Canada Eastern Railway
The Canada Eastern Railway, originally known as the Northern and Western Railway, was a railway line operating in New Brunswick, Canada, running from Newcastle (now part of Miramichi), to Devon (opposite Fredericton). The line linked various communities along the Nashwaak and Southwest Miramichi River valleys.
A joint venture of industrialists Alexander Gibson and Jabez B. Snowball, construction started in 1884 and finished in 1887. The opening of the Fredericton Railway Bridge in 1889 gave it a direct connection to the provincial capital.
In 1904 the Canada Eastern was purchased by the Intercolonial Railway, a federal Crown corporation. The mainline of the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR), another government concern, was built in 1912, creating a major junction at McGivney. The Intercolonial, NTR, and others were merged into the Canadian Government Railways in 1915 and the Canadian National Railway in 1919.
With declining rail usage through the 20th century, the former Canada Eastern line became unprofitable. It was abandoned between McGivney and Newcastle in 1985, and south of McGivney to Fredericton in 1995, although the last train over this portion of the line (CN's Nashwaak Subdivision) operated in March 1996 with a coal shipment to a heating plant at CFB Gagetown.
References
- Railways of New Brunswick by David Nason, New Ireland Press, 1991.
