Railroads in the Niagara Peninsula
Part I. Before the trains came
The Niagara Peninsula is a region of great historical, geographic and economic importance.
Surrounded by important waterways (Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and a series of rivers including the
Niagara River), its proximity to the United States, as well as its mild climate have been
instrumental in the development of the region.
Some of the most important changes to occur in the region took place well before the arrival of
the first trains. The first Welland Canal (built by William Hamilton Merritt) opened 1829 to
allow ships to circumvent the Niagara Falls. The canal was expanded and improved over several
decades, as the map below shows:
The impact of the Welland Canal:
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The Niagara peninsula was transformed; the mainly rural region became increasingly
industrialized – evolution of the region from rural to urban
New people: Influx of construction workers (mostly Irish) in order to build the various
canal works; populations increased, but there was a noticeable surplus of men, which
remained noticeable until about 1851
New types of labour: Ongroing commitments in terms of employment; continuous
demands for supplies, equipment, repairs, and maintenance
New industry: Construction of mills to favourable sites where differences in water level
occurred; this leads to a redistribution of industrial activity in the peninsula, with flour
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mills, saw mills, woollen mills, various mills concerned with the metal products, and
shipyards, each being drawn to the line of the canal
Improved movement of people and goods – no longer need to rely entirely on poor roads
and the portage system
Growth of urban centres, in particular St. Catharines
BUT the towns on the portage routes lose their importance, most notably the town of
Chippawa.
See John N. Jackson, St Catharines, Ontario: Its Early Years. Belleville, ON: Mika Publishing
Company, 1976, p.244
Questions:
1. Before the arrival of the railway, what were the main means of transportation in southern
Ontario and the Niagara region more specifically?
2. What impact did the building of the Welland Canal have on the region, and on the city of
St. Catharines more specifically?
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Part II. The railway era arrives in the Niagara Region
Overview:
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The Great Western Railway began operations in 1853 from Niagara Falls through
Thorold, St. Catharines, Grimsby and Hamilton to London.
In 1854 the line was extended from London to Chatham and Windsor
After 1855 the GWR accessed New York state railways using the Railway Suspension
Bridge at Niagara Falls. This was the second suspension bridge at the Falls but the first
that supported a railway.
Credit: Jackson and Wilson, p.84
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By 1856 branch lines had been built from Komoka to Sarnia, and from Hamilton to
Toronto.
The Welland Railway opened in 1856 to assist the movement of goods along the canal.
In 1869 the Canada Air Line Railway was chartered by the Great Western as an alternate
route to the Canada Southern. It ran a distance of 150 miles from Fort Erie through
Welland Junction (Dain City), Canfield, Tilsonburg and St. Thomas to a junction with the
Great Western at Glencoe. The Canada Air Line Railway became part of the Great
Western in 1871 prior to completion in 1873.
In 1882 the Great Western Railway became part of the Grand Trunk Railway.
As you can see by this map, in 1907 the Niagara region was served by a number of train lines,
including local electric lines that linked smaller towns to larger centres:
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In 1910 the GTR started a passenger shuttle service from Fort Erie to Buffalo using a selfpropelled steam dummy.
At one time the Fort Erie railway yard servicing the International Bridge was the third
largest in Canada.
Building the Great Western Railway – From Hamilton to Niagara Falls
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Great Western Railway built railway from the American frontier on the Detroit River to
the Niagara River
More than 7,500 men worked in gangs on the 45-mile route from Hamilton to the Niagara
River; as during the construction of the Welland Canal, the Great Western relied heavily
on an Irish labour force.
In the St. Catharines area, the biggest tasks were the bridging of Twelve Mile Creek, and
laying track across the escarpment east of town where many cuts and embankments were
neeeded.
Excitement, fear, and farce
Newspapers from the 1840s and 1850s reported widespead excitement regarding the eventual
arrival of the railroads. The St. Catharines Journal of 21 October 1847 reported: „It is with great
pleasure that we announce the commencement of this great and important link of communication
between the Eastern and Western States.‟
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Although many parts of the Niagara Peninsula had already experienced an influx of immigrant
workers during the construction of the Welland Canal, the arrival of railroad gangs brought both
new opportunities and considerable concern. The men had to be housed and fed, which provided
a extra business for the local farmers to sell their products, but the men could also be aggressive
and threatening.
