The Dawn Tramway

[jeremy]

The Dawn Tramway Company was incorporated in 1884, according to the attached extract from the statutes of the Province of Ontario.

Attachments:

[Steve]

Thanks for this Jeremy...

I've added an entry in the LCHC for this event under your name.

View it here. Once there, scroll down to 1884 to find it...


Feel free to enter any other events in the chronology...

[jeremy]

From the Sarnia Observer for 9 May 1884
news.google.com/newspapers?id=XQQuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6icDAAAAIBAJ&dq=tramway&pg=4810%2C5169713
(scroll down to see the following - the article is surrounded by some "interesting" ads!)

The Dresden Times says: The second load of iron came for the Dawn Tramway Co., on Sunday evening, when the shrill and plaintive whistle of the tug was hear as she thus expressed her wish to have the bridge swung. The engine weighing 14 tons, is so heavy that they dare not team it across the bridge, and purpose towing it, flat car and all, so that it may be so elevated on deck that it can be the more easily transferred to the rails of the tramway.

It is tempting to assume that this indicates that the locomotive for the Dawn Tramway arrived at Dresden on Sunday, 4 May 1884. The Shay locomotive (SN-220) that the tramway is reported to have obtained second-hand later in its history weighed 17 tons, so 14 tons for an earlier model is reasonable.

Attachments:

[jeremy]

Imagine some company owes you money. You might write demanding payment, have your lawyer do the same if you get no response, and finally, take them to court. Stealing their property (because you own it, really) and endangering the lives of the company workers would probably not be a good idea... Mr John Fisken, of Toronto, seems to have felt perfectly justified in having someone do exactly that, as the attached story from the Toronto Daily Mail for 4 December 1888 shows! (I wonder how a presumably profitable tramway had problems paying off its debts?)

Attachments:

[jeremy]

Apparently, the owners of the Dawn Tramway Company once had grandiose ideas of expanding their railway. I presume that this line would have travelled west along what is now Ward Line W. This notice is the only mention I have seen of this extension, which I presume was never built.

Attachments:

[jeremy]

When writing about the history of the Dawn Tramway, I found I first had to clarify just what railway was involved. As noted in a previous posting, the Dawn Tramway was incorporated in 1884, with permission to build a line between Dresden and Oil Springs.

Now, the Dresden and Oil Springs Railway had incorporated in 1873, with the goal of building a rail line between the same two towns. It seems logical to assume that this was a precursor to the later company, which actually built the line, but was it?

The Dresden and Oil Springs Railway legally changed its name to the Sarnia, Chatham, and Erie Railway on 10 February 1876, with permission to extend its line from Oil Springs to Sarnia in one direction, and from Dresden to Rondeau on Lake Erie in the other. Railway maps of the period show the entire line - as a planned route. How much of it was actually built?

In 1877, the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie Railway built a line between Oil City on the Canada Southern Line to Petrolia. That seems to have been it! Although a line was subsequently built from Oil City down to Oil Springs and Edy’s Mills, it seems to have been built as a spur of the Canada Southern, not the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie. The former absorbed the latter in 1904, and later inventories of the track assets of the merged company list only the spur from Oil City to Petrolia as having been part of the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie assets. At this time, Canada Southern leased its lines to the Michigan Central Railroad, which in 1929 subleased them to the New York Central, whose successors Penn Central (1968) and Conrail (1976) later assumed control. CN and CP jointly acquired the former Canada Southern lines in 1985, but by this time, the lines through Oil City to Courtright had long been abandoned, with the tracks pulled up in 1960.

In 1873, the same year as the incorporation of the Dresden and Oil Spring Railway, a competitor was incorporated as the Erie and Huron Railway. The Erie and Huron Railway *did* build a line from Erieau on Rondeau Bay to Dresden in 1883, but then went west through Tupperville and Wallaceburg to Whitebread, and up the St.Clair River to Sarnia in 1886. There were legal conflicts with the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie Railway during this period, and the two railways were definitely separate entities. The Erie & Huron Railway merged with the Lake Erie & Detroit River Railway in 1901, leased its lines to the Pere Marquette Railway in 1911 and the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1946. Since 2005, the line has been run by CSX.

