Remnants of The Hamilton Radial Electric Railway

Relatively safe exploration, the underpass is used by undesirable people that you should be careful of and there is plenty of sharp broken glass and jagged rusted metal throughout that can cut you. Be cautious of where you step.

The Hamilton Radial Electric Railway was first announced on September 20, 1892. The originally announced plan was to run electric lines from Hamilton to Mount Forest (via Waterdown, Guelph, Fergus and Arthur) Elmira (via Dundas, Galt, Preston, Waterloo and St. Jacobs), Brantford (via Ancaster), Dunville and/or Welland, and Oakville (via the Beach and Burlington)

The Hamilton Radial Electric Railway was formally chartered as the Hamilton Radial Electric Street Railway on May 27, 1893. As part of its charter the HRESR was granted permission to build a line between Hamilton & Guelph, but had changed its mind and now refused to go via Waterdown due to construction costs. With two nearly identical lines that would have run parallel to each other for large distances, neither would have been profitable. Discussions on merging the HRESR and the HW&G began in May 1893. While negotiations were underway each company also attempted to secure financing to build their line, but the Panic of 1893 made investors cautious, and both projects went nowhere.

At its request, the charter of the Hamilton Radial Electric Street Railway was modified on May 5, 1894 by the Ontario government. In mid October of 1894 a group of New England based investors lead by W. F. Forsyth of Boston gained control of the HRER. The HRER's proposed railway system was subsequently changed. The mainlines would be steam powered instead of electric, running Toronto-Hamilton-Niagara Falls and Hamilton-Woodstock, with electric branches running to Port Dover via Brantford, to Fergus via Guelph and to Waterloo via Galt. A steamship line would connect Port Dover to Erie, Pennsylvania. Shortly after the HW&G fell under the control of the HRER.

On October 27 1894 the HRER joined forces with the Niagara Central Railway, a steam powered railway line running between Niagara Falls and St Catharines. Surveys began immediately for the extension of the NCR to Hamilton, and by November 21 a preliminary route had been decided running though Hamilton from St. Catharines to Guelph. The line would enter Hamilton along Cannon St, with a downtown station at James & Cannon. West of James the line would run along Cannon to Bay, then head northwest roughly parallel to York St, entering the Dundurn Castle grounds at the north end of Inchbury. It would continue northwards along the bay side of Burlington Heights, crossing the Desjardin Canal and continuing towards Waterdown and Guelph. Maintenance facilities would be built to the east of Sherman Ave.

However opposition by Cannon Street residents would result in the proposed line being shifted southwards, running parallel to Cannon and partly along Evans Street. Waterdown residents had the opposite problem: the railroad surveyors had been unable to find a reasonably cheap route between Hamilton and Guelph that went through Waterdown, and so had skipped the town altogether and proposed a spur line connecting Waterdown to the Hamilton-Guelph line near Rock Chapel.

Due to construction issues and bureaucracy, throughout the summer of 1895, the HRER remained in limbo as it had for much of the preceding winter and spring. In September it was rumoured that the large 300 km steam and electric railway project had been abandoned, and that the HRER would revert back to its original 1892 proposal. The first phase of this project would be similar to the previous steam route, a double tracked electric line running between Niagara and St. Catharines, (the existing NCR would be electrified) and would enter Hamilton along Cannon St. The Hamilton-Toronto line would run along Sherman Ave, accessing the industries along the Hamilton waterfront, then around the Harbour to the east, across the beach strip, and then on to Toronto.

Apparently the HRER was actually in serious trouble at this point, because on December 27 the furniture in its office in the Bank of Commerce building was seized for unpaid rent and services. The goods were auctioned off on January 4, 1896, the same day that W. F. Forsyth was relieved of his duties.

Nothing was written about the HRER's rebirth during the first months of 1896, an indication that the company had sunk so low in its fortunes that none of the Hamilton area newspapers considered it worth following. At the start of March 1896 the HRER began making applications to townships and towns to build the first section of the previously discussed Toronto to Hamilton line. For reasons unknown, the original plan of using Cannon St as the entry into the city had fallen out of favour. Instead, the HRER planned to run from James & Gore via Gore, Wilson, and Sherman to the city limits, then eastwards along the baseline road allowance (today's Burlington St) and the Grand Trunk Railway's main line before curving northwards on a long low trestle across Windemere basin. Then travelling along the road along the beach, crossing the canal via the Federal Government's then still under construction canal swing bridge, and then on to Burlington. Some other small changes would be made to the route.

Final surveying of the route began on March 27, 1896. Grading of the line began on April 28 near the Hamilton smelting works, near the present day intersection of Sherman & Burlington, and had reached the canal by May 13. Due to delays in shipping of rails and ties and last minute changes to the placement of rails on various roadways, tracklaying began on June 3 next to the Canal. By June 13 the tracks had reached the new completed trestle across Windemere basin, and the tracks had reached the city limits near Sherman & Burlington on June 18. Construction on Sherman avenue began on June 25, and trackwork had reached Wilson St by July 9. Running along Wilson the trackwork had reached Emerald St on July 17 and Mary St on July 25.

The HRER powerhouse was built at the northern end of the beach strip, half a mile from the Brant hotel (where the current Joseph Brant Hospital is). Measuring 103 x 53 ft, the brick building had a 120 ft smokestack, with two 250 hp engines. Construction of the building began in early May. Goldie & McCullough in Galt was in charge of the construction of the boilers and the steam engines, and the generators were built by General Electric in Peterborough. The boilers arrived on June 6, and the steam engines to run the generators arrived in mid June. The electrical equipment was functional by mid August, and testing was completed a week later.

