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The Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (TG&B) was a railway company which operated in
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada in the years immediately following the
Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...
of 1867. It connected two rural counties,
Grey County Grey County is a county in the province of Ontario. The county is located in the Southwestern Ontario region, and is a part of the Georgian Triangle. At the time of the 2021 Canadian census the population of the county was 100,905. Owen Sound is ...
and
Bruce County Bruce County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It has eight lower-tier municipalities with a total 2021 population of 73,396. It is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, the sixth Governor General of t ...
, with the provincial capital of
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
to the east. The TG&B suffered from engineering and financial problems throughout its existence, and its struggle to finance a gauge conversion from narrow to
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
led to a takeover by bondholders and subsequent acquisition by the
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
through its proxy, the
Ontario and Quebec Railway The Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&Q) was a railway located in southern and eastern Ontario, Canada. It was initially chartered in March 1881 by managers of the Canadian Pacific Railway to run between Toronto and Perth, where it would connect, via ...
. The bulk of the former TG&B lines were managed under Canadian Pacific's Bruce Division, which had its
divisional point In Canada and also in the United States, a divisional point (or division point) is a local operational headquarters for a railway. Divisional points are significant in railway maintenance of way operations. Especially historically, they could be the ...
at Orangeville, the junction of the original TG&B lines to Owen Sound and Teeswater.


Background

Early development of railways in the
Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...
, which consisted of
Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...
(Quebec) and
Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...
(Ontario), was delayed by lack of capital and industrial infrastructure. The first major national railway development was the construction of the
Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...
of Canada on a gauge of from Portland, Maine to Sarnia, Canada West via Montreal and Toronto, with a branch from Richmond to Levis, near Quebec City. Investment funds for railways were scarce in the Dominion of Canada because the economy was mainly agricultural, and most capital was tied up in land. The line was constructed by the English contractors Peto, Brassey and
Betts Betts is an English Patronymic surname, deriving from the medieval personal name Bett, a short form of Bartholomew, Beatrice, or Elizabeth. It is also the americanized spelling of German Betz. The surname may refer to * Alejandro Jacobo Betts (1947 ...
, who undertook to raise the capital required in London if they obtained the contract. As a result of the exorbitant cost of land and charters, overbuilding stone bridges and stations to English standards, and initial lack of traffic to support the capital cost, the line was soon insolvent. This failure together with a severe recession, and the US Civil War meant that no more capital could be raised, and almost no railways were built in Canada during the 1860s. There was a return of confidence with the Confederation of the
British North American British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, ...
colonies into
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
in 1867, and the political promise of a transcontinental railway to the Pacific. Merchants, industrialists, and politicians of Toronto, Ontario and surrounding counties began to look for ways of opening up the back country 'bush' north of the city to settlement and trade. Lakes and rivers had been the principal means of transportation but they were frozen and unusable for 4–5 months of the year. Road construction was primitive, and trees were cut down and laid side by side in
swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
s to form 'corduroy' roads. Most roads were passable in winter (hard frozen) and summer (hard baked) but impassable mud troughs in spring and fall. The government struggled to find a way to provide essential railway service inexpensively through wild, unsettled territory.


