Toronto and Nipissing Railway - Engineering

Engineering

The Toronto and Nipissing Railway and the Toronto Grey and Bruce Railways were promoted, at the same time, and with similar objectives, by an interlocking group of Ontario businessmen and politicians. It is not surprising that the group should economise by employing one Chief Engineer who would apply the same design principles and choices on both lines. The first consulting Engineer in Canada was John Edward Boyd of New Brunswick, who conducted the preliminary surveys over the ground to Uxbridge and Orangeville. Douglas Fox came to Canada several times in 1868 and 1869 to support the parliamentary campaign and verify the surveys. On his return to England in the summer of 1869 he made arrangements for an associate, Edmund Wragge, to come to Canada at once to take up the engineering of both lines. In August Wragge visited Pihl in Norway to see his narrow gauge lines, and arrived in Toronto in September 1869. The tenders for the first sections of line were immediately put out.

The engineering of the T&NR and the LSJR was of a much less less substantial nature than on the TG&BR, with only one significant trestle over the Rouge River between Unionville and Markham. The ruling gradient was 2% or 1:50 between Goodwood and Uxbridge, and the minimum curvature was 600 ft (180 m). Wragge appointed John Charles Bailey as his first resident engineer on the T&NR. When Wragge became General Manager of the TG&BR in 1874, Bailey became Chief Engineer of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway. Bailey was also the Chief Engineer for the construction of the Lake Simcoe Junction Railway.