The Building of a Railroad

As a follow up to August '83 article we have a rather lengthy but colorful history of the T. & N. 0. Ry. It is published by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, which is an agency of the Government of Ontario. The T. & N. 0. Ry. is under the jurisdiction of this Commission, as is Ontario Northland Communications (ONC), which operates in the geographical area generally recognized as Northeastern Ontario, providing mostly long distance communications. ONC was initiated by the Ontario Northland Railway shortly after the turn of the century to assist construction forces during the building of the railroad. As the railway pushed further into Northern Ontario, the telegraph lines followed. People settling along the new railroad found these lines to be their only communication outlet to the outside world and started using the facilities, initially by telegraph, but later by telephone. The population in the areas increased, and the railway found itself in the commercial communication business. 

From this humble beginning, the system has grown with Northern Ontario and today has 450 miles of pole lines and cables and 4,500 miles of microwave and radio routes, all carrying thousands of miles of telephone and telegraph facilities. Satellite facilities have also been recently added to ONC's involvement.

Once again many thanks to Oscar Chaput (Wheatley, Ontario) for sharing this history of the T. & N. 0. Ry. and to the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission for allowing us to print it. 

YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW 

Ontario Northland Railway
by
0. T. G. Williamson 

The idea of building a railway north through Northern Ontario to a point on James Bay has occurred to a number of dreamers from at least as early as 1884. For most of these, the goal was to create an ocean port through which might be developed the fabulous but quite unknown resources of the country around James and Hudson Bays. Perhaps the most fantastic of the proposals made in those early days was drafted by Charles T. Harvey, C.E., in 1897. This was for the installation of the Great Northern Ontario and Northwest Canada Transit Route, a composite of railways and boat lines extending from Sault Ste. Marie via Moose Factory, Chesterfield Inlet, Great Slave Lake, the MacKenzie River and the Yukon to the Bering Sts. For all the impracticability of such a project, Mr. Harvey alone seems to have had a just appreciation of the potential value of the territory to be traversed in Northern Ontario. In the summer of 1897, Mr. Harvey, accompanied by Mr. W. A. Charlton, M.P.P., made a trip for a considerable distance down the Missinaibi River, no doubt starting their canoe trip at Dog Lake on the C.P.R. Although such a trip was quite unlikely to disclose any evidence of valuable minerals, it would have shown tremendous resources in timber and pulpwood and wide areas of arable land. The important point is that Mr. Harvey took a hard look at Northern Ontario instead of contemplating the end of the rainbow at the Bering Sts.

It is natural that the early schemes for railway construction should have concentrated on the valley of the Missinaibi River. The headwaters of this river extend to within a few miles of the C.P.R. and the height of land in that area presented no barrier to railway construction. However, when the building of a railway became a practical problem, the only route given serious consideration was one directly north from North Bay. On the principle that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, such a railway would bring whatever developments resulted into a direct line with Toronto and the area of greatest industrial activity. As an immediate objective, the railway would afford an outlet for the farmers settled at the head of Lake Temiskaming and there was a good prospect that profitable lumbering operations could be established along the line. Little more was contemplated or hoped for and the outlook was bleak enough to cause much vocal opposition and no interest at all on the part of either of the two great Canadian railways. 

The first step towards the construction of a railway took place in 1900 when the Ontario Legislature appropriated $40,000 to defray the cost of locating a railway from North Bay to New Liskeard. W. B. Russell was the engineer appointed to carry out the survey and he began work in May, 1901. It was rugged country all the way with rivers and streams crossing the line but seldom affording valleys to permit easy grades and alignments Since the country to be traversed was devoid of roads, supplies were taken in by canoe. Ottertail Creek gave access to the line at Bushnell, the Matabitchiwan at Temagami and Lake Temiskaming at Haileybury and New Liskeard. The Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway Act was passed at the 1902 session of the Legislature and given Royal Assent on March 17, 1902. The Hon. F. R. Latchford, Ontario Minister of Public Works, turned the "first sod" on high ground at the west end of Trout Lake. On May 24, a contract was let by the Department of Public Works for the clearing of the first twenty miles of the right-of-way. Under the authority of the Act, the first Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway Commission was appointed by Order in Council on July 24, 1902.

The Commission consisted of: 

• A. E. Ames, Toronto, Chairman 
• E. Gurney, Toronto, Commissioner 
• M. J. O'Brien, Renfrew, Commissioner 
• B. W. Folger, Kingston, Commissioner 
• F. E. Leonard, London, Commissioner 
• P. E. Ryan, Toronto, Secretary-Treasurer 

At the first Commission meeting held on July 29, Mr. W. B. Russell was appointed Chief Engineer. 

