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The first attempt to build a railway between the Maritimes and Central Canada was in 1836 when a group of St. Andrews businessmen approached British authorities seeking approval and financial aide to build a railway from St. Andrews to Quebec. In 1836 two survey teams were dispatched to layout a route from Quebec to St. Andrews. However, since both routes went through disputed lands between New Brunswick and Maine nothing more was done. Finally in 1847, after the boundary dispute was settled by the Ashburton Treaty in 1842, construction began on the rail line. In 1850 the line was surveyed from Richmond Corner, west of Woodstock, to St. Andrews. The directors decided to complete this section of track first and determine where the line would continue through to Quebec at a later date. Progress was very slow, Myers Construction of Portland Maine signed an agreement in 1851 to build the first 10 miles of track with 5' 6" broad gauge rails. That same year the first trains ran 4 miles from St. Andrews to Chamcook. By 1853 a new contractor Nathan Stuart had completed the first 25 miles of the line but by this time the company was broke and the work stopped. The need for the railway was also in doubt now that the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway from Montreal to Portland Maine had opened that same year. At last Central Canadian business had a way to ship goods year round even if it was through American territory. In 1857 a new company the New Brunswick and Canada Railway Company took over the abandoned St. Andrews line. That year they added 9 miles of track. By the following year 65 miles of track to Canterbury were completed and the trains were running, and by 1862 the line was completed to Richmond Corner. The line was never completed to Quebec and there was little business for the line between Richmond Corner and Debec so a few years later that part of the line was abandoned. The New Brunswick Railway Company acquired control of the line in 1882 and in 1890 the line became part of the Canadian Pacific Railway system.