Talk:Bytown and Prescott Railway

A previous contributor to this page suggests that the intended purpose of Bytown and Prescott Railway was to transport logs, (from Bytown) "which hitherto had to be floated down the Ottawa River to Montreal and thence to Quebec City to be loaded onto ships bound for Europe."

However, it was square timber that was floated down the Ottawa for export to Europe from the port of Quebec. The idea of carrying logs or timber from the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence River, seems useless if the intended destination was Quebec, as the logs would still have to be driven down river from Prescott, the same as they would have from Bytown. It was customary for sawmill owners to form their logs into booms for delivery to the mill. Individual logs were sent through the timber slide bypassing the Chaudière Falls, then collected into booms below, as large rafts were broken down into smaller cribs to go through the slides.

The chief reason for building the Bytown and Prescott Railway, was to carry the sawn lumber from the mills of Bytown, to connect with an American railway at Ogdensburg, New York to distribute the products of the Ottawa Valley trough the eastern seaboard.

The fact that Thomas McKay was its chief promotor, is a clear indication why its terminus in New Edinburgh was the intended destination of this railway. One of the reasons for its failure was that most of mills of Ottawa were located closer to Chaudière Falls, or some distance from the railway. Renamed the Ottawa and Prescott Railway in 1855, it could not even attract the business of McKay's mill. McKay had leased the mill in 1853 to James MacLaren. One of MacLaren's partners, was Moss Kent Dickinson, well known in the forwarding trade, with a line of barges, transporting lumber on the Rideau Canal between Ottawa and Kingston.

I find it amazing the number of Wikipedians interested in railway history in Ontario, Canada. Wikipedia says everything must include wiki links, however I find it difficult to link anything (besides geography) to a story that contains little facts. Wrecksdale Wreck 00:41, 30 August 2006 (UTC)