Sydney and Louisburg Railway
Encyclopedia
The Sydney and Louisburg Railway (S&L) is a historic Canadian
railway
. Built to transport coal
from various mines to the ports of Sydney
and Louisbourg
, the S&L operated in the eastern part of Cape Breton County
, Nova Scotia
. The railway uses a slightly different spelling for the town of "Louisbourg".
soldiers from Fortress Louisbourg pried coal from exposed seams along the coast
near Port Morien
. Following the Seven Years' War
, France ceded its remaining territories in Acadia
and New France
to Britain
under the Treaty of Paris
. Upon taking control of Ile Royale, Britain renamed it to Cape Breton Island and merged the territory into the Colony of Nova Scotia.
and Cape Breton Island, reducing Nova Scotia to just its peninsular territory. In 1788, King George III
authorized his son, Prince Frederick
, the Duke of York
, to be granted the mineral rights to Nova Scotia (then only the peninsular portion), however events such as the Napoleonic Wars
put the application on hold until the end of conflict in 1815. At that time, the Duke was in financial difficulty and had an agent apply for the mineral rights which the King had authorized, however the paperwork was misplaced. In 1820, King George III died and the Duke faced financial ruin from debts; the same year saw the Colony of Cape Breton Island merged again into the Colony of Nova Scotia. In 1825 the unfinished application was discovered and approved (for all of Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton Island), whereby the Duke signed over the rights to the General Mining Association, a wholly owned subsidiary of one of the Duke's creditors: the London
jewelry firm of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell.
. In addition to the GMA, many independently owned collieries opened in the Sydney Coal Field after 1858, including several US-financed operations at New Victoria
, Bridgeport
, and Reserve Mines
.
Several small railways (such as the Glasgow and Cape Breton Coal and Railway Company, and the Cape Breton Railway) were built by mining companies during this time. Geographic obstacles to shipping coal were evident during this age of industrialization with the only suitable harbours being Sydney or Louisbourg; efforts to build harbours on the exposed coast near Glace Bay were rendered ineffective by the weather. Although Sydney had a much more suitable harbour than Louisbourg, the former was frequently choked by heavy sea ice
during the important coal-shipment season throughout the winter months. Louisbourg Harbour, which had been selected by the French military for its year-round ice-free waters when building Fortress Louisbourg during the early to mid-18th century, again became a valuable port when a railway line was built from the mines at Reserve to Louisbourg in 1877. This line was poorly built and was soon lost to a forest fire.
, whereas the former was a merger of various independent companies on the south side of the harbour.
On February 1, 1893 DOMCO was incorporated and it acquired or purchased all coal mines and railway lines between Sydney and Louisbourg on the south side of Sydney Harbour. The conglomerate came to own a variety of both standard
and narrow gauge railway lines, as well as various harbour facilities and coal mines. DOMCO immediately set about to standardize its operations.
DOMCO's railway lines were operated as a department of the company and were rationalized beginning the following year in 1894 when the International Railway was extended to Glace Bay and Caledonia, permitting the abandonment of a roughly parallel narrow gauge line. In 1895 DOMCO extended its railway system south to Louisbourg, following a route further east than the previous 1877 attempt. In 1899, DOMCO financed the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Limited, or DISCO, which constructed a steel mill
on the south side of Sydney Harbour in Sydney's Whitney Pier neighbourhood, opening in 1901; this was in direct competition to a rival steel mill that was built by SCOTIA at the same time on the north side of the harbour at Sydney Mines. In 1908 DOMCO built a spur to New Waterford
and further spurs were built in the Port Morien, Birch Grove, Donkin and Broughton
areas in the 1910s. During the early part of the 20th century, DOMCO's railway lines were considered to be among the most modern in Canada.
In 1914, the steel mill built by SCOTIA at Sydney Mines was closed, however the integrated mill at Sydney continued to expand, using Bell Island
iron ore and locally produced coal as a fuel. In 1920, SCOTIA and DOMCO/DISCO merged to form British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, which was reorganized as Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation
, or DOSCO, in 1930; SCOTIA and DOMCO remained separate BESCO/DOSCO subsidiaries, with SCOTIA being reorganized as Old Sydney Collieries.
S&L generally served the DOMCO area to the south of the harbour, while the Old Sydney Collieries had its own small industrial railway which interchanged to the Intercolonial Railway line that ran around the west side of Sydney Harbour; the federal government-owned ICR having built into the area in the 1890s. Following DOMCO's construction of the railway link between Sydney and Louisbourg in the mid-1890s, freight volumes rose sharply.
