Overview | |
---|---|
Service type | Inter-city rail |
Status | Defunct |
Locale | Newfoundland |
Predecessor | Overland Limited (until 1949) |
Last service | June 1969 |
Former operator(s) | Newfoundland Railway (1898–1949) Canadian National Railway (1950–June 1969) |
Route | |
Termini | St. John's Port aux Basques |
Distance travelled | 883 kilometres (549 mi) |
Average journey time | 23 hours |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) |
Track owner(s) | CN & Newfoundland T'Railway |
The Caribou, colloquially referred to as The Newfie Bullet, was a passenger train operated by Canadian National Railways (CNR) on the island of Newfoundland. [1]
The Dominion of Newfoundland became the 10th province of Canada when it entered Confederation on March 31, 1949. At that time, CNR took over the operations of the Newfoundland Railway, a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge railway network running across the island.
At the time that CNR took over operations, the premiere cross-island passenger train was called The Overland Limited. CNR renamed this train in 1950 to the Caribou and it maintained approximately the same 23-hour schedule from St. John's (also the eastern terminus of the railway on Newfoundland), to the system's western terminus at the ferry terminal in Port aux Basques, where connecting ferry services to the North American railway network at North Sydney, Nova Scotia, were made.
The 23 hour schedule sealed the fate of the Caribou when the Trans-Canada Highway opened across the island in 1965, allowing automobiles to travel between Port aux Basques and St. John's in under 12 hours. CN withdrew the dedicated passenger trains in July 1969 and instituted a bus service, marketed under the name "Road Cruiser." [2] CN maintained limited "mixed" passenger and freight train service to certain isolated communities on the island until the complete abandonment of its narrow gauge system in the fall of 1988. The CN Roadcruiser Bus service operated until March 29, 1996, when it was sold to DRL Coachlines of Triton, Newfoundland.
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
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Channel-Port aux Basques is a town at the extreme southwestern tip of Newfoundland fronting on the western end of the Cabot Strait. A Marine Atlantic ferry terminal is located in the town which is the primary entry point onto the island of Newfoundland and the western terminus of the Newfoundland and Labrador Route 1 in the province. The town was incorporated in 1945 and its population in the 2021 census was 3,547.
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SS Caribou was a Newfoundland Railway passenger ferry that ran between Port aux Basques, in the Dominion of Newfoundland, and North Sydney, Nova Scotia between 1928 and 1942. During the Battle of the St. Lawrence the ferry participated in thrice-weekly convoys between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. A German submarine attacked the convoy on 14 October 1942 and Caribou was sunk. She had women and children on board, and many of them were among the 137 who died. Her sinking, and large death toll, made it clear that the war had really arrived on Canada's and Newfoundland's home front. Her sinking is cited by many historians as the most significant sinking in Canadian-controlled waters during the Second World War.
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