The historian William Rannie describes the experience of the people of Lincoln:
„First through Lincoln came the surveyors, followed during the winter of 1851-52 by
obstreperous construction gangs. Comprising the largest part of the construction force were the
Irish immigrants who had fled the famine in their homeland. They were a rootless, irresponsible
lot, suffering under the brutal and dishonest behaviour of subcontractors and straw bosses, and
they returned their treatment in like measure. Farmers along the route constantly lost chickens
and other livestock to the workers, and pay-day brawls occurred regularly. A tendency grew to
deplore the railway and everything connected with it. The dog had earned a bad name. It
persisted in railway public relations for many years to come.‟ (William Rennie, Lincoln: The
Story of an Ontario Town, p.95)
Nonethless, when the Hamilton-Niagara Falls line was officially opened on 1 November 1853,
crowds came to cheer on the arrival of the „Iron Horse.‟
An article in the Niagara Mail described how dignitaires were carried from Hamilton to Niagara
Falls „with loud cheers from the crowds assembled at every convenient point to witness the first
cars drawn by a locomotive.‟
The St. Catharines Journal exclaimed that it was „with astonishment as well as pleasure, that the
Iron Horse was seen passing along in all the dignity of steam.‟
But this first run did not go as smoothly as had been hoped: between Thorold and St Davids, the
track sank into soft ground, which made the locomotive run off the track. Nobody was injured,
but the dignitaries were forced to continue their route by horsedrawn omnibus. What a
disappointment!
Credit: Jackson and Wilson, p.81
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A station mired in controversy
Much controversy arose amongst the inhabitants of St. Catharines who complained about the fact
that, because its station was quite a way to the west of the town centre, that St Catharines was not
a railway centre on the new system. Already in 1853, an indignant visitor noted that the St.
Catharines station „bye the bye is as inconveniently situated as can be.‟
This fact was also highlighted in the 1881 prospectus for the St Catharines and Niagara Central
Railway which described how the station was separated by „the heavy intervening obstacle of the
deep valley of the old Welland Canal,‟ which „reduces the value of its services to the traffic of
that city to a minimum. It is freely conceded and lamented as the greatest mistake in the annals of
St Catharines, that the inhabitants declined to furnish the moderate amount of aid required by the
projectors of the Great Western Railway as the condition for crossing the Welland Canal, and the
location of the line directly in to and through the town.‟
Reaching St. Catharines from the station meant taking a wagon or horsedrawn omnibus and
struggling up and down the steep slopes of Twelve Mile Creek, then facing possible delays while
slow-moving ships passed through the canal.
The much-maligned St Catharines station. Credit: Jackson and Wilson, p.86
Questions:
1. How did local inhabitants of the Niagara Peninsula respond to the construction of the
railroads?
2. Explain why people may have had differing opinions regarding the arrival of the „Iron
Horse.‟ How did its construction affect different people (businessmen and professionals
vs. farmers and workers; men vs. women)?
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Part III. Long-term impact of the railways
1. Urban transformation
New towns – During the construction of the canal, small settlements had emerged along interior
highways, such as Fonthill, Ridgeville, Fenwick and Boyle on the Canboro Road. The railways
also spawned some new settlements such as Stevensville, Netherby and Brookfield on the line of
the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway.
The village of Victoria is an example of a new town founded as a result of the railways:
Credit: Panko, p.10
Smaller towns with railroads, such as Beamsville, Jordan and Vineland, experienced significant
growth thanks to improved access to them. These towns were now within easy reach of larger
centres (in particular Hamilton). These towns would also grow and become wealthier and more
successful once the Niagara fruit industry took off in the 1860s and 1870s.
A greater contribution to urban growth was that the railways connected the larger existing centres
and enhanced their growth potential. They gave a new impetus to the development of frontier or
border towns which became rail bridge crossings on the Niagara River and termini for Canadian
railways.
