Narrow-gauge railways in Canada

rdf:langString Narrow-gauge railways in Canada

rdf:langString Although most railways of central and eastern Canada were initially built to a 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge, there were several, especially in Atlantic Canada and Ontario, which were built as individual narrow-gauge lines. These were generally less expensive to build, but were more vulnerable to frost heaving because vertical displacement of one rail caused greater angular deflection of the narrower two-rail running surface. Most of the longer examples were regauged starting in the 1880s as the railway network began to be bought up by larger companies. The largest systems in the country were the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) lines such as: the Newfoundland Railway and others on the island of Newfoundland (969 mi or 1,559 km); Ontario's Toronto and Nipissing Railway and Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (304 mi or 489 km); the Prince Edward Island Railway (280 mi or 450 km); and the New Brunswick Railway (189 mi or 304 km) in the Saint John River valley of New Brunswick. Various mining and industrial operations in Canada have also operated narrow-gauge railways. Almost all rail gauge in Canada is standard gauge. By 2015, the only remaining narrow-gauge system in Canada was the White Pass and Yukon Route, which used some of the rolling stock of the Newfoundland Railway which closed in the late 1980s.