The Lambton Central Railway was incorporated on 10 February 1876. Their plans could charitably be described as vague. The route was to go “from some point in or near the Village of Oil Springs or Town of Petrolia, or from some point at or near the line of the Canada Southern Railway in the Township of Enniskillen, in the County of Lambton, and from thence to a point at or near Point Edward, or to a point at or near the line of the Grand Trunk Railway between Point Edward and the Village of Forest, or to some point in or near the said Village of Forest”. With a clear vision like that, it isn’t surprising that by 1880, they hadn’t built anything, and had to apply for an extension or risk forfeiting their charter. Even so, by 5 May 1882, the Sarnia Observer observed that “The amalgamation of the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways has no doubt given a death blow to the Lambton Central Railway…”

So, we have here four railways that overlapped over portions of their planned routes for at least part of their histories. The Dawn Tramway meanwhile wasn’t taken over by anybody, and, its purpose fulfilled, was taken up in 1898.

[Steve]

A lot of great new info here, Jeremy! Much that I hadn't known before. Particularly, about the Petrolia Branch of the CASO (Canada Southern) initially being built by another railway. Obviously, the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie Railway would have needed CASO co-operation, or acquiescence, to build this branch and connect it to their mainline, so it would be interesting to see who were the principal owners/investors behind the S. C. & E..

It was very common, in this era, for investors in a larger railway to charter smaller - ostensibly independent - railways and then build branches connected to the larger lines, which if profitable, would then be acquired by the now 'parent' railway. If they didn't turn a profit, it kept the bad asset off the larger railway's books. This is what happened with the Great Western's (GWR) branch from Wyoming into Petrolia in 1866. The GWR didn't want to risk building the branch for fear the oil boom would be short lived, so GWR investors and Petrolia oil interests funded and built it. It proved so profitable that the GWR quickly snapped it up.

In historical accounts, you'll often read that the GWR didn't want anything to do with the branch and that this forced Petrolia interests to proceed on their own. The folklore is one of touting the pluck and initiative of the Petrolia David vs. the GWR's Goliath. But, digging a little deeper, you see that GWR people were involved in building this branch right from the start.

One thing your research highlights, is how byzantine the early railway schemes were. Lots of false starts, non-starts, take-overs, amalgamations, renamings, etc. It shows that it's often not enough to simply research the names of the railways in order to understand who controlled what and who was competing with whom. We need to dig down into the charters and find out who the personalities were that were behind these schemes, if we really want to get to the root of who was pulling the strings and what strings they were actually pulling.

Nonetheless, your post has a great wealth of information about the beginnings of at least two of Lambton's built railways. Is this your own original research, or are portions excerpted from other sources? Either way, kudos to you. It would be nice to have some of your sources listed, or linked to in the post, so those who'd like to, can dig deeper into the personalities behind the scenes...

Thanks for the hard work and I'd like to excerpt from your post for the profiles of the Erie & Huron Railway and the Canada Southern, when I get around to posting them...

[jeremy]

Inserting all the references in a posting like my last one on the four railways (actually five!) that had at least planned routes covering the same line as the Dawn Tramway would have made for very boring reading! However, I should record the references so other interested viewers can check out the sources - there is even more interesting reading there!

Dresden and Oil Springs Railway chartered
Statutes of the Province of Ontario 1873 p.390 (only available in snippet view)
books.google.com/books?ei=xVdwTd39IYa8lQejtcxZ&ct=result&id=vAqvAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Assented+to+29th+March+1873%E2%80%9D&q=%22dresden+and+oil+springs+railway%22#search_anchor

Statutes of the Province of Ontario 1875-1876 p.238
books.google.ca/books?id=Zs0vAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22dresden%20and%20oil%20springs%20railway%22&pg=PA238#v=onepage&q=%22dresden%20and%20oil%20springs%20railway%22&f=false
An Act to amend the Act incorporating The Dresden and Oil Springs Railway Company, and to change the name to the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie Railway Company.
Assented to 10th February 1876.

Toronto Daily Mail, 1 December 1888, p.10
Line from Petrolia to Oil Springs built in 1877
news.google.com/newspapers?id=dOdMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=czYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4089,434708&dq=sarnia-chatham+railway&hl=en

Sessional Papers - Legislature of the Province of Ontario, Volume 4, p.93 paragraph 8
Operation on the Petrolia to Oil Springs line started began 18 January 1878
books.google.ca/books?id=v2hOAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22oil%20city%22%20petrolia%20railway&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q=%22oil%20city%22%20petrolia%20railway&f=false

Sarnia Observer , 19 January 1883
Michigan Central Railway’s Canada Southern Division was operating the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie on a lease that expired on 21 January 1883
news.google.com/newspapers?id=1hYwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kDcDAAAAIBAJ&dq=sarnia-chatham&pg=3300%2C3722903
(and scroll down!)

