A magnificent view of the Suspension Bridge over the Niagara River gorge. The unidentified locomotive appears to be a Great Western 4-4-0. The photograph can be approximately dated by the absence of multiple (four) rails to accommodate multiple (three) gauges (i.e., four feet eight and a half inches, five feet six inches, and six feet), to 1871 or later. The colossal strength built into the bridge is echoed in the twin towers at each end.
McCord Museum, Montreal, Quebec.
Roebling Suspension Bridge over the Niagara gorge, 1869. Note the interesting train-signal arrangements in the pre-semaphore era. The triple rails indicate that the line is open to locomotives and rolling stock of two gauges.
Canada Science and Technology Museum.
Promoters of the Great Western had confidently (recklessly?) predicted that trains would be running by December 1, 1852. However, one full year after this date, only the short section between Hamilton and Suspension Bridge (Niagara Falls) was, in fact, completed (the inaugural train ran on November 1 and regular service commenced on November 10). Not until December 15, 1853, did the inaugural train run from Suspension Bridge to London (with regular service commencing on December 21). This was followed on January 17, 1854, by the inaugural train from Suspension Bridge to Windsor (with regular service commencing on January 27).
The delay, however, in no way diminished the enthusiasm of the crowds turning out to welcome the first “iron horse” in southwestern Ontario. Dundas, Paris, Woodstock, Ingersoll, and London all made elaborate preparations that clearly demonstrated how well their citizens understood the importance of the completion of the railway. The Globe (December 19, 1853) described the reaction of the crowds along the line: “Joy and expectation lighted up every face. Each man appeared to feel that some great good had been conferred on him, and was now within his grasp.”
The same author found it difficult to restrain himself from what might well be considered national pride:
My English readers might well imagine from the heading that I had been on an excursion from Bath or Bristol to the Great Metropolis [London, U.K.]. But it is not so. We now possess in Canada, not only a London, but a Great Western Railway, which though not quite so broad [five feet six inches versus seven feet in gauge], is much longer than its English namesake.
Somewhat less impressed, however, was William Bowman, mechanical superintendent of the Great Western, who wrote in 1903:
The weather was cold and raw, and the mud along the line was simply appalling…. We left Hamilton early in the afternoon, and it was near dusk when we arrived at London. The time was very slow, slow even for those days, owing to the condition of the roadbed; and it was my opinion at the time that it was a foolhardy notion to attempt the trip on such a roadbed. The rocking of the coaches was frightful, and I thought at times we would go into the mud in the ditch. We stopped at all stations along the line but it was difficult to leave the coaches, as there were no platforms as yet erected, and the mud was too deep to wade into.
— London Advertiser, December 19, 1903
During the Suspension Bridge to Windsor inaugural service, two trains of twelve coaches each conveyed four hundred guests from New York State and three hundred guests from Hamilton and Toronto. Arriving at 1700 hours in Windsor (three hours late), a magnificent banquet was served in the Michigan Central freight shed in Detroit. Two thousand guests attended the latter celebration.
A rare photograph depicting the British directors of the Great Western gathered outside of Dundurn Castle. The legend identifies some of those present. MacNab is just to the right of the two ladies in white. Also to be found are Isaac Buchanan (#4), C.J. Brydges, Great Western then later Grand Trunk manager (#14), and George Reid, engineer (#15). This photograph was taken before mid-1862.
Dundurn National Historic Site.
Two days later a similar celebration occurred in Hamilton. An excursion from Detroit was given a twenty-one gun salute followed by a public procession. Sir Allan MacNab was confined to bed but a company of artillery, along with a large crowd, went to Dundurn to honour MacNab, who thanked them from his bedroom window. After arrival of another train with guests from Milwaukee and Detroit, all sat down to a sumptuous feast.
Despite the enthusiastic welcome to the “iron horse” in southwestern Ontario, the first year of operations on the Great Western would be a difficult one. As alluded to in William Bowman’s reaction to the Hamilton-to-London inaugural trip, the railway was unfinished when opened to traffic. The line had been opened in an unballasted state with many deficiencies in the roadbed, including collapsed embankments, subsided fill, mud three feet deep in some cuttings, and a profile “like the side view of a sea-serpent.” The quality of the work was truly abysmal, especially work performed by Zimmerman’s crews. The cost of renovating and maintaining the roadbed would be enormous, as would the cost in broken-down locomotives and rolling stock. The most appalling feature of the first year, however, was the frequency of accidents on the line and the attendant fearful human cost, virtually all of which were due to either deficiencies in the roadbed due to poor workmanship and premature opening of the railway or errors on the part of railway employees. The reader is referred to chapter 6 for a complete discussion of these issues.
May 12, 1854, saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the Galt and Guelph Railway and was considered a holiday in the town of Preston. Stores were closed and throngs of people milled about. At 1400 hours a procession formed at Klotz’s Hotel and proceeded to the site of the railway grounds, where Sheriff Grange addressed the crowd and then a quantity of earth was dug and tossed into a wheelbarrow. A cannon fired, the band played, more speeches were made, then all returned to the hotel for the usual celebration of food, drink, speeches, and toasts. This branch would not open for business until September 28, 1857.
The first non-roadbed-related infrastructure disaster occurred on Thursday July 30, 1854, when the St. George depot was destroyed by fire. The new locomotive Jupiter (#38) along with a number of cars were also lost. The locomotive had been expected in Galt, hauling a load of rails.
The Hamilton-to-Toronto branch was important in establishing that the Great Western was a “Trunk Line.” By June 1855 grading had been completed from Hamilton to Port Credit (twenty-six miles), including widening the Great Western embankment around Hamilton Bay to accommodate double-tracking of the main line. Four cuttings required the removal of massive amounts of material. Cuttings on the west side of the Credit River, the east side of the Etobicoke River, and at the Mimico River required removal of four thousand cubic yards each, while the cutting through the Garrison Common at Toronto required removal of twenty-eight thousand cubic yards. Bridges were required at the old Desjardins Canal/gorge; Applegarths, Twelve Mile and Sixteen Mile creeks; and the Credit, Humber, and Etobicoke Rivers. Combination passenger/freight stations were built at Wellington Square (Burlington), Bronte, Oakville, and Port Credit. Water tanks and woodsheds were built at Bronte and Port Credit. At Toronto a permanent brick engine house and turntable and temporary passenger depot were located at Queens Wharf on eleven acres of Ordnance land adjoining the Old Fort. In fact, the first passenger depot in Toronto was a six-by-ten-foot ticket box adjacent to a small engine shed, between Brock and Front Streets. The Great Western had hoped to go east along the Esplanade to use the Northern Railway station, but this move was held up by Toronto City Council.
The grand celebration of the opening of the Hamilton-to-Toronto line took place on December 3, 1855. The celebration train, full to capacity, left Toronto at 0810 hours on its westward trip.