Grand Trunk Railway Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) was a historic Canadian railway.

Grand Trunk Railroad was a shortened name for Grand Trunk Western Railroad (AAR designation GTW), a GTR subsidiary operating in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois.

Charter, Construction, and Expansion

The company was incorporated on November 10, 1852 to build a railway line between Montreal and Toronto, however the charter was soon extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia, Ontario. In 1853 the GTR purchased the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad from Montreal to the Quebec-Vermont border, and the partner company Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad through to the harbour facilities at Portland. A line was also built to Levis, Quebec from Montreal in 1855, part of the much-talked about "Maritime connection" in British North America. In July, 1856 the section from Sarnia to Toronto opened, and the section from Montreal to Toronto opened in October of that year.

Several impressive construction feats were associated with the GTR: the first successful bridging of the St. Lawrence River on August 25, 1860 with the opening of the first Victoria Bridge at Montreal (replaced by the present structure in 1898); the bridging of the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York; and the construction of a tunnel beneath the St. Clair River, connecting Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan on the Montreal-Chicago main line, opening in August, 1890 (replacing a ferry at the same location).

Common during 19th century railway construction in British colonies, GTR built to a broad gauge (Provincial Gauge) of 5 feet, 6 inches (1676 mm), however this was changed to the standard gauge of 4 ft 8.5 in (1435 mm) by 1873 to facilitate interchange with U.S. railroads.

The GTR expanded throughout Southern Ontario, Western Quebec, and the state of Michigan over the years by purchasing and absorbing numerous smaller railway companies, as well as building new lines. GTR's largest purchase came on August 12, 1882 when it purchased the 1371 kilometre Great Western Railway (not to be confused with the UK's Great Western Railway), running from Niagara Falls-Toronto, and connecting to London, Windsor, and communities in the Bruce Peninsula.

By 1880, the GTR stretched from the Atlantic port of Portland, Maine to Chicago, Illinois. The company also sold a line along the St. Lawrence River between Riviere-du-Loup and Levis in 1879 to the federal government-owned Intercolonial Railway of Canada (IRC), and granted running rights in 1889 to the IRC on trackage between Levis and Montreal.

Sadly, Canada's worst railway accident based on loss of life happened on the GTR, occurring on June 28, 1864 when a passenger train operating between Levis and Montreal missed a signal for an open drawbridge on the Richelieu River, plunging onto a passing barge and killing 99 German immigrants.

The Grand Trunk Pacific

As the dominant railway in British North America, GTR was reportedly asked by the federal government soon after Confederation to consider building a rail line to the Pacific coast at British Columbia (B.C.) but refused, forcing the government to enact legislation creating the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to placate B.C. concerns. By the early 1900s, GTR desired to operate in Western Canada, particularly given the virtual monopoly of service that CPR maintained and the lucrative increasing flows of immigrants west of Ontario. The federal government encouraged GTR to cooperate with a local railway company operating on the Prairies, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), but an agreement was never reached.

CNoR decided to build its own transcontinental system at this time, forcing GTR in 1903 to enter into an agreement with Wilfrid Laurier's government to build a third railway system from the Atlantic to the Pacific. GTR would build (with federal assistance) and operate the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR) from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, while the government would build and own the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) from Winnipeg to Moncton, New Brunswick via Quebec City, which the GTR would also operate.

The routing of these systems was extremely speculative as GTPR's main line was located farther north than the profitable CPR main line in the Prairies, and NTR was located even farther north of populous centres in Ontario and Quebec. Construction costs on the GTPR escalated, despite having the most favourable crossing of the Continental Divide in North America at Yellowhead Pass. GTR's cost-conscious president Charles Melville Hayes was one of the victims onboard RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. His death is speculated to have contributed to poor management of GTR over the ensuing decade.

Construction started on the GTPR/NTR in 1905 and the GTPR opened to traffic in 1914, followed by the NTR in 1915. It was a transcontinental system, with the only exception being the NTR's ill-fated Quebec Bridge which wouldn't get finished for several more years.

Bankruptcy and Nationalization

The first indication that the arrangement with the government was faltering came when GTR refused to operate the NTR, citing economic reasons. With the enormous cost of building the GTPR and the limited financial returns being realized, GTR defaulted on loan payments to the federal government in 1919. GTPR was nationalized on March 7 of that year, being operated under a federal government Board of Management until finally being placed under the control of the Crown corporation Canadian National Railways (CNR) on July 20, 1920.

GTR was undergoing serious financial difficulties as a result of the GTPR, and its shareholders, primarily in the United Kingdom, were determined to prevent the company from being nationalized as well. Eventually on July 12, 1920, GTR was placed under control of another federal government Board of Management while legal battles continued for several more years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, GTR was fully absorbed into the CNR on a date when all constituent companies were merged into the Crown corporation.

At the time that the GTR was fully merged into CNR, approximately 125 smaller railway companies comprised the Grand Trunk system, totalling 12,800 kilometres in Canada, and 1,873 kilomtres in the U.S.

Headquarters for the Grand Trunk Railway were located in London, United Kingdom.

The Grand Trunk name today

CNR (CN after 1960) maintained the corporate name Grand Trunk for the names of its U.S. trackage which came from GTR. The New England line running from the Canada-United States border at Norton, Vermont to Portland, Maine operated informally over the years as the Grand Trunk Eastern, however was known as CN's Berlin Subdivision. It was sold to a short line operator in 1989. The ex-GTR main line from Port Huron, Michigan to Chicago, as well as lesser GTR lines in southern Michigan around the Detroit area, were known as the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, the GTR's U.S. subsidiary, and this name has carried through the 20th century under CNR/CN as GTW, and later GT.

In 1995, CN underwent a rebranding exercise where the names of its U.S. subsidiaries, primarily GT, were removed from locomotives and rail cars, being replaced with the CN logo. The name Grand Trunk has not disappeared entirely as it appears CN has grouped all of its U.S. subsidiaries (Illinois Central, Wisconsin Central, Grand Trunk Western, Duluth Winnipeg & Pacific;) under the Grand Trunk Corporation for legal or administrative purposes.

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