You can see Rolly Martin's country place of origin on the map below. He grew up on a farm near St Modeste, Quebec. The closest railway was the Temiscouata - a company which was incorporated in 1885, and had faded considerably by 1950 when the CNR took over its operations.
Rolly said he was never particularly impressed with this railway ... but, as we know, he ended up working on big CPR steam power. Railfans do appreciate the Temiscouata's novelty, however.
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| from: Atlas of Canada; 1981; Reader's Digest Assn of Canada. |
As was frequently the case, the strategic engineering of the future Gibson Subdivision was determined by the drainage patterns of the land. Once the route from the St Lawrence (at Riviere du Loup) gets to Lake Temiscouata, it begins to follow the valleys of the Madawaska and Saint John Rivers toward Fredericton. The railway line is a faint grey beside the red Highway 185 on the 1981 map above.
The Fredericton (known as Fort Nashwaak in 1692) to Riviere du Loup (established 1673) route was a well-used early Canadian travel corridor which took advantage of the rivers and lakes between the two points.
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However, at this particular location near the St Lawrence River ... early railway construction was delayed because there was first a political question to be solved. There was some dispute regarding the border between the British North American colonies and territories ... and the United States at several places across the continent. One contentious area involved the land around today's state of Maine.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) settled some of the border issues. Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton ... of the Baring banking family (Barings Bank: 1762-1995) ... was the British delegate assigned to the case. He was arguably closer to Americans ... because of his banking experience with them ... than he was to the British North American citizens and politicians. As often happened in these circumstances, Britain (the boss of Canada) gave the United States a pretty good outcome.
Whether it was fair or not, this settlement did provide some certainty for railway projects undertaken near the border.
Here is a railway company prospectus from 1871 from archive.org .
Alexander Gibson (1818-1913) has undersigned the prospectus. He learned the lumber business from the bottom up and had a talent for making operations more efficient. With experience as a director on a railway company board, he began to develop his plan for the New Brunswick Railway.
Back when most structures and transportation vehicles were made primarily out of wood ... and there was robust demand for lumber exports to Britain ... the New Brunswick government was offering generous grants of timbered land to railway builders.
Think twice, spike once ... how far apart should the rails be?
The Government of Canada had just repealed the railway statute (1851-1870) promoting Provincial Gauge - 5 feet 6 inches ...
Between 1871 and 1881, Gibson's railway used a 3 foot 6 inch gauge - not the Standard Gauge (for Britain and the USA) of 4 feet 8.5 inches.
It was conventional wisdom at the time that narrow gauge lines were more economical (in many cases) because rolling stock was smaller, and therefore bridges and the track structure could be lighter and cheaper. Gibson was a provincial lumberman without the aspiration to build a transcontinental railway empire. If he was just building a local railway and funds were limited, narrow gauge might be good enough.
... I also wonder if a narrow gauge main line would be beneficial ... so that temporary, rough logging branches could be built into the bush using the same narrow gauge. In other words, this would save the cost of transferring logs/lumber between railcars at a 'break of gauge' point where these temporary logging branches met the public main line.
Above & below: A map of the New Brunswick Railway and an example of its Mason-built Fairlie-patent locomotives. With the railway's conversion to Standard Gauge in 1881, these were sold off to other railways, for example, to the narrow gauge Prince Edward Island Railway.
Map and photo from: Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada; Omer Lavallee; 1972; Railfare.
Another photo of a similar Gibson narrow gauge engine is lettered for the "R du L R R" - even though Alexander Gibson never built his railway beyond Edmundston. In the end, it would be the Temiscouata Railway which would provide that final link to the Grand Trunk Railway's system (later the CNR) and the St Lawrence River at Riviere du Loup.
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| A narrow gauge locomotive transported from the US on a Standard Gauge railcar. |
With a boost from Sir John A Macdonald's protectionist National Policy (began 1879) Gibson imported cotton from the USA and built a large textile mill and a model company town at Marysville - now part of Fredericton. The restored building still exists as Marysville Place - a provincial government office building.
In the late 1880s, Gibson was setting up his mill and working on his other businesses. No longer was it one of his priorities to build a railway to Riviere du Loup - if it ever was.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Pacific Railway had been very active in expanding its national network and acquiring a fleet of ships for service to Asia and Europe. The CPR had built a deliberately direct eastern main line through Maine to reach the year-round port of Saint John, New Brunswick. The CPR had a long history of increasing its network quickly by acquiring (leasing) smaller railways ...
