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"The Grand Trunk Railway have made an important innovation by installing their passenger train locomotives with a electric light equipment. One of the large type of passenger locomotive constructed at the Point St. Charles works of this company has just been turned out from the shops and is now at work in Montreal and Portland night passenger service, which has, in addition to all the well known modern appliances of merit for the safety and convenience of train operating, a powerful electric lighted head lamp and a number of incandescent lamps, which have been placed in the cab of the locomotive for the purpose of lighting the steam and air pressure and water gauges..."

This article appears in the Bradford Witness many times throughout the year 1900.

"The Grand trunk have added another lot of five handsomely built first class coaches to their already up-to-date equipment. Already during the past year some fifty of these modern cars have been built and placed in service, taking the place of some of the older coaches, and these new cars have been greatly admired by all who see them." ...

"The G.T.R. authorities are digging up ten maple shade trees from the Aurora station grounds to place in the grounds at Penetanguishene, and the citizens are very wroth."

"The G.T.R. has announced its intention of building a modern station in Aurora on the premises near the present site."

Two articles on the railway activity.
"Traffic on G.T.R.
Passenger traffic is so heavy on this division of the Grand Trunk that for the past ten days the Muskoka and Pacific Expresses have been sent through in two sections. From the 17th June to June 31st, 5,000 more passengers were carried over this division than for the corresponding period last year.

North West Excursions
The G.T.R. and C.P.R. will issue Farm Laborers' Excursion round trip tickets from all stations in ONtario via North Bay to Winnipeg and other points in Manitoba and Assinaboine territory on Aug. 22nd, for $28. Fare going $10. Tickets good till the 15th November. Special trains leave Toronto at 1.30p.m."

The Metropolitan railway was a streetcar project which was to extend up to Bond Head through Bradford. Newspapers reported in 1900 that citizens would welcome this track through the towns, although it was a costly endeavour:
"The residents of the north end of Newmarket are solicious for the continuance of the Metropolitan Railway track through to their quarter, and have called upon the Council to endeavor to get the company to perform the work."

It also presented issues with the town's current layout, hence changes had to be made:
"The contract for removing the Newmarket Exhibition buildings to the South of the track has been let by the Management Committee, and arrangements have also been made for the erection of a grand stand. With these improvements the local grounds will compare favorably with any in the county."

Article on the prices of oil rates and monopolies in regards to train service. The article mainly references the United States, yet the rate fluctuation greatly affected Canadian trains and oil service in the early 1900s.

"The Railway Committee of the Privy Council has come to the conclusion that the railways which have been discriminating in freight rates in favor of the Standard Oil Trust must lower the rates charged other American oil companies. This is a move in the right direction and it is hoped that now the octopus will be shorn of the power it has possessed for the past year to victimize the people of this country in the price of so important an article as oil, which is universally used. If this decision of the Railway Committee is an earnest of the intention of the Government to look after the people's interests it will give the whole country the highest degree of satisfaction."

"Masons, carpenters and painters have been for some time and are still at work at Algonquin Lodge, and "vaster than has been" are the improvements that are being made. This property was lately purchased from the Estate of the late Rev. E.R. Young by Mr. samuel Lukes, who contemplates making many changes to this already handsome structure, besides installing a hot water heating system, sceptic tank, etc."

BRADFORD - Life-long Bradford resident and lawyer C.T.S. "Charlie" Evans last week shed further light on the history of the old convent on Barrie St.

The convent it currently the object of a legal tussle over ownership between the town and the contractor Fred Picavet.

Mr. Evans said he recalls being told by Kate Stevenson, the daughter of 19th century Bradford lawyer John MacLean Stevenson, that her father constructed the house based on plans of a Scots castle.

A CASTLE
"I recall her telling me that at one time he had gone to Scotland and had come back with plans of a castle and that he had this house built according to that plan," Mr. Evans said.

According to his personal records, Mr. Evans noted that Mr. Stevenson had been a Master of the Masonic Lodge in Bradford in 1877, a post usually held by older men.

"So hazarding a guess I would have to say that that house would be 150 years old," he surmised.

FIRST WAR
He said that the Lukes family, who owned the Bradford flour mill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, likely moved into the house around the beginning of the First World War.

"Dick Crake bought the Lukes' house (where the Anzil Plaza now stands) around that time and the Lukes moved into what everyone now knows as the old convent."

Mr. Evans said a check could be made in the registry office in Barrie to determine when the property was originally purchased by Mr. Stevenson.

"Return Open Verdict in Accident Which Caused Fireman's Death"

Relates to the Grand Trunk Railway derailment on July 15, 1908