26 August 2009
An Engine for Growth
Kingston Ontario - The steam forge hammer slammed
down on thick iron with thunderous booms in the industrial workshops. Furnace boilers produced power for the tools that created the
steady rhythm of production. The pneumatic riveters, drills, milling machines, and lathes hummed the background notes, and the
overhead cranes danced to the melody.
Raw materials purchased locally and from afar entered the doors of the Canadian Locomotive Company at one end. Massive locomotives,
boxcars, freight cars, equipment, and engines of all sorts came out the other. From the early 1850s until he 1960s, Kingston's
waterfront was alive in a vibrant industrial symphony.
The train was the magnificent engine of transportation in the 19th century. Locomotives were purchased from overseas to haul people
and freight on tracks that were spreading across the North American continent.
Opened in 1838 by local businessman and future mayor of Kingston John Counter and his company superintendent, John Honeyman, the
Kingston Marine Railway was prepared to assist with a variety of transportation needs. Shortly after, Counter opened the Ontario
Foundry and Locomotive Works, a ship repair business, and warehouses. When Counter ran into money troubles,
engine-builder Francis Tutton took over for the new owner, James Morton, moving the business into locomotive construction
in 1854. (The first Canadian-built locomotive was built in Toronto the year before.)
The Ontario Foundry and Locomotive Works constructed four locomotives in the first year of operation and delivered steam engines to
the Grand Trunk Railway for service in 1856. The Grand Trunk Railway was expanding its lines, including building a branch into
Kingston's waterfront at the Inner Station - the Kingston and Pembroke Railway station across from City Hall. At the end of 1864, a
switch was built to the foundry for easy access to the main rail lines. Locomotives were then set directly onto the solid rails at the
foundry, rather than undergoing the time-consuming process of placing temporary tracks along the streets and inching the
heavy locomotives to the main railway.
In the meantime, the Ontario Foundry and Locomotive Works slipped into financial difficulties. In 1864, it resurfaced as the
incorporated Canadian Engine and Machine Company. Unofficially known to locals as the Kingston Locomotive Works, the foundry industry
an unstable course for several decades. Taking on a variety of projects, the company still manufactured locomotives and filled orders
for more than 1,200 boxcars for Canadian and American railways and a number of train snowplows.
Changing owners again, and moving the Kingston offices to Montreal, the Canadian Engine and Machine Company reorganized so that the
locomotive works had a construction capacity of 50 locomotives over a year's time. Fifteen steam engines were sold to the
Intercolonial Railway of the Maritimes in 1872 for the reasonable price of $12,500 each.
The waterfront factory yard was packed with buildings and workshops in 1874: the blazing-hot foundry, where tons of
metal were melted and formed into the train engine's barrel-shaped boilers; the smithy's shop, in which axles and huge,
heavy wheels were smoothed and joined together using hydraulic equipment; the machine shop, a two-storey building with
lathes and planing machinery; and a finishing and paint shop with space to accommodate five locomotives at once. A smaller storage
building held supplies of iron and spare parts. The company was Kingston's largest employer, with several hundred men labouring at the
locomotive-builder.
Orders for locomotives dropped in the late 1870s, forcing the Canadian Engine and Machine Company into bankruptcy. A group of Kingston
entrepreneurs came to the rescue, installing William Harty as head. Injecting fresh life into the locomotive works, new buildings, and
equipment were added and the head office was brought back to town. The Scottish firm Dubs and Company invested in the struggling
company in 1887. Harty stepped down, moving on to other interests, including the dynamic federal political arena.
Already in the business of building steam locomotives, Dubs and Company was able to provide the Kingston company with new engine
designs credited as sturdy and reliable. Competition in engine construction evaporated, making the Canadian Engine and Machine Company
the only private Canadian manufacturer of locomotives between 1887 and 1904. (The large railway companies, such as Canadian Pacific
and Intercontinental, operate their own locomotive works.) A strike and persistent problems with finances caused Dubs and Company to
declare bankruptcy. The Canadian Engine and Machine Company closed in late 1900.
In 1901, the locomotive works rose from the ashes. William Harty rode to the rescue for a second time with several investors, paying
$60,000 to liquidators for the insolvent firm. Renamed the Canadian Locomotive Company, the Kingston works was back in business.
The Canadian Locomotive Company met progress head on, building larger, more powerful locomotives to fill changing transportation
requirements. Retooling, the company built electric engines and then diesel locomotives along with the trusty steam models. During the
two world wars, the factory was enlisted by the Canadian government to produce shells and armaments for the war effort, and also
ordered locomotives for overseas redevelopment. By the early 1940s, the Canadian Locomotive Company was once again humming along,
employing about 1,200 Kingston workers, including a number of women.
After a devastating strike, the company closed permanently. The Canadian Locomotive Company buildings on Ontario Street's infamous
Block D were demolished in 1971. Since the first engine emerged in 1854, the Kingston works had built more than 3,000 locomotives,
enhancing transportation across Canada and worldwide. The steam locomotive at Confederation Park, The Spirit of Sir John A., is a
wonderful example of the fine work produced by Kingston's factory. It was one of many engines built for the Canadian Pacific line.
The symphony of clanging train horns and piercing steam whistles ringing out as new locomotives chugged a steady cadence out of the
factory doors on Kingston's waterfront has faded from view, but not from imagination.
Susanna McLeod.
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