Mining employment reached a peak on Cape Breton Island immediately prior to the First World War and the dawn of increased mechanization of the underground collieries. The S&L was operating over 116 miles (186.7 km) of track, 39 miles (62.8 km) of which was main line, and hauling in excess of 4 million tons of freight, mostly coal; this gave the S&L the distinction of having the most freight per mile of any railway in Canada. In addition to freight, the S&L also hauled passenger trains, mainly employees going to work in the mines or coming home; passenger traffic reached a peak of 176,000 revenue passengers hauled in 1913.
Coal production peaked during the Second World War in the early 1940s and began to drop dramatically with the advent of internal combustion engines and other sources of heat. Due to the proximity and availability of the fuel, the S&L was one of the last railways in North America to keep its fleet of coal-powered steam locomotives, with 31 on the roster during the 1950s and over 400 employees; the S&L began to dieselize in 1960 however, the last steam locomotive wasn't retired until 1966. In 1961 DOSCO had its subsidiary the Cumberland Railway
assume the operations of the Sydney and Louisburg Railway on Cape Breton Island. The reason for this change was that the S&L had been formed under a provincial charter in 1910, which made it ineligible for federal railway subsidies, while the Cumberland Railway, which had a federal charter, qualified for federal railway subsidies. The road did business as the Sydney & Louisburg Division of the Cumberland Railway.
With coal and steel fortunes flagging, DOSCO was purchased in 1957 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Avro Canada
, whose assets were transferred to Hawker Siddeley Canada
in 1962. Hawker-Siddley's DOSCO subsidiary announced in 1965 that its mines had only 15 years of production left and concluded that expense of opening new underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field would be too expensive. The company made its intentions clear that it would be exiting the coal mining business within months.
In response to a vast public outcry in industrial Cape Breton County, the Minority government
of Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced J.R. Donald would head a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Cape Breton coal industry, with hearings held in 1965 and 1966. The Donald Commission recommended that a federal Crown corporation be established to acquire and manage DOSCO's coal operations, with the aim being to slowly wean the Sydney area economy off the coal industry.
On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation
, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities. On March 30, 1968 DEVCO expropriated DOSCO's coal mines and the S&L, settling with Hawker-Siddeley for a payment of $12 million.
The S&L was reorganized as the Devco Railway
, though for several years it continued to do business under its old name. With H.S. Haslam as general manager, the company operated 39 miles (62.8 km) of route with offices at Sydney; at that date it owned 15 diesel shunters and 1,100 freight cars. In 1973, the Sydney and Louisburg Railway Historical Society was created.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
railway
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
. Built to transport coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
from various mines to the ports of Sydney
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney is a Canadian urban community in the province of Nova Scotia. It is situated on the east coast of Cape Breton Island and is administratively part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality....
and Louisbourg
Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
Louisbourg is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.-History:The town's name was given by French military forces who founded the Fortress of Louisbourg and its fortified seaport on the southwest part of the harbour, in honour of Louis XV...
, the S&L operated in the eastern part of Cape Breton County
Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia
Cape Breton County, officially, County Cape Breton, is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island.Taking its name from Cape Breton, the most easterly point of the island which was called after the Bretons of Brittany, this municipality has what is probably the oldest...
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. The railway uses a slightly different spelling for the town of "Louisbourg".
1720-1763, early efforts
Mining of the Sydney Coal Field can be traced as far back as 1720 when FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
soldiers from Fortress Louisbourg pried coal from exposed seams along the coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
near Port Morien
Port Morien, Nova Scotia
Port Morien is a small fishing community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the north eastern tip of Cape Breton Island near the rural community Donkin, and the larger center of Glace Bay....
. Following the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
, France ceded its remaining territories in Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
and New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
to Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
under the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
. Upon taking control of Ile Royale, Britain renamed it to Cape Breton Island and merged the territory into the Colony of Nova Scotia.
1763-1857, mining monopoly
In 1784, Britain split the Colony of Nova Scotia, creating the colonies of New BrunswickNew Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
and Cape Breton Island, reducing Nova Scotia to just its peninsular territory. In 1788, King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
authorized his son, Prince Frederick
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
, the Duke of York
Duke of York
The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
, to be granted the mineral rights to Nova Scotia (then only the peninsular portion), however events such as the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
put the application on hold until the end of conflict in 1815. At that time, the Duke was in financial difficulty and had an agent apply for the mineral rights which the King had authorized, however the paperwork was misplaced. In 1820, King George III died and the Duke faced financial ruin from debts; the same year saw the Colony of Cape Breton Island merged again into the Colony of Nova Scotia. In 1825 the unfinished application was discovered and approved (for all of Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton Island), whereby the Duke signed over the rights to the General Mining Association, a wholly owned subsidiary of one of the Duke's creditors: the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
jewelry firm of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell.
