Newfoundland Railway

No Tribute to The Old Newfoundland Railway


The last train in Newfoundland was a work train with accommodations for the workers who were hired to pull up the tracks and to leave no evidence of the Newfoundland Railway's 90 years history (1898 to 1988). Yet another broken confederation promise.

I was born in a Railway Employees' Welfare Association (REWA) house on Avalon Terrace, (now called Old Topsail Road). All the homes on Avalon Terrace's North Side and Cregmiller's South Side were built by the REWA: built so well that they still stand today, looking as good as they did back in 1937 when I arrived upon the scene.

The first thing that comes to mind is the trees out front, a maple and a chestnut as I recall. They are no bigger now (75 years later) then they were from my first recollection, smaller if anything I would say.

We did our grocery shopping at the REWA store on Cragmiller Avenue at the top of the no longer existing "Shop Hill"; where they sold everything you needed as long as you had the necessary ration stamps. These were war years and almost everything was rationed. Fruit was not even available at any price, except for the dried variety, such as apricots and figs. I was 9 years old and the war was long over before I saw my first banana I remember the day the P & P grocery at the top of 18th street hung a stalk of them from their ceiling and advertised then at twenty five cents each, a fortune at the time when a loaf of bread could be purchased at fourteen cents.
Locomotive #1024, 1948
Last steam locomotive built for the Newfoundland Railway by the Montreal Locomotive Company. It was scrapped by CN in 1957.
From the A.R. Penney Collection. Courtesy of Harry Cuff Publications.
The railway gave Newfoundland a "new" interior region and its first towns "out of sight and sound of the sea," from Whitbourne to Deer Lake. It also gave the older population centres of the east coast an expanding hinterland. Like its North American neighbours, from 1898 Newfoundland had a West. Completion of the railway contributed to the settling of French Shore issue, opened the west coast to further settlement and provided a tangible link with the rest of the country.

Canadian National Express, 1949
Cold storage depot at the St. John's Riverhead Station, newly taken over by Canadian National Express. My Father Eric Ashton Crocker worked here all through the war years and beyond.
From the A.R. Penney Collection. Courtesy of Harry Cuff Publications.
In the first decade after confederation C.N. made considerable expenditures in Newfoundland: revamping the Port aux Basques terminal, ordering new ferries (including the first rail- and passenger-ferry, the William Carson in 1955), upgrading yard facilities at Corner Brook and St. John's, introducing treated ties and 85-lb rail, raising the track through the Gaff Topsail by four feet, and replacing steam locomotives with diesel-electric (1953-59). Yet annual operating losses continued, and the old Newfoundland Railway hands complained that C.N. junior management was addicted to cheese-paring.
Protected to a degree by its inclusion in the Terms of Union, the railway was supported as a public work and even as a legacy of Newfoundland's former independence.

The federal government agreed to provide $800 million in long-term highways upgrading. The last train ran on 20 September 1988, and by the end of 1990 all the track had been taken up.

October 13, 1942
The Sydney to Port aux Basques ferry SS Caribou owned by Newfoundland Railway. left Sydney at approximately 9:30 p.m., on October 13, 1942. On board were 73 civilians, including 11 children, and 118 military personnel, plus a crew of 46. Just before departure, the Caribou’s master, Captain Benjamin Tavenor, ordered all passengers on deck to familiarize themselves with the lifeboat stations. Both he and his crew knew of the danger of U-boat attack – on the previous trip, the Caribou’s escort had attacked a contact, but without success. This might have been U-106, which had attacked a Sydney to Corner Brook convoy nine hours later.
Escorting the Caribou on this trip was the RCN minesweeper, HMCS Grandmere. According to her log, the night was very dark with no moon. Grandmere’s skipper, Lt. James Cuthbert, was unhappy about both the amount of smoke the Caribou was making and his screening position off the Caribou’s stern, which was in accordance with British naval procedures for a single escort. Cuthbert believed the best place for Grandmere to be was in front of the Caribou, not behind, as Western Approaches Convoy Instructions advised. He felt he would be better able to detect the sound of a lurking U-boat if he had a clear field in front to probe. He was correct, for in Caribou’s path lay the U-69.
The Attack
Gräf had actually been searching for a three-ship grain convoy heading for Montreal when at 3:21 a.m. he spotted the Caribou “belching heavy smoke” about 60 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland. He misidentified the 2222-ton Rotterdam-built Caribou and the 670-tonGrandmere as a 6500-ton passenger freighter and a “two-stack destroyer.” At 3:40 a.m., according to Grandmere’s log, a lone torpedo hit the Caribou on her starboard side. Pandemonium ensued as passengers, thrown from their bunks by the explosion rushed topside to the lifeboat stations. For some reason, several families had been accommodated in separate cabins and now sought each other in the confusion. In addition, several lifeboats and rafts had either been destroyed in the explosion or could not be launched. As a result, many passengers were forced to jump overboard into the cold water.
Assistance from HMCS Grandmere ??
Meanwhile, Grandmere had spotted U-69 in the dark and turned to ram. Gräf, still under the impression he was facing a “destroyer” rather than a minesweeper, crash dived. As Grandmerepassed over the swirl left by the submerged submarine, Lt. Cuthbert fired a diamond pattern of six depth charges. Gräf, meanwhile, headed for the sounds of the sinking Caribou, knowing that the survivors left floating on the surface would inhibit Grandmere from launching another attack. However, U-69’s manoeuvre went unnoticed by Grandmere and Cuthbert dropped another pattern of three charges set for 500 feet. Gräf fired a Bold, an asdic decoy, and slowly left the area.