Sudbury and Copper Cliff Suburban Electric Railway

Last updated

Sudbury and Copper Cliff Suburban Electric Railway
Sudbury streetcars by the Balmoral.jpg
SCCSER cars follow the Elm Street running past the Balmoral Hotel, as seen in 1948.
Operation
Locale Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Open11 November 1915
Close1 October 1950
StatusClosed
Lines 3
Owner(s) Desmarais family
Infrastructure
Propulsion system(s)Electricity
Depot(s)Northwest corner of St. Charles Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue [1]
Statistics
Route length 6 miles (9.7 km) [2]

The Sudbury and Copper Cliff Suburban Electric Railway was a privately-owned electric interurban railway and streetcar system that connected several neighbourhoods in the town (and later city) of Sudbury, along with what was then the town of Copper Cliff in Ontario, Canada. Incorporated in 1912, [3] the company began revenue passenger service in November 1915. [2] It ultimately grew into a system of three radial lines which joined together in downtown Sudbury. [2] By the late 1940s, however, rail service was being supplemented with diesel buses. Rail service ended in October 1950 and was completely replaced with bus service, which over time evolved into municipal Sudbury Transit and later GOVA services. [3]

Contents

History

The early history of the railway was coloured by concerns about Copper Cliff becoming a suburb of Sudbury. An earlier 1906 plan for a Sudbury, Copper Cliff, and Creighton Electric Railway that would have connected the two centres with the now-abandoned mining town of Creighton had been discarded after heavy opposition from Copper Cliff merchants, who feared the decline of the town's commercial core due to competition with Sudbury, which had over six times as many businesses. The same merchants also opposed the new plan, but were overruled by a vote by Copper Cliff ratepayers. [4]

Early on, the railway company was run by Noël Desmarais, a local Franco-Ontarian businessman and grandfather of the financier Paul Desmarais, who later owned and managed the company. [5] [6] It began operations in 1912 with a single car that was borrowed from the Toronto Suburban Railway. The car was never returned and operated on the SCCSER until the early 1930s when it was sold for scrap. Service was only provided to Copper Cliff initially, with the lines on Notre Dame and Elgin opening shortly afterwards. The railway received electric power through the Wahnapitae Power Company, which was privately owned until it was acquired by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario in 1930. [7]

The railway received a major boost in ridership by the decision of the Canadian Copper Company, after the instating of the eight-hour day, to limit the growth of Copper Cliff in favour of a workforce that commuted from Sudbury. [8] It was also around this time that the small constellation of informal industrial villages such as East Smelter, Orford Village, and Shantytown disappeared or were consolidated into the urban centre of Copper Cliff. [9] [10] [11] In Sudbury, the population of certain ethnic groups, such as Finns, began to grow, as immigrant mine and smelter workers could now live in Sudbury and commute to work at the industrial operations around Copper Cliff. [8] At the time, the Sudbury Star reported that while in 1915, only about twenty workers commuted from Sudbury to Copper Cliff, a year later that number had risen to more than two hundred. [12] On the far west end of Sudbury, the area around the Copper Cliff Road (later known as Lorne Street), which was also the route of the railway and which had previously been the site of the Gatchell family farm and dairy, was gradually subdivided and became the site of Sudbury's "first real suburban development." [13] Gatchell became a predominantly Italian neighbourhood, one which mirrored Copper Cliff's Little Italy. [14] Similarly, the West End neighbourhood grew extensively around this time along the Copper Cliff Road and Regent Street corridors. [15]

The railway company was not initially very financially successful, and was unable to pay dividends to its shareholders. In 1920, shareholders proposed that the town of Sudbury buy them out, which failed in a 4–2 town council vote. [12] By 1928, an audit of the town's finances recommended that the town form a reserve in case the railway's debts to the town, which dated back to 1916, were realized as a loss. [16]

In 1943, the workers at the railway unionized, [17] but by then its time was nearly over as the SCCSER began buying buses in 1947. The line to Bell Park was the first to close in 1948 with the two other lines ceasing service in 1950. The SCCSER rolling stock sat at the carhouse for more than two years, finally being cut up for scrap in 1953. The SCCSER was reorganized in 1951 and renamed Sudbury Bus Lines Limited. Shortly after, it was purchased for a symbolic $1 by the financier Paul Desmarais, who used it as a platform for buying up a number of bus lines throughout Ontario, allowing him to launch his business empire. [18] Bus operations would continue under the new name until 1966, when the company ceased operations and was replaced by Laurentian Transit, which was a consortium of local private bus companies. It in turn was supplanted by Sudbury Transit in 1972, the direct predecessor to the current GOVA municipal transit agency. [3]

Routes

The SCCSER had three main routes radiating from Elm Street in downtown Sudbury.

Western line

The westerly (and busiest) route ran a short distance from the Elm/Durham intersection to Lorne Street, where it turned south and entered dedicated trackage along the east side of the road. After about 100 metres (330 ft), the streetcar line and the road angled southwest, running parallel to the Canadian Pacific Railway's Webbwood Subdivision. At Gatchell, the streetcar line split into two tracks opposite Tuddenham Street to facilitate the passing of cars in rush hour. The line, once again single-track, then continued southwest, passing underneath the INCO railway via a specially-constructed underpass to a junction near Balsam Street in Copper Cliff, where it met the shuttle to the Inco refinery a short distance away. The line then angled northwest and ended at the two-track station near downtown Copper Cliff. It operated right up until the end of rail service in 1950. In addition to this service there was also a short-turn service that ended at Gatchell during peak hours.

Northern line

The northerly route ran from a wye at the Elm/Durham intersection to the SCCSER carhouse at St. Charles Street. This line was entirely single-track and operated for a short distance in the middle of Notre Dame Avenue before entering its own right-of-way on the east side of the road parallel to the CP Stobie Spur. This line operated right up until the end of service in 1950, but had been replaced by buses during peak periods in its last months of operation to clear the line for cars deadheading to and from the carhouse.

Eastern line

The easterly line ran east in the middle of Elm Street for approximately 75 metres (246 ft) before turning south on Lisgar Street, west on Cedar Street, and south again on Durham Street. This odd arrangement was rumoured to have existed to ensure the carline's passage by a liquor store owned by a controlling interest in the SCCSER, but was more likely done to avoid crossing the CP Stobie Spur twice. Coming to the end of the trackage on Durham, the line entered a private right of way on the south side of Elgin Street and angled southeast parallel to the CP mainline through downtown. Passing the downtown Sudbury CP station at Van Horne, the line turned south across the Nelson Street "Iron" bridge (which was repurposed into a pedestrian bridge and is still used as such today [19] ) and continued in the middle of Nelson Street to John Street, turning east and running one block to Elizabeth Street, where it turned south once again and ran down the middle of Elizabeth to Bell Park on the shore of Ramsey Lake. This line was also entirely single-track and ceased service in 1948 after the tracks on Lisgar Street were accidentally paved over by a contractor doing road repairs there.

The SCCSER today

A remnant of the railway's eastern line embedded into Lisgar Street at Elm Street. CopperCliffRailwayRemnant.jpg
A remnant of the railway's eastern line embedded into Lisgar Street at Elm Street.

Today the SCCSER has all but vanished. None of the streetcar equipment was ever retained for preservation. The streetcar alignments on Lorne and Notre Dame have since been obliterated by road-widening projects and all track was removed from city streets. Traces of the right-of-way near Copper Cliff, including the INCO railway underpass are purported to exist, however they could not be found on any satellite photographs of the area.

A fare box used on the railway has survived and is preserved as an artifact at the Flour Mill Museum in the same neighbourhood where the original car barns were located. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Electric</span> Southern California transit company

The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Sudbury City Council</span>

Greater Sudbury City Council is the governing body of the City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto Railway Company</span> Streetcar operator in Toronto, Canada, between 1891 and 1921

The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. The TRC was also a manufacturer of streetcars and rail work vehicles, a few of which were built for other streetcar and radial operators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto and York Radial Railway</span> Electric interurban railway in Toronto, Canada

The Toronto and York Radial Railway was a transit operator providing services to the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a subsidiary of the Toronto Railway Company. The company was created by merging four Toronto-area interurban operations. The company was part of the empire of railway entrepreneurs Sir William Mackenzie and Donald Mann which included the Canadian Northern Railway and the parent Toronto Railway Company. The line was abandoned by the TTC in 1948.

