The Sydney and Louisburg Railway (S&L) was a Canadian railway. Built to transport coal from various mines to the ports of Sydney and Louisbourg, the S&L operated in the eastern part of Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia. The railway uses a slightly different spelling for the town of "Louisbourg".
1720–1763, early efforts
Mining of the Sydney Coal Field can be traced as far back as 1720 when French soldiers from Fortress of Louisbourg pried coal from exposed seams along the coast near Port Morien. Following the Seven Years' War, France ceded its remaining territories in Acadia and New France to Britain under the Treaty of Paris. Upon taking control of Ile Royale, Britain renamed it to Cape Breton Island and merged the territory into the Colony of Nova Scotia.
1763–1857, mining monopoly
In 1784, Britain split the Colony of Nova Scotia, creating the colonies of New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island, reducing Nova Scotia to just its peninsular territory. In 1788, King George III authorized his son, Prince Frederick, the Duke of York, to be granted the mineral rights to Nova Scotia (then only the peninsular portion), however events such as the Napoleonic Wars put the application on hold until the end of conflict in 1815. At that time, the Duke was in financial difficulty and had an agent apply for the mineral rights which the King had authorized, however the paperwork was misplaced. In 1820, King George III died and the Duke faced financial ruin from debts; the same year saw the Colony of Cape Breton Island merged again into the Colony of Nova Scotia. In 1825 the unfinished application was discovered and approved (for all of Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton Island), whereby the Duke signed over the rights to the General Mining Association, a wholly owned subsidiary of one of the Duke's creditors: the London jewelry firm of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell.
1858–1890, organizing and merging
The GMA maintained a monopoly on mineral rights throughout the colony until 1857-1858 when it relinquished these to the colonial government except for certain areas it had developed surrounding the Sydney, Pictou and Cumberland coal fields. Between 1858-1870, the GMA opened 19 underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field, with most production destined for export to the northeastern United States. In addition to the GMA, many independently owned collieries opened in the Sydney Coal Field after 1858, including several US-financed operations at New Victoria, Bridgeport, and Reserve Mines.
Several small railways (such as the Glasgow and Cape Breton Coal and Railway Company, and the Cape Breton Railway) were built by mining companies during this time. Geographic obstacles to shipping coal were evident during this age of industrialization with the only suitable harbours being Sydney or Louisbourg; efforts to build harbours on the exposed coast near Glace Bay were rendered ineffective by the weather. Although Sydney had a much more suitable harbour than Louisbourg, the former was frequently choked by heavy sea ice during the important coal-shipment season throughout the winter months. Louisbourg Harbour, which had been selected by the French military for its year-round ice-free waters when building Fortress Louisbourg during the early to mid-18th century, again became a valuable port when a railway line was built from the mines at Reserve to Louisbourg in 1877. This line was poorly built and was soon lost to a forest fire.
1890s–1910, creation of conglomerates
Large-scale industrialization came to the Sydney Coal Field when two large conglomerates were formed in the 1890s: the Dominion Coal Company, or DOMCO (in 1893), and the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company, or SCOTIA (in 1900). The latter was a successor to the GMA and focused its activities on the north side of Sydney Harbour, near Sydney Mines, whereas the former was a merger of various independent companies on the south side of the harbour.
On February 1, 1893 DOMCO was incorporated and it acquired or purchased all coal mines and railway lines between Sydney and Louisbourg on the south side of Sydney Harbour. The conglomerate came to own a variety of both standard and narrow gauge lines, as well as various harbour facilities and coal mines. DOMCO immediately set about to standardize its operations.