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Cape Breton Railway

By John R. Cameron

Another Cape Breton railway, usually known as the Cape Breton railway, ran from the Strait of Canso to St Peter's on the St Peter's canal. In spite of great ambitions, this railway could never muster the cost of the swing or draw bridge that would be required if it were to hurdle the canal to reach Sydney, as originally planned.

The main route of the Intercolonial Railway ran up the centre of Cape Breton Island, crossing the Bras d'Or Lakes at Barra Strait (Iona) over a long and expensive bridge complete with swing span. The Bras d'Or Lakes are a navigable waterway which once saw considerable freight navigation. The St Peter's Canal was constructed to give this inland waterway access to the Atlantic Ocean at its southerly tip. To the north, the lakes have ocean access through the Great and Little Bras d'Or. An arm of the lakes reaches in to Whycocomagh, making Orangedale, rather than Iona, the trans-shipment centre for northern Cape Breton Island.

Attempts to gain access to industrial Cape Breton tended to favour the southerly approach, because of the cost of crossing Barra Strait and the problems involved in another rail ferry in addition to the one at the Strait of Canso. Another problem solved by the Intercolonial, using unlimited federal money, was the large trestle at Ottawa Brook. The route up through Iona is among the most spectacular in Cape Breton, rivalling the Cabot Trail. Great scenery makes for difficult railway construction, however. Yet, the route to the south and east of the Bras d'Or lakes is scarcely less rugged. It is not surprising that, with one railway already in place, no real success ever attended the attempts to parallel it.

As early as 1878, the first Cape Breton Railway was chartered (c.55) to build from the Strait of Canso to Sydney or Louisburg by way of St Peter's, with branches to West Bay, Whycocomagh, Broad Cove and other points on the Bras d'Or Lakes. While some attempts were made to get the companies interested in the Eastern Extension to agree to run rails in Cape Breton,, too, the next serious step seems to have been the Cape Breton Extension (1884, c.70), to run from the Strait to Sydney or Louisburg. Its incorporators included the president of the Anglesea Railway of Philadelphia, a railway contractor from Toledo, Ohio, and the president of the Ontario Pacific Railway. Whether these were chosen to prevent a respectable front or were seriously interested in the project is unknown. A land grant of 2,000 acres per mile was promised. The charter was revived in 1886 (c.75).

A new entrant for the St Peter's route was the Cape Breton Railway and Annex Steamboat Company (1886, c.76), promising a railway from the Strait of Canso to St Peter's, from East Bay to Sydney, and from North Sydney to a point below George's River on the Little Bras d'Or, a total of 48 miles. The company intended to run steamships to connect its lines on the Bras d'Or and crossing the Strait of Canso to connect with the eastern extension. Apart from the number of transfers from ship to rail involved, which was not as serious a problem at the time, the concept was a well thought out combination of steamship and rail transportation economics. The incorporators, who included the mayor of Halifax, were apparently men of substance.

A new Cape Breton Railway Extension was incorporated in 1890 (c.72) to build from the Strait of Canso to Sydney or Louisburg. At $400,000.00, it appears to have been seriously undercapitalized. It was extended in 1892 (c.81).

Then, in 1896, came the Canso and Louisburg Railway, incorporated by veterans of the might-have-been railways such as Benjamin Pearson and the Hon. Isadore LeBlanc (c.84). This railway was to run from the Strait of Canso to Sydney or Louisburg, with branches from Grand Ance (Anse) to Arichat on Isle Madame and connecting with other railways. The intent was to run through St Peter's. This was extended in 1898 (c.131), but then disappears.

The railway that was actually built was a further reincarnation of the Cape Breton Railway Extension. This company's 1899 charter (c.126) took the unusual step of not specifying the route, although the drafters may simply have overlooked it. The recitals show the promoters intended to build a shorter and more direct route between the Strait of Canso and Louisburg "than at present exists". The incorporators also obtained authority for a bridge, tunnel or ferry over the Strait of Canso.

In 1900 (c.168), the Cape Breton Railway Extension received authority to run a branch from Barrosois, St Louis on its proposed line to Arichat. By 1902, the line was underway: Cape Breton County obtained authority to borrow $16,000 for the right of way (c.67); Richmond County got authority for $10,000 (c.122) for a line from Cash's Cove on the Strait of Canso to the Cape Breton County line; Richmond County was divided into appraisal districts on the line of the St Peter's Canal (c.123); and the company got power to build branch lines in Cape Breton County (c.190).

The railway got stuck on the canal, however, even though the province came through with a subsidy of $5,000 per mile for the railway from St Peter's to Louisburg (1905, c.2). By now, the railway was commonly referred to, even in the long titles of statutes, as the Cape Breton Railway. Later, we find the corporate name was actually changed to the Cape Breton Railway Company on July 11, 1901, and that the line from Point Tupper to St Peter's was built (see 1921, c.154). This 1921 statute refers to a forthcoming sale of the line to the Government of Canada and confirms land acquisition and the change of corporate name. Rather surprisingly, for a railway that was actually constructed and in operation, the statutory framework for this railway seems to have been fairly slipshod and not up to the same level of thoroughness of most railway promotions. On the other hand, the company may have paid more attention to content than form, with results that paid off in an operating railway.

[SOURCE: A Legislative History of Nova Scotia Railways, by John R. Cameron, 1999.]

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