Part 3

========+========+========+=======+============+=======+=====++=================+========+=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+======== Ballast | Ballast| Ballast| Pilot | Special |Ballast|No. 1|| Trains |Special |Ballast|Pilot|Ballast|Ballast|No. 4|Engineer --------+--------+--------+-------+------------+-------+-----++-----------------+--------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+-------- Lovelock| | Martin | |Flanagan | | ||Conductor |Flanagan| | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | Kean | | Monro |Spragge|Greenshields| | ||Engineer |Spragge | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | Webster | | Yates |Phipps |Cameron | | ||Fireman |Phipps | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | |Ryan | | ||Baggageman |Ryan | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | McGillis| | Ragan | | | | ||Brakesman | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | 341 | | 338 | No. 8 | No. 2 | | ||Engine |No. 8 | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | Off | | Off | Red | | | || | | | | | | | Branch | | Branch |Signal | | | || | | | | | | | --------+--------+--------+-+-----+--+---------+----+--+-----++-----------------+--------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+-------- A.D. | A.D. | A.D. | A.D. | A.D. | Miles || Stations | A.D. | A.D. | | | | | --------+--------+----------+--------+--------------+--------++-----------------+--------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+-------- | | | | 1.35 | 0 ||Toronto | | 10.30 | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | psd. 1.12 | 4¼ ||Lambton | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | 12 ||Cooksville | 10.55 | 10.58 | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | 17⅞ ||Streetsville | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | psd. 12.51 | 19⅛ ||Streetsville Jct.| 11.25 | 11.25 | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | 12.26 | 29¾ ||Milton | 11.46 | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | | | | | 35½ ||Campbellsville | | | | | | | ========+========+==========+========+==============+========++=================+========+=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+========

THE CRUSADE OF UNITED STATES RAILWAY INTERESTS IN CANADA

John Bull’s eldest daughter, Canada--recently eulogized as his fairest by the Honorable William H. Taft--is no laggard in recognizing opportunity as it ebbs and flows in the great, scientific game of trade. Like our wide-awake neighbor to the south, she inherits from commercial and speculative England the bartering instinct, and is willing enough to emulate, in a modified way, cousin Columbia’s obeisances to the goddess of commerce. The goddess, aforesaid, has been an active dame and most aggressive throughout North America during the past half century. To further her aims, enthusiastic disciples have achieved such marvellous feats, especially in railroad construction and transportation methods, during the period mentioned that comparisons, invidious or otherwise, are well-nigh compulsory.

The prairie schooner has made a squeaky exit from the drama of locomotion into museums and the tortuous, blazed trails of the gold seekers of ’49, minus kinks and humps, are now the routes of many lines with trackage contributing to an aggregate of 256,547 miles of railway which 2105 roads have under operation to-day in United States alone. In 1860 the Union possessed only 30,626 miles of steel.

Fifty years ago the fruits of opportunity in the middle and golden west appeared to the denizens east of the “Missouri” to ripen and require plucking all at once, and the termination of the Civil War signalled the inauguration of extravagant railroad ventures. Ambition fired the mind of the restless native and that big, swelling, polyglot immigration pouring into the “Land of Liberty,” needed space and breezy fumigation. Afterwards, they had to be fed and equipped, which, pursuant to the laws of demand and supply, materially increased consumption. Responding to the goads of progress, the railroads extended, paralleled and criss-crossed the “other fellow” in the dignified scramble for a slice of the melon of prosperity. The slogan was and has ever been, “More Passengers,” “Increased Tonnage”: import, export, interline and local business all comprised grist for the mills. About the time mercantile houses were becoming inoculated with the “commercial traveller” idea, a small squad of travelling railroad representatives, in open formation, were training observing optics on prospective traffic. In this, the eastern group of railroads were slightly in advance of their newer, western connections.