Choice of narrow gauge, promotion, and financing

A charismatic Scots-born Toronto
wharfinger Wharfinger (pronounced ''wor-fin-jer)'' is an archaic term for a person who is the keeper or owner of a wharf. The wharfinger takes custody of and is responsible for goods delivered to the wharf, typically has an office on the wharf or dock, and ...
and trader, George Laidlaw took up the challenge. He was a business associate of the powerful Gooderham and Worts Distillery interests, and other Toronto bankers and merchants. Laidlaw advertised in newspapers in London, England, for suggestions as to how railways might be built more cheaply in Canada. He received a reply from
Carl Abraham Pihl Carl Abraham Pihl (16 January 1825 – 14 September 1897) was a Norwegian civil engineer and director of the Norwegian State Railways (NSB) from 1865 until his death. Pihl was one of the main architects of the use of narrow-gauge railways in Nor ...
, first managing engineer of Norway's Railway Construction Bureau. Pihl had worked on the construction, under
Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson , (honoris causa, Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of hi ...
, of the first Norwegian trunk railway the
Hovedbanen In telecommunications, trunking is a technology for providing network access to multiple clients simultaneously by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies, instead of providing individual circuits or channels for each clie ...
from Christiania (today
Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
) to
Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the munic ...
, which opened in 1854 where the same issues of overbuilding a line in a small farming and fishing economy, had led to an unaffordable railway. He now advocated the use of the narrow gauge of with all major construction in wood, which system he had developed since the early 1860s. Pihl's ideas had been noticed in Britain where the smaller
Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway () is a heritage railway based on Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia#Snowdonia National Park, Snowdonia National Park. The ...
in Wales was also proving a success. After a visit to Norway the gauge was taken up by Sir Charles Fox and Sons, the firm founded by the eminent engineer and constructor of the
Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...
at the
Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition that took ...
of 1851. Fox had a very influential consulting practice throughout the former British Empire and Colonies and was instrumental in gaining acceptance for the gauge in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. The choice of the narrow gauge led to vigorous challenges in London, England and Canada. Zerah Colburn, the editor of the London technical journal ''Engineering'', used its columns to violently criticise the advice of Douglas Fox, the elder son of Sir Charles Fox, to the promoters, which was taken up by the
Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...
''Spectator'' which supported that town's claim to be the hub (rather than Toronto) of railway traffic for western Ontario.
Abraham Fitzgibbon Abraham 'Abram' Fitzgibbon (23 January 1823 – 4 April 1887) was an Irish-born railroad engineer and a pioneer for narrow-gauge railways. Career In the early 1860s, Fitzgibbon was working at Dun Mountain Railway in Nelson, New Zealand, a hors ...
, the chief engineer of the
Queensland Railways Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Queensland Rail is owned by the Queensland Government, and operates both suburban and interurban rail services in South East Queensland, as well as long-distance passenger t ...
, came to the aid of the promoters with a speech in Toronto. The main opposition to the narrow gauge came from the
Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway The Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway (WG&BR) was a railway in Ontario, Canada. It ran roughly northwest from Guelph (in Wellington County) to the port town of Southampton (in Bruce County) on Lake Huron, a distance of . It also had a branch ...
in the west and the Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway in the east. Both lines were proposing to build competing lines on the "Provincial" gauge and claimed that the choice of the narrow gauge was a ruse to ensure that all the traffic of the districts would be exclusively trans-shipped at Toronto, rather than Hamilton and
Whitby, Ontario Whitby is a town in Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham Region in Ontario, Canada. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Ajax, Ontario, Ajax and west of Oshawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of D ...
. The opposition narrowly failed to defeat the narrow gauge, and Provincial Charters were granted to the
Toronto and Nipissing Railway The Toronto and Nipissing Railway (T&N) was the first public narrow-gauge railway in North America. It chartered in 1868 to build from Toronto to Lake Nipissing in Ontario, Canada, via York, Ontario, and Victoria counties. At Nipissing it would me ...
