page_title: Goodwater, Saskatchewan
section_title: Railway (ca. 1910-1979)
hierarchical_section_title: Goodwater, Saskatchewan / History / Railway (ca. 1910-1979)
caption_attribution_description: English: "Snowbank that stopped the train all winter, east of Goodwater," uncredited photo, from Prairie gold: R.M. of Lomond #37 (1st ed.). Goodwater, Sask.: Lomond Historical Society. 1980. ISBN 0-88925-182-7. OCLC&#160;15901992, page 445
context_page_description: Goodwater is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Lomond No. 37 and Census Division No. 2. The village is located approximately 50 km south of the City of Weyburn. Goodwater is located on Treaty 4 land, negotiated between the Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine first peoples, and Alexander Morris, second Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. Goodwater is currently part of the Souris - Moose Mountain federal riding.
context_section_description: Established in 1899, the Canadian Northern Railway was formed out of the bankruptcy of the regional Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company—a local 27 kilometre "branch line" between Winnipegosis and Lake Manitoba (and, later, Portage La Prairie) in Manitoba.  Donald Mann and William Mackenzie, both former employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), purchased the defunct LMR&CC and rebranded it as the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) with the vision to compete with the CPR by consolidating and constructing alternative "branch lines" serving communities outside the CPR's transcontinental lines.
  By 1911, the CNoR was reported to be constructing 300 miles of new rail lines in Saskatchewan, employing 500 teams and 2,500 men. Construction for a new branch line from Luxton to Ceylon, serving Colgate and Goodwater along the way, was authorized in 1908. This branch line was initially begun in 1909 from the main CNoR line at Maryfield, Saskatchewan, just west of the Manitoba border, and is sometimes referred to as the "Maryfield Extension." According to train historian Adam Peltenburg, the CNoR rail line branch through Goodwater was part of, "major developments in the prairies" that began around 1910. In 1911, the trade publication, Daily Consular and Trade Reports, wrote that, "one of the most important of the new lines now under construction in that province is the Maryfield extension, to be carried through the coal fields to Lethbridge, Alberta." Several community accounts report that surveyors of the CNoR were responsible for renaming the town from "Juell" to "Goodwater," circa 1910–1011.
  The 89-mile branch line from Luxton to Ceylon was officially completed and opened for traffic on July 11, 1911.  
  The Luxton to Ceylon branch line through Goodwater was reportedly a "busy line" with numerous trains daily, including passenger trains in both directions running six days a week (except Sunday) from 1914 to 1921. In one published community history anecdote, CNoR train engineer Dalrymple made the Carlyle-to-Radville segment in "a record time of a little over two hours...[making all the stops]," during which his "trainmen on the back of the caboose nervously held on to the "air" and in chorus, uttered a prayer on the Goodwater hill."
  According to a 1913 CNoR train schedule, westbound train #27 left Brandon, Manitoba at 9:40 am and passed through Goodwater at 6:02 pm; eastbound train #28 left Radville, Saskatchewan at 8:00 am and passed through Goodwater at 9:08 am. According to a 1917 CNoR train schedule, westbound train #51 left Brandon, Manitoba on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and passed through Goodwater at 3:18 pm; eastbound train #52 left Moose Jaw on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 9:00 am, passing through Goodwater at 2:56 pm. Poor profits for the passenger service eventually ended two-way daily train service, and lead to "mixed trains" carrying passengers and commodities.
  The Canadian Northern Railway was absorbed into other railway interests of the Canadian federal government on September 6, 1918, when mounting debt and the realities of profit-lean World War I caused Donald Mann and William Mackenzie to resign as CNoR directors.
  Severe winter blizzard weather and snow accumulation during the winter of 1946-47 caused over sixteen days of isolation with no train service or supplies to Goodwater, as well as many other southern Saskatchewan towns. In January, 1947, the Canadian Press reported that "five feet of hard-packed snow covered tracks and some drifts were estimated to be 28 feet high" in Goodwater. On January 22, then-general store merchant, and future Goodwater Postmaster, Clair Archibald Kelly stated that the shortage of coal would be "serious" if Goodwater were forced to wait another day for supplies. The only road open in southern Saskatchewan was the road between Regina and Yorkton, and no trains passed through Goodwater from January 11 until January 24. 
  During the spring of 1948, flood waters damaged the rail lines between Goodwater and Blewett. According to company records, the Canadian National
caption: "Snowbank that stopped the train all winter, east of Goodwater," 1947. Uncredited photo, from Prairie gold: R.M. of Lomond #37 (1st ed.). Goodwater, Sask.: Lomond Historical Society. 1980. ISBN 0-88925-182-7. OCLC 15901992, page 445
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