The Toronto Suburban Railway was a Canadian electric railway operator with local routes in west Toronto, and a radial (interurban) route to Guelph.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto Civic Railways</span> Streetcar operator in Toronto, Canada, from 1912 to 1921

Toronto Civic Railways (TCR) was a streetcar operator created and owned by the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to serve newly annexed areas of the city that the private operator Toronto Railway Company refused to serve. When the Toronto Railway Company's franchise expired in 1921, its services were combined with those of the Toronto Civic Railways, and are now assumed by the new Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC). The first route of the TCR started operation on December 18, 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan line (Toronto)</span> Toronto railway electric radial line

The Metropolitan line in the Toronto area, operated by the Metropolitan Street Railway, started out as a local horsecar line and transformed itself into an electric radial line extending to Lake Simcoe, following an old stage coach route. In 1904, the railway was acquired by the Toronto and York Radial Railway (T&YRR) and became the T&YRR Metropolitan Division. In 1922, the City of Toronto acquired the T&YRR and contracted Ontario Hydro to manage the four T&YRR lines including the Metropolitan. In 1927, the TTC took over the operation of the Metropolitan Line to Sutton, and renamed it the Lake Simcoe line. In 1930, the TTC closed the Metropolitan Line but shortly reopened the portion between Glen Echo and Richmond Hill operating it as the North Yonge Railways until 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Yonge Railways</span>

The North Yonge Railways was a radial railway line operated by the Toronto Transportation Commission from 1930 to 1948 between Glen Echo (Toronto) and Richmond Hill. The line was created by reopening the southern portion of the TTC's Lake Simcoe radial line that had closed in 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto streetcar system</span> Streetcar network in Ontario, Canada

The Toronto streetcar system is a network of eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is the third busiest light-rail system in North America. The network is concentrated primarily in Downtown Toronto and in proximity to the city's waterfront. Much of the streetcar route network dates from the 19th century. Three streetcar routes operate in their own right-of-way, one in a partial right-of-way, and six operate on street trackage shared with vehicular traffic with streetcars stopping on demand at frequent stops like buses. Since 2019, the network has used low-floor streetcars, making it fully accessible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York State Railways</span>

New York State Railways was a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad that controlled several large city streetcar and electric interurban systems in upstate New York. It included the city transit lines in Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Oneida and Rome, plus various interurban lines connecting those cities. New York State Railways also held a 50% interest in the Schenectady Railway Company, but it remained a separate independent operation. The New York Central took control of the Rochester Railway Company, the Rochester and Eastern Rapid Railway and the Rochester and Sodus Bay Railway in 1905, and the Mohawk Valley Company was formed by the railroad to manage these new acquisitions. New York State Railways was formed in 1909 when the properties controlled by the Mohawk Valley Company were merged. In 1912 it added the Rochester and Suburban Railway, the Syracuse Rapid Transit Railway, the Oneida Railway, and the Utica and Mohawk Valley Railway. The New York Central Railroad was interested in acquiring these lines in an effort to control the competition and to gain control of the lucrative electric utility companies that were behind many of these streetcar and interurban railways. Ridership across the system dropped through the 1920s as operating costs continued to rise, coupled with competition from better highways and private automobile use. New York Central sold New York State Railways in 1928 to a consortium led by investor E. L. Phillips, who was looking to gain control of the upstate utilities. Phillips sold his stake to Associated Gas & Electric in 1929, and the new owners allowed the railway bonds to default. New York State Railways entered receivership on December 30, 1929. The company emerged from receivership in 1934, and local operations were sold off to new private operators between 1938 and 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transit Windsor</span> Public transit operator in Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Transit Windsor provides public transportation in the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada as well as LaSalle, Essex, Kingsville, Amherstburg and Leamington and serves more than 6 million passengers each year, covering an area of 310 km2 (120 sq mi) and a population of 235,000. They operate a cross border service between the downtown areas of Windsor and Detroit, Michigan via the Tunnel Bus, and service to events at Detroit's Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, Huntington Place, and Ford Field. The Windsor International Transit Terminal neighbours with the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GOVA</span> Public transit agency in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

GOVA, formerly known as Greater Sudbury Transit, is a public transport authority that is responsible for serving bus routes in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and area. The network is the largest in Northern Ontario, comprising 41 routes operating between the hours of 5:00am to 10:00pm for regular service and from 10:00pm to 2:00am for night service. Due to the increase in ridership the service has been approved for articulating buses primarily used for the largest routes and during rush-hour times. The annual ridership for the year of 2014 was recorded at 5 million passengers at an estimate of 16,000 daily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company</span> Former railcar company in Toronto

Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company was established in August 1892 to provide street railway service to the Upper Beaches district within the City of Toronto, Ontario and to the neighbouring Township of Scarborough. Except for two branches, the line ran as a radial along Kingston Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urban neighbourhoods of Sudbury</span> Former city in Ontario, Canada

