The introduction of the railroad to urban and rural communities not only had an economic impact by providing access to new markets, but it also helped move people to previously-unattainable places.
Rivers that once were the lifeblood of the community declined in importance after the introduction of the railroads.
Wellington County Museum and Archives program assistant Kyle Smith spoke on the history of the railway network in southern Ontario to diners at the Seniors’ Centre for Excellence Congregate Dining Program’s May session.
“Elora was the cattle market centre for the north,” Smith said. “The village fought train expansion into the northern regions. It seems that out of spite, the railroad built a station in Alma.”
The first train to leave the station from Fergus in 1870 was pulled by an Adam Brown locomotive. Described as the romantic era of trains, the large smoke stack prevented sparks from falling onto grass and brush below, which could result in a fire.
A party and a day off of school for youngsters was part of the celebration. Residents were then able to travel by rail to Toronto and back in a day, opening up a new world. The train was a move for the town to future prosperity in national and international business relationships.
“Transcripts describe one young girl riding the train from Belwood to Elora for piano lessons. The system was compared to mass transit that exists today,” Smith said.
Originally railroad tracks were constructed on wooden trestles over rivers. At the turn of the century, in 1900, the introduction of the Grand Trunk locomotive no 1751, a larger, heavier piece of equipment, necessitated that aging wooden trestles be replaced with steel bridges.
Historical documents indicate that a limestone bridge named the Swan Creek Railway Bridge was constructed in Wellington County by 200 men. To date the location of the former bridge is unknown.
Railroad stations were all designed to look the same and employed station agents, conductors and motormen.
The role of the station master and his family included every task from taking tickets to moving luggage.
The station master was also involved in the capture of rum runners.
In 1918, whiskey, hidden in hay bales was transported to Guelph. Glass whiskey bottles were discovered by the station master after a bale broke open revealing its contents. The value of the haul was $8,000. In today’s economy the value would be 15 times the total, making the haul the largest of that era.
“One interesting rule enforced at a train station involved spitting. Spitting was discouraged in the stations waiting room, toilet or lavatory facility or on other premises of the company or in or upon the platform of a car, except where receptacles are provided for that purpose,” Smith said
Before the invention or use of telephones and the wireless telegraph, messages for non-stop trains were delivered on hand written pieces of paper, clipped to a p-shaped stick or train order hoop. An assigned member of the non-stop train’s crew would grab the stick from the arm of the station master, read and remove the message and drop the stick onto the ground 100 yards down the track. One of the station master’s children would run down the line and retrieve the stick.
The Grand Trunk Railway Station at Palmerston was developed around the rail line and was the junction of two lines. An overhead pedestrian bridge was built for the safety of pedestrians walking in the area.
Trains played a large role in the tourism industry. Families dressed in their Sunday best took weekend trips to Niagara Falls – a destination most had only ever heard or read about.
PT Barnum’s Circus, hailed as “The Greatest Show on Earth” and featuring Jumbo the elephant, held performances in Guelph. Trains brought 30,000 people to the Royal City, which at the time had a population of 25,000 citizens. Jumbo entertained crowds for the last time in Guelph before escaping his compound and being hit and killed by an oncoming train in St. Thomas.
Clifford is the home of Wellington County’s great train robber. School teacher Louis Calhoun left Clifford to join the gold rush. After being unsuccessful in finding gold, he mixed with the wrong crowd, eventually joining forces with the infamous train robber Bill Miner in British Columbia.
Miner, known as the “gentleman bandit,” is said to have coined the phrase “hands up.” Working together, the two robbed a train they assumed was loaded with donations from British Columbia residents bound for the victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
The pair robbed the wrong train and came away with $15 and a package of liver pills. The train carrying the intended loot was well on its way to San Francisco. Calhoun eventually died in prison from tuberculosis and was buried in Clifford.
Winter weather wreaked havoc with the lines. In 1947, a train travelling from Owen Sound to Harriston took one week to arrive at its destination. Three train engines, a snowplow and numerous stops along the line to clear snow by shovel all played a part in the journey.
With the building of a road system, railroad companies scaled back operations.
Railways still exist in Wellington County today, though in some areas the abutments that once held railroad bridges are all that remain.
