GETTING TO KNOW THE BAY
Trams were a popular way to get around in the early 1900s.
Picture this: It is 2017 and you are driving in the 4-laned paved Sydney/Glace Bay Highway in your car going about 80 kmh or thereabouts.
Well, that is reality and what we are used to so it’s not too hard to imagine. But that’s not the way it’s always been. Going back about 100 years ago, there wouldn’t have been a highway, let alone a paved one, and there were certainly no cars speeding by at 80 kmh.
So what was there? Can you imagine a bright orange electric tramcar booting along on a steel rail attached to a wire, at about 40 mph? If you were really lucky, you could make the trip in about 40 minutes, as long as it wasn’t winter! Over time, they became known for their legendary slowness and taking more like two hours for a trip to Sydney. But recently someone told me about taking a bus out from Sydney and by the time they got to the Bay, it was close to an hour and a half. We’ve really have gotten spoiled with our 15-20 minute car rides into the city.
Trams were the most popular mode of transportation from about 1902 until 1946 in Cape Breton. Considering that the U.S. was transporting 5 billion passengers a year by trolley/tram cars in the early 1900s, it would certainly seem the way to go. They were first introduced into Canada in 1885 for the Toronto Exhibition grounds. When Mr. Creeden of Stone and Webster from Boston came here pitching the idea of tramcars, the Glace Bay Town Council was quite vocal and made their opinions known. When it came to Cape Breton in 1901, it was a form of public transportation available to 50,000 people as cheap, clean, and dependable, with no resulting air pollution. The first one was believed to be the one at Dominion and the #1 Pit on level 5. They were great things for the miners. The trams would run 18 return trips a day starting at 7 in the morning. By 1903, tram and ferry service had all of industrial Cape Breton connected except for New Waterford.
It was quite an endeavor to get the service up and running. Along with the usual politics and finances involved, there were concerns over rights of way, rail and tram crossings and traffic and resulting trestles and where the tracks would be laid. Many of the steel rails actually came from England as it was felt the steel from the Sydney Steel Plant was not a high enough quality to be dependable. Was our wood not good enough either that, Wallis & Co. of New Brunswick got a contract for 65,000 ties with a further contract to Mr. Granger in Beechmont for another 10,000? Apparently the fill really did come from Mira. I believe it was Islanders who actually did the real work to build it, with 450 men working during the construction
phase.
Some of the highlights of the old trams were memories of the thrills of going over the trestles (I think it would have been something like a roller coaster today). At the Sterling Mall, there was a motor generating station and car barns. Connaught Avenue had a ‘diamond crossing’ where the S&L Railway and the tram cars overlapped. “Dead Man’s Curve” at Table Head corner had a trestle as it connected with First Street at West Avenue.
Mail and newspapers were transported on the tram cars too. The system only went as far as Dominion and if you wanted to go on to New Waterford, you could expect to be met by a horse and wagon to finish your journey. And you could have all this fun for five cents within town or 15 cents to get from Glace Bay to Sydney. School fares got a special discount, they were only four cents.
The tram cars hold some romantic old memories, but stay tuned to Part II of this story next week to hear some personal stories about the people
who took part in this special time in our history. If you have any stories to share, please do email me, or more likely have one of the grandchildren send a message on your behalf. I’d love to include them and share them with everyone else.
What’s Happening
in the Bay?
Glace Bay Historic Society will meet at Old Town Hall, today at 7 p.m. Mary MacIntyre, 96, will share her experiences growing up in New Aberdeen. Stay tuned to Coast 89.7
FM’s special 12 part documentary series entitled “Thru The Years” chronicling the history of recorded music by Cape Breton artists. It plays Sunday afternoons at 1 p.m.