The town of Merritton, which had sprung up as a canal shanty town housing construction
workers, now became an important centre thanks to its new bridge linking its two locks. The
importance of the town‟s water power and new industrial prospects were advertised in 1855 by
the GWR to attract industry: „Any company who will invest not less than $100,000 in erecting
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durable stone buildings, and machinery for the purpose of manufacturing Iron, Cotton or Woolen
Goods – to be in operation by the 1st January, 1857 – may have the choice of the best site, with
all the water power, and grounds for the erection of buildings required for the establishment, free
of rent or any other charge.‟
In St. Catharines, real estate advertisement promoted the area surrounding the new station, known
as Western Hill. According to the St Catharines Constitutional: “This property is very pleasantly
situated in a very healthy locality, and is rendered valuable by its proximity to the Railway
Depot, Ship Yard, Mills and other places of business.”
On the other hand, towns that were not linked by rail either diminished in importance or
disappeared completely. Small centres and hamlets such as Thirty, Glen Elgin and Tintern could
not grow because they were bypassed by the railroad; St. Catharines, an important centre thanks
to the Welland Canal, did not grow like the city of Hamilton; some historians argue that this
happened to St Catharines because its train station was built outside the main city centre.
The President of the St Catharines Historical Society, John Burtniak, has written about the
„vanished villages‟ of Niagara:
‘St. Johns on the Short Hills - Probably the village with the greatest potential to be something
bigger, it was established early by Benjamin Camby and John Darling around 1790. Camby
immediately established a saw mill. Soon afterwards, St. Johns became a prominent industrial
village complete with grist mills, fulling mill, woolen mills, iron foundry, potashery, tannery,
brickyard, schools, churches and a post office. The fate of the village took a sour turn with the
opening of the Welland Canal which drew away people and commerce. The final blow was when
the railroads were constructed and no lines were built through St. Johns.‟
2. Economic impact
Use of local resources – Stone and timber used in the construction of the railroads
New businesses develop – Mowing machines and other agricultural machinery to build the
railroads manufactured in the area; machinery directly related to the maintenance of the railways
also needed – new industries emerge
New types of employment related to the operation of the railways – conductors, engineers, ticket
collectors, porters, etc.
Industrial development – Mills and factories of all sorts developed throughout the region, but
mainly where the canal and the railways met. The railways rendered the area more favourable for
industrial development on a large scale by opening up wider sources of materials and national,
and even continental, markets.
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Development of Niagara’s fruit industry
The railways lead to the commercialization of agriculture in the region. This is perhaps one of the
greatest impacts on the Niagara Peninsula, which remains to this day Canada‟s fruit-growing
centre.
Prior to 1861, most fruit was grown for personal and local consumption. The railways prompted
farmers to grow for larger markets: trains allowed for the rapid shipment of fresh produce to
national and international markets.
„Baskets of fruit were loaded onto wagons in Niagara orchards, and taken to „peach cars‟ at the
railway station. Barrels of apples were shipped to England, and baskets of peaches and small
fruits to the Canadian markets. By the turn of the century the railways exported fruit the distant
towns with speed and efficiency. Fruit graded by shippers by six p.m. could be in Ottawa or
Montreal by six the next morning without transhipment. St Catharines, an important shipping
point and business centre for this new industry, by 1900 exported by water to the Toronto and
Montreal markets, and by rail to all parts of Canada, a total of almost 13 million pounds of fruit.‟
(Jackson, pp.92-93)
In this portion of a 1928 fire insurance map showing the Grimbsy train station you can see that
the Niagara Packers Limited fruit wharehouse was located on the rail lines.
Credit: Grimsby Museum Collection
It was not only fresh fruit that was transported across the country and beyond. Fruit and other
food processing was undertaken, with creameries, canneries, wineries and bottling plants all
emerging next to rail lines. New forms of employment in agricultural industries were the direct
result of the arrival of the railroads.
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Cherry Packing on Linus Woolverton's Farm (circa 1901)
Credit: Grimsby Museum Collection
ED Smith‟s fruit-packing house (circa 1897)
Credit: Grimsby Museum Collection
Helderleigh Fruit Farms (circa 1896)
Credit: Grimsby Museum Collection
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Grimsby fruit shipping shed (circa 1914)
Credit: Grimsby Museum Collection
„In 1881, Senator E. D. Smith invented and built the first blower car for shipping fruit by train.
