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At the beginning of XIXe S., Montreal, from its geographical
situation, is the center commercial of the colony. To maximize the profits, the commercial
rich person work out plans for better organizing the transport of the goods. One seeks a
way of connection Montreal - New York which is shortest possible. New York, port of sea,
free in winter, seem the place privileged to ensure the trade with Europe.
One draws aside the idea quickly to dig a channel between La Prairie and
Saint-Jean and the train is privileged.
From the very start of the years 1830, one started to plan the first Canadian railroad.
In 1831, the 1egislative assembly of Low-Canada (Quebec) received a bill aiming at
establishing a railway between the lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence. This bill obtained
the royal sanction on February 25, 1832.
Having obtained Legislature the rights of expropriation of the land, 74 merchants of
the colony, holders of capital, create «the Company of the owners of the smooth path of
Champlain and the St. Lawrence» in 1832.
The project of construction of a railway did not fail to raise the
enthusiasm of Montrealers, but it is only afterwards that the president of the Bank of
Montreal at the time, Peter McGill, became the first of the 754 subscribers to the new
railway company, that this enthusiasm resulted in an interest of the public for the shares
offered for sales. The first to follow McGill was John Molson, founder of the brewery of
the same name and president of the Bank of Montreal until 1830. Among the shareholders of
the company, one raises also the name of Jason C. Peirce, originating in New England,
which, after being made prisoner during the conflict of 1812-1815, decided to remain in
Saint-Jean, Quebec, from which it became one of the inhabitants more in sight. Peirce will
have been not only one interested shareholder, but an energetic promoter of the project of
railroad.
In 1835, one begins the building work. As of December, the management committee announces that levelling, masonry, the bridges and the quay of the cross bar with Laprairie are completed. A locomotive, named "Dorchester", was built in England by Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson, manufacturer of the famous locomotive named "Rocket". The construction of the cars of first and second classes was ensured by American companies during the years 1830, while that of the goods trucks was entrusted to companies from Montreal..
In this time, we were far from the steel rails, put on plates of way specially conceived to receive them, as today. Rails were pieces of 6 inches squared, in pine wood, maintained in crossbars by triangular blocks and linked with their extremities by iron splints. The superior surface of the rail was covered with a steel sheet of three inches width by half inch of thickness and fixed to the rail with bathed cramps.
These rails were put according to Stephenson's space , that is four feet and eight and a half inch. They were fixed to crossbars from nine to ten feet in length, which were supported by central girders. The ballast used today did not exist then.
It is April 26, 1836 when the new railway company published its first table of rates. There are rates for the transport of barrels of ash, beef, pig, flour of wheat or the other cereal, as well as for the transport of boards and lumber.
The launch of the steam ferryboat belonging to the railway company takes place on May 12, in the middle of the shouts and the cheers of the crowd. In the honnor of heir présomptive of the crown , the ferryboat is baptized Princess Victoria by madam Peter McGill, wife of the president of the Bank of Montreal also president of council of the railway company. Afer sliding gracefully on waters, the ferryboat is dragged up to the port to receive its engines there. July 9, about 10 days before the inaugural day of the first train, the ferryboat makes its first trial trip.
The opening of the railroad line takes place
on July 21, 1836. All the colonial elite is invited to the ceremony of inauguration.
Three hundred guests celebrate the event. Gosford, chief governor of British North America, chair the inauguration. He is accompanied with two members of this committee, Sir Charles Grey and Sir George Gipps. Several members of council 1égislatif and of the Assembly of Lower Canada are there, as well as military responsibles, prosperous merchants and some " honorable foreign people ".
Gosford at this time was in charge of inquiry comission about the political situation in Lower Canada.
The company considered more careful to invite also Louis Joseph Papineau, leader of the Chamber of Assembly. His presence allowed to gain the confidence of the Canadian-French population.
Louis - Joseph Papineau, who the next year had flee Canada, his head having been demanded because of its participation in the rebellion of the patriots in 1837. This participation will assure him moreover a place in the history of Canada, in the same way as his "homologue" of Upper Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie. In his return of exile, Louis - Joseph Papineau should have been invited in another inaugural route in 1847, that of Montreal and Lachine Railroad Company.
Compared with the big current companies, the Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railroad Company, society developer of this first train, was a quite small company. She exploited only a line of 14,5 miles between Laprairie and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Formerly Dorchester). Between Laprairie and Montreal, the passengers should take a ferryboat. It was in fact about a railroad following a former road of porterage used to transport the goods from the St-Lawrence river to the Richelieu river and to the waterways connected with this last one, the Champlain lake and Hudson river.
In 50 minutes, The Princess Victoria, with his 300 passengers, makes the crossing of the river. Arrived in Laprairie, these persons take place aboard the train prepared to welcome them.
The small locomotive Dorchester passes in the posterity by crossing the first 14,5 miles of Canadian railroad, first section of a future transcontinental railroad network of world reputation.
