The Merriton Tunnel, also known as the Blue Ghost Tunnel, is an abandoned tunnel on the former Grand Trunk Railway running under the Welland Canal in Ontario.
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Grand Trunk Railway Pavilion, Franco-British Exhibition, 1908 - Valentine's Postcard
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Grand Trunk Railway Pavilion, Franco-British Exhibition, 1908 - Valentine's PC Listing in the Exhibitions,Postcards,Collectables Category on eBid United Kingdom | 221333376
The Merriton Tunnel, also known as the Blue Ghost Tunnel, is an abandoned tunnel on the former Grand Trunk Railway running under the Welland Canal in Ontario.
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A Faded Glory – Bridge Street Station – Great Western Railway (1879-Present)
I remember the first time I visited the Bridge Street Station in Niagara Falls, not far from the glitz and crowds of the tourist-packed falls area. There sits on a quiet side street off the old downtown of Queen Street surrounded by run-down buildings sits the last remaining train stations in Ontario that is credited to the Great Western Railway.
The beautiful Gothic stylings are clearly on display.
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The importance of the train station in Niagara Falls is thanks to the Niagara Suspension Bridge. The Great Western Railway completed its mainline in 1854 with great fanfare in Hamilton, Ontario, where its main headquarters and rail yard were located. But to cross the Niagara River, trains had to be rerouted down the Niagara Escarpment and loaded onto rail ferries at Queenston to move the cars into the United States. Until 1855 when the world's first railroad suspension bridge, the Niagara Suspension Bridge, saw completion. An engineering marvel of the time, it served a single track on the top deck while pedestrian and horse-drawn traffic on a lower tier. Being on a terminus, Great Western completed a large wooden station known locally as Clifton Depot. In addition to that, Great Western constructed a large marshalling and traffic yard with freight sheds and a roundhouse nearby. The large station was built to a similar station completed in Hamilton, Ontario, with separate men's and ladies waiting rooms. A station master's office, a telegraph operator's bay, and a large baggage room. The station also featured a full-service restaurant and dining room operated by a local family, known as the Great Western. In 1879 disaster struck, and the entire station was destroyed by fire.
Taking a closer look at the center section of the station, which remains the focus of most traffic today.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8DWhile these doors probably aren't used, they show off the Gothic Revival styles of the doors and windows of the station.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8D
Undaunted and riding high on financial stability Great Western moved quickly to replace the station. Joseph Hobson, the railway's chief engineer and architect, designed a new station to replace the original wooden station. The new station used the Victorian Gothic style with a brick exterior. The new station featured two-storey centre sections with single storey west and east wings. The station's roof used a unique jerkinhead style, a combination of hip and gabled styles. Inside the centre, the section contained a round ticket office with separate mens' and ladies' waiting rooms. The second floor held the telegraph operator's bay and station offices. The east wing contained the new Great Western Restaurant, while the west wing contained the freight offices. It quickly became known as the most prestigious station on the Great Western Railway and earned Joseph Hobson a name. Grand Trunk gladly continued to operate the station when they purchased the entire Great Western Railway in 1882. The only change was renaming the restaurant to The Grand Trunk. The restaurant was forced to close in 1909. Canadian National took over the station in 1923. By this point, the station had started to show its age, and it received restoration work in 1939 in preparation for the Royal Tour. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) disembarked at the Bridge Street Station during the tour.
Looking out towards the bridge crossing from the Bridge Street Station.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8DToday the Whirlpool Bridge (1896) stands in replacement of the original Niagara Suspension Bridge and still served by the original lines today.
Mamiya m645 - Mamiya-Sekor C 45mm 1:2.8 N - Ilford FP4+ @ ASA-100 - Kodak D-23 (Stock) 6:00 @ 20C
With a sharp decline in passenger traffic by the mid-century, Canadian National began cutting passenger services. The separate waiting rooms were combined, and many structures designed to support steam locomotives fell in the 1960s as diesel motive power took over. Surprisingly the station never got a paint job to railroad red. Instead, Canadian National painted it a grey colour in 1967; they also abandoned and closed the second story chopping eighty feet off the western wing. A similar demolition planned for 1976 stayed thanks to a local heritage designation. When Canadian National turned over passenger service to the newly created VIA Rail in 1978, the Bridge Street station was also turned over to the new Crown Corporation. While the station remained untouched, a Federal heritage designation in 1999 freed up funds to completely restore the station's exterior. The grey paint was stripped away, and the original red brick exterior was restored. GO Trains have called on the station since 2009, and VIA removed all staff in 2012. Today the station remains an automated location with no physical staff on site. It still stands as a testament to the Great Western and Joseph Hobson. Make sure to watch your wallet, however, in the area.
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Standing tall, a Gothic Revival Station in a seedier part of Niagara Falls well off the tourist routes, the Bridge Street Station is the only station that survives from the Great Western Railway and remains in operation today.
A Faded Glory – Ridgeway – Grand Trunk Railway (1900-1975)
Sitting as the main building at the Fort Erie Railway Station, the former station that once served the village of Ridgeway is a prime example of Grand Trunk's plan to modernise the railway at the start of the 20th Century. It is also interesting that a village as small as Ridgeway would warrant such a large station.
The size of the Ridgeway Station certainly surprised me having visited the community of Ridgeway before.
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The railway first came to Ridgeway thanks to Brantford, Hamilton and the Great Western Railway. As a result, the Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railway, which eventually became the Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway despite its financial instability through the first half of the 1850s, finally reached Paris, Ontario in 1856, heading further along to Goderich. Buffalo & Lake Huron would start constructing stations in 1855; these were simple wooden structures that were more shelters than a modern train station. While I'm unsure if such a station had been built at Ridgeway, the first station I could confirm was named for the township in which Ridgeway was located and carried the name Bertie Station and was completed in 1864 by Grand Trunk Railway. Grand Trunk by 1864 had taken over the entire Buffalo & Lake Huron network to prevent the line from falling into American hands or disappearing entirely. Again, this first station would be a simple shed or barn-like station built in board and batten construction, located in the downtown of Ridgeway on Ridge Road between Hibberd and Disher. It contained a general waiting room, baggage room and a station master's office with a ticket window and telegrapher bay. The station's only notable point took place in July 1866 when the combined Canadian Militia force arrived before marching north to meet a body of Fenian invaders and was forced to retreat to the station and departed.
Here you can see the art glass decoration on the waiting room windows.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8DThe telegraph tower and semaphor traffic signals.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8D
By the end of the 19th Century, much of the area had become a popular spot for tourists, especially the draw of the resorts and beaches of Crystal Beach. And under Charles Hayes, starting in 1896, Grand Trunk began a massive modernisation project and replaced many older stations. The Bertie Station would be among the first stations to be replaced. The new 1900 station now carried the name Ridgeway. Constructed in the style of Queen Anne Revival with Picturesque elements. Keeping with the board and batten wooden construction to complete the new more giant station. The station would feature a larger general waiting room and baggage room with an exterior porte-cochère to shelter passengers as they arrived and departed from the station. The interior would be richly ornamented with stained glass windows in the waiting room, along with excellent lighting and heat: a station master's office, ticket window and telegraph operator bay. A tower would also provide better views of the tracks running in either direction. The station again offered assistance to the town in 1913 when a fire threatened the community; a Grand Trunk operator telegraphed for additional water, which arrived in time to save both the town and station from destruction. Canadian National would take over operations in 1923 and continue to run passenger and freight services; the station would receive a railroad red paint job in the mid-century. Passenger services ceased in 1970 as traffic dwindled on the line.
The park Pavillion in Ridgeway where the station originally sat.
Mamiya m645 - Mamiya-Sekor C 35mm 1:3.5 N - Ilford FP4+ @ ASA-100 - Kodak D-23 (Stock) 6:00 @ 20CMembers of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry XIIIth Battalion Ceremonial Guard who dress and portray as members of the Canadian Militia force that fought at Ridgeway.
Sony a6000 + Sony E PZ 16-50mm 1:3.5-5.6 OSS
When Canadian National began planning to remove the old right-of-way, the town of Fort Erie, wishing to preserve local railway heritage, purchased the station from Canadian National in 1974. Then carefully remove the station from its original location in Ridgeway and moved it several kilometres away to the new Fort Erie Railway Museum. After several years of restoration efforts, the station reopened along with size Canadian National Locomotive 6218, a 4-8-4 "Northern" type locomotive. The restoration saw the removal of the red paint and repaint in a white with green paint colour scheme. The interior and exterior features were cleaned and restored, including a Canadian National era semaphore single tower. Inside the station became the main exhibit space for the museum. By 1985, Canadian National had abandoned and removed the tracks between Fort Erie and Caledonia on the original Buffalo & Lake Huron line; some sections remain in operation today. The line now forms a multi-use trail known as Friendship Trail. In the town of Ridgeway, a pavilion was constructed near where the two original stations once stood.
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The surprisingly large GTR station from Ridgeway is one of the few surviving rail stations in the region. It has served as a saviour to the town, a place for tourists, and the rail line is one of the earliest to serve as a troop transport by rail.
A Faded Glory – Warren Street Shops – Canadian National Railway (1964-1982)
Sitting well outside of the two historical downtowns within the community of Fort Erie sits several lonely buildings and overgrown tracks. These small remains are left of what was once a massive railway yard that had existed since the earliest days of the railway in Fort Erie but is today a mere shadow.
The Warren Street shops, I should have moved further back and used a longer lens.
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The Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway saw inception as a means to provide railway access to the people of Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich; the railways two main terminuses were Fort Erie and Goderich, where cars would be loaded onto massive rail ferries to be floating to destinations across bodies of water, at Fort Erie that was Black Rock in Buffalo. But as I mentioned in a previous entry, railway ferries were slow and had limited space, and at Fort Erie, only the International serviced the Buffalo & Lake Huron line. A large marshalling yard had to be purchased and constructed to maintain their trains, manage traffic, conduct maintenance, and store and shunt cars. Located outside the town of Fort Erie, these yards would form the core of the Buffalo & Lake Huron railway yards. Here trains would arrive and road locomotives stored and maintained in engine houses, roundhouses and a turntable, while shunting locomotives moved the cars to and from the ferry docks at the end of Bertie Street. Grand Trunk continued to operate the yards when they took over the entire Buffalo & Lake Huron network in 1864. From these yards, Grand Trunk employees sent out warning messages in July 1866 of the invading Fenians. They ensured that the trains and the International were sent out of reach and used by the Irish-American invaders. In 1873 with the completion of the International Railway Bridge, Grand Trunk saw a resurgence in the use of the Fort Erie Yards. While they had their primary motive power shops in Stratford to maintain their locomotive fleet, Fort Erie's tracks were realigned to serve the new railway bridge and passenger stations in the new community of Bridgeburg. At the Fort Erie yards, more tracks were added to allow for storage and traffic control over the bridge and conduct maintenance on cars and locomotives travelling to and from the United States. By 1903 the Fort Erie or Warren Street Yards were the third-largest railway yards operated by Grand Trunk and directly affected the growth of both Bridgeburg and Fort Erie, providing several jobs for the surrounding area. By 1923 Canadian National had taken over operations at Warren Street.
You can still see the years of neglect in the Warren Shops.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8DOne of the smaller doors, probably to house a small switcher or maintenance vehicle.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8D
One of the earliest uses of diesel-electric power on Canadian rails came in the form of yard switchers in the 1930s; these were small and less powerful than the massive Northern, Mountain, and Pacific type steam locomotives that drove the trains across the main road lines. These early switchers would have found a great deal of work at the Warren Street Yards, but by the 1950s, road-switchers were starting to take over the work of steam locomotives. Desiel motive power required a different type of maintenance facility. By the end of the 1950s, Canadian National began constructing new garages at Warren Street to support their diesel locomotives that now operated across the International Railway Bridge. Rather than keep all the original Grand Trunk buildings, Canadian National would, in the 1960s, begin the demolition of older steam-centred maintenance and storage buildings at Warren Street. Instead, Canadian National would open a new diesel maintenance garage in 1964, known as the Warren Street Shops. Many of the employees would arrive from Stratford as the Motive Power shops there closed that same year. The new shops were far smaller than previous maintenance buildings, with most of the yard continuing to be used as a traffic marshalling yard. Thankfully, the new shops maintained a workforce of four hundred and could conduction regular repairs and overhauls of most diesel-electric locomotives and switchers being used by Canadian National. These include the GP7 and GP9 road-switchers, SW1200 switchers, and many others. However, a decade after opening, Canadian National announced in 1977 that it would begin to move operations across the river to Black Rock. Operations would slowly wind down starting in 1978, and some employees were relocated to larger Canadian National Yards out in Western Canada. The final train would roll out of Warren Street in 1989, and the location shut its doors.
