Port Dover and Lake Huron Railway Company

Product Details

$100 to $150

Historical Context

The Port Dover & Lake Huron Railway connected the Lake Erie community of Port Dover with the Southern Ontario community of Stratford, passing through both Simcoe and Woodstock.

In April 1848, the Woodstock & Lake Erie Railway & Harbour Company was incorporated to build from Woodstock south through Simcoe to either Port Dover or Dunnville. The project lay dormant for five years until the Prime Minister of the Province of Canada at the time, Sir Francis Hincks (Oxford MP), intervened by assuring investors that the stock was fully subscribed and the venture a safe investment. Utilizing funds from the Municipal Loan Fund, municipalities contributed significant amounts of money to the project. A contract was let to Samuel Zimmerman. In 1853, a scandal ensued amongst the Board of Directors and contractor in which monies fronted by investing municipalities were lauded off. As a result, work (to this point mostly grading) ceased in late 1854 given a lack of funds. Hincks was then driven from office in the next election and the line was assumed by Isaac Buchanan. A new start was initiated in 1855, however, this effort soon ground to a halt as well. An enquiry was held into the matter in which it was discovered that bad faith, reckless extravagance and the misappropriation of funds had taken place.

In February 1856, the company was reorganized and amalgamated by Buchanan with the Amherstburg & St. Thomas Railway (a paper company) as the Great South Western Railway Company. The company was then renamed the Niagara & Detroit Rivers Railway Company (N&DRR) later that year. Under Buchanan's management, the project never proceeded any further. In 1872, the Port Dover & Lake Huron Railway (PD&LHR) was chartered by a new group to construct from Port Dover north through Simcoe and Woodstock to Tavistock with running rights from there into Stratford over GTR trackage (former Buffalo & Lake Huron road). By the early part of 1875, construction had been completed and the line opened for traffic between Port Dover and Woodstock with harbour facilities purchased from the federal government at the lake port. The company utilized what assets and graded roadbed remained from the previous N&DRR venture. The next year, the line was opened to Stratford. Terms, however, could not be reached with the GTR for running rights between Tavistock and Stratford, forcing the company to build its own track. Not long after, the line fell into the hands of the GTR and, in conjunction with the Stratford & Huron and the Georgian Bay & Wellington lines, the company was amalgamated in March 1881 to form the Grand Trunk, Georgian Bay & Lake Erie Railway.

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