1858-1890, organizing and merging
The GMA maintained a monopoly on mineral rights throughout the colony until 1857-1858 when it relinquished these to the colonial government except for certain areas it had developed surrounding the Sydney, Pictou and Cumberland coal fields. Between 1858-1870, the GMA opened 19 underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field, with most production destined for export to the northeastern United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In addition to the GMA, many independently owned collieries opened in the Sydney Coal Field after 1858, including several US-financed operations at New Victoria
New Victoria, Nova Scotia
New Victoria is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.New Victoria is located west of New Waterford and east of Victoria Mines. It is approximately 10 kilometres north of Sydney....
, Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Nova Scotia
Bridgeport is a community that is part of the former town of Glace Bay in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality on Cape Breton Island.-References:*...
, and Reserve Mines
Reserve Mines, Nova Scotia
Reserve Mines is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.It is located immediately west of Glace Bay and 10 kilometres northeast of Sydney. The J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport is located in the western part of the community...
.
Several small railways (such as the Glasgow and Cape Breton Coal and Railway Company, and the Cape Breton Railway) were built by mining companies during this time. Geographic obstacles to shipping coal were evident during this age of industrialization with the only suitable harbours being Sydney or Louisbourg; efforts to build harbours on the exposed coast near Glace Bay were rendered ineffective by the weather. Although Sydney had a much more suitable harbour than Louisbourg, the former was frequently choked by heavy sea ice
Sea ice
Sea ice is largely formed from seawater that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs below the freezing point of pure water, at about -1.8 °C ....
during the important coal-shipment season throughout the winter months. Louisbourg Harbour, which had been selected by the French military for its year-round ice-free waters when building Fortress Louisbourg during the early to mid-18th century, again became a valuable port when a railway line was built from the mines at Reserve to Louisbourg in 1877. This line was poorly built and was soon lost to a forest fire.
1890s-1910, creation of conglomerates
Large-scale industrialization came to the Sydney Coal Field when two large conglomerates were formed in the 1890s: the Dominion Coal Company, or DOMCO (in 1893), and the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company, or SCOTIA (in 1900). The latter was a successor to the GMA and focused its activities on the north side of Sydney Harbour, near Sydney MinesSydney Mines, Nova Scotia
Sydney Mines is a former town in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.Founded in 1784 and incorporated as a town in 1889, Sydney Mines has a rich history in coal production, although mining activity has now ceased.Prior to a permanent settlement being established, there was significant...
, whereas the former was a merger of various independent companies on the south side of the harbour.
On February 1, 1893 DOMCO was incorporated and it acquired or purchased all coal mines and railway lines between Sydney and Louisbourg on the south side of Sydney Harbour. The conglomerate came to own a variety of both standard
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
and narrow gauge railway lines, as well as various harbour facilities and coal mines. DOMCO immediately set about to standardize its operations.
DOMCO's railway lines were operated as a department of the company and were rationalized beginning the following year in 1894 when the International Railway was extended to Glace Bay and Caledonia, permitting the abandonment of a roughly parallel narrow gauge line. In 1895 DOMCO extended its railway system south to Louisbourg, following a route further east than the previous 1877 attempt. In 1899, DOMCO financed the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Limited, or DISCO, which constructed a steel mill
Steel mill
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. It is produced in a two-stage process. First, iron ore is reduced or smelted with coke and limestone in a blast furnace, producing molten iron which is either cast into pig iron or...
on the south side of Sydney Harbour in Sydney's Whitney Pier neighbourhood, opening in 1901; this was in direct competition to a rival steel mill that was built by SCOTIA at the same time on the north side of the harbour at Sydney Mines. In 1908 DOMCO built a spur to New Waterford
New Waterford, Nova Scotia
New Waterford is a Canadian urban community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.-Geography:New Waterford is located north of Sydney and northwest of Glace Bay. It is named after the city of Waterford, in Ireland. It is located near the ocean and is bordered on one side by cliffs...
and further spurs were built in the Port Morien, Birch Grove, Donkin and Broughton
Broughton, Nova Scotia
Broughton is a community in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality about 12 miles from the former city of Sydney, Nova Scotia. Expected to be a boomtown when first settled, it was mostly abandoned when mining operations failed....
areas in the 1910s. During the early part of the 20th century, DOMCO's railway lines were considered to be among the most modern in Canada.