Refueling towers for the D-E locomotives that operated here.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8DOne of the museum's rolling stock, a small locomotive that once served at the INCO facitilies in the area, probably Welland.
Nikon D750 - AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm 1:2.8D
Canadian National would begin a systematic demolition of all but two buildings and start pulling up tracks. They also parcelled off the yard and sold it to local businesses, one of the largest being a scrapyard. The once large yard was cut to a fraction of its original size as some trackage was required for cross-bridge traffic. Because the railroad had been a huge employer, many soon found themselves out of work and drove the area into a depression, but it also drove many to seek a way to preserve the area's rich railway heritage. The Niagara Railway Museum was the brainchild of Ken Jones Jr, who started collecting pieces of local railway history in 1994 and incorporated the museum two years later. Like any museum, first starting, they did not have a permanent home, and the collection was spread out across the member's homes and storage units. And it was not small pieces; they had also acquired rolling stock from boxcars to switcher units, even a snowplough. They would need to locate a home quickly or risk losing their work. In 2010 they signed a lease agreement on the Warren Street Shop, but it had sat unused for near four decades. During that time, even I had attempted to gain access to the building, but it had been recently resealed, but I had seen photos from inside from other urban explorers. Although today, near two decades later, the museum remains in operation and offers limited access to the Warren Street Shops. The folks behind the museum have done an amazing job and are still looking for any artefacts related to the railroad in Fort Erie items before the closure of the shops. You can check the location out; it is best to go on a weekend with volunteers present, and always make sure to ask before going onto the property.
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Sitting in a rather out of the way spot in the community of Fort Erie, an abandoned brick building with little in the way of ornamentation from the era of function over form, is the final structure of a once-massive yard.
A Faded Glory – International Railway Bridge – Grand Trunk Railway (1873-Present)
The Niagara River has never been the easiest obstacle to navigate in Ontario, the main reasons being the current, the falls, and the gorge. Bridges were neither cheap nor easy to build but possible. The easiest means to get trains across the river were through the use of rail ferries. Steamships were designed to carry large numbers of cars, but the process was slow, bottlenecked the line, and there was also the tendency for ships to sink or get caught in the current and swept away.
While the decking and trusses are not original, the piers date back to 1873.
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All major operators initially used rail ferries, while Buffalo & Lake Huron had the easiest route between Fort Erie and Buffalo. With their line's terminus at Niagara Falls, Great Western Railway required rerouting the train to Queenston for loading and unloading. So they were one of the first to start planning a railway bridge. But Great Western wasn't planning any railway bridge; they aimed to build a suspension bridge. Working with William Hamilton Merritt, the bridge opened to traffic in 1855, supporting two levels, one for a single railway track and a second for foot and carriage traffic. When it opened, it was not only Canada's first but the world's first railway suspension bridge. The suspension wires were supported by four twenty-seven meter tall Egyptian inspired pillars, work being done by a young Scottish stonemason William Henderson. But above the falls, the Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway continued to use the rail ferry International but had planned by 1856 for their own bridge between Fort Erie and Black Rock. But having no real financial stability, the plans remained on paper. As Grand Trunk began to take on more operational control over Buffalo & Lake Huron, the new operator furthered plans. Grand Trunk had completed their first rail bridge over the Grafraxa River in Port Hope and their biggest bridge, the Victoria Bridge in Montreal, over the St. Lawerence River in 1860. By 1864 representatives of New York State and the Province of Canada signed an agreement to have a bridge completed between Fort Erie and Black Rock. When the American Civil War opened, the plans were shelved and remained that way in the serious dip in Anglo-American relations during and following the war. The Fenian Raids of 1866 did not help matters either. The International being requested by the Canadian Militia as an armed gunboat and a means to move troops by the Fenians. It remained safely in the middle of the river, refusing to move, having been ordered to stay put by Grand Trunk employees.
A bit more closer detail on the 1873 piers.