Although built by one of the most renowned pioneers of railroads, the new locomotive was of an a little bit doubtful reliability. During a trip, they had neglected to keep a sufficient water level in the boiler, what had provoked a superheating of pipes. Due to a lack of time to repair them, they had blocking them. Due to the reduction of power, they had decided to put only 2 cars on the locomotive, the other were pulled by horses. On this day, it took two hours to reach Saint- Jean. The return was only made in 59 minutes and the locomotive pulled four cars. The travelers should however spend the night in Laprairie, the ferryboat having run aground. In the morning of July 22, they got back to Montreal.
Few days after, the locomotive was retired to perform repairs on the pipes in order to perform normal service for the rest of the season.
The Dorchester was the 127 th locomotive to be product by Robert Stephenson's shops in U.K. Arrived at the Molson pier in the port of Montreal in June 1836, the locomotive was assembled at the Molson's shops. She had cost 150O£ , weighted 12 544 pounds, was mesuring 13 feet 6 inched lenght and was equipped with 4 traction wheels of 48 inches diameter. From the first season, the company noticed that a second locomotive would be necessary. This last one was built in Philadelphia by the company Norris. Equipped with a single pair of driving wheels and with a bogie before four wheels, she was delivered in 1837. To distinguish these two locomotives, they attributed them a name to each. The one built in England was named Dorchester, whereas the one from American factories was named after Jason's C. Pierce. The Pierce turned out of such an efficiency on the uneven wooden rails, as one or two years later, they converts the Dorchester to the same set of wheels.
It is interesting to notice that the pioneers of the railroads of Canada had anticipated, from the beginning , the potential of the railway not only to the transport of the goods but also to that of the passengers. The deep interest for this faster mode of transportation, more convenient and more comfortable means of transport would arouse at the public had not escaped them. To a certain extent, they will have launched the industries of the tourism and the rail transportation in Canada. We can tell so far that they are at origin of the first railway excursions.
Afterward, the Montrealers amateurs of excursions will grant an incomparable interest to the train. And this interest was greater when a steamer, the S.S. Burlington, assured the connection between Saint Jean and the ports of the lake Champlain. The Montreal families resisted rarely to the charm of an exit by boat and by train which lasted almost a whole day and cost them only seven pences schillings and six by adult, the children paying half price.
The company soon would have take certain measures to mitigate in freedom from care of the travelers. So the new regulation stipulated that occupation of a seat was subordinate to the purchase of a ticket that should get aboard the ferryboat. Dogs were not allowed in the compartments of first class. Every person rising on the locomotive or on the roof of a car during the movement of the train was liable to fines of 10 and to 25 schillings in the one or other one of the cases.
With the increasing traffic, the company purchased new locomotives in 1847 , 1848 and 1849 and, between 1846 and 1848, the wooden rails we replaced iron rails in shape of T.
During 1850s, the company had to expaned to remain competitive in front of the increasing number of small railway companies making their appearance in the region. In 1851, the line was so prolonged by 28 miles from Saint Jean towards Rouses Point on the border of the United States, where she joined direct lines towards Boston and New York, belonging in Vermont and Canada Railroad. To celebrate this first international connection between Canada and the United States, a "Railroad Jubilee" was organized during the summer in Boston. Before, Champlain and Saint Lawrence had worked that during the months summer, interrupting her service in winter when streams were ice-cold and steamers immobilized. But the new international rail link required that the line was exploited all year long. Consistently, they began the construction of a new terminal station for Montreal. This one, located in Saint-Lambert, opened in January, 1852 and adding a railway section of nine miles. The ferryboat linking Saint-Lambert and Montreal was exploited during winter.
The company should face a so relentless competition, notably from the Montreal and New York Railroad, that in 1857 appeared Montreal and Champlain Railroad Company, born from the merge between the Champlain and Saint Lawrence and Montreal and New York. This new company, a good part of the network of which still exists was integrated, in 1872 , into Grand Trunk which, in his turn, was absorbed by the Canadian National Railway, created in 1923.
As for the first locomotive of Canada, the Dorchester, she stayed in service until 1849. She was then sold to the Company of the Rails Road of Saint Laurent and the Village of Industry, fourth public, steam railway of British North America. Being named according to a city - model current location of Joliette, on the North Shore of St-Lawrence river, the line was 12 miles in length, linking Joliette with the St-Lawrence river, and constitutes the the most remote ancestor of the CPR. The Dorchester was exploited on this line until 1864, date in which her boiler exploded and where she was retired from the service.
We believe, further to certain facts, revealed quite recently, in 1873, pieces from the Dorchester were sold to the owner of Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare's sawmill, small municipality located nine miles northwest from Joliette (Quebec).
In 1936, in occasion of the Centenary of the Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railway, two retorts of the Dorchester were built. The first belongs to the museum of the Château Ramezay which lent her to the Canadain Railway Museum in Saint-Constant (Quebec). The other is exposed at Lachine's museum. The first was built by the staff of the Château Ramezay and the second, by trainees of the Canadian National Railway.
From the Dorchester, there is only remaining the plate of identification found in a field near Joliette. She is a part of the collection of the Joliette's art museum as a relic of the great adventure of the pioneers who led the Canadian railroads on the way of the success.
Retort of " Dorchester " which belongs to the Museum of the Château Ramezay,
lent to the St Constant's Canadian Railway Museum.
Research: Jocelyn Vachet