1910-1968, S&L through boom and bust
In 1910, the Sydney and Louisburg Railway was incorporated to operate all DOMCO railway lines. Note that the spelling of the name "Louisburg" is different from the spelling of the harbour and town of "Louisbourg", which follows the French naming found in Fortress Louisbourg.In 1914, the steel mill built by SCOTIA at Sydney Mines was closed, however the integrated mill at Sydney continued to expand, using Bell Island
Bell Island
Bell Island is a Canadian island located off Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula in Conception Bay.Measuring 9 km in length and 3 km in width, Bell Island has an area of 34 km²...
iron ore and locally produced coal as a fuel. In 1920, SCOTIA and DOMCO/DISCO merged to form British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, which was reorganized as Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation
Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation
The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company.Incorporated in 1928 and operational in 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation which was a merger of the Dominion Coal Company, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company and the...
, or DOSCO, in 1930; SCOTIA and DOMCO remained separate BESCO/DOSCO subsidiaries, with SCOTIA being reorganized as Old Sydney Collieries.
S&L generally served the DOMCO area to the south of the harbour, while the Old Sydney Collieries had its own small industrial railway which interchanged to the Intercolonial Railway line that ran around the west side of Sydney Harbour; the federal government-owned ICR having built into the area in the 1890s. Following DOMCO's construction of the railway link between Sydney and Louisbourg in the mid-1890s, freight volumes rose sharply.
Mining employment reached a peak on Cape Breton Island immediately prior to the First World War and the dawn of increased mechanization of the underground collieries. The S&L was operating over 116 miles (186.7 km) of track, 39 miles (62.8 km) of which was main line, and hauling in excess of 4 million tons of freight, mostly coal; this gave the S&L the distinction of having the most freight per mile of any railway in Canada. In addition to freight, the S&L also hauled passenger trains, mainly employees going to work in the mines or coming home; passenger traffic reached a peak of 176,000 revenue passengers hauled in 1913.
Coal production peaked during the Second World War in the early 1940s and began to drop dramatically with the advent of internal combustion engines and other sources of heat. Due to the proximity and availability of the fuel, the S&L was one of the last railways in North America to keep its fleet of coal-powered steam locomotives, with 31 on the roster during the 1950s and over 400 employees; the S&L began to dieselize in 1960 however, the last steam locomotive wasn't retired until 1966. In 1961 DOSCO had its subsidiary the Cumberland Railway
Cumberland Railway and Coal Company
The Cumberland Railway and Coal Company is a defunct Canadian industrial company with interests in coal mines in Springhill, Nova Scotia, and a railway that operated from Springhill Junction to Parrsboro.-Spring Hill and Parrsborough Coal and Railway Company:...
assume the operations of the Sydney and Louisburg Railway on Cape Breton Island. The reason for this change was that the S&L had been formed under a provincial charter in 1910, which made it ineligible for federal railway subsidies, while the Cumberland Railway, which had a federal charter, qualified for federal railway subsidies. The road did business as the Sydney & Louisburg Division of the Cumberland Railway.
With coal and steel fortunes flagging, DOSCO was purchased in 1957 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Avro Canada
Avro Canada
Commonly known as Avro Canada, this company started in 1945 as an aircraft plant and became within thirteen years the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 50,000...
, whose assets were transferred to Hawker Siddeley Canada
Hawker Siddeley Canada
Hawker Siddeley Canada was the Canadian unit of the Hawker Siddeley Group of the United Kingdom and manufactured railcars, subway cars, streetcars, aircraft engines and ships from the 1960s to 1980s.-History:...
in 1962. Hawker-Siddley's DOSCO subsidiary announced in 1965 that its mines had only 15 years of production left and concluded that expense of opening new underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field would be too expensive. The company made its intentions clear that it would be exiting the coal mining business within months.
In response to a vast public outcry in industrial Cape Breton County, the Minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
of Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced J.R. Donald would head a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Cape Breton coal industry, with hearings held in 1965 and 1966. The Donald Commission recommended that a federal Crown corporation be established to acquire and manage DOSCO's coal operations, with the aim being to slowly wean the Sydney area economy off the coal industry.
-
- "Future planning should be based on the assumption that the Sydney mines will not operate beyond 1981."
On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation
Cape Breton Development Corporation
The Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was a Canadian federal government Crown corporation. It ceased operation on December 31, 2009, after being amalgamated with Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation ....
, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities. On March 30, 1968 DEVCO expropriated DOSCO's coal mines and the S&L, settling with Hawker-Siddeley for a payment of $12 million.
The S&L was reorganized as the Devco Railway
Devco Railway
The Devco Railway was a Canadian railway. Devco Railway operated as an unincorporated department within the Coal Division of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, also known as DEVCO; as such there is no formally incorporated entity named "Devco Railway"...
, though for several years it continued to do business under its old name. With H.S. Haslam as general manager, the company operated 39 miles (62.8 km) of route with offices at Sydney; at that date it owned 15 diesel shunters and 1,100 freight cars. In 1973, the Sydney and Louisburg Railway Historical Society was created.