QUOTE: …. not like Tom I'm glad that you have joined our little band of rabid train guys.
QUOTE: Originally posted by pwolfe Good post on the Broadway Limited P. Do you know when the GG1s stopped working the service [?].
QUOTE: Originally posted by trolleyboy Hello again. Here is the first installment of the lesser known radial lines. classic juice #4 The Brantford and Hamilton B&H The B&H ws one of the smallar interurban's or radial lines built in Ontario. As the name would suggest they conected the city of Hamilton to the City of Brantford approx a 30 mile run.It was first proposed in 1896 as the Hamilton Chedoke& ancaster Railway. The federal govt guarranteed a $15,000 subsidy once the railway made it to Ancaster. Anyone familiar with this part of Southern Ontario will know that this line would fight up grade and cross the top of the Niagara escarpment. despite the promissed fed funds no work was started. In 1900 the line came under the control of the Haines bros of New york who were putting together radial lines conecting Niagara- Hamilton-Brantford.They changed the name to the Hamilton Ancaster and Brantford and by early 1904 they had aquired most of the ROW.They ran into problems with money on their american lines in NY state and lost their interest in the Hamilton line and the Niagara St Catharines and Toronto which they owned at the time.( This is why the NS&T never reached toronto by rail )They sold their interest to the Von Echa company in 1904 and by 1906 they started to build the line now known as the Hamilton and Brantford. Grading began in july of '06and the line was built to high standards ala the L&PS.A short piece of street track from the Hamilton terminal station followed a ledge cut into the face of the escarpment, and ran on a long continuous 21/2% grade up to Ancaster 600kw substations were built for traction power at Ancaster langford,and Murray street in Brantford. Each building had two 300kw gens with room to add one more for future expansion. Power was brought in from the Decew falls hydro plant.The line was opened to ancaster ion Dec 21 1907,and to Brantford in may of 1908. The initial runs to Brantford ended until a crossing of the Grand trunk line in the city was constructed. Other than two short street lines into Brantfords market street Union station and the short stretch in Hamilton outside of terminal station the B&H ran on entirly private ROW. Total cost of the line was estimated at $800,000.Between 1911 and 16 they looked at expanding to Galt and Preston but this line extension was never built. Instead interline tickets were sold for conections with the Lake Erie and Northern Radial and the Grand River Railway. They also sold tickets in conjunction with the Hamilton steamboat company so passengers could connect to Toronto. The interchaange with the LE&N ws interesting in that the LE&N ran on 1500v. Therfore the market street stations power could be switched over from 600 to 1500 to accomadate both lines cars. This resulted in a 35 min layover for B&H cars which had to lower their poles while the LE&N was using the station.Light frieght and express mail was also carried but the B&H after the war fare increases were required to make up for revenue losses. In 1925 the B&H ws almalgamate dinto the Hamilton Radial railway so cars would run through from Burlington and Stoney creek. This also brought busses into the picture. In 1930 Dominion power the overall owner sold their bus and rail lines so abandonement occured in 1932. To show the lines viability ( most people beleved the B&H could have run anothetr 15 or 20 years } Their first year 1908 they moved 247,200 passengers there was an upward trend until the peak in 1920 of 836,100 fares. after which the numbers dropped in half on average.In 1929 thought with the bus lines fares went back up to just over 800,000.,but in 1930 that dropped to 228,300. The line ran with a dozen cars built by kulhman ( brill ) these were wooden monitor roofed railway style cars dt de The designed speed was 50mph Non-stop test runs covered the thirty mile line in 37 minutes! not bad for 1908! 6 express motors built by ottawa 3 cars and preston 3 cars these rounded out the fleet. In the last 4 years of operation most of the Dominion powers cars could be seen on the B&H. Of a non important note my house is about 500 yards from the old Grand river barge canal in Brantford. The canal bank carried the private ROW of the B&H!
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter