Caraquet and Gulf Shore Railway

The Caraquet and Gulf Shore Railway was in brief existence on the Chaleur Bay's south shore, between Bathurst and Tracadie with a spur line to Shippagan. Its heyday was during the early part of the Twentieth century.

In the early 1870s, the forest on the shores of Chaleur Bay were seen to be receding. A group of Bathurst townspeople involved in the lumber trade imagined that the area around Tracadie could serve to feed their industry if only a suitable form of transport could be arranged. Thus was born the Caraquet Railway Company on 18 April 1874. The first contracts were not let until a decade later.

On 7 August 1884, the sod-turning for the Caraquet Railway occurred, with luminaries like Kennedy Francis Burns in attendance. On 30 June 1885 the first section from Bathurst to Stonehaven was completed. Two years later approximately 30 km of rail had been laid. It was completed by 1890, but not before controversy exploded into public view. In 1889 there was a major scandal when the shareholders accused Burns of fraudulent schemes and false representation in regard to the construction and the issuing of shares. He was exposed in Parliament by Edward Blake. Throughout his career as a businessman, Burns mainly used Acadian workers, paid with due-bills, which could be exchanged only at the company store. He was supported in this artifice by catholic Bishop James Rogers. Burns was the beneficiary of governmental largesse in the form of railroad subsidies and cutting licences for timber on New Brunswick crown lands.

In 1908 were listed 23 stops, such as Stonehaven, Grande-Anse, Burnsville and Caraquet along the line from Bathurst to Shippagan.

On 13 April 1911, the Caraquet Railway Company merged with the Gulf Shore Company, which had opened for business in July 1897 and connected Pokemouche Junction with Sheila. With the merger came a new name, and the Caraquet and Gulf Shore Railway was born.

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