As far back as 1868 New York and New England State railways--the nuclei of gigantic present day systems--grew interested in international trade and thrust their tentacles across that imaginary line of demarkation bisecting the great lakes, into Ontario and Quebec. Mr. E. L. Slaughter entered Canada forty-eight years ago as representative of the “Erie” and is said to have been the first foreign line travelling agent to invade British domains on such a mission. Some Canadian merchants no doubt, remember this Southern gentleman who occupied an office at the corner of Scott and Wellington Streets, Toronto. John Strachan, genial and popular, followed him and for many years graced the position, with Mr. M. McGregor, inscrutable and keen, as right bower. S. J. Sharp was also an active agent of that system in Ontario. Those were the days of the “Merchant’s Dispatch,” 1870, the days when John Barr in the early eighties trod the boards boosting the “Blue Line,” and his understudies, A. F. Webster, Bob Moodie, Charles Holmes and F. F. Backus, sallied forth from the corner of Church and Colborne Streets, originally laboring in the same cause. Afterwards, T. J. Craft, and subsequently S. Hyndman, made predatory incursions from Detroit for the “Blue Line.” Mr. Craft was once agent at Galt, Ont., and an organ, the product of his skill, is, I believe, in good order to-day in a church in that Scottish burg. The distinctive term “dispatch” I mention, was applied to the earliest systematized methods, operative within a railway organization, for tracing perishable or timed freight and transporting it via most direct routes in cars of a uniform dimension, color, etc. Ere long, “Great Eastern” and “National Dispatch” sprang into existence. Hot on their heels came the “Hoosac Tunnel Route” and “West Shore” bidding for favorable consideration through the medium of indefatigable Joseph Hickson.

Not until 1901 did W. A. Wilson, a graduate of that school, and formerly with the “Fitchburg,” assume control of the “N.Y.C.” merged freight interests. Louis Drago and Frank C. Foy supervised passenger affairs for the consolidated lines.

At that period there was more talk in Canada of reciprocity with United States than there may be again. Uncle Sam’s politicians were wont to shun the subject, but the interchange of traffic grew apace. Emboldened by their competitors’ success, the “Lackawanna Road” sent an emissary into Ontario and they “have stuck,” George Bazzard campaigning for years for that interest until age caused him to make place for A. Leadley, now at the helm. 1884 saw the advent of the “Lehigh Valley” and Duncan Cooper. Robert Lewis, then in his prime, was busy making hay, years before their permanent office was decided on. He was a practical student of the “Morse” code at Suspension Bridge in 1855 when the first near-modern structure spanned Niagara River. Thirty years ago he presented his card in “York” state as representative of the “Great Western.” Only recently came the “Pennsylvania” with Don McKenzie as sponsor and succeeded by L. J. Fox and Messrs. Stackpole Plummer, and Little.

A large percentage of the public have enjoyed or know of the splendid passenger equipment and service some of these railways, in conjunction with Canadian trunk lines, offer to-day between Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton and Atlantic Seaboard. No doubt the reader who has attained the age of 45 years could develop a comparative mental picture of his first train ride, its discomforts, shortcomings and quaint paraphernalia. The demands of the age and growth of travel account for “the milk in the cocoanut.” Before the war, the average number of trains crossing the line via Rouse’s Point, N.Y., was 134 per month, and in that time they transported 9,627 passengers southward. At Newport, Vt., 160 trains entering United States yield a monthly patronage of 6,897 people. Probably you are curious to learn how it is at Niagara Falls, N.Y. This accessible and world-famous spot, redolent with much that is historic and tragic, is the magnet which attracts or ushers into the State of New York 20,000 souls a month and 700 trains of all railroads are pressed into service to cater to the modern craze to be “on the go.” These authentic figures do not include pedestrian traffic.

Compare the tonnage of forty years ago, and the leisurely dispatch it was given, with the daily carloads containing a multifarious assortment of perishable commodities and staples which now make regular, scheduled runs of 24, 36, and 48 hours between United States points of origin, the docks at Portland, Boston and New York and distributing centres in Canada. Twelve to fifteen hundred tons of import merchandise for Ontario destinations per month, apportioned to each of the half dozen competitive eastern “U.S.” lines, is a conservative estimate of what is handled. They bring in hardware, silver novelties, locks and clocks from Connecticut; tools, machinery and electrical supplies from Massachusetts and New York; cement and coal from Pennsylvania; early table delicacies from Maryland, and off ocean vessels, English fabrics, weaves from Scotch and Irish looms, German toys, Parisian frocks and bonnets, as well as tons of express matter and the theatrical accessories which accompany the thespians, prestidigitators and slap-stick artists. One of these eastern lines, with a strong weakness for fruit shipments, transports to the international bridges during the season, 125 carloads a month of incoming Cuban pineapples, Costa Rica bananas and Mediterranean lemons. The local and through eastbound tonnage secured by interested railways receives equal dispatch, exceeds that average and includes large quantities of apples, cheese, eggs, flour, implements, lumber, meats and poultry which probably approximate a combined monthly output of 1,200 carloads. It may be news to some of the uninitiated to hear that 1,500 carloads of Ontario grown turnips are shipped annually in the autumn for consumption in the United States. It is not surprising, therefore, that the big “American” carriers hasten to augment their revenues by coaxing and nursing this growing trade.

