After rejecting Confederation with Canada in 1869, railway construction was championed in Newfoundland as the 'work of a country.'

Although the main line was itself a signal feat of engineering and political optimism, branch lines were also integral to the Newfoundland railway.

The Newfoundland railway impacted the province economically, socially, and politically.

The history of the railway: The construction period, the Reid family, the Government of Newfoundland, Canadian National Railways, and TerraTransport.

Operations of the Newfoundland railway and the types of equipment that was required.

It was anticipated from the first that the railway would transform Newfoundland and its society as a whole.

The first telegraph system in Newfoundland was established as part and parcel of a scheme to land a trans-atlantic telegraph cable in Newfoundland.

The Newfoundland railway operated for a little over a century. From 1882-97 the trains ran over completed portions of a projected trans-insular line.

Few issues surrounding the Newfoundland Railway attracted as much controversy as the lands grants made under various construction contracts...

In 1911 P.T. McGrath wrote of the Reid Newfoundland Company that it was 'the biggest paymaster in the Island, bigger even than the government.'

Advances in transportation during the late 1800s and the early 1900s affected the development of the forestry and mining industries in Newfoundland and Labrador.

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Newfoundland governments were deeply concerned about economic development.

This article is about the Newfoundland Railway and the politics of it's development from 1897-1914.