, and the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway, on March 4, 1868. George Laidlaw sought to raise money to finance the construction of the narrow-gauge railways by the following means, in order of preference: * Bonuses approved by vote of taxpayers from each township and county on the route of the line * Provincial government grants per mile of track built, under the "Aid to Railways Act" * Sale of Stock * Sale of Bonds * Loans Laidlaw and other directors fanned out through the townships speaking at taxpayer meetings in support of bonuses for the railways. His messianic style at these meetings often generated so much enthusiasm that motions were immediately approved to grant large sums in support of the lines. On the morrow the local politicians often had second and more sober thoughts and sought to control the process themselves, trying to dictate where and when the money would be spent, and on what. Long campaigns ensued with businessmen and progressive farmers whose lots would be near the line advocating large unconditional grants and those in more distant locations opposing the free bonuses of tax money. Generally, the response of the settlers, anxious to expand opportunities for trade and travel, was generous. However, when strongly opposed, Laidlaw's combative and insulting responses could generate such opposition that townships delayed contributing money for years or refused entirely. By late 1874, when the TG&BR was open to Owen Sound and almost complete to Teeswater, the approximate total of the capital account, excluding minor receipts and expenses, since the start of construction in 1869, was: Receipts ($) * Municipal Bonuses 869,000 * Government Grants 232,000 * Calls on Stock 271,000 * Sale of Bonds 1,201,000 Total Receipts 2,573,000 Expenditures ($) * Engineering 206,000 * Right of Way 47,000 * Construction 1,649,000 * Iron and Fastenings 368,000 * Rolling Stock 392,000 Total Expenditures 2,562,000 Contrary to the hopes of the promoters, the proceeds from bonuses, grants, and stock sales fell short of paying for construction of the roadbed and structures by over $400,000. This deficit and the cost of purchasing iron and equipment had to be made up by issuing bonds whose guaranteed interest payments were a heavy burden on the income of the TG&BR and ultimately were to prove fatal to its prospects. The Act empowering the Toronto, Grey and Bruce specified that the railway should extend from Toronto via Orangeville, to Mount Forest and Durham, where it would split into a northerly branch to Southampton and a southerly one to Kincardine. Another branch north to
Owen Sound Owen Sound (2021 Canadian Census, 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat, seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi River, Pottawatomi and Sydenham River ...
was to commence at Mount Forest or Durham. A line from Toronto first had to get to the Humber Valley at Weston by means of a third rail in the 5 ft 6in gauge track of the Grand Trunk Railway, proceed up the Humber Valley to
Bolton, Ontario Bolton ( 2021 population 26,795) is an unincorporated town and is the most populous community in the town of Caledon, Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is located beside the Humber River, approximately 50 kilometres nor ...
and then traverse the Caledon Mountain to gain Orangeville via the Credit Valley. The line would then go west to
Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...
, and then north to Mount Forest. On the lower part of the line, as far as Orangeville, municipal bonuses were generally given freely and generously, but beyond that place Garafraxa and Luther townships did not contribute towards the 15 miles of the line along their township borders. At first blocked from reaching Owen Sound via Durham, the TG&BR eventually soundly trounced the
Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway The Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway (WG&BR) was a railway in Ontario, Canada. It ran roughly northwest from Guelph (in Wellington County) to the port town of Southampton (in Bruce County) on Lake Huron, a distance of . It also had a branch ...
in bonus elections in
Grey County Grey County is a county in the province of Ontario. The county is located in the Southwestern Ontario region, and is a part of the Georgian Triangle. At the time of the 2021 Canadian census the population of the county was 100,905. Owen Sound is ...
, and reached Owen Sound via Shelburne and Dundalk, Ontario. The TG&BR lost most of its battles with the WG&BR in
Bruce County Bruce County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It has eight lower-tier municipalities with a total 2021 population of 73,396. It is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, the sixth Governor General of t ...
. Eventually it abandoned any hope of reaching Kincardine and settled for a western terminus at Teeswater.