In 1875 the complacent east languidly condescended to heed insistent whispers concerning Canada’s vast Northwest. The tide of travel was diverging and began to carry with it in that direction prospectors, homesteaders and adventurous merchants bent on spying out locations in the prairie El Dorado. Dependent, of course, they levied on the mills of the east for food, clothing and implements. About this time Sir Hugh Childers, London, England, occupied the President’s chair directing the destinies of the Grand Trunk Railway, and the contemporary Canadian Pacific Railway official was (Sir) William Van Horne. Lucius Tuttle, President of Boston & Maine System, D. McNicoll, Vice-President, and C. E. E. Ussher, Passenger Traffic Manager, Canadian Pacific Railway, later on in the first flight and noteworthy examples of what determination and capacity accomplish, were going through a “course of sprouts” with Ontario lines which afterwards lost identity. Robert Kerr, former Passenger Traffic Manager “C.P.R.,” was “G.F. & P.A.” of the Northern Railway, and in his office situated at the foot of Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Tom Marshall and Henry Jago shoved the quill. Mr. Jago recently relinquished the duties of “G.E.P.A.” West Shore Road at New York. Henry Bourlier, so long associated with J. D. Hunter as western representatives of the Allan Line, was in 1874 ticket agent of G.T.R., in the old depot, and Tommy Jones was City Ticket Agent, Great Western Railway. Shippers hereabout will remember John Porteous, G.F.A., G.T.R., Montreal, Arthur White, G.F.A., Midland Railway, Port Hope, Ont., Jim “the penman” Thompson of the C.P.R. and Malcolm Murdock. Then it was that the star of Geo. B. Reeve and W. E. Davis began to twinkle; likewise, John W. Loud. All in modest positions at that time, they were fitting themselves for the exalted places they afterwards honorably filled in shaping the policy of the “Grand Trunk” and “Trunk Pacific” systems.

The majority of these and other officials had frequent business intercourse with the various United States railway agents who visited Canada.

In the year 1877 Mr. A. H. Burnham made his initial bow in Ontario representing Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. This move was significant, indicating the expectations of western roads based on the interest Manitoba’s commercial future had awakened. In July, 1878, the late James M. Taylor, prior to that time General Freight Agent and Superintendent, St. Lawrence & Ottawa Railway, had the distinction of establishing at Toronto the first permanent western line office in Canada. He was appointed General Canadian Agent of the “St. Paul Road.” Unlike any competitor, that railway maintained an agency in Ontario without interruption for three decades. Andrew J. Taylor joined his father in February, 1879, succeeding him several years ago when the former transferred to Pittsburg. These gentlemen have ever been regarded as pioneers and charter members of the foreign railway colony, highly respected by a legion of friends. James M. Taylor, a man of sterling personal characteristics and business acumen, who appreciated and sustained a clever hand in a quiet rubber at euchre, chose for headquarters a suite of rooms within a door of the northeast corner of Front and Scott Streets, then the hub of mercantile activity in Toronto. A neighbor was Mr. Richard Arnold, for a long time City Passenger Agent in charge of the “G.T.R.” office located on the aforesaid corner. Mr. Arnold’s daughters became respectively, the wives of William Wainwright and James Stephenson, two notable figures of the old regime. The former died when Fourth Vice-President of the “G.T.R.” and his erstwhile confrere, I believe, lived in retirement in England until death. Mr. Arnold numbered in his staff the late well-known “Phil.” Slatter; a junior assistant was Mr. C. E. McPherson, now A.P.T.M., C.P.R., at Winnipeg, who 35 years ago left “G.T.R.” ranks to travel in New England for the “Rock Island Road” and J. B. Tinning. C. W. Graves imbibed from the same seasoned chief preliminary hints on how to handle the dear public and look out for the elusive traveller who was not above licking into illegibility the date on expired tickets.

Messrs. V. M. Came, W. Barnes and Sam. Beatty soon followed Mr. Burnham of the St. Paul Road to further the interests of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, but were transferred before many moons had silvered the landscape. The two Jacks, “Morley” and “Winnett” swung into line in 1879 and did good work in both departments for the “C. & N.W.R.,” opening an office in Toronto in the old Baldwin Building, I understand, in 1880.

