Canada's First Railway ... Who DID this?!

The artist: "This picture has gone all over the world."

First Train in Canada ... at least that's what the Montreal Daily Herald wanted Canadians to believe in August 1903. Those in authority at the time must have known the truth - at least as much as the rivet-counting truth can ever truly be known to any single person. And they kept the truth from Canadians for as long as they could. 

And so, it seems that every successive generation* of Canadians must get dusty fingers looking at 6 by 9 inch booklets - be they the Bulletins of the The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society or those tiny old issues of Canadian Rail. 

To discover the the truth for themselves.

*I think this will end after the Baby Boomers because only they have fond memories of using paper in the olden days before E-everything and those i-Smartphone things. I prefer to consider myself to be from Generation Jones. So ... either Baby Boomers, or Generation Jones, then ... I guess. 

... I was just thinking ... maybe some Gen Xers - you never know. Leave a cardboard box of Canadian Rails on their doorstep, retreat to a safe distance to observe nature take its course, and note what they do with them.

from: Bulletin No 39; March 1936; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. 

You can see the line of Canada's first railway - running between the points labelled as Laprairie and St Johns on the map above. 

Flat bodies of water provided Canada's first transportation routes - at least during those fleeting weeks when water flowed as a liquid. With steam power, water transportation by steamboats could be reliably scheduled between settlements. 

Requiring more capital and equipment, and far from being perfected as a technology, early steam locomotives could be used to transport people and freight. Early railways were often constructed with wooden rails. These rails were overlaid with strips of iron or steel - to protect the head of the 'rail' from the metal wheel treads of the rolling stock. 

*  *  *

Et tu, Mika?

from: Railways of Canada; Nick & Helma Mika; 1972; Mika Publishing.

On this occasion, it was the Château de Ramezay 

which poisoned the pristine chalice of Canadian historiography.

This is not the Dorchester.

It is a monstrous fraud!

*  *  *

Quo vadis, VIA?

from: Rails Across Canada; 1986; VIA Rail Canada.

Canada's national passenger railway uses the same graphic representation from the same source.

*  *  *

from: The Asian Dream; Donald MacKay; 1986; Douglas & McIntyre.

Although I only now realize this as an adult ... not every Canadian child grew up in a home receiving a subscription of Canadian Rail - 11 issues per year. They only prepared one issue for July/August ... because these included the fleeting weeks when water flowed as a liquid.

... But, you know, sometimes, a CRHA member would take an extensive trip on the railways of Bulgaria (or Britain) and, except for 'Association News', this would take up the whole boring issue. There was always next month. 

... But sometimes that same member (perhaps he was a 'big wheel' in the Association) sent them so much material that they did two issues of 'Bulgarian Railways'. 

... But then ... if you've ever worked as a volunteer railway preservation organization newsletter editor - particularly when preparing the July/August edition - you will readily understand why it would be so tempting to spread 'Bulgarian Railways' over two months.

*  *  *

from: History of the Canadian National Railways; GR Stevens; 1973; Macmillan. 

... Honestly, I have no idea ...

Perhaps you might enjoy solving this puzzle.

... I'm up to my butt in counterfeit 2-4-2s at the moment.

This was in the official history of the CNR, by the way.

*  *  *

from: Bulletin No 39; March 1936; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.

Have you ever noticed that some artists, when they draw steam locomotives, 

obscure the rods with dramatic clouds of steam (or people inspecting the rods) 

so they don't have to be bothered?

*  *  *

from: Canadian Rail, June 1968, Issue 200; Canadian Railroad Historical Association.

"Although some liberties have been taken with the locale, the portrayal of the Dorchester and the two first-class passenger cars is quite accurate."

... 'some liberties': Look! It's the Pirin Mountains ... 

*  *  *

from: Bulletin No 39; March 1936; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.

Could this precise drawing be faithful to the original Stephenson Samson-model design?

I don't know anymore ...

*  *  *

from: Canadian Rail, January 1969; Canadian Railroad Historical Association.

There were problems with the performance of the Dorchester, so they pawned it off on another early-stage railway as the line lengthened and operations expanded.

With the Dorchester's 0-4-0 wheel arrangement, it had the tendency to derail on the roughly-built track structure. It operated with a boiler pressure of around 60 pounds per square inch and, if you picked your spots, could run at 30 mph.

The engine Dorchester ... was named after 'Dorchester', the southern terminal of the Champlain & St Lawrence Railroad on the Richelieu River. 

"Some time after her arrival in Canada the new locomotive was given a name. She was named 'Dorchester' in honour of the town of that name, which later became St. Johns, Quebec. The town was named 'Dorchester' about 1815, and from that year to 1835, was officially the namesake of Lord Dorchester, although the choice was not popular." 

from: The Champlain & St Lawrence Railroad - first years of operation; S S Worthen; Canadian Rail; June 1968.

