Newfoundland & Labrador's Registered Heritage Structures

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One of the few stretches of Newfoundland's railway still left in place after it was closed in the late 1980s, the Trinity Loop is also unique because of its unusual design.

© 1998 Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (39Kb)

Construction of the Trinity Loop started in 1910 and finished in 1911. The Loop was built by the Reid Newfoundland Company, who were responsible for much of the construction of the railway across Newfoundland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the Trinity area proved to be a challenge to the engineers involved with the project. Because of the many hills around the Trinity/Bonavista Bay region, it was difficult for engineers to find a route that would go from the high ground down to the tidewater. A direct route would have been so steep that trains would not have been able to climb the grade.

To compensate, engineer J.P. Powell designed a loop around a circular pond that would allow trains to descend gradually. This is the only railway loop of its kind in North America. The only similar loops are located in British Columbia, but are hidden inside mountains.

The circumference of the loop is approximately 2,000 m. (6,600 ft.) and the drop in elevation when circling the pond is 10.3 m. (approximately 34 ft.). The track was a narrow gauge, as were all other train tracks in Newfoundland.

The route was in operation from 1911 until 1984 when Terra Transport decided to close the Bonavista railway branch. The original plan was to dismantle the loop and sell it for scrap. However, retired railwayman and researcher Clayton Cook began a vigorous campaign to try and save it. With the help of some local politicians, he succeeded. Terra Transport turned the loop over to the Town of Trinity.

Shortly afterwards Francis Kelly purchased the loop and has turned it into an amusement park with a working train and passenger cars taking tourists around the loop.

The Trinity Loop is a wooden, narrow gauge trestle that circles around a pond and changes elevation by more than 10 m. in the process. Since Kelly bought it, the route has been repaired and is now in excellent shape. It is one of the few stretches of railway still in existence in Newfoundland because most of the rails were removed sold for scrap after the railway closed.

The Trinity Loop was recognised as a Registered Heritage Structure in February 1988.