completed in 1929. (see Hudson Bay Railway ) Once elected in 1896, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier was eager for a second transcontinental. However, an expansion of the non- CPR railways west of Alberta would be a mammoth questionable gamble for

2106-629: The largest costs were from building on "the wrong side" of the Thompson and Fraser rivers in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. CPR already had trackage on the desirable banks, forcing the CNoR to blast tunnels and ledges out of these canyons. The most infamous construction folly on the CNoR in British Columbia happened in 1913, when blasting for a passage for the railway at Hells Gate triggered an enormous landslide which partially blocked

2160-542: The late 1910s with the construction and opening of a new south-end terminal and station in 1920. The project saw a massive railway cut built across the isthmus of the Halifax Peninsula which affected the H&SW tracks that connected with the ICR mainline near Africville . In 1921, the Halifax end of the H&SW was shifted to join the new alignment in the rock cut by constructing what became known as "Southwestern Junction" in

2214-577: The name Canadian National Railway (CNR) as a means to simplify funding and operations, but CNoR and CGR would not formally merge and cease corporate existence until January 20, 1923, the date Parliament passed the final act to incorporate CNR. Significant portions of the old CNoR system survive under CN (as the CNR has been known since 1960); for example: The majority of CN's former CNoR branchline network across Canada has either been abandoned or sold to shortline operators. An important U.S. subsidiary of CNoR,

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2268-450: The narrow swift-flowing Fraser River. The resulting damage to Pacific salmon runs took decades to reverse by the governmental construction of fishways . Mackenzie and Mann began their first significant expansion outside of the prairies with the purchase of Great Lakes steamships, the Quebec and Lake St-John Railway  [ fr ] (1906) into northern Quebec 's Saguenay region and

2322-522: The operators. Adding an equally costly route to supplement the existing uneconomical CP track through Ontario seemed more ludicrous. At the time, the CNoR planned to advance no further west than Edmonton. In 1902, the GTR held talks with Laurier and agreed to build a transcontinental under the auspices of the GTPR for the western portion, with the eastern portion built by the government-owned NTR . The CNoR, which had

2376-538: The original H&SW trackage. The last freight trains operated on the spur west of Southwestern Junction through to the Lakeside Industrial Park in late 2007. The rail corridor was purchased by the Halifax Regional Municipality and by October 2009, rails at level crossings were lifted and paved over and by September 2010, all the remaining track of the CN Chester Spur had been removed and replaced by

2430-649: The owner of a sawmill and gristmill in Kirkfield , Ontario. He entered the railway business as a contractor under civil engineer James Ross , working on projects in Ontario, British Columbia , Maine , and the North-West Territories (present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta ) between 1874 and 1891. In partnership with his mentor James Ross, Mackenzie became owner of the Toronto Street Railway (precursor to

2484-654: The port at Port Wade. CNR applied in 1925 to abandon west of Middleton, but permission was given to abandon only west of Bridgetown . By 1928, bridges were removed and trackage would be removed in the following years. The construction of the large Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited mill at Brooklyn in 1929 led to more traffic from the Liverpool area. Shipyards in Liverpool and Shelburne lent some traffic, as did various saw mills and logging operations at locations between Yarmouth and Halifax and between Bridgewater and Middleton/Bridgetown and New Germany to Caledonia. The naval base HMCS Shelburne opened on Shelburne Harbour during

2538-481: The province of Alberta . The rail-line crossed the North Saskatchewan River at Fort Saskatchewan, coming into Edmonton from the northeast, following the present-day LRT track. After a pause, the CNoR began construction west from Edmonton, and by summer 1907 had gone as far as Stony Plain. A stock market crash that year ceased construction. When construction was resumed in 1910, it was found that extending

2592-565: The shipping of western grain to European markets as well as the transport of eastern Canadian goods to the West. This line incorporated an existing CNoR line to Lake of the Woods and two local Ontario railways, the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway and the Ontario and Rainy River Railway , whose charters Mackenzie and Mann had acquired in 1897. To reach Port Arthur, which became the lake terminus of

2646-541: The south. Two branchline contractors, Sir William Mackenzie and Sir Donald Mann , took control of the bankrupt Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company in January, 1896. The partners expanded their enterprise, in 1897, by building further north into Manitoba's Interlake district as well as east and west of Winnipeg . They also began building and buying lines south to connect with the U.S. border at Pembina, North Dakota , and east to Ontario . The Canadian Northern Railway

2700-611: The summer months and to Halifax in the winter months. At the outbreak of World War I , Royal Edward and Royal George were both requisitioned for use as troopships. On August 13, 1915, the German submarine UB-14 sank Royal Edward , which was transporting troops from Avonmouth to Gallipoli . Royal George was sold to Cunard in 1916, became an emigrant ship in Cherbourg by 1920 and scrapped in 1922 in Wilhelmshaven . Plans for

2754-440: Was driven January 23, 1915, at Basque, British Columbia , with Montreal-Vancouver freight and passenger services commencing six months later, and providing a rail network in Nova Scotia, Southern Ontario, Minnesota, and on Vancouver Island . Between 1915 and 1918, CNoR tried desperately to increase profits, but CPR garnered the majority of wartime traffic. The company was also saddled with ongoing construction costs associated with

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2808-430: Was established, on January 13, 1899 and all railway companies owned by Mackenzie and Mann (primarily in Manitoba) were consolidated into the new entity. CNoR's first step toward competing directly with CPR came at the start of the 20th century with the decision to build a line linking the Prairie Provinces with Lake Superior at the harbour in Port Arthur - Fort William (modern Thunder Bay , Ontario), which would permit

2862-408: Was renamed the Liverpool and Milton Railway (L&MR) in 1900. The H&SW was created in spring 1901 when Mackenzie and Mann approached the provincial government with plans to finish the abortive plans for a railway from the City of Halifax to Yarmouth. Experienced railway engineers, MacKenzie and Mann already owned 2,000 miles in track in Canada by this time. On July 1, 1902, the H&SW purchased

2916-434: Was rich timber territory. Upon acquiring the NSSR charter, the H&SW built the 22 miles of track over the following months, with the first train reaching Caledonia on July 1, 1904. In April 1905, the H&SW purchased the L&MR, with a short section of that line forming part of the main line between Bridgewater and Barrington. The new construction between Bridgewater and Barrington was completed later that year. In 1905,

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