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  • Home
    • Paul Rollinson, the train book seller
  • My Books
    • Hamilton's Other Railway
    • Rails to the Lakes
    • Narrow Gauge for Us
    • CP to the East - International of Maine
  • Ontario Railway History
    • Railway Gauges in Ontario
    • Grey and Bruce Counties
    • Haldimand and Norfolk Counties
    • Dufferin County
    • Perth and Huron Counties
    • Peterborough County
    • Simcoe County
    • Victoria and Haliburton Counties
    • Wellington County
    • Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway
    • Georgian Bay & Seaboard Railway
    • Hamilton & North Western/Lake Erie Railways
    • Lake Simcoe Junction Railway
    • Lindsay, Bobcaygeon & Pontypool Railway
    • Northern Railway of Canada Group
    • Portage Flyer
    • Schomberg & Aurora Railway
    • Toronto & Nipissing Railway
    • Cardwell Junction
    • Omemee Junction Ontario ("The Old Road")
    • Victoria Junction, Lindsay, Ont.
  • Ontario Railway Stations - Gallery
    • Image Credit Abbreviations
    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E F
    • G
    • H
    • I J K
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P Q R
    • S
    • T U V
    • W X Y Z
  • Ontario Show and Event Calendar 2023-24
  • Ontario Railway Station Museums
  • Ontario Railway Murals
  • Railway History - Canada
    • Quick Railway Histories and Related Information
    • Carl Riff's Railway History Diaries
    • Rod Clarke's TG&B and T&N Diaries
    • Timetables
    • Glossary of Common Railway Terms
    • "Canadian Rail" (CRHA) - Links to Issues
    • "Branchline" (BRS) - Index to past Issues
    • Upper Canada Railway Society (UCRS) and its publications
    • GTR Locomotives - R&LHS Bulletin #147
    • GTR Buildings & Bridges Inventory 1907
    • GTR Buildings & Bridges Inventory 1903
    • CNR - Stations - Designating Numbers (1924/1927)
    • CPR - Stations - Designating Numbers 1924
    • Railway Stations and distances - by Jim Fergusson
    • CNR - Synoptic History to 1960
    • Intercolonial Railway - report - Sandford Fleming, C.E.
    • Post Cards - a primary research source - by Ralph Beaumont
    • Searching for Antecedents on the Railways
    • Research and Writing a Book
  • What's New In Publications
  • Railway Modelling
    • My 3-Rail Hornby-Dublo layout - and tips and thoughts
    • Prototype Modelling in Ontario
    • Our Friends at the Shows - a Photo Gallery
    • Disposing of model railway and other train stuff
    • The Great British Train Show
    • Aberfoyle Jct. Model Railway
    • The Credible Model
    • Superdetailing Ideas
    • Basic Model Railway Insights
    • More About N Scale
    • My Eagle Lake & Northern Model Railway in N Scale
  • Toy Train and Model Railway Tracks
    • Gallery of Track Images
    • Track Identification
    • Scale, Gauge, and Track Geometry Information
    • Mystery Department
    • Chronology, Toy Train and Model Railway Events
    • Model Railway History
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    • Bibliography and Reference
  • Opinion Piece
  • Links
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Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway

UCRS Bulletin #39. Drawn by Stu Westland.

UCRS Bulletin #39. Drawn by Stu Westland.

      Among the eventual family of GTR-owned major constituent lines (not counting the acquisition of the rival Great Western Railway) in southern Ontario, the railway that became the Buffalo & Lake Huron was one of the earliest (1851) and longest (at 163 miles).

  Arguably, it also played a significant role in the turbulent financial fortunes of the GTR in its pioneering and acquisition years, and was the first evidence of the folly of the 1852 Board of Railway Commissioners’ requirement that had mandated the (“Broad” or “Provincial”) 5’6” gauge for railways seeking the financial guarantees offered by the Province of Canada.

  The railway was first chartered as the Brantford & Buffalo Joint Stock Railroad Company in 1851. Brantford, thoroughly miffed at being bypassed to the north by the projected Great Western Railway, commissioned a survey southeast to Fort Erie. The railway’s original purpose was to function as a portage railway between Goderich on Lake Huron, and Buffalo on Lake Erie.

