scotto
05-19-2015, 09:00 AM
"Does anyone know what was going on with the H. & N.W. Railway in 1878 to cause a beach resident to threaten to blow up the train?
I haven't come across that one, do you have a rough date? You would think that it would of ended up in one of the history books."
Scott,
This page indicates that construction of the Hamilton and NorthWestern Railroad (H&NW) began in 1873, and was completed in 1879. at that time it was merged with the Northern Railroad of Canada and became the Northern and North Western. Unfortunately it doesn't say exactly when operations began along the beach. But I think it was before the merger. So this helps narow the time frame down a little bit. I'm sure that Charles Cooper's books on this railroad has the exact date that the H&NW existed. ,
"For more than a decade, the Hamilton and Port Dover Railway lay dormant until the project was revived once again in 1869 by a group of men - including Edward Gurney, co-founder of the Gurney and Ware Scale Company - who sponsored a new company, The Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway Company (H.L.E.). The H.L.E. purchased the assets of the H.P.D., and made plans to renew the project.
In 1872, the same group of businessmen chartered the Hamilton and Northwestern Railway (H.N.W.). This new railway was to run from Hamilton, north through Georgetown, and eventually to Collingwood on the Georgian Bay, and Barrie on Lake Simcoe. Meanwhile, construction was revived on the H.L.E. route to Port Dover, and the first train ran along Ferguson Avenue in Hamilton in September, 1872.
Unfortunately, less than 30% of the people who subscribed to the H.L.E. actually paid up, so the common directors of both the H.L.E. and the H.N.W. decided to merge the two railways, to be known as the Hamilton and Northwestern Railway (H.N.W.), in 1873. Construction on the portion north of Hamilton began immediately, and the City of Hamilton - which had recovered from its previous financial difficulty due in large part to the success of the Great Western Railway - bought more stock in the project. In September of the same year, the portion from Hamilton to Jarvis (south) was opened for business. Two years later the southern line was extended to Port Dover, and by 1879, the northern lines to Collingwood and Barrie were complete.
In June, 1879, shareholders voted to merge the H.N.W. with the Northern Railway of Canada, which ran from Toronto, north to Barrie and Collingwood, and further north to Gravenhurst and Penetang. The new company, called the North and Northwestern Railway (N.N.W.) had a total of 483 miles of trackage."
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/industrial/hamiltonnw.htm