Engineering

The Toronto, Grey and Bruce and the Toronto and Nipissing Railways were promoted at the same time and with similar objectives by an interlocking group of Ontario businessmen and politicians. It is not surprising that the group saved by employing one chief engineer to apply the same design principles and choices on both lines. The first consulting engineer in Canada was
John Edward Boyd John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...
of New Brunswick, who conducted the preliminary surveys over the ground to Orangeville and Uxbridge. Douglas Fox came to Canada several times in 1868 and 1869 to support the parliamentary campaign and verify the surveys. On his return to England in summer of 1869, he made arrangements for an associate,
Edmund Wragge Edmund Wragge (1837 – 26 November 1929) was a British-born and trained engineer who constructed the first common-carrier narrow gauge railways in North America. He was invited back to Britain in 1897 to engineer the difficult approaches of t ...
, to come to Canada at once to take up the engineering of both lines. In August Wragge visited Pihl in Norway to see his narrow gauge lines and arrived in Toronto in September 1869. The tenders for the first sections of line were immediately put out. The engineering of the TG&BR was of the more substantial nature on the two lines; including three major bridges at the crossing of the Humber River, the Grand River, and the Saugeen River at Mount Forest; and the ascent of the
Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is an approximately discontinuous, arc-shaped but generally northward-facing escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States. The escarpment begins south of Lake Ontario and circumscribes the top of the Great Lake ...
(Caledon Mountain) between Mono Road and Charleston (now Caledon village) which involved a "horseshoe" reverse curve of radius and a
gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...
of 2% or 1:50. The line leaving Toronto Union Station through Parkdale from 1873 to 1879 offered the unusual coincidence of parallel running with the -gauge
Northern Railway of Canada The Northern Railway of Canada was a railway in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first Steam locomotive, steam railway to enter service in what was then known as Upper Canada. It was eventually ac ...
and two (
standard-gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
) rail lines.Lavallée (1972) p.15 Wragge appointed Alan McDougall as his first resident engineer on the TG&BR. Later one of the resident engineers was Charles Sproatt of Toronto, who later became Toronto City Engineer. Edmund Wragge remained Chief Engineer of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway until its absorption into the CPR.


Construction

The successful contract bidder on the first section of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway as far as Mount Forest was
Frank Shanly Frank, FRANK, or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a Germanic people in late Roman times * Franks, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusa ...
. The line was opened to Orangeville in September and to Mount Forest in December 1871. The contract for the Grey Extension from Orangeville Junction to Owen Sound was split between Frank Shanly (Orangeville Junction to Berkeley), and William Innes McKenzie (Owen Sound to Berkeley), completed in August 1873. Shanly completed this work satisfactorily but subsequently encountered financial difficulties with a
Midland Railway of Canada The Midland Railway of Canada was a historical Canadian railway which ran from Port Hope, Ontario to Midland on Georgian Bay. The line was originally intended to run to Peterborough, but the competing Cobourg and Peterborough Railway was comple ...
contract, and the work on the Bruce Extension from Mount Forest to Harriston was awarded solely to McKenzie. After the death of his partner,
John Shedden John Shedden (November 4, 1825 – May 16, 1873) was a Scottish-born Canadian business owner and contractor involved in railway development. The son of John Shedden and Jean Wyllie, he was born in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire and was educated at the Ir ...
, William Innes McKenzie himself became insolvent and the line from Harriston to Teeswater was completed in November 1874 by small contractors from Mount Forest.


Locomotives

The first locomotives on the TG&BR were a
4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abs ...
and some smaller
4-4-0 4-4-0, in the Whyte notation, denotes a steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels. First built in the ...
s ordered from the
Avonside Engine Company The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company. Origins The firm was original ...
by George Laidlaw, and John Gordon during a visit to England in the Spring of 1869. This was before the appointment of Edmund Wragge as Chief Engineer, and it is likely that they were advised to order them by Douglas Fox based on his similar recommendations for the
Queensland Railways Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Queensland Rail is owned by the Queensland Government, and operates both suburban and interurban rail services in South East Queensland, as well as long-distance passenger t ...
. In 1872 a Fairlie
0-6-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a wheel arrangement refers to a locomotive with two engine units mounted under a rigid locomotive frame, with the front engine unit pivoting and each engine unit with six coup ...
was received from Avonside together with another, larger, 4-6-0. Then followed two small
2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. T ...
s from the
Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, Eddystone in the early 20th century. The com ...
. The final order to Avonside was for three small and one large 4-6-0. late delivery of these engines from England in 1873 was responsible in large part for the locomotive order going to Baldwin for six
2-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...
s delivered in 1874. The most successful of all these locomotives, judged by their utilisation, were the Avonside 4-6-0s. One of the 4-4-0s and several of the 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s continued in
standard-gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
service with the
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
(CPR). Some details of these TG&BR locomotives have long been confused in early historical reviews, and the errors repeated in subsequent publications. Reference to the original company records held by Library and Archives Canada, the published Annual Reports of the Company, the Avonside Engine Company records held at the
Leeds Industrial Museum The Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills is a museum of industrial heritage located in Armley, near Leeds, in West Yorkshire, Northern England. The museum includes collections of textile machinery, railway equipment and heavy engineering amo ...
(UK), and the Baldwin Order books in the DeGolyer Library of
Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...
have established the correct numbering and data cited below:


