Item 70-1006 - Cobourg-Peterborough Rail Road Company fonds.

The Cobourg-Peterborough Railway Company was incorporated on November 11, 1852. Its purpose was to build a steam railway between the two cities, a distance of twenty-five miles interrupted by the waters of Rice Lake. This necessitated the building of a trestle nearly three miles long to carry the railway between the north and south banks of the lake. The citizens of Cobourg subscribed 125,000 pounds of the project. The construction contract was placed with Samuel Zimmerman and the first sod was turned on February 9, 1853. The first fifteen miles of the line were opened for traffic on May 19, 1854, and on November 15 of the same year, the Rice Lake Bridge was completed. The railway finally reached Peterborough on December 29, 1854. Unfortunately, during the winter, ice jams shook the flimsy Rice Lake bridge and by 1861 had destroyed it. Money difficulties, caused by expensive maintenance of the line and the rivalry of the Peterborough-Port Hope Railway which opened in August 1858 and took most of the Peterborough traffic, led the Company to the mineral industry in Marmora for financial assistance. In 1865, it was authorized to merge with the Marmora Iron Works on the August 15, 1866, and this alliance led to the incorporation of the Cobourg, Peterborough, Marmora Railway and Mining company. This arrangement was successful for only a short period of time. By 1883 the Company was once again losing money, In May 1886, the bondholders took action and the railway and its rolling stock were sold to Mr. T.P. Pearce. In June 1887, the Cobourg, Blairton, and Marmora Railway and Mining Company was incorporated and took over the residual assets of the previous company. Before the Railway could be put into operation the Grand Trunk Railway assumed control and the Company finally disappeared in the general almagamation of the Grand Trunk short lines on April 1, 1893. The Grand Trunk Railway was in turn acquired by the Canadian National Railway in 1923.