Since the first contractor had failed to make satisfactory progress, that contract was abrogated and the Commission awarded its first contract on October 3, 1902, to Allan Ronald MacDonnell. It covered all phases of construction work for 110 miles of railway. The first sixty miles were to be completed by December 31, 1903, and the remainder by December 31, 1904. Actual construction work began on October 14, 1902. 

During 1903, construction of the National Transcontinental Railway was being discussed. The Commission, in anticipation of a possible connection with this railway, that year began exploratory and location surveys north from New Liskeard. It was on August 7, 1903, that James H. McKinley and Earnest J. Darrah made the first discovery of valuable minerals in what was to become the Cobalt mining field. It is interesting to note what the Chief Engineer's Annual Report for 1903 had to say on the subject of minerals:

On June 7, 1904, A. R. MacDonnell received an additional contract for one hundred miles of railway from New Liskeard north to the vicinity of Watabeag River. Under this contract, steel reached the Blanche River, immediately south of Englehart, by the end of 1904.

Completion of the first contract to New Liskeard was delayed by half a month and so it was January 16, 1905, when the Commission took over that section of the Railway for operation. The first Superintendent of the railway was J. H. Black, who had been promoted to Superintendent and Traffic Manager on December 5, 1904. The functions of general management were at that time and for many years performed by the Commission.

Steel was laid to Boston Creek by December 31, 1905, and on October 1 of the following year, the line between New Liskeard and Englehart was taken over for operation by the Commission. In 1906, contracts were awarded for two short branch lines, from Cobalt to Kerr Lake and from Englehart to Charlton. Both were in operation by 1907, which was the year when twelve inches of snow fell at Cobalt on May 28. By 1907, the main line had reached Matheson and on February 28 of that year, a contract was awarded for the extension of the line to Cochrane to effect a junction with the National Transcontinental Railway then being constructed to the west from Quebec City. Steel reached Cochrane on November 26, 1908. 

Explorations made to the Larder Lake area and to the Gowganda country in that year did not result in further action in either direction. In 1909, preliminary surveys were made into the Porcupine, where the discover of gold had been reported and construction work, undertaken by the Commission's own forces began from Mileage 224, at that time known as Iroquois Falls. Track laying was started in February, 1911, and reached South Porcupine on June 16. Regular services were in operation on July 1, 1911, most opportunely, since a disastrous fire, which took seventy-two lives, swept the mining area just ten days later.

As early as 1905, a survey, exploratory in nature, had been made to James Bay and, in 1911, a party went in under S. C. Ells, an engineer of wide experience in Northern Canada, for the specific purpose of determining the best location for a terminus on James Bay. His report strongly recommended a point on the Moose River in the neighbourhood of Moose Factory. 

On June 21, 1911, the Commission purchased the Nipissing Central Railway, an electric line operating between Cobalt and Haileybury. As this railway was operated under the authority of a Dominion charter, its acquisition gave the T. & N. 0. the right to cross Provincial boundaries. The N.C.R. was extended to New Liskeard and the extension was in operation on November 2, 1912.

Because of increasing silver production in the Gowganda area, construction of a branch line from Earlton to Elk Lake was started in 1912. As happened on several other occasions, the construction work was complete by the Commission's own forces and a regular service to Elk Lake was commenced on February 5, 1913.

In this year, a branch line was also constructed to serve the Abitibi Power and Paper Co. mill being constructed a few miles to the east of the railway. As a result, a change of names took place, the junction point becoming Porquis, a synthetic name, and the new paper town was called Iroquois Falls. The construction of this branch was a combined effort, with the Abitibi company clearing the right-of-way, McDougall and McCluskey doing the grading and the Commission laying the track. Regular services began on September 9, 1913.

This marked completion of the early phases of railway construction in Northern Ontario. With the outbreak of the First Great War, all the resources of Canada were directed to one supreme objective and further expansion of the T. & N.O. ceased during the war years and for a year or two later. Every town and hamlet and the T. & N.O. as well gave its quota of men to the great struggle and to the casualty lists from overseas had to be added those much nearer home. In 1916, a great fire devastated the country from Cochrane to New Liskeard and two hundred and fifty people lost their lives.

Construction began once more in 1922, a contract being awarded late in the previous year for seventy miles of track north from Cochrane. The completion date was stipulated as October 31, 1923. The line was opened for traffic only as far as Mileage 44.4 north of Cochrane on November 1, 1923. The Commission completed the work to Fraserdale. This extension, while probing in the direction of James Bay, was made chiefly to facilitate the construction of hydro-electric power plants on the Abitibi River at Island Falls and the Abitibi Canyon.

Because of the increasing importance of the Kirkland Lake gold mining area, the Commission decided to construct a branch line east from Swastika to Larder Lake. The work was done under the authority of the Nipissing Central Railway charter with a view to extending ultimately to Noranda, Quebec. The first contract, awarded on June 24, 1923, was subsequently taken over by H. F. McLean, who completed the section to Larder Lake by December 31, 1923. Construction work was resumed and carried to the Quebec border in 1925 and again after a lapse, to Noranda, Quebec, on October 15, 1927, Angus and Taylor Ltd. of North Bay being the contractor for the final stage.

In 1924, a branch line was constructed from a point south of Cobalt to Silver Centre to serve the South Lorrain silver mining area. Subsequently, this branch and the Kerr Lake Branch, having fulfilled their purpose, were taken up, as was the short branch between Englehart and Charlton. 

From 1928 to 1932, the railway was carried by stages from Mileage north of Cochrane to Moosonee. The formal ceremony of driving the "last spike" was performed on July 15, 1932. It was well and truly performed since three "last spikes" were driven; a gold spike by the Hon. George Henry, Prime Minister of Ontario, a silver spike by Mr. Justice Latchford who thirty years before had turned the "first sod" and an iron spike by Mr. George W. Lee, Chairman of the Commission. Ontario was thus given formal access to salt water and an ocean port. It is fair, however, to assume that this construction was carried out at that time for more humanitarian reasons. It afforded urgently needed employment in a time of great depression, not only to the Northland, but even more particularly to manufacturing plants in Southern Ontario.

The driving of the "last spike" marked the end of construction in the sense that since that time there have been no new branch lines nor any major extensions to existing lines. However, on a railway, construction never ceases and the road today is quite a different system than it was 1932. In addition, new services to supplement the railway were introduced. With the completion of a practicable highway to the north, a highway bus service was instituted in 1936 between Iroquois Falls and Timmins. Subsequently, routes linking North Bay and Timmins, New Liskeard and Elk Lake, Porquis and Iroquois Falls, Cochrane and Timmins were put into operation to give rapid and more frequent service between these points. In 1944, the existing boat services on Lake Temagami were acquired and greatly improved. The following year service was given on Lake Nipissing and the French River, using the motorship "Modello" soon to be replaced by the all-steel diesel craft "Chief Commanda" which was assembled and launched at Callander. Both of these services have since been expanded by the addition of self-propelled barges for freight service.

It was in 1945, that the historic name "Temiskaming and Northern Ontario" gave place to "Ontario Northland". Even those making the change had nostalgic regrets for the necessity. Great confusion had for years been occasioned by the existence of another T. & N.O., the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. Repairs done in remote parts of the continent for one railway would be charged to the other. The other was generally the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario because it appeared first in the railway list. A change of name was the only solution to a continually recurring accounting muddle. Since the railway had been extended far beyond Temiskaming, it was felt that a name of wider implication would be more suitable. Under the new act providing for the change, the Commission became the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the operating facilities were named Ontario Northland Railway, Ontario Northland Highway Services, Ontario Northland Boat Lines and Ontario Northland Communications.

Since the change of name marked the end of an era, it may be fitting here to quote an unbiased appraisal of what the railway has meant to Ontario and to Canada made by Mr. Sidney Norman of the Globe and Mail, Toronto, in 1945:

The year 1945 saw the beginning of another dynamic period for the railway and its allied services. From the early thirties to the end of World War II, there had been little incentive or opportunity for expansion. Especially during the years of the war, the utmost that could be done was to hold the line with essential maintenance work. Inevitably a backlog of desirable undertakings accumulated. Perhaps the most notable incident, during that period of stagnation, had been the putting into service, in 1940, of the restaurant car "Agumik". This car was designed and fitted out by the railway's mechanical department and it was a unique departure from standard dining car design. With no increase in staff, it could serve at least twice the normal number of passengers in a given time. Modifications of the design have been successfully introduced on the Moosonee and Noranda runs and adaptations of the car are in wide use on the two large Canadian railways.

With the relaxation of tensions and controls after victory was attained in the European theatre, a broad program designed to improve services and facilities and to reduce the cost of operation was put into effect and is still being pursued. To reduce the cost of operation was more than ever important since uncontrollable factors such as cost of materials and labour were increasing at a sharply ascending rate. Despite the fact that revenue was rising constantly, from approximately six and a half million dollars in the war years to over fifteen million dollars in the late '50's, the operating ratio was increasing at an alarming rate. In 1942, it had been 71.3%. In 1959, it was 95.7%.