Rolling stock

Based partly on contemporary British railway practice, the experience of Sir Charles Fox and Sons on the Queensland Railways, and Carl Abraham Pihl's work in Norway, the early rolling stock was intended to consist of short four-wheel
boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
s, and longer six-wheel flat and
passenger cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
using Clark's
radial axle A radial axle is an axle on a railway locomotive or carriage which has been designed to move laterally, along the arc of a circle, when entering a curve to reduce the flange and rail wear. William Bridges Adams was an early developer of radial axles ...
arrangement. The four-wheel boxcars were reliable and suited the traffic at first but became too small for the increasing traffic and were not added to after 1874. Many became wayside grounded tool vans after gauge standardisation. The first longer flatcars were built using imported sets of Clark's radial gear and put into service with the construction contractors. The intention was that they would go more easily around tight curves. Whether through bad design, poor assembly, or abuse and heavy uneven loading by the construction gangs, the six-wheel cars proved disastrously prone to derailment and were soon put aside in favour of cars re-equipped with two standard North American four-wheel trucks (bogies). The passenger cars were never used in six-wheel form due to safety concerns. Most of the early TG&BR freight and passenger cars were built by Dickey, Neill and Company at the Beverley Street Foundry, Toronto. The Company was a substantial investor in the TG&BR. The first passenger cars were notable in having a compound curved roof with a high centre section, giving extra headroom over the centre gangway; an arrangement often seen on horse-drawn streetcars of the period. Some later freight cars were built by the James Crossen Works, of
Cobourg Cobourg ( ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is ...
. Four larger and more luxurious passenger cars were obtained in 1874 from Jackson and Sharp of Wilmington, Delaware. In the mid-1870s, the TG&BR owned 18 cars in passenger and mail service, and 466 freight cars of all types.


Operation

Passenger and freight traffic on the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway grew strongly at first, challenging the ability of the line to carry all that was offered. The TG&BR directors reacted tardily, causing many complaints about the backlogs of traffic. Eventually they did buy substantial numbers of new locomotives and freight cars, just in time to suffer the devastating effects of poor grain harvests and the business recession of the mid-late 1870s. This weighed heavily on the line's ability to pay a return on the capital invested, and the TG&BR entered a period of constant insolvency, and recurrent efforts to re-structure the debt. Lumber and firewood gradually declined and was not compensated for by the expected increase in agricultural produce. Operating ratios (costs/receipts) were worse than the T&NR, but not substantially different from those of other small Ontario railways of the period. They were substantially worse than those of large railways such as the GTR and CPR. The gross TG&BR profit was barely equivalent to 4-5% on its outstanding bonds, which had been sold with a guaranteed return of 7-8%. This left nothing for renewals of equipment and trackage or for the stockholders. The Grey extension to Owen Sound carried a vigorous traffic in passengers and freight, for onward carriage to the Lakehead by steamers. The Bruce extension to Teeswater was very sparsely used in the 1870s and there were continuous efforts to devise an economic passenger service to suit the circumstances. The typical passenger service consisted of two trains per day each way between Owen Sound and Toronto; there was only one return trip each day from Teeswater to Orangeville. Orangeville had three trains a day to and from Toronto. Freight traffic over the Caledon Hills and the heights near Dundalk required powerful 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 locomotives, which seem to have handled the traffic comfortably, although trains often had to be divided between Mono Road and Charleston (Caledon). The small narrow-gauge engines were able to cope with normal winter weather, but there were major blockages of the line in the 'snowbelt' country above Orangeville, which sometimes closed the line for several weeks. The TG&BR was sometimes unable, for many months, to pay the overtime wages for manually clearing these drifts. There were few public accidents, but a severe toll of industrial fatalities to the operating staff. The most dangerous job was brakesman, with many young men being crippled or killed when walking along the tops of vehicles to manually screw down brakes and when manually coupling cars using the highly dangerous link-and-pin couplers. The worst incident on the TG&BR occurred at Arthur when a passenger was killed by shots fired at a train crew by drunken members of the
Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...
on July 12, 1872.