In 1891, the CPR leased Gibson's New Brunswick Railway for its usual term of 999 years.
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| from: Appendix to Statutory History of the Steam & Electric Railways of Canada; 1937-1941; Department of Transport. |
Looking at the 1941 map of the CPR's eastern network (above) you can see their 'Short Line' through Maine (5 & 4) and Gibson's New Brunswick Railway line (6).
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| from: Altitudes of the Dominion of Canada; 1901; Geological Survey of Canada. |
Integrating Gibson's New Brunswick Railway with other acquisitions, the CPR ended what they named the "Gibson Subdivision" at Newburg, New Brunswick.
The column at the right shows the altitude above Sea Level in feet.
If you want to go off and draw a track profile ... don't worry ... I'll still be here when you get back.
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| from: Canada, Descriptive Atlas; 1932; Minister of Immigration & Colonization. |
Above and below are different images from the same map. Before, we looked at a map of the CPR in isolation. Here the CPR system (shown in green) appears with the CNR system (red) to give a complete picture of the regional railway network.
On the map below, you can also see the Temiscouata Railway (black) leaving the map to the west as it connects Edmundston with Riviere du Loup and the Canadian National Railways system as it existed back then.
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| from: Canada, Descriptive Atlas; 1932; Minister of Immigration & Colonization. |
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| from: Employee Timetable; 30 April 1950; Canadian Pacific Railway. |
To make things more confusing for amateur railway historians, the CPR (at some point) reversed the mileage numbering on this line. If you look at the 'altitudes' list farther above - it showed Fredericton at mile 0.0 ... whereas, Fredericton is at mile 60.7 on the employee timetable above.
For those of you who did not go off to draw a track profile ... the ruling grade northbound began at Barton. The ruling grade southbound began at Nackawic. This is based on a CPR Haulage Capacity booklet from 1962.
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Vacation Trip 1988
We had never been to Newfoundland before. The Newfoundland Railway was being shut down during that summer. We had a great trip on Newfoundland - across and back - but only saw a couple of actual Newfoundland Railway movements. Many of the locomotives had already been massed at St John's for sale and export.
By the time of our return along that historic Fredericton-Riviere du Loup transportation corridor ... we had become quite habituated to stopping, photographing and documenting each notable railway feature we saw.
The following photos were taken on 5 August 1988. We began travelling north from South Devon around noon. It was a typically overcast and hazy vacation day.
South Devon, Mi 59.0 Gibson Subdivision looking timetable south.
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South Devon looking timetable north.
This photo better shows the diamond at the crossing by the CNR.
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Douglas Field, Mi 54.6 Gibson Sub looking north.
I believe this was once a showplace for agricultural livestock.
The particular use of this elevated dock is a bit of a mystery.
Notice the vertical supports: Re-used tie-plate-notched horizontal bridge/trestle timbers.
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Here is the location formerly known as Cardigan on the 'altitudes' list.
Burtts Corner, Mi 42.6, Gibson Sub.
This view looks timetable south.
(There was also a Burtt Lake on the 'altitudes' list which was near today's Hainesville.)
The reason for this 'monumental' station on this branch line is a mystery.
It may have been a central location to house the two 'section gangs'
which maintained the track between Mi 33.1 and Mi 53.2 .
(Sometimes railways had to provide facilities for employees
working in areas remote from towns with available housing.)
A station agent and his family probably lived here, as well.
A friend I've had since around 1980 recently moved to Burtt's Corner with his partner.
Finally realizing that they lived near this memorable station caused me to send them copies of these two photos
... and it also caused me to poke away at this post about the Gibson Sub.
(The sheer 'beauty' of my photography was a reason for never posting these photos.)
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I believe this was taken at about Mi 30 Gibson Sub, looking north.
This may be part of the ruling grade at Barton.
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As an indication of how little was left when we went through in 1988,
here is a 1986 employee timetable for the Gibson Subdivision.
Travelling north, beyond the end of the Gibson Sub, here is Mi 68 of the Shogomoc Sub. looking north.
... about 4 miles north of Hartland.
We left our starting point - South Devon - about three hours earlier.
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Finally, here is Florenceville, New Brunswick, Mile 74.9 on the Shogomoc Sub.
Looking south (above) and north (below).
Today, I think the ground on which this station was built is somewhere under the large McCain Foods complex.
My mother had a school friend who married a potato/pea farmer and lived in nearby Glassville.
This may have been my third or fourth visit here.
It's a really nice part of the country.
