Toronto and Nipissing Railway - Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock

Based partly on contemporary British railway practice, the experience of Sir Charles Fox and Sons on the Queensland Railways, and Carl Abraham Pihl's work in Norway, the early rolling stock was intended to consist of short four-wheel boxcars, and longer six-wheel flat and passenger cars using Clark's radial axle arrangement. The four-wheel boxcars were reliable and suited the traffic at first, but became too small for the increasing traffic, and were not added to after 1874. Many became wayside grounded tool vans after gauge standardisation. The first longer flatcars were built using imported sets of Clark's radial gear and put into service with the construction contractors. The intention was that they would go more easily around tight curves. Whether through bad design, poor assembly, or abuse and heavy uneven loading by the construction gangs, the six-wheel cars proved disastrously prone to derailment and were soon put aside in favour of cars re-equipped with two standard North American four-wheel trucks (bogies). The passenger cars were never used in six-wheel form due to safety concerns.

Most of the T&NR freight and passenger cars were built by the St. Lawrence Foundry, on Parliament Street, Toronto; the foundry was just a short distance from the main T&NR locomotive and car depot at Berkeley Street. William Hamilton, the owner of the foundry, was a substantial investor in the T&NR. Based on contemporary sources the passenger cars were painted a 'straw' colour.