John Morley long ago forsook the excitement of the road. He died at Winnipeg during the summer of 1908, and interment occurred at Toronto, where his family is well known. The mantle of these gentlemen fell naturally on the shoulders of a sturdy Spartan, Burton H. Bennett, cryptic, yet merry, who jumped into the game with a will and has won an enviable reputation in the dual position.

The “Burlington Road” was right up on the firing line, looked after by a gentleman bearing the uncurtailed and historic cognomen, John Quincy Adams Bean, from “way down east.” After him, in order, appeared Messrs. Badgeley, Simpson and John A. Yorick. The late Joe Simpson was always happy if his road secured patronage in regular twos and threes. Not every one knows that he was for a few hours an unwilling guest of the “Fenian” leader O’Neil in 1866, and had been with M.K. & T. and T.St.L. & K.C.

Brilliant, well-informed, J. Francis Lee represented the “Rock Island-Albert Lea” combination, D. J. Peace sought freight for them and Eben MacLeod was located at Montreal somewhat later for “C.R.I. & P.” Such watchful competitors as “Great Western Railway,” featured by Messrs. Ridgedale, Noyes, Storr and Baker, and “Union Pacific Ry.” with Ira P. Griswold in the van, M. C. Dickson and J. O. Goodsell holding power later, before Geo. Vaux and J. J. Rose took up their work. Charles A. Florence, an “Illinois Central” Agent, made Berlin--now Kitchener--his headquarters.

The “All Rail” mediums then available for transporting man and beast destined California, the Dakotas and Manitoba from Old Ontario, were “Grand Trunk,” “Great Western,” “Credit Valley,” and “Canada Southern,” covering the distance as far as St. Thomas and Detroit, thence via “Michigan Central” and Wabash Railroads to Chicago. Tom Cochrane, R. W. Youngs, Bob Middleton, J. W. Kearns and G. C. Wilson follow the footsteps of predecessors and patrol that neighborhood now. As travel increased from a dozen or two people to an occasional weekly carload, and more, the number of migratory railroaders multiplied. Oldtimers will recollect some of those big hearted, brainy hustlers including Sam Seymour of the “Pennsylvania,” Dave Cavan, formerly of Stratford, John Laven, off the “Iron Mountain,” representing “M.C.R.,” Charles Ousterhouse, T.P.A. N.Y.C. Lines, Geo. B. Wyllie for “L.S. & M.S.” and later in full charge of “Ill. Cent. Ry.” affairs in Canada, and the late much lamented J. Nelles Bastedo, who shipped from Barlow Cumberland’s service several years ago to travel for “Santa Fe System.” Joe Rattenbury, who twenty-five to thirty years back used to stow away at his place in Clinton in one night as many as 18 of these railroading nomads and cosmopolitans, often repeats a story the wiseacres will recollect about his brother “Ike” and laconic “Bass.”

The many sided men above enumerated made it their duty to assist with Customs formalities at the frontier and also assuage the fears of intending passengers trembling at the prospect of meeting in Chicago that much heralded and maligned bugaboo the bunco steerer.

It is worthy of remark that while to-day the railroad companies caution and forbid passengers riding on the platforms, thirty-five years ago the travelling public swarmed on that perilous projection, on the steps and quite often took possession of the car roofs with a nonchalance that would make the cold chills play peek-a-boo up and down your spine. How many of the lads and lassies in this year of grace would have the temerity to sally forth, for instance to the London Fair, decorating the top of a flat car rigged up with benches for the occasion? Your fathers and mothers did it.

The patronage of the farmer and his brawny sons, who had visions of gang plows and waving wheat, was an important desideratum in that era. Party leaders were “some pumpkins” and they puffed and spat over many a fragrant cheroot while sipping their “ponies” and “bootlegs” in company of expectant agents.

Charlie McP---- tells a tale of an exodus of the boys over the trail of the lonesome pine to some silent place near Coboconk where the villagers were to meet them to consult. To introduce the serious talk of tickets, rates and routes, some foreign line spokesman suggested a mild libation all hands round. Agreed! Not to be outdone, his neighbor ordered again something out of the lamp for the lords and laity: partaken ad libitum, in extenso. Now me! It’s your turn, and so the hours wore on, your Uncle Dudley Hayrick taking on his grist at minimum cost, business postponed and county council adjourning to reconsider the tax rate.