This is a list of neighbourhoods in the urban core of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. This list includes only those neighbourhoods that fall within the pre-2001 city limits of Sudbury — for communities within the former suburban municipalities, see the articles Capreol, Nickel Centre, Onaping Falls, Rayside-Balfour, Valley East and Walden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation in metropolitan Detroit</span>

Transportation in metropolitan Detroit comprises an expansive system of roadways, multiple public transit systems, a major international airport, freight railroads, and ports. Located on the Detroit River along the Great Lakes Waterway, Detroit is a significant city in international trade, with two land crossings to Canada. Three primary Interstate highways serve the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roncesvalles Carhouse</span> Storage and maintenance facility for streetcars in Toronto, Canada

The Roncesvalles Carhouse is a storage and maintenance facility for the streetcar network of the Toronto Transit Commission. Located at the northwest corner of the Queensway and Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, west of its downtown core, it is the oldest of the TTC's three active carhouses. The carhouse serves vehicles on routes 501 Queen, 504 King, 505 Dundas, 506 Carlton, 511 Bathurst, and 512 St. Clair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vale Railway</span> Industrial railway in Ontario, Canada

The Vale Railway, formerly the INCO Railway, is an industrial railway operating in the City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and operated by Vale Limited.

The economy of Greater Sudbury, Ontario was dominated by the mining industry for much of the city's history. In recent decades, however, the city has diversified to establish itself as an emerging centre in a variety of industries, including finance, business, tourism, health care, education, government, film and television production, and science and technology research. Many of these industries reflect the city's position as a regional service centre for Northeastern Ontario.

O'Donnell is a ghost town and former industrial area inside the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, which today is located on property owned by Vale Limited. It was located along the Algoma Eastern Railway line between two mine sites, Crean Hill and Gertrude. It functioned as a brief offshoot of the nearest major settlement along the line, the Inco company town of Copper Cliff, which today is a suburb of Sudbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto-gauge railways</span> Railway track gauge (1495 mm)

Toronto-gauge railways are tram and rapid transit lines built to Toronto gauge, a broad gauge of 4 ft 10+7⁄8 in. This is 2+3⁄8 in (60 mm) wider than standard gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in which is by far the most common track gauge in Canada. The gauge is unique to the Greater Toronto Area and is currently used on the Toronto streetcar system and the Toronto subway, both operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. As well, the Halton County Radial Railway, a transport museum, uses the Toronto gauge so its rail line can accommodate its collection of Toronto streetcars and subway trains. Several now-defunct interurban rail systems also once used this gauge.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "History Hikes: Flour Mill" (PDF). Rainbow Routes. Rainbow Routes Association. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Murphy, M. Peter (September–October 2009). "Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Abandonment of Electric Street Car and Interurban Service in Many of Canada's Cities". Canadian Rail . Canadian Railroad Historical Association.
  3. 1 2 3 Wyatt, David A. "All-Time List of Canadian Transit Systems: Greater Sudbury, Ontario" . Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  4. ↑ Wallace & Thomson 1993.
  5. ↑ Newman 2014.
  6. ↑ Arnopoulos 1982.
  7. ↑ Saarinen 2013.
  8. 1 2 Saarinen 1999.
  9. ↑ "East Smelter & Johnson Extension". Copper Cliff Notes. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "Orford Village". Copper Cliff Notes. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  11. ↑ "Shantytown". Copper Cliff Notes. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  12. 1 2 Wallace & Thomson 1993, p. 96.
  13. ↑ Saarinen 2013, p. 89.
  14. ↑ Saarinen 2013, p. 90.
  15. ↑ Saarinen 2013, p. 93.
  16. ↑ Financial Statements of the Corporation of the Town of Sudbury, Ontario and Annual Report of Auditors (PDF). Archives Association of Ontario (Report). 1928. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  17. ↑ "A Brief History of Unions in Sudbury". RepublicOfMining.com. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  18. ↑ "Paul Desmarais". City of Montreal. December 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  19. ↑ Keowne, Mary Katharine (26 September 2013). "Inco retiree reflects on past days of riding the 'rails' in Sudbury". The Sudbury Star . Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  20. ↑ "Flour Mill Museum". Greater Sudbury Public Library. Retrieved 17 February 2020.

Bibliography

Further reading

davesrailpix.com's server IP address could not be found.

davesrailpix.com's server IP address could not be found.

davesrailpix.com's server IP address could not be found.

davesrailpix.com's server IP address could not be found. at 1900 15 Nov 2018

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.