WELLAND TROLLEY IS RUNNING

Wellanders Hail the New Era With Delight

Street Railway Co. Waiting for Town to Commence Paving

The Henrietta Hotel Project

[People’s Press, 26 March 1912]

              The first completed section of the Niagara, Welland & Lake Erie Railway was put in operation on Saturday and the people of the town were not only satisfied but delighted with the whole equipment.

             The cars are modern, being fitted with electric heaters, cane seats and 50 h.p. motors & c. The road is well built and withstood the winter in perfect condition. The road was constructed by Mr. Hendrick Leitch, who is not only a contractor but a qualified civil engineer, and therefore able to combine both theory and practice. Mr. Leitch was chief engineer on the construction of the Ann Arbor and Southern Railway.

             Pending the issuing of the Railway Commission certificate, the cars have been running on a half hour schedule and carrying all passengers free since Friday, with the result that the road has been well tested, the cars on many trips carrying nearly a hundred, although the seating capacity of each is only 32. Our citizens are certainly getting the trolley habit fast, and there is no doubt that the enterprise is the most popular one in the history of Welland.

             The power house is located at the Page-Hersey works, and the generator has a capacity of 2,800 k.w., which will be sufficient to supply the extensions contemplated for the immediate future.

             In the matter of paving the streets the Railway Company is already ahead of the town, and has received several carloads of heavy oak ties to be used in construction of the line in the pavement. Regular eight inch paving nails will be used and the present track will be lifted up in sections and transferred to the south end to be used in the extension to Industrial Park and Dain City.

             When the excavation is made for the pavement the present track will be shifted to one side and the new line laid without interfering with the service on the track.

             The progressive enterprise of the Laughlin Realty Company has certainly surpassed the most sanguine expectations of even Welland’s optimists, and although they have been handicapped by some pretty stiff opposition at times, we hope they will remember that the rapid rate of progress with which they have been pushing improvements would be sure to meet with a great deal of opposition in any locality where their progressive methods were not understood, or perhaps misunderstood.

             Mr. C.J. Laughlin’s personal interest in the town alone ought to satisfy any skeptics of his bona fide intentions. Although he repeatedly refuses to give any information concerning his properties and operations in other localities, it is known that he holds many valuable concessions in several parts of America, but that he favors Welland in which to build a permanent residence for himself, because it has a progressive spirit, wonderful opportunities and the necessary natural elements for the making of a beautiful city.

             The Henrietta Hotel project, which might be considered almost as a philanthropic one on account of our comparatively small population, is nevertheless a bona fide scheme, but there are so many property owners throwing cold water on the scheme by wandering the whole earth for every foot of ground that the company consider suitable for the purpose, that we could not blame Mr. Downing a bit of it he became disgusted and builds one at Port Colborne or Niagara Falls instead. Over $500 has already been spent in preparing the original plans and other preliminaries, yet probably nine persons out of ten believe Mr. Downing is just throwing around a few hundreds of dollars for nothing. Did you ever see a wealthy man throw away $500 for nothing?

             Mr. Downing is expected in town again in a day or two, and it seems to us that the people of Welland, the town council and the board of trade, ought to wake up and take it upon themselves to see that a suitable site is offered at a reasonable price.

             A hotel such as it is proposed to erect will not be seen in any city in America with ten times the population, and we venture to say that if Andrew Carnegie offered to build us a $200,000 library we wouldn’t waste much time in presenting him with a site if it cost $25,000.

             With paved streets, electric railway, and a luxurious hotel, Welland would indeed be a place to be proud of.

             Don’t “Watch Welland Grow,”  that slogan is for the outsiders, but get busy and “Help Welland Grow.”- This is the proper slogan for the people of Welland.

INSPECTION

             The Government inspector is expected here to inspect the road this morning, and the cars will immediately thereafter commence running on schedule time.

TOOK COUNCIL FOR A TRIP

             On Monday at noon Mr. Laughlin took Mayor Sutherland and the members of the town council for a trip over the road. He pointed out the up-to-date characteristics of the cars, and explained his intentions concerning the future service.

             Every member of the party expressed satisfaction with the line and was evidently proud of the distinction given the town by the road.