1884-09-15s Fire at the G.T.R. Shops

It was certainly a spectacular fire, fortunately with no fatalities.

Around 9:30 a.m, Saturday September 13, 1884, the usual work was being done at the Grand Trunk Railway yards along Hamilton’s waterfront.

Just over thirty years previously, the construction of the Great Western Railway tracks, passenger station and works had involved filling in of a large portion of the bay below Dundurn park and Stuart street.

The “works” of the Great Western Railway were large structures where railway cars, freight and passenger, were made, where locomotives were both made and repaired when necessary and where iron tracks were manufactured.

By the fall of 1884, the railway and al its facilities were owned by the Grand Trunk Railway. A new passenger station had been built but the structures that contained the “works” were basically the same.

The Spectator account of the blaze described beginnings as follows :

“At 9:30, a yard engine was passing the car repair shops, situated at the extreme west end of the yard, about half a mile west of the station. A spark from the engine blew upon the roof of the shop and in a minute the shingles were in a blaze.”¹

¹   “Fire at the Car Shops : The Large Building Totally Destroyed : The Loss $6,000, Fully Insured, Several Cars Burned – The Workmen Unfortunately Lose All Their Tools”

Hamilton Spectator.  September 15, 1884.

A locomotive was idling near the car repair shops, and when the engineer noticed the flames, he sounded the horn to signal that there was an emergency:

“From one end of the yard to the other, every man quit his work to see what was the matter. They did not need to wait long, for a brilliant blaze covered the entire roof of the building – a length of over 150 feet. The building was old and dry, and being entirely of frame, burned like matchwood.

          “From the time the first little blaze was seen until the entire roof was one mass of flame was less than three minutes, and in five minutes, the entire building was down in a heap.

“In the shop were seven box cars, two new, and five being built. These burned rapidly, and three box cars standing on a switch at the side of the building were soon on fire before an engine could be got to take them away. The official car of Mr. C. K. Domville, mechanical superintendent, was in the shop, but was got out, and was the only thing saved.”¹

          Most of the workers in the car repair shops were skilled artisans, each of whom brought their own tools:

^“ Mr. James Kirkness, a carpenter, saw the blaze as soon as it got through the roof. He knew well the nature of the building, and ran for his chest of tools, snatching up his saws as he went. He got the chest but the fire was too fast for him, traveling faster than he could run with the box which he was forced to drop and run for his life In the box were four kits of tools. They were subsequently found bent into every imaginable shape.”¹

The car repair shops were located directly slightly to east and below Dundurn Park. There was a natural, funnel-shaped gully which ran from the railway yard up to Dundurn park. As the weather had been dry and as the leaves of the fall season had started to fall, the gully was full of combustible material. The blaze which consumed spread to the base of the gully, and within seconds the fire coursed up the gully, eventually spreading to some trees in the park.

Alarm box # 8 at the corner of Inchbury and York street had been activated to summon the Hamilton Fire Department:

“The department went up and extinguished the fire in the trees in a few moments. The railway men then asked the department to assist at the burning shop, which of course they did, and working in a systematic way soon conquered the flames. The telegraph poles in the vicinity were in great danger and a fireman had to climb to the top of one and keep pouring water down it. The wooden portions of the cars were burned to ashes and the iron rods melted.

                   “The car wheels were all red hot, and when the water was thrown on them, it boiled and hissed and sent a volume of steam 50 feet in the air. A large pile of cordwood standing at the south side of the building caught fire and was soon wiped up in smoke. The heat was intense, but the men worked hard. Fortunately the wind was slight, and none of the surrounding buildings were endangered much.”¹

As the Spectator went to press early during the Monday following the blaze, there was no firm cost calculated as to the financial cost of the blaze although estimates ranged from $6,000 to $7,500, It was claimed that the railway company had sufficient insurance to cover all losses.

It was also claimed that “the shops will be rebuilt with as little delay as possible.”¹

That would prove to be untrue and in the near future, Grand Trunk Railway officials would announce that their company’s “works” would be transferred to London, Ontario.