Photo courtesy of
National Library/
Archives of Canada

Thomas Robertson

(1852-1902)

A career civil servant-turned politician from Shelburne, Robertson was the president of the Coast Railway Company of Nova Scotia, incorporated in 1893. The line ran from Yarmouth to Shelburne, where it would connect with Halifax by fast steamer. Planned as a narrow-gauge line to reduce cost, it was the only true narrow gauge public carrier chartered by the Legislature, of which Robertson was a member from 1894 until his death. The line was eventually absorbed into Mackenzie and Mann’s Halifax & Southwestern.

William Robinson

(1804-1863)

A captain of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Robinson was in Washington D.C. in 1846, working on the boundary set by the Webster-Ashburton treaty when he was called upon to replace John Hodges Pipon on the inter-colonial railway survey between Halifax and Quebec City. His 1848 report laid the groundwork for the route that would eventually become the Intercolonial Railway, planning the route for military purposes. His report in favour of the commercial viability of the line renewed enthusiasm for the project.

For more information about William Robinson and the building of Canada’s Intercolonial Railway following the route known as 'Major Robinson's Path', see Built for War: Canada’s Intercolonial Railway by Jay Underwood.

Collingwood Schreiber

(1831-1917)

Schreiber was born in England, and was a trained engineer before he came to Canada in 1852. He worked with Sandford Fleming on the Northern Railway, and became his partner, working with Fleming as the province’s divisional engineer on the construction of the Pictou branch of the Nova Scotia Railway, and surveys for the extension of the railway in the Annapolis Valley. He was superintendent for the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, and later became deputy federal minister of railways and canals, overseeing the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Clarence Silliker

(1861-1929)

Originally an employee of Rhodes Curry, Silliker and his brother Elmore left Amherst to start their own rail car plant in Halifax, perhaps to be closer to the political power base and the Intercolonial Railway’s executives. Their plant was located near the site now occupied by Piercey’s Building Supply off Robie Street, and like Rhodes Curry, went out of business when the railways began buying steel freight cars. A Silliker passenger car still exists in Newfoundland on display as a school car.

Photo courtesy Cumberland County Museum