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| from: Electricity on a Steam Road, 1896 (Article link is at the bottom of this post.) |
There are some really good authoritative websites - as near as a Google search - which provide comprehensive descriptions of the Hull Electric Company streetcar/interurban line. This post presents a few resources which I cobbled together to further describe aspects of this interesting operation. As I went along, I found more and more references and the post length increased.
Two articles from 1896, which were discovered by Jim Christie, are linked at the end of this post.
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| from: The Intercity Electric Railway Industry in Canada; John F Due; 1966; University of Toronto Press. |
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| Postcard mailed July 18, 1910. |
The image in the postcard above was probably photographed circa 1900.
The layout of the railway and streetcar lines is shown on the undated Interprovincial Bridge photo below.
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| from: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec |
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| from: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec |
As I understand it, Bridge Street referred to the Union Bridge which crossed the Ottawa River at Chaudiere Island.
I think the location, above, is at/near Bridge Street and Aylmer Road on the 1915 map below. (I think Bridge Street is Eddy Street in 2022.)
What is missing from the postcard photos, above and below? (Answer below)
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| from: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec |
Missing from the two photos above is the overhead streetcar catenary, and the 'trolley cord' is painted out with white in the photo immediately above. This was done by the postcard artist who colourized the original black and white photo used as the postcard's foundation.
The motorman and conductor, above, may be pushing their car back to the catenary's power after manually turning their car on a small turntable at the terminal.
In the early 1900s, Canadian city skies were cluttered with webs of wires carrying a wide variety of electrical currents: electricity destined for commercial or domestic use, electrical signals in telephone and telegraph circuits, and streetcar catenary designed to feed current to streetcars' overhead trolley poles.
The routes of the Hull Electric Company are coloured blue in the map below. Aside from the Interprovincial Bridge segments to the Chateau Laurier area, it is not clear on the map how far/if the HEC ventured into Ontario over the Union Bridge when the map was drawn.
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Maps
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| from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada. |
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| from: Historical Topographic Map Digitization Project - The Ontario Council of University Libraries. Thank you to Jim Christie for making me aware of this resource ! |
Above: extract from Ottawa sheet, 1906. 1 inch:1 mile Department of Militia and Defence, Canada.
The map above shows the line and its western loop at Queen's Park. On another map designed to show only the park area, two yard (or 'storage') tracks were shown extending the main line tangent into stub tracks within the turning loop. It seems likely that these were used: to 'park' streetcars clear of the loop track at peak times of park use ... or if assigned streetcars were used to carry particular excursion groups to and from the park.
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Legislation/Regulation
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| from: A Statutory History of Railways in Canada, 1836-1986; Dorman/Stoltz; 1987; Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport. |
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Contributing to your CPR dividend!
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| from: Canadian Pacific Railway Annual Report, June 1915. |
Above: The $75,000 of interest contributed to the CPR seems paltry.
However, when converted to 2022 dollars ... Hull's little streetcars contributed $1.9 million to its corporate parent circa 1914.
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Power Generation
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| from: Google maps 2022. |
Deschênes (mentioned below) is shown on the topographical map which you saw earlier.
The current view of the the company's former generating location is shown above.
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| from: Electric Generation and Distribution in Canada; Leo G Denis; 1918; Commission of Conservation, Canada. |
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Examples of Hull Electric rolling stock.
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| from: Canadian Car Builders Series (misc builders); JM Mills; no date; OERHA, UCRA. |
Canadian General Electric (factory at Peterborough, Ontario) vehicles are shown above.
I think the date shown is their date of building.
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Ottawa Car Company vehicles ...
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| from: Canadian Car Builders Series (Ottawa Car Co.); JM Mills; no date; OERHA, UCRA. |
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| from: Canadian Car Builders Series (Ottawa Car Co.); JM Mills; no date; OERHA, UCRA. |
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| from: Canadian Car Builders Series (Ottawa Car Co.); JM Mills; no date; OERHA, UCRA. |
The following articles in Canadian Electrical News at archive.org give contemporary details of this operation.
(Thank you to Jim Christie for his research!)
The Hull and Aylmer Electric Railway, April 1896