Nikon D750 - AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4DA memorial to Light Vessel 82, lost in a storm in 1913 showing the power of the Great Lakes and the Niagara River.
Nikon D300 - AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G
Thankfully the relations warmed by the end of the decade, and plans were again coming together. In 1870, the Canadian Bridge Company and American Bridge Company chartered the International Bridge Company to construct the proposed bridge. C.S. Gzowski & Co. won the contract from International Bridge to complete the main piers and final assembly construction. At the same time, the bridge steel and sections went to Phoenix Iron Works in Pennsylvania. The bridge would span the shortest section of the river but far from ideal. At this point, the river depth stood at fourteen meters, and the current flowed at nineteen kilometres per hour. The continued damage from ice broke away from Lake Erie and flowed down to Niagara Falls that could prove dangerous to the piers. Construction began in 1871 with dredging three metres of gravel from the river bed. The eight piers that secured the bridge across the river were constructed from locally quarried limestone and designed to break up ice flows rather than have them dashed against them. Phoenix Ironworks constructed the bridge portions in twelve sections using a standard Baldwin Truss pattern. Each section was floating in, raised on special pontoons and secured in place. While the Canadian side of the bridge was fixed, the American side featured two swing sections. The sections were around Unity Island, allowing ships to still access the harbours at Black Rock and Buffalo. A single railway track crossed the bridge, and a separate section allowed for pedestrian traffic. During the construction, not a single life was lost, or the accident delayed the effort. When the bridge was completed, it had cost 1.5 million dollars and spanned 1113 metres. And railway traffic stood ready to make use of the new bridge when it opened on the 3rd of November 1873; present at the ceremony were Grand Trunk President Richard Potter and Internation Bridge Co-President Matthew Brydges. While Grand Trunk trains used the bridge without trouble, all other operators had to pay a fee at a dollar per car. While most operators had no issues paying the toll rather than spend the money needed to build their own bridge, Canadian Southern sued Grand Trunk.
To the left the Whirlpool Bridge and the right the MCR bridge, today only the Whirlpool bridge operates as it replaced the original Niagara Suspension Bridge.
Mamiya m645 - Mamiya-Sekor C 45mm 1:2.8 N - Ilford FP4+ @ ASA-100 - Kodak D-23 (Stock) 6:00 @ 20CThe ruins of the Curtis-Wright Factory, once a major part of the industrial hotbed of Black Rock where the Bridge terminated.
Pentax 645 - SMC Pentax A 645 35mm 1:3.5 - Kodak Tri-X 400 @ ASA-400 - Kodak HC-110 Dil. B 7:30 @ 20C
As the popularity of the railway increased, the need for larger bridges became obvious, and bridges with a single track across them were becoming obsolete. Grand Trunk completed a new bridge in 1897, the Whirlpool Bridge, to replace the original Niagara Suspension Bridge. And in 1900, the International Railway Bridge was revamped, removing the original bridge sections and replacing them with one that supported two tracks at the cost of the pedestrian walkway. Three years later, baseball player Ed Delany who had been removed from a train for being drunk, attempted to cross the bridge on foot, dying. While always a busy crossing, the busiest day of the bridge took place on the 10th of July 1916 when 264 trains crossed the bridge. Canadian National took over operations on the bridge in 1923 when Grand Trunk Railway was absorbed into the new company. In 1929, Michigan Central, which was now in complete control of Canadian Southern, completed their own bridge at Niagara Falls. Passenger services across the bridge dwindled with the final Canadian National Passenger train crossing in 1934. The Americans disabled one of the swing sections on their bridge in 1941. The bridge had spent a great deal of its operational life without closure, at least until 1993. Canadian National was forced to close the bridge due to emergency repairs to several of the support piers, which were still original to 1873; the repairs cost two million but ensured the continued use of the bridge. Further updates to the bridge decking took place in 2000. Today, the International Railway Bridge remains the oldest operational railway bridge in Ontario, far from the original. Its construction pre-dates many of the original bridges constructed by the Canadian Pacific through the Rockies. Many of the older Grand Trunk Bridges have been either totally replaced or modified far beyond the original to be considered original. It is also one of two operational railway bridges across the Niagara River, the 1897 Whirlpool Bridge as the Michigan Central bridge shut down in 2001. On average, the bridge sees fifteen trains daily crossing.
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