Change of gauge and absorption by the Canadian Pacific Railway

The poor financial returns on investment of all small Ontario railways in the late 1870s caused severe discontent among the bondholders. Many charged that the TG&BR's troubles were due to the narrow gauge which made freight haulage uneconomical. From 1877, there were many calls for converting the gauge to , but in fact, the line had no lack of capacity. The real issue was overcapacity during a protracted traffic slump. In any case, no one would volunteer the capital to convert the gauge. Eventually, there were warnings that the line was becoming unsafe by the deterioration of wooden trestles and iron rails and would soon have to close. The bondholders lost patience and seized the line. They approached the Grand Trunk Railway, which obtained control of the TG&BR and financed the renewals and
gauge conversion Track gauge conversion is the changing of one railway track gauge (the distance between the running rails) to another. In general, requirements depend on whether the conversion is from a wider gauge to a narrower gauge or vice versa, on how the ...
in late 1881. Unfortunately, the GTR encountered its own financial problems in digesting the
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...
and had to cede control to the
Ontario and Quebec Railway The Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&Q) was a railway located in southern and eastern Ontario, Canada. It was initially chartered in March 1881 by managers of the Canadian Pacific Railway to run between Toronto and Perth, where it would connect, via ...
, a proxy for the Canadian Pacific Railway, on August 1, 1883.


See also

* Narrow-gauge railways in Canada *
Toronto and Nipissing Railway The Toronto and Nipissing Railway (T&N) was the first public narrow-gauge railway in North America. It chartered in 1868 to build from Toronto to Lake Nipissing in Ontario, Canada, via York, Ontario, and Victoria counties. At Nipissing it would me ...
*
List of Ontario railways The following railways operate in the Canadian province of Ontario. Common freight carriers *Barrie Collingwood Railway (BCRY) *Canadian National Railway (CN) including subsidiaries Algoma Central Railway (AC), Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW) ...
*
Rail transport in Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
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History of rail transport in Canada : ''This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series.'' The history of rail transport in Canada began in the early 19th century. The Canadian railway system saw several expansion "booms" throughout history, as well as a m ...
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List of defunct Canadian railways Most transportation historians date the history of Canada's railways as beginning on February 25, 1832, with the incorporation of British North America's first steam-powered railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad (C&SL). This line opened ...


Notes


References

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External links


"Narrow Gauge Through the Bush", Charles Cooper's Railway Pages

"Narrow Gauge Through the Bush", R. Milland Pages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toronto Grey Bruce Railway Defunct Ontario railways Narrow-gauge railways in Ontario 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Canada Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiaries 1868 establishments in Ontario Rail transport in Owen Sound History of rail transport in Grey County Rail transport in Bruce County Rail transport in Dufferin County Transport in Orangeville, Ontario History of rail transport in Wellington County, Ontario History of rail transport in Huron County, Ontario Canadian companies established in 1868