Sarnia, Chatham and Erie track reported in the statistics for the Michigan Central Railway
Report of the president and directors of the Michigan Central, 1881, p.88
books.google.com/books?id=WjQoAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Sarnia%2C%20Chatham%20%26%20Erie%20Railway%20%22&pg=RA3-PA88#v=onepage&q=%22Sarnia,%20Chatham%20&%20Erie%20Railway%20%22&f=false

Sarnia, Chatham and Erie track reported in the statistics for the Michigan Central Railway
Poor’s Manual of RailRoads, 1892, p.718
books.google.com/books?ei=r1pwTdfEHsKBlAfIq8WMAQ&ct=result&id=3ktJAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Canada+Southern+System%E2%80%94Operated+By+The+M.+C.+RR.+Co.%22&q=%22Sarnia%2C+Chatham+and+erie%22#search_anchor

Amalgamation of the Sarnia, Chatham and Erie with the Canada Southern
Acts of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada: Volumes 1-2, 1904, p.39
books.google.com/books?id=eg4vAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Sarnia,+Chatham+and+Erie+Railway+%22&dq=%22Sarnia,+Chatham+and+Erie+Railway+%22&hl=en&ei=z1twTbKRF8SAlAfo5IR9&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ

[Steve]

Thanks for these links, Jeremy!

Your 3rd link, from the Toronto Daily Mail of December 1st, 1888 is actually a great find because it's part of a much larger feature article on the Lambton oil region. I'm very familiar with this article because it's available at the Lambton Room. But there, it's a mess of photocopies of the fiche and very hard to follow because of the difficulty in trying to piece together 8" x 10" photocopies of full pages of a newspaper. It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle...

It's great to know that the original article is now online in it's original context, so thanks very much for that. I think this is going to get its own post in the links section...

[jeremy]

The Lambton Central Railway was a phantom road that was never built, but was one of a number of railways whose routes overlapped with each other, in whole or in part, and in particular intersected with the Dawn Tramway. Here are a few references for it:

An Act to Incorporate the “Lambton Central Railway Company"
Statutes of the Province of Ontario 1875-1876, p.252
Assented to 10 February 1876
Preamble describes proposed route of railway
books.google.com/books?id=Zs0vAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA252&ots=wTVRTVZr48&dq=lambton%20central%20railway%20source%3Asarnia&pg=PA252#v=onepage&q=lambton%20central%20railway%20source:sarnia&f=false

An Act to Revive and Amend the Act Incorporating the Lambton Central Railway Company
Statutes of the Province of Ontario 1880, p.188
Assented to 5 March 1880
books.google.ca/books?id=1wSxAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22act%20to%20revive%20and%20amend%20the%20act%20incorporating%20the%20lambton%22&pg=RA2-PA188#v=onepage&q=%22act%20to%20revive%20and%20amend%20the%20act%20incorporating%20the%20lambton%22&f=false
Extension to the deadline for construction.

13 February 1880 Sarnia Observer notes renewal of charter
news.google.com/newspapers?id=LzEwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zjYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2684,4878031&dq=lambton-central-railway&hl=en

5 May 1882 Sarnia Observer notes death knell of Lambton Central
news.google.com/newspapers?id=yRYwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kDcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1930,745991&dq=lambton-central-railway&hl=en
(You will need to scroll back to p.8 to see the note)

After that, you can't find any references except for further records of the original and modified charters of the Lambton Central. There appears to be another report in
30 September 1898 Sarnia Observer, p.1
Note referring to a proposed electric railway to be known as the Lambton Central Railway”.

Nothing else, until 1903, with
An Act Respecting the Lambton Central Electric Railway Company
Statutes of the Province of Ontario 1903, p.918 (only available in snippet view)
An Act Respecting the Lambton Central Electric Railway Company
Assented to 12 June 1903
books.google.ca/books?id=oIeyAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Lambton+Central+Electric+Railway%22&dq=%22Lambton+Central+Electric+Railway%22&hl=en&ei=ahNzTc7-D8jZgQeF1JlD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA
Describes proposed route from Sarnia to Petrolia, Oil Springs, and Dresden, which would definitely overlap with the by then defunct Dawn Tramway.

Unfortunately, Google News Archives is missing any copies of the Sarnia Observer for the first half of the 20th Century, and I have been unable to find any further references to the Lambton Central Electric Railway. If anyone else can find something from other source, I would certainly appreciate it!

30 September 1898 Sarnia Observer, p.1
Note referring to a proposed electric railway to be known as the Lambton Ce