Previously train cars were packed with ice and had drainage in the floor to allow the water from
melting ice to escape. In his modified railway car, E. D Smith continued to use ice, cut from his
pond in winter. The blower car was equipped with a fan that blew across the ice, cooling the air
and working like a refrigerator. This new train car allowed fruits to be shipped for longer periods
of time and over greater distances without spoilage. Farmers' profits increased because of a
decrease in spoiled fruit.‟ (information courtesy of the Grimsby Museum)
Main Street in Grimsby with C. P. R. Blower Cars on H.G. & B. Electric Railway Lines (circa 1922)
Credit: Grimsby Museum Collection
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3. Environmental impact – New sights, sounds and smells
Spur lines served the established and new industrial sites. Passenger depots, freight stations,
fencing, cuttings, embankments, bridges cut through the local landscape; water tanks, cords of
wood, coaling platforms for locomotives, tall signal gantries, freight yards and warehouses, and
grain elevators were regular sites at the stations.
Lines of track separated residential areas within towns. Despite the fact the trains allowed for
better mobility, they also created a barrier effect on movement. Consider the expression „from the
wrong side of the tracks.‟ What does it mean, and how do you think it developed?
Trains also added noise, dirt and smoke pollution to nearby housing areas.
Look at the photograph below. Just imagine how this piece of land might have looked when it
was an apple orchard:
Credit: Jackson and Wilson, p.84
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4. Impact on populations:
Obviously the effect of the railroads on urban growth, employment, industry and the environment
had a huge impact on people‟s lives. But there are other ways in which everyday living was
transformed by the arrival of the „Iron Horse‟:
Personal travel
The trains improved mobility, and distances between towns was dramatically reduced. A St.
Catharines timetable for 1854 listed five trains a day in each direction. To the east there were
stations at Thorold and Niagara Falls, 30 minutes away by the fastest train. To the west there
were stations at Jordan, Vineland, Beamsville, Grimsby, and Stoney Creek en route to Hamilton,
London and Windsor. Hamilton could be reached in about an hour, London in 5 hors, and
Windsor in 9 hrs. Cross-border travel and the movement of populations between Canada and the
United States was also improved. Think about the impact this would have had on immigration.
Freight, passenger, light express, a mail express, and a night express were advertised. People no
longer had to rely on the canals or bad roads. Unlike the canal, the railway service operated yearround.
There is evidence that early rail travel was not particularly comfortable and could be slow, but
over the years improvements were carried out to make the cars bigger and faster, and to make
train travel more enjoyable.
The concept of time – Standard time and time zones were introduced in the 1880s to assist with
preparing train timetables
New and improved means of communication – Mail can be delivered faster to more distant
locations; telegraph followed lines of track and made immediate communication possible
between adjacent communities.
Telephone arrived in St Catharines in 1878, with the first switchboard opening in 1879; Bell
Telephone Company established an exchange in 1883; by 1885 Bell has 114 subscribers; longdistance calls to New York and Quebec City possible y 1895; 2,300 phones by 1915.
New dangers
Trains brought new kinds of danger to everyday life. Farmers worried about their cows being
struck by passing cars. But it was not only livestock and wild animals that were vulnerable.
Newspapers regularly reported on the horrific accidents that occurred when individuals either fell
off moving trains or were hit while crossing or walking along tracks:
St Catharines Journal, February 2, 1854, reported:
FRIGHTFUL DEATH – We are pained in having to chronicle the accidental killing of two
estimable individuals, in this neighbourhood, since our last issue. On Thursday, Mr. George
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Darby, who was employed about the steam excavator, on the railway, east of us, fell on the track,
just before the dirt cars, and had his head smashed by the wheels passing over it. He leaves a wife
and two children. (...)
St Catharines’ Weekly News reported on December 19, 1872:
Fatal Accident. Brakesman Killed at G.W.R. Station. – As the freight train ahead of the 8:55 p.m.
passenger train was going east, the Station Master hailed the train to stop, stating there was a man
killed. Mr. Halner, Captain Sheldon and Mr. Alex. Bain then proceeded with him to the spot
immediately, where they found the man lying across the track, his hat and mitts about three feet
from the body. Death must have been instantaneous, as his entrails were completely torn out. The
engine and nine cars passed over him. The Station Master then arrived and with the assistance of
the gentlemen present conveyed the body to the freight house. An inquest is being held on the
body to-day.
Read the following obituary, taken from St Catharines‟ The Daily Standard, Monday, October 4,
1897. What does it reveals not only with regard to the new dangers posed by railroads, but about
rural life in Niagara at the turn-of-the-century?
