Taking the Downtown Trains

THE TRAINS ON PINNACLE STREET

Once upon a time, there were trains and even streetcars running along the streets in Downtown Belleville. My memories of the trains take me back to the early 1960s when dodging train traffic and tripping over steel rails on Pinnacle Street were everyday occurrences.

I remember as a young mom bringing my kids Downtown on the city bus to the Quinte Hotel during Railway Week festivities in June 1964. We were excited to view the last train blowing its whistle as it made its way, slowly chugging down Pinnacle Street to the four corners. The Arena was packed with concert-goers to see Gordon Lightfoot and Railway Week was a memorable event for our city!

The Bay City Street Railway operated from May 1876 to November 1891. The railway on Pinnacle Street was part of the Grand Junction Railway, which ran from Belleville to Peterborough.

Picture the wood-burning locomotives that carried passengers, lumber and produce from the Grand Trunk station, Southwest along Great St. James Street and down Pinnacle Street to Belleville Harbour.

 The first freight train belched and bellowed through town in June 1877, and the former Pinnacle Street Methodist Church (near where the Canadian Legion stands today) was refitted as a station for the passengers.

On June 24, 1877, the first passenger train departed the Downtown station heading for Stirling. In honour of this great event, the Masonic Lodge hosted a fabulous picnic lunch for the guests onboard. It would take another three years before the rail line finally extended to Peterborough.

Passengers and market vendors had to detrain at Belleville station, take the Bay City Street Railway to Downtown, and pay a separate fare to continue to the harbour.

Early in the twentieth century, the railroad moved the tracks to the centre of Pinnacle Street, and this line became the main interchange with the Grand Trunk Railway.

The trains could now carry coal to the South Front Street dealers and deliver freight from the government dock. There were rail sidings for offloading at the Belleville Rolling Mills, Graham’s Cold Storage (National Grocers), and Marsh and Henthorne Machinery Company (currently the Federal Building property). Ice could load from the Glen Roy Ice Factory on the city tracks, and it was a busy line for our rapidly developing city.

The last freight train ran on June 16, 1964, and a week later the passenger train took its final trip. Eventually, the tracks were removed and the street repaved, signalling the end of the Downtown trains.

HORSE DRAWN STREETCARS ON FRONT STREET

Around the same time the Pinnacle Street railway saga was unfolding in 1877, a horse-drawn streetcar company burst onto the scene. Mr. Roblin, Owner and Jason Tice, Manager watched as their new streetcar slowly rumbled through town and dramatically changed the lives of townspeople forever! It ran from the Docters Hotel (Grand Trunk Station) along Station Street (formerly called Mill Street) and down Front Street to the Government Docks.

Five cars and 16 horses were stabled in a large barn just east of the Docters Hotel. Employees operated the trolleys from 6am to 10pm. and ticket prices were 6 for 25¢. A coal-burning stove provided heat for the passengers during the winter months, and straw on the floor kept their feet toasty warm.

On Front Street, market day was crazy busy as packed trolleys carried shoppers from Prince Edward County across the bay on the SS Quinte Ferry Service. In 1891 a fire destroyed all the horsecars and equipment barns, putting a fiery end to the horse-drawn trolley days.

ELECTRIC STREETCARS ON FRONT STREET

In 1895 S.F. Lazier and Sons created an electrical streetcar business on Front Street in Belleville. Poles and wires carrying electricity were installed along the city’s central corridor while workers laid steel tracks on the ground.

The first streetcar consisted of two cars, each towing a separate open trolley, and it ran along Front Street from the Docters Hotel on Station Street to the government dock. The streetcar operated like the horse-drawn trolleys and would pick up passengers from the ferry boats that docked at the harbour. An unfinished and unmailed letter dated September 24, 1895, was found in an attic at 47 Grove Street, and it read,

Dear Wess, I can hear the electric railways running, and I haven’t had a ride on it yet. There are two cars and two trailers, and they are comfortable cars. Every day when I hear it coming down, I wonder if you are on it.

This author would love to know how the story unfolded in the letter. Maybe some stories are better left untold..

The business operated for 10 years but was not profitable and eventually closed.

Thank you for joining me on our journey through time for a peek at the progress made in public transportation for our town, before the turn of the century.

PRINCIPAL SYSTEM HISTORY

Bay City Street Railway May 23, 1876-November 26, 1891

Belleville Traction Company Aug 03, 1895 – Sept 12, 1901

Belleville Jitneys Ltd. 1915- ?

Rawson Bus Company (1920 – May 1960)

Belleville Transit Commission May 1960-present