New Brunswick Railway
| Locale | Western New Brunswick, Canada |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1870– |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Previous gauge |
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| Headquarters |
The New Brunswick Railway Company Limited (NBR) is a Canadian railway and land holding company headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the J.D. Irving Limited industrial conglomerate.
The New Brunswick Railway was also a historic Canadian railway operating in western New Brunswick. Its headquarters while an operational railway were in . It was acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1890 and its operations and name were subsumed by the CPR. The NBR was maintained by CPR as a non-operating holding company for its land and property in New Brunswick; this company was sold to industrialist K.C. Irving in 1941 that saw all land ownership including timber holdings and railway rights of way transferred to the Irving conglomerate while CPR retained ownership of the physical railway assets and the right to operate them.
The original NBR lines were built to 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge. These tracks were converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) in 1881.
New Brunswick industrialist Alexander Gibson commissioned a survey in 1866 for a railway line extending from his mill facilities in South Devon at the junction between the Nashwaak and Saint John Rivers opposite Fredericton, north to Edmundston to service timber lands which he leased from the Crown. A charter for the railway was received from the provincial government in 1870 and the New Brunswick Land and Railway Company was formed. Part of the charter provided for additional timber land based upon construction performance, thereby making Gibson one of the largest landowners in the province.
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