Cache Details
The Cache is located in the railbed that is all but gone.
It should be an easy find.
History
The Hampton & St. Martins Railway was originally conceived
to connect the rural communities in the Hammond River valley with
the outside world. Hampton, at one end of the line had excellent
rail and riverboat service to Saint John. Approximately 28 miles
away, at the other end of the line, St Martins had been a
shipbuilding centre and was served by regular coastal freighter. By
the 1870's, however, shipbuilding was in decline, and boat
connections soon disappeared. As a result, the new railway would
provide a lifeline for St Martins as well and it was first
incorporated in 1871 as the St. Martins & Upham Railway
Company/
It cost the company $15000.00 and the province $112000.00 thanks
to a $5000.00 per mile province government subsidy.
It broke ground in 1874 and opened in 1878 but it struggled to
operate profitably right from the start.
Alas, the area was too sparsely populated, and there were too
few industries to ever allow the railroad to prosper. It spent much
of its existence in financial hardship and changed hands a number
of times.
After only ten years of operation the line was taken over by the
Central Railway becoming its Southern division.
Also because of a lack of traffic the line Central was unable to
turn a profit.
The line was not used in the winter due to a lack of snow removal
equipment.
In 1897 Central returned the line to its original shareholders and
it was renamed the Hampton St Martins Railway.
In 1906 it was finally sold to new owners at a big loss and it was
renamed the St Martins Railway.
Despite the several change of hands and cut costing measures and
attempts at boosting revenue the line was never profitable.
It was taken over and modernized as part of the federal railway
system at the end of WW1 as it was buying private railways at a
price of $65000.00 and it was renamed once again The Canadian
Government Railway and became part of the Canadian National
Railway. But the writing was on the wall. As was the case for many
railroads, better road transportation reduced the need for this
little branchline even further and it came to its inevitable demise
in 1940.
1874 -
1880's St. Martins & Upham Railway
Company
1887 - 1897 Central Railway
of New
Brunswick -
Southern Division
1897 - 1906 Hampton &
St. Martins Railway
1906 - 1918 St. Martins
Railway Company
1918 - 1940 Dominion Government Railway, which
became Canadian National
Information stol...er....borrowed from the excellent
rxzephyr
cache
GCNM5Z which stol...er....borrowed from Lou McIntyre, a fellow
member of the SJSMR. More information can be found at his Hampton
& St. Martins Railway Webpage