Trains from Saint John, NB, early years of the C20th

[Darnity]

My grandfather's sister with her husband and young daughter arrived at Saint John on SS Lake Manitoba on 31st March 1903.

A great-grandfather's sister arrived at Saint John on the Empress of Ireland in April 1912. There was a party of children from Mr Fegan's Homes onboard this voyage who were making their way to Toronto initially so I assume onwards travel must have been relatively easy.

Looking at a modern railway map of Canada there is a line that runs north-ish from Moncton and then turns to follow the St Lawrence river to Quebec City.

Googling tells me that the original railway station in Saint John was demolished in the 1930s and replaced and that that station was demolished in the 1960s - I'm assuming that that is when the railway line from Saint John ceased running for passengers.

What I'm interested in is knowing how MJ and MK, the ladies mentioned above, would have travelled onwards from Saint John. Was there perhaps another line that ran from Saint John to Montreal? Or did the line from Saint John run to Moncton?

MJ initially made for Saskatchewan and her final resting place is in Surrey, BC while MK spent the rest of her long life in the Toronto area.

If anyone can point me to any info about how the early C20th immigrants travelled onwards I'd be very grateful.

[hanes teulu]

1907 map
https://www.discusmedia.com/maps/canadian_city_maps/5458/

[oldohiohome]

would any of these help?
said to be a 1910 railroad map of New Brunswick
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/370069294362834198/

same picture, a bit larger
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/d3/af/f5d3af83dbfd6b57ea3b80dbdffdcec0.jpg

no date on this one, but it looks identical to the one billed as 1910 and is much easier to see:
https://www.theboykos.com/railhistory/icr/

diagrams, no date
https://billyvanderplaats.blogspot.com/2019/12/new-brunswick-railway-map.html

text history only
https://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/archivalportfolio/TextViewer.aspx?culture=en-CA&myFile=Railways

long wikipedia article, with an 1877 map
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercolonial_Railway

buy your own for $1141.53 - a set of 8, each 31" by 29.5"
https://www.abebooks.com/Railway-Map-Dominion-Canada-1910-Honourable/11016424325/bd

[Darnity]

Thank you for those links - appreciated.

There must have been a considerable number of people disembarking at Saint John over the years and needing onward travel.

[hanes teulu]

1912 railway map
https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/63327/railway-map-of-the-dominion-of-canada-1912-canadian-department-of-the-interior

An alternative to a rail journey (Grand Pacific Railway.) from St John to Montreal might be a further voyage to Portland and a train (Grand Trunk Railway) from there?

[dbree]

Hi,

Both ships, the Manitoba and the Empress were owned by Canadian Pacific Line, and with that, my guess would be that MJ and MK may have taken advantage of CP's packages.
Canadian Pacific Company liked the idea of one stop shopping, immigrants were offered packages, passage on a CP ship, travel on a CP train, and land sold by CP.
If they did take advantage of a package then the CP train travel went through the northern tip of the USA's state of Maine connecting Saint John to Montreal on the "International Railway of Maine"
See here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Railway_of_Maine

They would have first disembarked to the quarantine station at Partridge Island. There are some
interesting photos taken from the 1920's.
See here.
https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/history-of-port-of-saint-john

From an article on Wikipedia re CP
"To transport immigrants, Canadian Pacific developed a fleet of over a thousand Colonist cars, low-budget sleeper cars designed to transport immigrant families from eastern Canadian seaports to the west"

DB

[Darnity]

Thank you so much for this further information.

I had wondered about the possibility of them purchasing a "package" so that looks very likely.

Will see if any of their descendants have any family stories about the journeys.

This all helps to give me a better picture of the lives of MJ and MK.

Thanks again

[dbree]

You're welcome. 

The Empress of Ireland had a very tragic ending. It sank in 1914, over 1,000 perished, and
was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland

DB

[Darnity]

The Empress of Ireland had a very tragic ending. It sank in 1914, over 1,000 perished, and
was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland

Yes, a very sad end to the vessel, and those onboard that day.

The Ontario Genealogical Society's Scottish special interest group are having a talk over zoom on 31st May about the Empress: https://scottishsig.ogs.on.ca/calendar/empress-of-ireland/