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 The Canadian Northern Railway was incorporated
in1899 following the amalgamation of two small Manitoba grain-transporting
branch lines. It was built up over the next 20 years by its principal promoters,
William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, to become a 16,093 km transcontinental
railway with lines connecting Montreal to Vancouver. Called "Canada's
Second Transcontinental", the Canadian Northern Railway System was
more assembled by connecting small regional railway lines than through the
construction of a line across Canada.In 1896, Mackenzie and Mann had acquired the charter of the Lake Manitoba Railway & Canal Company. The first line built by the Canadian Northern under this charter was from Gladstone to Lake Winnipegosis by way of Dauphin. They then obtained running rights southwards from Gladstone to Portage-la-Prairie over the Manitoba and Northwestern Railway. Operations began in 1897, with the name "Canadian Northern" being adopted two years later. Mackenzie and Mann then turned their attention to the east, and began construction of the Manitoba & Southeastern Railway. This line ran initially from St. Boniface (across the Red River from Winnipeg) to Marchand. This 45-mile line, opened in 1898, paid its way by hauling firewood to Winnipeg. Further construction of the Manitoba & Southeastern, combined with the acquisition of short lines, permitted the Canadian Northern to reach Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario in 1902. By 1905, a line was completed between Winnipeg and Edmonton. In 1908, surveys of the Rocky Mountains of the west were undertaken. It was decided to build a line through Yellowhead pass, and to follow the Fraser River to Vancouver; this was completed in 1915. During this period, the railway completed construction of the Lake Superior gap between Port Arthur and Ottawa via Capreol, while building a line between Toronto and Sudbury. Freight service between Toronto and Winnipeg started in 1915 and, later, passenger service between Quebec and Vancouver. A new passenger terminal was built in Montreal, requiring the construction of a 3-mile tunnel beneath Mount Royal to access it. The Canadian Northern Railway had been built as inexpensively as possible, with plans to make improvements to the later line, as passenger and freight traffic developed. The railway was taken over by the Canadian Government in 1918 after a period of financial difficulty. |
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