Charles Cooper's Railway Pages - Narrow Gauge for Us

Narrow Gauge For Us

About the Book

Hard cover, 160 pages 8.5 x 11", 167 b&w illustrations, colour dust jacket.

Published by The Boston Mills Press, Erin ON 1982.

The book features a number of valuable archival photos, the fine Bob Sandusky photography, as well as contributions from individuals and other collections, including that of Bill Hood, Jim Brown, the (then) Paterson-George Collection, and that of the late Hubert Brooks of the Toronto Postcard Club. An accomplished artist, Hubert provided the water colour (painted from a postcard) for the dust jacket. The book also features track diagrams by Bob Sandusky.

Two thousand copies were printed. The book sold out around 1986, and there are no plans to reprint it. For suggestions on where to buy a copy, see below.

About the Railway

The Toronto & Nipissing Railway was designed and built between 1869-1872 as a feeder railway for the Toronto Gooderham & Worts enterprises. It was intended that it should reach Lake Nipissing and connect with the proposed transcontinental railway. In fact, only the first phase was completed, some distance northeast to Coboconk. Its "mover and shaker" George Laidlaw was a proponent of the narrow gauge (3'6" in this case, the same as its sister railway, the Toronto, Grey & Bruce, that more or less simultaneously ventured northwest to Owen Sound). During 1882, this line, including its 1877 branch to Jackson's Point, became part of the Midland Railway of Canada system, and then migrated into the Grand Trunk Railway in 1893. The Midland network of lines is now extinct except for track from Scarboro Junction to Uxbridge, the latter the home of the York-Durham Heritage Railway that operates between Stouffville and Uxbridge.

For a one-page summary of the T&N, please click here.

The Research

With living in the Town of Markham, I often had occasion to pass the Unionville and Markham stations, and I was intrigued by the fact that a remarkable number of other T&N or replacement stations were still in existence. Also, the original narrow gauge aspect of the line had definite appeal for me, and this research was intended to complement the work that had already been done by Omer Lavallee (Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada, Railfare, Montreal 1972), by Thomas McIlwraith (The Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway 1863-1884, UCRS Bulletin 56, September 1963), by Ralph Beaumont (Steam Trains To The Bruce, The Boston Mills Press 1977); and by Ralph Beaumont and James Filby, (Running Late on the Bruce, The Boston Mills Press, 1980), also on the sister Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway.

As a research document, Narrow Gauge For Us has stood the test of time well.

Additional Information Subsequent to Publication

Note: The station pictures displayed below have all come to hand subsequent to publication - the one of the first Uxbridge station only two weeks after the book was published!

Dust jacket, from a water colour painted by the late Hubert Brooks from a colour postcard, and designed by the Boston Mills Press

Corrections to Narrow Gauge For Us

Page 21: According to Rod Clarke's Narrow Gauge Through The Bush (see below), the Shedden Fairlie locomotive was delivered in January 1872.

Page: 41: William Gooderham Jr. (and his name was not William George) was the eldest son of William Gooderham, Sr., not his grandson. The penultimate line should therefore read "was resigning in favour of his eldest brother. George Gooderham's function on the T&N board ...

Page 43: "George undoubtedly felt that he could relinquish this minor interest in favour of his eldest brother, William Jr., and concentrate on ...

Page 45: John Shedden's death occurred at age 44, not 46.

Page 66: The Queen Street grade separation did not occur in 1913, but in 1926. Preliminary clearing commenced in the late summer, and ironically on September 25, a train "caught" a street car, which accelerated the work. The bridge abutments are dated 1926. (Courtesy the late Ray Corley)

Page 113: Engine GTR #171 is a Rhode Island-built engine in the 1898-1904 number series, however it is not ex-Midland. It is ex-GWR 103 (built 1870), renumbered in 1882 to GTR #702, then to GTR #171 in 1898, to GTR #137 in 1904, and scrapped in June 1906. (Courtesy the late Ray Corley)

Page 126: The date of the lower picture (CNR #91) is April 24, 1959. (Courtesy the late Ray Corley)

Looking north at Cannington - September 15, 1966 - James A. Brown photo

Since Narrow Gauge For Us was written, a roster of the T&N locomotives as of 1872 and the identity of the engines lost in the Uxridge engine house fire in 1883 have surfaced. (Both courtesy Carl Riff, Hamilton, Ontario.)

No.	Name	Where Built	Driving Wheels
1	Gooderham & Worts	Avonside	4
2*	M.C.Cameron	Kingston	4
3	R. Walker & Son	Kingston	4
4*	R. Lewis & Son	Kingston	4
5*	Joseph Gould	Kingston	4
6	Uxbridge	Kingston	4
7	Eldon	Kingston	4
8	Toronto	Avonside	6
9*	Shedden	Avonside	12

(The Globe, September 12, 1872)

*Engines destroyed in the January 1883 engine house fire at Uxbridge
(The Uxbridge Journal, January 18, 1883)

(N.B. The T&N had 12 engines altogether, six from Canadian Engine & Machine Company in Kingston (generally referred to as the "Kingston Locomotive Works"), and six from the Avonside Engine Company, Bristol, England.)

No.	Name	Where Built	Driving Wheels
10	Coboconk	Avonside	6
11	Bexley	Avonside	6
12	Brock	Avonside	6

These three locomotives were presumably delivered in 1873. (Information courtesy Rod Clarke, Whitby, Ont.)

Note: Rod Clarke, in Narrow Gauge Through The Bush (see below), has dealt comprehensively with the locomotive history of the T&N (and the TG&B) at pp 181 - 220.

Constructed in Kingston by Don McQueen and Bill Thomson (CRHA Kingston 2000) has further information re the Kingston-built locomotives at page 168.

Don McQueen, co-author of CinK, has contributed an article at page 21 in the January-February 2002 issue of Canadian Rail (Issue #486), that deals in detail with the possible disposition of the Kingston-built T&N locomotives.