NFLD RAILWAY

Whitbourne was the first inland town to develop thanks to the Railway. It was originally named Harbour Grace Junction. Here was the point at which the branch line to Harbour Grace intersected with the main line. The Newfoundland Railway reached Whitbourne in 1883 on its way to Harbour Grace and Carbonear. In 1893 Whitbourne became a very important town in the railway system. Robert Gillespie Reid had just obtained the contract for the construction of the railway from Placentia Junction to Hall's Bay and Whitbourne became his headquarters. This decision caused the community to develop rapidly. Whitbourne boasted a combined hotel, restaurant and railway station built by a man named Davenport. Railway offices and car shops, a six stall roundhouse, a machine shop required for the construction and maintenance of the railway were also built. As early as 1897 the Reid machine shop built three Pullman passenger cars named after the Newfoundland towns Placentia, Twillingate and Trinity.