Barbara A. Martindale- For What It's Worth
There has been a question about the exact beginning of railway traffic through Caledonia. The Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railway, or the BB&G, was the first company, a line owing its existence to a group of Brantford merchants.
They had formed the Brantford and Buffalo joint Stock Railway Company and had an American engineer, William Wallace, survey a route from Brantford to Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo. According to the Railways of Canada by Nick and Helma Mika, published in 1972 about early days of Canadian railroad building, the City of Buffalo bought $70,000 dollar's worth of stock in the venture.
Surveys were completed in 1852 to the port of Goderich on Lake Huron and in November of 1852, the name of the company was changed to the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railway.
The answer to the question: the road was opened on January 6, 1854, although there is reference to December 20, 1853 as its opening too.
However, January 6, 1854 must have been the official date, when the authors wrote about three trains steaming into Brantford that afternoon greeted with cheers, firing of cannon, an elaborate civic dinner and fireworks, followed by a Grand Railway Ball.
But the railway line hadn't reached Goderich yet.
By the time it was nearing Stratford towards the end of 1854, money was running out, contractors weren't able to pay the workers and in January of 1855, about 30 workers lost patience and tore up the tracks near Ridgeway.
One man was killed.
An attempt to raise money in England failed. On May 16, 1856, the BB&G was taken over by the newly incorporated Buffalo and Lake Huron Company, which carried on with the projected line.
Then in the fall of 1856, Grand Trunk contractors ripped out rails at Stratford due to blocking their path. Grand Trunk brought in two carloads of armed navies, drunk and ready for a fight. This was averted and eventually the two railway companies worked out a settlement.
When one reads about very early rail and trains, the fights with companies, the competition, railway accidents, lack of money and more, it is a wonder rail traffic ever continued to be. Leaders in the industry of those days were determined and were able to make decisions quickly - risk-takers, certainly.
Eventually on June 28, 1858, the first through train from Fort Erie reached Goderich. Grand Trunk began buying Buffalo and Lake Huron stock and by the end of 1869 took over the company. Headquartered in Hamilton, Great Western Railway (GWR) came into the picture too, but by 1882, GWR was bought up by Grand Trunk.
Authorized Canadian National Railways by the government in 1918, it took five years for the organization of the company to be finalized. On January 30, 1923, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was formally amalgamated with the Canadian National Railways.
Sir Henry Worth Thornton became chairman and president of the new company. He was responsible for coordinating the network of nearly 22,000 miles of inherited tracks from privately and government-owned railways.
Among the many companies were four large companies and the most prominent Grand Trunk. Most were in dire financial straits. The new Canadian National Railways was now in direct competition with Canadian Pacific.
After all these more than 160 years, Caledonians still hear trains going through on the same line.