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5. Tourism
The increasingly intricate network of railroads throughout the Niagara Peninsula had a major
impact on the development of the tourist industry in the region. Niagara Falls became a prime
tourist destination, and the town itself expanded in order to accommodate the growing number of
visitors.
Niagara Falls features prominently in the Grand Trunk Railway‟s „Summer Resorts‟ and „Touris
Travel‟ brochures, both published in the early 20th-century.
Credit: Grand Trunk Railway (1880), p.14
Thanks to the improved means of transportation, St Catharines become a spa resort town. The
Springbank Hotel, Welland House and the Stephenson House became famous for their medicinal
waters and therapeutic mineral baths. American tourists in particular visited the baths. In 1861,
Hugh Neilson, a local from St Catharines, noted in his diary: „Went downtown in the Bus to the
Stephenson House; great lot of Yankees there.‟
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A poster for the Springbank Hotel (Credit: Shipley, p.116), and part of a brochure for the St. Catharines Well,
published by the Grand Trunk Railway (no date, but probably circa 1901)
6. Special events
Trains were very useful for special events. For the inauguration of the General Brock monument
at Queenston Heights in 1859 trains took the Rifle Company, brass band and other passengers to
the location.
Royal visit – During his travels to Canada and the United States in the summer and autumn of
1860, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), visited the Niagara region.
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Historian Alun Hughes writes of the visit: „...Friday, September 14, (...) the royal party left
London by train for Niagara Falls. A brief stop at Ingersoll was followed by a longer one at
Woodstock, and at Paris they transferred from the magnificent state car specially built by the
Great Western Railway to an even more opulent one constructed by the Buffalo and Lake Huron
Railway. At Brantford, where lunch was provided, the Toronto Globe spoke of “an array of
handsome ladies” tossing bouquets...‟ („The Prince of Wales at Niagara,‟ in the September 2009
Newsletter of the Historical Society of St Catharines, p.5)
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Historian Ian Radforth writes that:
„Only a little controversy swirled in Canada around the decisions made with respect to the
prince‟s accommodations. Isaac Buchanan, a prominent Hamilton merchant closely connected to
the Great Western Railway, publicly accused Rose and the government of showing a preference
for spending money lavishly in places on the route of the Grand Trunk Railway (the railway
closely associated with the Conservatives), to the neglect of rival places without Grand Trunk
connections.‟ (Royal Spectacle: The 1860 visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada, p.31)
Movement of troops – In 1866 forces were sent by the Welland rail line to repel the Fenians
who had invaded Niagara.
Questions:
1. How do you think the arrival of railways improved people‟s lives in the Niagara Region?
2. Can you think of any negative impacts?
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Bibliography
Annual Report of St Catharines Board of Trade for the year 1900. St Catharines: 1901.
Grand Trunk Railway. The St Catharines Well (n.d. 1900?)
----------. Summer Resorts (1880)
-------------. Tourist Travel (1900)
Grimsby Museum, Grown in the Garden of Canada: The History of the Fruit Industry in
Grimsby, Ontario. Accessed through www.virtualmuseum.ca
Hughes, Alun. „The Prince of Wales at Niagara,‟ September 2009 Newsletter of the Historical
Society of St Catharines
Jackson, John N. St Catharines, Ontario: Its Early Years. Belleville, ON: Mika Publishing
Company, 1976
Jackson, John N. and John Burtniak. Railways in the Niagara Peninsula: Their Development,
Progress and Community Significance. Belleville, ON: Mika Publishing Company, 1978.
Jackson, John N. and Sheila M. Wilson. St. Catharines: Canada’s Canal City. St Catharines, ON:
The St. Catharines Standard Limited, 1992.
Panko, Andrew and Peter Bowen. Steam in Niagara. Fonthill, ON: NiagaRail Publications, 1983.
Radforth, Ian. Royal Spectacle: The 1860 visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada. Toronto: U of T
Press, 2004.
Rannie, William. Lincoln: The Story of an Ontario Town. Lincoln: W.F. Rannie, 1974.
Shipley, Robert. St Catharines: Garden on the Canal. Burlington ON: Windsor Publications Ltd,
1987.
Tennant, Robert D., Jr. Canada Southern Country (Erin, ON: The Boston Mills Press, 1991)
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