  Brantford’s ambition was reciprocated by Buffalo with its own civic interests in mind, and the railway opened to Brantford on December 20, 1853 as the Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railway (BB&G), financed in large part with municipal bonuses backed by the Province of Canada guarantee, but also with some UK financing. The track was laid from Fort Erie through Port Colborne and Dunnville in an almost straight line, and then proceeded northwest to Caledonia. The line was completed to Brantford and to a junction with the Great Western at Paris in 1854. At this point the BB&G was out of money, and the debts continued to pile up in 1855.

  At this point the Canada Company intervened, as the railway’s prospective failure would have an adverse effect on the development of the Huron Tract, and in 1856 the Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway (B&LH), with backbone UK financial support, was incorporated to take the BB&G over. The railway was completed to Stratford in 1856, and despite the financial crash of 1857, to its ultimate destination at Goderich in 1858.

  By 1861, the road needed a substantial capital infusion for much-needed improvements in order to stay in business, and was also considering acquisition of the Hamilton & Port Dover Railway, to give it access to Lake Ontario and to an intermediate harbour on Lake Erie. (While the Hamilton interests were ready to have someone take the Port Dover project off their hands, this proposal fell through, presumably because the B&LH was by then close to bankruptcy.) The B&LH offered to lease itself to the Great Western Railway, but this proposal was rejected unanimously by the Great Western's London, England board of directors.

  So it was that the B&LH became inclined into the orbit of the other major competitor in southwestern Ontario, the Grand Trunk Railway. The Grand Trunk was keen to offer competition to the Great Western, and had come up with a plan to capture transit traffic more effectively by laying an inside Standard Gauge rail to its Provincial Gauge track between Stratford and Sarnia, with the B&LH to provide the corresponding third rail  between Fort Erie and Stratford. The object of course was to facilitate through traffic with standard gauge cars to save the time and expense of unloading and reloading. Unfortunately, although this plan was also very much to the benefit of the B&LH, it could not come up with the capital, and thus in 1864 entered into a joint management agreement with the Grand Trunk to bring the plan about. Even then, the B&LH could not pull its financial weight, and after some  infighting, bickering and acrimony, in accordance with an agreement ratified in 1870, the Grand Trunk acquired the B&LH under a perpetual lease [i.e., outright] effective July 1, 1869.

  The section between Fort Erie and Stratford was re-gauged to the Standard (4’8½”) in 1872, and between Stratford and Goderich in 1873, both as part of the GTR’s general conversion from the Broad to the Standard Gauge in those years. The section between Stratford and Goderich is still in service today, operated by the short line Goderich & Exeter Railway. The remainder of the line has been abandoned in stages. 

Please consult also my web page Haldimand and Norfolk Counties.

 

White, J. Altitudes in Dominion of Canada, GTR Buffalo & Goderich Branch, p. 170

White, J. Altitudes in Dominion of Canada, GTR Buffalo & Goderich Branch, p. 170

B&LH locomotive roster R&LHS #143, p 54

B&LH locomotive roster R&LHS #143, p 54

BB&G "Heseltine" #12 as "Victoria" LAC PA-209082

BB&G "Heseltine" #12 as "Victoria" LAC PA-209082

Prince of Wales touring car 1860 Brantford shops, Al Paterson Collection

Prince of Wales touring car 1860 Brantford shops, Al Paterson Collection

Paris Jct. B&LH and GWR crossing. Ca 1860. GWR loco (Norris) #35 "Venus".  Paris Museum and Historical Society.

Paris Jct. B&LH and GWR crossing. Ca 1860. GWR loco (Norris) #35 "Venus". Paris Museum and Historical Society.

A miscellany of station images from various eras and sources

13 Bridgeburg GTR .Ca 1910. Ross Gray Collection

13 Bridgeburg GTR .Ca 1910. Ross Gray Collection

15 Ridgeway GTR. Ca 1910. Ross Gray Collection..

15 Ridgeway GTR. Ca 1910. Ross Gray Collection..

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