Just a couple of questions & comments on why Canadian National abandoned its rail lines on Prince Edward Island & Newfoundland.
From what information I gathered, the CN line on Prince Edward Island wasn’t generating enough revenue, thus the reason why CN pulled out of there.
On Newfoundland it was the time consuming endeavour of changing the wheels from standard gauge to narrow gauge is why CN is no longer there though I understand the trains there were quite long.
Does anyone have any other information on those lines[?] [;)]
Docster, I might be able to answer some of your questions regarding the RR in Newfoundland…because my dad was employed there in Port Aux Basques where the ferry terminal was. If I remember correctly they actually loaded trains onto the ferry that went across the Atlantic gulf, and then in Port Aux Basques the train would be pulled off. Yes you are correct that the RR was narrow gauge (Newfoundland was still a part of Britian when the RR was laid.), and yes there was the manual changing of the wheels…but that was only for a while. Later they adopted the system of using flat bed cars and box cars, like almost everywhere else today. So there was no need to change the wheels anymore. Lift from one train and load onto another. It was still time consuming. It was a long line…close to a 1000KM I would say. Another problem was the area know as Wreck House, where hurricane like winds rolling off the Table Mountains would lift the trains off the track and toss them out onto the fields…but IMO makes no difference cause tractor-trailer trucks suffer the same fate, and these days they just close the area anyway.
I venture to say that it was a lack of big profit for CN, and also perhaps a lack of support from the federal gov in Ottawa thats it being shut down. Ottawa managed to calm the people by promising the “Roads For Rails” project that would give Newfoundland major highway infrastructure…yeah BS we got.
If you have any questions in particular please do not hesitate to ask me.
Thanks for answer & help, Crazy Diamond. I didn’t know about the hoisting of cars onto other rail cars. I remember now the hurricane like winds, from your posting, which were strong enough to actually blow railcars off the line. Didn’t they hold trains back if they thought the wind was too strong[?]
Narrow gauge in Newfoundland was cheaper and more suitable for the terain they needed to cross. From what I’ve read, it lost money from the day it was built. There were some really interesting features of the line, the loop being one that still exists I believe.
Here is a link to a great site with info on the RR:
The old road-bed makes a great off-road adventure if you’re ever up there. We did a bif of it some years back down by the Topsails. An incredible adventure in a very very isolated area…
I served as acoustical consultant for the Fathers of the Confederation Theatre in Charlottetown, PEI, and made several trips there. One round trip was by train from Montreal, where the architects’ offices were. This allowed me to ride the train ferry. At that time a mixed with one lighweight snmoothside coach connected with Ocean Limited at Moncton. The ferry had three tracks and generally the road-switcher diesel, a GP-7. road in the middle track, the coach on either side so passengers could leave and enjoy the ferry’s dining room. The switching on both sides was done by the road locomotive. The crossing was about an hour in length and there were about two or three hours of railroading on both sides. The line on the island had once been narrow gauge and had lots of curves, and ifmemmory is right there were tow branches without passenger service. I don’t remember any intermodel traffic, just boxes, refers, gons, and flats. Rleatively short trains, 15-18 cars. During the period I was working on the project, a bus replaced the passenger accomodations of the train, with an old wood combine used as the caboose to handle company business riders on the same schedule as the mixed. So the bus was ont he same ferry as the freight train.
In the fall of 1967 Maurie Kleibolt of the Chicago Railroad Club ran an excursion using regular trains from Chicago to St. Johns and return. The International from Chicago to Toronto, and I had a roomette, ditto on the Ocean to North Sidney. We had sleeper cabins on the boat to Cape Tormentine, and I had an upper berth in a section sleeper on the narrow gauge mixed train, which took about 24 hours to go across Newfoundland at about an average speed of 22 mph. An office car with brass rail platform was at the rear for out use. We saw a preserved steam locomotive, a well preseved looking 2-8-2. Food on the narrow gauge diner was excellent.
I was told at that time that MDT refrigerator cars and a certain class of CN box cars still were having
Sometimes they did, but sometimes management wouldn’t listen from old Mr. Lockie MacDougall, the human weather guage…and sure shot he was right they were wrong and the trains would become ‘airborn’. [:0]
There are some that could make a good arguement that had the line been built has regular gauge, or if it has been converted later to regular gauge, then the large overhead costs of wheel conversions would have been eliminated, and this would have been enough to make the operations profitable.
I won’t go into it, but there is a lot of Newfoundland Canada politics that also needs to be understood…this RR is just one chapter of a very long book.
Having visited twice, I can say that my wife and I absolutely loved the experience. The folks are great, the scenery wonderful, and I’ve never felt so welcomed in any other place I’ve visited.
Having read a bit about the government experiences in Nfld, I can’t think of one example of government intervention that went either well, or as planned. The railroad is yet another example of a long history of largely failed experiements. It’s a facinating history however!
Not only have railroads disappeared on Newfoundland and PEI. They are in danger of disappearing on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Local officials are trying hard to keep the tracks alive. Don’t know what the status is, but the last I heard they had found enough business to keep the line running for a while at least.
Too bad they couldn’t resurrect passenger service on that line as well; at least once a day to provide a connection to Halifax and points West. It’s a beautiful part of the Maritimes.