Bygone Rail: Norton-Chipman, Belleisle #15 Traditional Cache
Bygone Rail: Norton-Chipman, Belleisle #15
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Bygone Railways: Norton - Chipman, an era long gone!
Cache Details
The cache is a small black container is winter friendly
To get access to the cache take the road at the waypoint and turn
left at the big building and after a very short ride you will find
the railbed.
*THIS IS THE BEST APPROACH, USE IT**
The railbed has been used as an atv travel and it should be a short
hike to the cache
++Post pictures to help preserve the memory of the line++
*** Please help maintain this cache ***
Take some containers and logbooks and replace as
necessary.
Thank you.
History
For years the residents of Grand Lake,
Chipman, Cumberland Bay and other surrounding areas had hoped that
the Intercolonial Railway would be built along the proposed
"Central Line". It would have cut diagonally across the middle of
the Province and thus provide them with direct access to markets in
Central Canada. However, the Intercolonial Railway was instead
built along the "Robinson Route" in 1872 and it would not be until
1912 that the National Transcontinental Railway line, built along
the "Central Line", would be officially opened. So in 1873 a group
of local investors incorporated the Central Railway Company to
build a line from Fredericton to connect with the Intercolonial
Railway line somewhere between Sussex and Moncton. A final decision
on the route that the line would take was not made until 1886. The
final route which passed by the head of Grand Lake also went
through the coal rich areas around Minto and Chipman before heading
south towards Norton. That same year work began on the 80 mile long
track and in 1888 the line from Norton, on the Intercolonial line,
to Chipman was completed and opened for business. The section of
track from Gibson near Fredericton, the terminus of the New
Brunswick Railway line, to Chipman was not completed until 1913.
This section of track was built by a separate company the New
Brunswick Coal and Railway Company, which later became the
Fredericton and Grand Lake Coal and Railway Company. In 1913
Canadian Pacific took control of the line by taking out long-term
leases on the line. One interesting note is that due to the fact
that the bridges on the line could not accommodate the heavier
diesel engines, Canadian Pacific had to run steam engines on the
line into the 1960's. Abandonment of the line began in 1961 when
the section from Norton to Pennlyn was abandoned and by the 1990's
the entire line had been abandoned.
Source: New Brunswick Railway Museum Hillsborough, NB.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat