Guelph construction crew unearths century-old streetcar line on Wilson St.
City officials say the rails date back to the 1890s and were found relatively intact
A segment of a former Guelph streetcar line that once whisked passengers up and down Wilson Street more than a century ago has been unearthed by construction crews this week.
Workers discovered 140 metres of rail underneath the asphalt on Wilson St. between Gordon and Northumberland while preparing the roadway for a major plumbing refit.
The rails will be moved off site and documented before a decision is made about what to do with them, according to a City of Guelph news release published Thursday.
City officials say the rails date back to the 1890s and according to a 1906 city map, they once formed part of an electric streetcar line belonging to the Guelph Street Railway Company that ran along Carden, Wilson and Gordon Streets.
Line first opened in 1895
The line was first opened in Sept. of 1895 by George Sleeman to replenish the continually changing shifts of workers at his Silvercreek Brewery on Waterloo Ave.
Sleeman's railway eventually ran into financial trouble, was repossessed by its creditors and sold to the City of Guelph in 1903, when it was renamed the Guelph Radial Railway Company.
Under the new name, the railway underwent a rapid expansion with its steel tendrils stretching across the city and into Guelph's burgeoning industrial rim in order to keep factories supplied with steady shifts of workers.
Passenger traffic doubled in a matter of years and the sudden surge in popularity was too much for the electric railway's generators to handle.
Power supply problems, rising costs and the arrival of public transit buses in 1926 led to the railway's decline and eventual removal from service in 1937.