The first true railway built in Canada was the Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railroad from La Prairie on the St. Its roads were poor and its waterways were frozen for up to five months per The Province of Canada (1841–1867) was an enormous country. Nevertheless, it did not take long for politicians and entrepreneurs to realize the potential benefits. Railway fever came a little later to British North America the colony had a small population and much of its capital was tied up in the expansion of its canals and inland waterways. In this early stage: steam locomotion, the standard gauge (1.435 m), and the rolled-edge rail (which bellied out on the underside for strength).

Many of the lasting characteristics of the railway were established By 1841, there were some 2,100 km of rail in the British Isles, and by 1844 the frenetic promotion of railways aptly called “The Mania” was underway. Steam locomotion, together with the low rolling friction of iron-flanged wheels on iron rails, enabled George Stephenson (the first of the great railway engineers) to design and superintend the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830). Of the Rideau Canal to carry stone from the quarry at Hog’s Back in Ottawa. Another railway was used during the building In the 1820s, an incline railway of cable cars, powered by a winchĭriven by a steam engine, was used to hoist stone during the building of the Quebec Citadel. Of this type may have been used as early as the 1720s to haul quarried stone at the fortress of Louisbourg. In the early 17th century, mining railways were introduced to England powered by horses, these early railways carried ore and coal from pitheads to water.

The railway