On July 4, the HRER rented a storefront on the southeast corner of James & Gore to act as their Hamilton station. Two carhouses were built in late August, one at Gore & Mary and one beside the powerhouse. Four radial cars arrived on September 3 from Patterson & Corbin in St. Catharines.

Construction began on Gore St on August 4, but here the HRER ran into trouble. The Hamilton city engineer refused to permit the crews to work on Gore St until Wilson St was returned to its proper shape after the construction. The work crews went ahead anyway, and track work was completed to James on August 6. Crews then began to return Wilson St to its former shape. The new swing bridge over the canal was operational by August 18th. Track was laid across it immediately, and the trackwork reached the powerhouse on August 22. The final trackwork was the installation of track diamonds crossings at the HSR tracks at Barton & Sherman and at the GTR tracks on Sherman and on Ferguson, finishing on September 4.

The first trip over the HRER was made by the board of directors and their families on HRER #20 on the morning of September 7, 1896, running from the powerhouse to the Hamilton station. The return trip was marred by a piece of equipment that jammed the truck of the car, making it impossible to make the tight turn onto the wye behind the station, and forcing the car to run backwards back to the powerhouse. Quick repairs were made, and the car returned to Hamilton without incident. Full service between Hamilton and the powerhouse started the next day.

The HRER had a near disaster on its third day of operations, September 10, when a radial car full of YWCA delegates bound for the Hamilton Yacht club on the beach strip collided head on with a Hamilton bound car near present day Ottawa St. Driver error was to blame, the Hamilton bound motorman did not wait at the proper siding. Fortunately for all involved the collision was at low speed, and injuries were few and minor.

Construction continued through the fall, and by November 9 service had been extended northwards from the powerhouse to the Hotel Brant, but further extension northward was halted pending the passage of a bylaw by the village of Burlington, as well as opposition from the Grand Trunk Railway for a level crossing with the GTR's line along the beach. Negotiations with both groups required several months to come to an agreement.

Construction of the HRER into Burlington began in the fall of 1897 along Maple, Elgin, John and James, and service to Burlington began in early January 1898. The GTR began construction of the new bridges that the HRER would pass under on April 4, 1898. Grading work on Birch Ave by the HRER began on June 11 and was finished by June 24. Track laying began shortly after, and service over the new tracks began on July 29. The tracks on Sherman and on Wilson East of Birch were removed in the next few weeks, the shortest-lived part of any radial line in Canada, less than 23 months.

HRER #10 was destroyed on March 13 1899 when the carhouse next to the powerhouse burned down. The HRER came under the control of the Cataract Comapany on May 26, 1899. The Cataract Company also purchased the Hamilton & Dundas Street Railway (H & D), which began using the HRER station at James & Gore as their downtown Hamilton terminus on December 1 1899.

In 1903 the HRER proposed to build east to Oakville, where it was hoped it would meet the Toronto & York, building west out of Port Credit. While the T&Y never built westwards, the HRER did construct their Oakville line. Running parallel to New St as far as Bronte, it then paralleled Rebecca to the terminal station at Randall & Thomas in Oakville. As part of the line, two large bridges were built over Twelve Mile and Sixteen Mile Creek. Restricted service began on March 3, 1906, with full service starting on May 5.

To provide service to new plants and factories along the Hamilton waterfront, the HSR struck a deal with the HRER in 1904. The HSR built a track parallel to the HRER's route along Birch Ave and Burlington, in effect double-tracking the route and allowing the HRER to increase its service and the HSR streetcars to reach the waterfront industries. This is the extension which I believe is what I photographed. The tracks instead of ending just at Leslie Rd would have continued down to the beach and then followed the Waterfront Trail down towards the lift bridge and then towards Hamilton. The tracks that extended further towards the main CN lines is still the same ones that was the Radial Railway I believe.

Minor construction, straightening, and double tracking took place over the next decade. In 1913 the HSR tracks on Burlington were connected to the HRER near the Deering Works, and streetcars began using the line as far as Kenilworth. The years during the First World War were the busiest for the HRER, as Hamiltonians used the radial to get to Hamilton Beach in the summer. During the winter of 1921-1922 the swing bridge over the Burlington Ship Canal was replaced with a large bascule bridge. This construction split the HRER into two pieces for several weeks. In May of 1924 the radial tracks on Birch Ave were removed and a new private right of way was built along the west side of Birch Ave.

On August 3, 1925, the HRER was abandoned between Oakville and Port Nelson (today’s Guelph Line). In October of that year, service was integrated with the B&H, making it possible to travel from Burlington to Brantford on a single ticket. However, this could not save the HRER. In 1927 the main line was abandoned from Burlington to Port Nelson, and the Bartonville branch was transferred to the HSR. The rest of the HRER stopped running on January 5, 1929. All tracks west of Kenilworth passed to the HSR, while the remaining tracks were torn up over the next 15 years. When the last of the tracks were removed off of the Burlington Canal Bridge in 1946, the decrease in weight resulted in it becoming unbalanced, so that when the bridge was next raised, it refused to come down! It was finally lowered by hand, and the weights were changed to rebalance the bridge. This abandonment of the Radial Railway is due to the growing popularity of the automobile of this time. In 1918 the railway company showed its first loss, a trend that continued until 1927. By 1929 the whole line was closed. This then probably lead to most of the old tracks getting torn up and discarded in the coming years, all of the waterfront and downtown tracks were destroyed except for the tracks that you see today. I am pretty sure that ownership and use of these tracks were routed to the CN Railway which is why that CN lock is on the rail interchange, the more northern tracks were probably still in use by the surrounding factories until a little while ago it looks like.