... Sir Guy Carleton (1724-1808) 1st Baron Dorchester, Governor of Quebec, Governor of British North America etc.

Anyway, this British North America significance probably explains why they named another engine, purchased in 1851, Dorchester.

*  *  *

This is a particularly beautiful model which deserves to be remembered.

from: A Thing of Beauty; Duncan Heriot; Canadian Rail, February 1970; Canadian Railroad Historical Association.

"Canada's first steam locomotive for a public railway, the Champlain & St Lawrence Railroad is alive and well and will soon be living at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. When the Centre opens in September, 1969, visitors will be treated to the remarkable sight of Canada's first tiny steam locomotive alongside a Canadian National "Northern" - a giant of the last days of steam. Both locomotives are models in 3 1/2 inch gauge."

"The exquisite model of the Dorchester is the work of Mr Harry Allin, well-known Canadian locomotive modeller of Bowmanville, Ontario. Mr Allin has designed and built the model to operate on a few pounds of compressed air. ... Construction occupied about ten months of Mr Allin's on-and-off time."

from: A Thing of Beauty; Duncan Heriot; Canadian Rail, February 1970; Canadian Railroad Historical Association.

"A view of the Dorchester's works from below; pistons, connecting roads and piston rods all clearly defined. The firebox, flues and smokebox plate assembly is pictured on the left."

This fine model and this view ... show the design of the running gear. The pistons are mounted inside the frame ... and rods connect them to cranks on the axle of the rear driving wheels. The front driving wheels are powered by connecting rods outside the frame ... which connect the rear driving wheels to the front driving wheels.

*  *  *

from: Train Country; MacKay & Perry; 1994; Douglas & McIntyre. 

The Dorchester model, above, was built for the centennial of Canadian railroading. The Lachine Museum received this particular model and currently exhibits a fresh-looking representation of the Dorchester. A more accurate model - from the Château de Ramezay - might be preserved at Exporail - the Canadian Railway Museum at Delson, Quebec.

The NRC-developed streamlining for the 6400s was created during the 'railway aviation streamlining craze' - when North American railroads struggled to appear 'modern' to the patrons of their passenger trains. Important in such a re-design would be improving forward visibility through better smoke management. The overall cosmetic effect notwithstanding, you can see how the capacity of steam motive power developed over the century. 

*  *  *

The next three images explain the origin of the Dorchester travesty depiction of horror, hi-lited at the beginning of this piece. 

It was finding this letter to the editor in the Society's 90-year-old bulletin which sent me on a search for my own in-house examples of this lazily-researched illustration which has found its way into so many modern railway history books. It motivated me to present a more faithful illustration of 'the first train in Canada'.

Seriously, I did benefit from 'always' knowing what the Dorchester looked like through Canadian Rail. The fact that this historically-bizarre drawing appeared in recent, generally well-researched books, has always baffled me.

from: from: Bulletin No 25; May 1931; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.

from: from: Bulletin No 25; May 1931; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.

from: from: Bulletin No 25; May 1931; Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.

*  *  *

An interesting example of an early Stephenson engine which was extensively modified to better suit it to primitive North American track appears below. Slightly older than the Dorchester, it does not have external connecting rods between the rear and front driving wheels.

If you remove all of the adaptations, you can see the Dorchester. 

from: The First Quarter-Century of Steam Locomotives in North America; Smith Hempstone Oliver; 1956; Smithsonian Institution.

from: The First Quarter-Century of Steam Locomotives in North America; Smith Hempstone Oliver; 1956; Smithsonian Institution.

1948-1990 - A Railroader's Career on Four Index Cards

Excessive heat, cold, stress from equipment failure and not always being able to trust the safety habits of your fellow employees, the possibility of hitting a rock slide, continuous disturbed sleep and disrupted circadian rhythm, a workplace of constant noise and vibration, daily occupational exposure to petroleum derivatives - topically and through inhalation, inadequate sanitary facilities, in desperation: standing at the controls to stay awake, untreated PTSD from killing people in a car who were taking a quick short cut home after work ...

This is not necessarily how a long-service running trades employee would describe their career in hindsight. They would likely remember 'the people', their greatest accomplishments (often unknown to, or forgotten by, others) and the particular things they loved about the job. 

However, the first paragraph was a rough sampling of typical experiences of a railroader in the late 1900s. It is intended to show that the 'human experience' of railroading goes beyond the happy engineer getting a suntan on his right arm who waves at a trackside photographer. 

Rolly Martin obtained a photocopy of the index cards kept on file for 40 years in the Division Office upstairs at Schreiber which documented key dates in his career. As I finally attempt to interpret these 'artifacts' ... it's just important to make it clear that 'key dates' do not give you the full picture of the typical life of a running trades employee.

*  *  *

Rolly began his railway career as a sectionman at age 17. Aubrey is midway between Sudbury and Franz. In May 1947 he left the CPR for a short time, working on the section in the Hawk Junction area on the Algoma Central Railway. I think Rolly had a sibling in Sudbury, and Sudbury may have served as a base when he began his career (?)

He told me he had spent some time working at the CPR livestock rest and exercise pens at the White River yard, but he was soon in Schreiber working as a classified labourer and ashpitman at the roundhouse. Rolly was physically strong and if his Quebec farm background didn't provide this physique, his first few years on the railway certainly would have.

As he told me, Rolly's first paying shift as fireman was on the 3422 - the Schreiber yard switcher. His trial trips and previous jobs at the roundhouse would have given him good familiarity with firing locomotives and how things functioned in the yard. 

Rolly also spoke of his time in Lambton - he was only there for about four months in the winter of 1950-51. Probably, the post-war economy was taking off in this area of Ontario and former railway workers were finding less demanding and more family-friendly work in factories and on construction. This was probably coupled with an increase in demand for railway service to southern Ontario factories.

*  *  *

In June 1954 Rolly was laid off for a month and it seems he took a leave of absence without pay for a month (or more, depending on how you interpret the Division Office's notation). We never got into details, but he may have used this time to travel east, to propose to Theresa in Drummondville, to get married, and to set up housekeeping back in Schreiber.

The boom/bust of staffing a railway division was a contemporary reality when I worked briefly in 1977. Superintendent Al Small came downstairs to speak to our trainman class. He'd never seen the railway as busy as it was. Personally, as a new hire on the spareboard, I would soon be going out on trip after trip - essentially working 'full time'. I was usually called for the unloved but extremely scenic 'east end' (to White River). The Superintendent told our class that in the future traffic levels might drop ... and we might be laid off ... but he urged us to go on the maintenance of way gang, or to otherwise use our laid off time to get 'the big picture' of the railway.

As you can see, firemen in the 1950s were also subject to the boom/bust cycles of traffic. To complicate matters, diesels were really catching on, particularly through Schreiber. The Canadian railways had enthusiastically calculated how much money they could save ... by hauling longer trains with multiple diesel units operated by a single engineer ... by eliminating firemen and roundhouse staff ... and by demolishing the soon-to-be obsolete facilities used to support steam locomotives.

These changes culminated in the firemen strike, below, in January 1957. Eventually a solution was found for the firemen. The more senior firemen were 'grandfathered' in to work as helpers to diesel engineers. With all the new (and sometimes problematic) technology being used, these diesel 'firemen' were trained in diesel locomotive troubleshooting. Rolly's course was at Schenectady. This helped keep the former steam engineers in the cab and the trains rolling. These firemen were increasing their experience with diesel operation challenges and they would be ready to replace the more senior men as the latter retired. Rolly said his first solo run as engineer occurred in 1973 - even though he was qualified long before that.

A cleaned-up, typewritten service card consolidated Rolly's record of service. 

*  *  *

from: Uniform Code of Operating Rules, Revision of 1962; Board of Transport Commissioners for Canada.

You can see the 'Brownie Point' system in action on the card above. After 12 months, the December 1964, Rule 87 infraction was zeroed out by the replacement of his lost points. I reproduced the text of the rule above. 

... I don't know any of the particulars of the recorded incident but it would have been before the installation of centralized traffic control on the subdivision. Guessing about the proper course to be followed: Rather than making a run for the siding and arriving without achieving the five minute buffer ... the crew should have had a headend flagman run out (and a tailend flagman drop off behind, I imagine) to provide protection. Depending on the visibility/grade characteristics of the line at that point, this flagging distance was to be 1500-2000 yards (i.e. over 1.5 kilometres) - which was calculated by counting trackside 'pole lengths'. 

... Flagging protection probably would have been required by the rules for both ends of the train. Once the late train was protected ... preceded [~1.5 kilometres] by the headend flagman holding a red flag (or a white lantern by night) and armed with torpedoes and fusees ... the late train should have followed him with due caution and met the opposing train at the siding.

Generally, a whole train crew was called on the carpet for an infraction - with union brothers usually being reluctant to incriminate their fellows. Calling in the whole crew was probably the most efficient way to conduct an investigation and administer discipline, with the most Brownies being awarded to crew members in the positions of greatest responsibility.

*  *  *

I met Rolly on a snowy night freight trip to White River, and, after we returned he packed me up from my motel and moved me into his upstairs apartment - a significant saving of rent for me. I had been keenly interested in his Van Horne's Road-based narration of the Heron Bay historical features on the daylight trip back ... and this probably helped him confirm his decision to take me in. 

... I mention this because these events occurred just weeks after his 31 January 1977 action to report the broken rail (+ 10 Brownies). He was really proud of this action being recognized and told me all about it. 

... One wonders if the prevailing railway culture should have allowed officials to 'catch their employees doing something right' more frequently.

The last note on the photocopy of Rolly's service record is his own. He documents the date of his last run and the engine number of his consist on Train No 2.