Niagara Peninsular Essay

Railways in Niagara Peninsular and its impact on the region
Before the arrival a railways in Niagara peninsula The major influence in the Niagara region were the canals. Notably the First Welland Canal built by William Hamilton Merritt opened in the year 1829, which enabled the ships to avoid the Niagara Falls. The Welland canal transformed the Niagara peninsular, many rural regions industrialized, rural areas started to transform into urban areas. There was an inflow of construction workers who arrived in Niagara mostly of Irish origins in order to work for building the canal, this resulted in increase in population. The canal simplified movement of people and goods. They no longer had the need to rely entirely on poor roads and the portage
system, there was noticeable growth of urban centres, in particularly the town of St. Catharines. New industries come up in the region, wherever there was a difference in water level, flour mills started to get built. They used the force of the water to produce flour. However there were some drawbacks of the canals, the towns along the portage routes lost their importance, businesses was suffering from loses. (Railroads in the Niagara Peninsula) (Niagara Falls railroads)
Figure 1a Canadian National Railroad train arriving at Niagara Falls

During the railway era- (Railroads in the Niagara Peninsula)
In 1831, the new Welland Canal was built under the leadership of William Hamilton Merritt was concluded.
As a result of this new mode of transportation, business along the Portage Road diminished drastically. In order to complete with the canal, the businessmen of the Portage Road formed the Erie & Ontario Railroad Company. (Erie & Ontario Railroad)
At the start of the 1840s railways had shown lot of potential for the future. It was a comfortable means of travel, it allowed to travel and transport goods rapidly from place to place. In 1845, for example, about 50,000 visitors were recorded going to Niagara Falls, amounting to a doubling of tourists in five years. The two big railway lines of that time, Canada’s Great Western and the New York Rochester and Niagara (called the New York Central today), acknowledged the potential and both planned separate routes to the famous waterfalls. (Werner)
In the year 1853, The Great Western Railway (GWR) began operations from Niagara Falls through Thorold, St. Catharines, Grimsby and Hamilton to London. The Great Western Railroad became the first railway across southern Ontario. (Niagara Falls railroads). In 1854 the railway line was stretched from London to Chatham and Windsor. In 1855 the GWR accessed New York state railways using the Railway Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls. This was the second suspension bridge at the Niagara Falls but it was the first that supported a
railway.
By the year 1856 branch lines had been constructed from Komoka to Sarnia, and from Hamilton to Toronto. In the Welland Railway opened to support the movement of goods along the Welland Canal. In 1869 the Canada Air Line Railway was commissioned by the Great Western as a substitute route to the Canada Southern Railways which was founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. It adopted the Canada Southern Railway name on December 24, 1869 (Whale). The Canada Air Line Railway became part of the Great Western in 1871 prior to completion in 1873. In the year 1882 the Great Western Railway became part of the Grand Trunk Railway.

(Whale)
Figure 2: The postcard is a copy of the painting by British/Canadian artist Robert R. Whale. The original canvas is on display at National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa
In the year 1910 the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) started a passenger shuttle service from Fort Erie to Buffalo using a self-propelled steam dummy (A steam dummy was a steam locomotive enclosed in a wooden box structure made to resemble a railroad passenger coach). (Wikipedia) There was a time when the Fort Erie railway yard servicing the International Bridge was the third largest in Canada. The Great Western Railway built railway from the American frontier on the Detroit River to the Niagara River. During the construction Irish labours were much in demand. More than 7,500 men worked in teams on the 45-mile route from Hamilton to the Niagara River. In the St. Catharines area, the major tasks was the bridging of Twelve Mile Creek, and laying track across the escarpment east of town where many cuts and embankments were needed which made the task difficult and time consuming.

(Luton, 2001)
Figure 3: self-propelled steam dummies at Dundas passenger station
The impact of Railways (Railroads in the Niagara Peninsula)
• New towns began to emerge: While the construction of the canal was in progress, small settlements had emerged along interior highways, such as Fonthill, Ridgeville, Fenwick and Boyle on the Canboro Road.
The railways also helped in some new settlements such as Brookfield, Netherby, and Stevensville on the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway line.
Smaller towns with railroads, such as Beamsville, Jordan and Vineland, experienced substantial growth thanks to improved access to them. These towns now could access larger centres such as Hamilton. The large contribution to urban growth was that the railways connected the larger existing centres with smaller rural areas and enhanced their growth potential. The town of Merritton, which had sprung up as a canal shanty town which housed construction workers, now became an important centre due to its new railway bridge linking the two
locks.
However, there were some drawbacks, towns that were not connected by rail either contracted insignificance or vanished entirely. Lesser known centres and settlements such as Thirty, Glen Elgin and Tintern could not grow because they were detoured by the railroad. St. Catharines an important centre in Niagara, thanks to the Welland Canal, did not grow like the city of Hamilton. Some historians claim that this occurred because St Catharines train station is built outside the main city.
• New businesses develop in the region- Railway related industries started to come up, most notable one is Patterson & Corbin, A firm which was one of the earliest and most prolific of the electric street car builders of Canada. During their era in this industry, ranging over the ten years from 1887 to 1897, their products were shipped to such far away points as Yarmouth, N.S. and Victoria, B.C. They were carriage builders in St. Catharines as early as 1865 and probably prior, their plant was located on 6 Queenston Street, on the south side, between Geneva and Calvin Streets. Another company known as Pierson & Benedict- Niagara Car Works, were situated in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. According to Grand Trunk archives in the writer's ownership, this company built two first class coaches for the GTR in 1859, and 302 boxcars between 1858 and 1861. (Merrilees, 2011)
• Railway employment opportunities – there was a need for people who could fit in the roles of conductors, engineers, ticket collectors, porters, etc. This lead to new work opportunities and higher income for people.
• Industrial growth– Mills and factories of all different kinds developed throughout the region, but mainly were focused at the point where the canal and the railways met. The railways concentrated at the areas more encouraging for industrial development on a large scale as it would be easier for goods to be transported to large cities or greater potential markets.
• Fruit industry development- The railways was also the main reason that leads to the commercialization of agriculture in the region. This is possibly one of the major impacts on the Niagara Peninsula, which remains to this day Canada’s fruit-growing centre. Prior to the year 1861, most fruits were cultivated for personal and local consumption. The railways encouraged farmers to grow for larger markets, trains facilitated for the rapid shipment of fresh produce to national and international markets particularly England. (Railroads in the Niagara Peninsula) Niagara Peninsular owes an everlasting piece of its legacy in light of the improvement and progression of railroad transportation. Railroads have made the Niagara Frontier more available, more accessible. This has allowed the Niagara Falls to gain from tourism, control, and make it known. Small settlements soon showed up close to these new railroad networks. People from numerous nationalities came to Niagara to work and settle. These critical components have fuelled the development of innovation and trade that has permitted Niagara Falls to create and flourish. Railroad history in Niagara Falls have permanently marked itself in the map of Niagara.