Victoria Railway

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Victoria Railway
Overview
LocaleOntario, Canada
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Not to be confused with Victorian Railways of Australia.

The Victoria Railway is a historic 55.52-mile (89.35 km) long[1] Canadian railway that operated in Central Ontario. Construction under Chief Engineer James Ross began in 1874 from Lindsay, Ontario, with authority to build through Victoria County to Haliburton, Ontario, to which it opened on November 24, 1878 (1878-11-24).[2][3][4] The line is best known as having been built by a large group of Icelandic immigrants, who found the Kinmount winters too rough, and so they all moved to Gimli, Manitoba.[5] The line became part of the Midland Railway of Canada and then later part of the Canadian National Railways. The line was abandoned completely by the early 1990s.[1]

History[]

The Lindsay, Fenelon Falls, and Ottawa River Railway was chartered in 1872. The line ran north from Lindsay through the former Victoria County and continued onwards to join a then prospected line of the Canadian Pacific Railway near the town of Mattawa. Soon after the gauge was changed from a narrow to standard gauge, and the railway was renamed "The Victoria Railway." The railway initially met significant opposition from the town of Peterborough while Lindsay and the unincorporated village of Fenelon Falls, supported the project enthusiastically. Municipal blockades against the railway were removed in 1874 by making Fenelon Falls an incorporated village and creating the Provisional County of Haliburton out of the northern townships of Peterborough and Victoria counties. With funds allocated the railway construction in Lindsay on August 5th, 1874 by the decree of the Honourable Christopher Finlay Fraser, then Ontario Commissioner of Public Works.[5]

Construction began with the segment between Lindsay and Kinmount, where derooting large pine stumps posed significant difficulty to the labourers. In addition to this, multiple bridges needed to be constructed between the two towns. This included a 200 foot bridge over Distillery Creek, a 500 foot bridge and 3000 foot fill at McLaren's Creek, a $20,000 bridge over the Fenelon River, and a 133 foot bridge over the Burnt River. Work on the railway was interrupted twice by financial depression in 1875. The railway was largely constructed by an immigrant community of 300 Icelandic men, women, and children who settled Kinmount in 1874. However, alongside the financial depression in 1875, dysentery demoralised construction efforts. This led to the Icelandic immigrants all moving to Manitoba in September of 1875. Construction picked up once again however with the arrival of steel, despite financial restraints on the project. The railway received more funding when president of the project, George Laidlaw, secured a grant of $8,000 per mile from the Ontario provincial government and a bonus $3,000 per mile from the Canada Land and Emigration Company, which owned much of Haliburton County. The largest obstacle to the project came when a large rock cutting and a sinkhole four miles north of Kinmount interfered with the final 22 miles of the railway. The 56 miles of rail from Lindsay to Haliburton village finally opened to traffic on November 26th, 1878.[5]

Timeline[]

Principal stations[]

Closure[]

The line became part of Canadian National Railways in 1923 with its acquisition of the former Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Mixed freight/passenger train service ran until September, 1960. CN applied for abandonment in 1978. The Canadian Transport Commission approved the line's abandonment in 1981, and most of the line being taken up in 1983; a final short section south of Kent St Lindsay was taken up in October 1992.[1] The entire length of the line is now the Haliburton County Rail Trail and the Victoria County Rail Trail public recreational trails.[10]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Smith, Jeffrey P (2011-07-27). "CNR Haliburton Subdivision". CNR in Ontario. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  2. ^ Smith, Jeffrey P (2011-05-05). "Haliburton". CNR in Ontario. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  3. ^ "Victoria Railway, The". Online Plaque Guide. Ontario Heritage Trust. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  4. ^ "The Victoria Railway". Ontario's Historical Plaques. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  5. ^ a b c Curry, Ronald (1 January 1975). Centennial: Haliburton Village, 1864-1964: Haliburton County, 1874-1974 (Second ed.). Peterborough, Ontario: Maxwell Review, Ltd. p. 51.
  6. ^ An Act to incorporate "The Fenelon Falls Railway Company", S.O. 1870-71, c. 43
  7. ^ An Act to amend An Act intituled, "An Act to incorporate The Fenelon Falls Railway Company", S.O. 1871-2, c. 60
  8. ^ An Act to amend the Act intituled "An Act to incorporate The Fenelon Falls Railway Company" and the Act intituled "An Act to amend An Act intituled, 'An Act to incorporate The Fenelon Falls Railway Company'", S.O. 1873, c. 97 , subsequently amended by An Act to amend the Acts relating to the Victoria Railway Company, S.O. 1874, c. 63
  9. ^ An Act to consolidate the Toronto and Nipissing Railway Company, the Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay Railway Company, the Victoria Railway Company, the Toronto and Ottawa Railway Company, the Grand Junction Railway Company, and the Midland Railway Company of Canada, S.O. 1882, c. 67
  10. ^ "Haliburton County Rail Trail". Ontario Trails Council. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
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