Port Dalhousie community, park and canal history

This is a picture of my brother and me, taken by my mother, standing in front of the last streetcar to make a run to Lakeside Park on August 16, 1950. He was much okder than me...still is.

Crossing the Trestle at Martindale October 21, 1922

The Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway

The Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto (NS&T) was chartered in 1899. By purchasing existing lines and building new routes, it grew into an electric interurban empire that eventually covered much of the Niagara Peninsula. Operations included streetcars, interurbans, multiple unit trains, freight, mail, a passenger ship route to Toronto and even an amusement park (at Port Dalhousie).

With approximately seventy five miles of track (including industrial spurs, yards and double tracked lines), the NS&T ultimately became one of the largest interurban systems in Canada.

The Main Line (which combined three existing systems) ran from Niagara Falls through Thorold to St. Catharines and Port Dalhousie. The eastern end was the Niagara Falls, Wesley Park & Clifton Tramway. It was built in 1886 as a horse-drawn line and consisted of 4 miles of track. It was electrified in 1900 and merged into the NS&T in 1901. The central link was the St. Catharines & Niagara Central Railway. It was a 12 mile long steam line built in 1887. It was purchased by the NS&T in 1899 and electrified by 1900. The north-west end of the Main Line was originally the St. Catharines Street Railway. It was built as a horse-drawn line in 1879 and consisted of 4 miles of track. The StCSR was renamed the St.Catharines, Merritton & Thorold Street Railway in 1882 and extended to 6 miles of track. It was electrified in 1887 using 15 hp General Electric motors. In 1893 it was extended another mile and renamed the Port Dalhousie, St. Catharines & Thorold Electric Street Railway.

In 1902 it merged into the NS&T. Although several American and Canadian streetcar lines had already electrified, the StC, M&T was the first interurban system in North America to do so.

The Welland Division ran south for 18 miles from Thorold, through Fonthill (1907) and Welland (1908), to Humberstone and Port Colborne (1911). A freight-only interchange with the TH&B existed at Welland.

The Lake Shore Division ran northeast for ten miles from St. Catharines to Niagara-on-the-Lake during the period 1913 to 1931.

The CNR line from Port Dalhousie to Merritton that had been built in 1859 as the original line of the Welland Railway was electrified in 1924. It then became known as the Grantham Division of the NS&T. Port Dalhousie now had two NS&T lines, one on each side of the Twelve Mile Creek. Merritton was then used for freight interchange with the CNR.

The NS&T became part of the Canadian Northern Railway in 1908 and then the Canadian National Railway in 1918. The NS&T was de-electrified in the late fifties and abandoned in stages during the next twenty years.

The Welland Railway

First chartered as the Pt. Dalhousie and Thorold Railway, the Welland Railway was built in 1859 by William Hamilton Merritt as an alternate to his Welland Canal. The canal ran from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. Ships had become too large to traverse the canal fully laden and the rail connection allowed offloading of some freight such as grain and coal. The Welland Railway also played an important part in the movement of troops during the Fenian Raids of 1866. The railway was absorbed into the Grand Trunk Railway in 1884.

Passing over the new QEW

At Lakeside Park

Tearing up the tracks on Main Street, October 18. 1950