Railink in Southern Ontario by Duane Jessup
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Transcontinental News and Research I ISSN 1193-7971 Published by Upper Canada Railway Society RO. Box 122, Station A SOCIETY NOTES • The 27 km (16-mile) Montfort Sub., be• Toronto, Ontario MSW IA2 tween Miles 23.1 and 39.4, north of Mon• Web address: www.btinternet.conV~ucrs Toronto meetings treal; The Toronto meetings on July 17 and August • The 261 km (156-mile) Alexandria and Editorial group 21 will be replaced by two simple pay-your- Beachburg subdivisions, in Ontario's Ottawa Pat Scrlmgeour - Features and layout own-way excursions for some summertime Valley; 250 Queens Quay West # 1607 train watching. On Friday, July 17, instead • The 172 km (103-mile) Cuelph Subdivi• Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N2 of meeting at Metro Hall, make your way to sion and Fergus Spur, west of Toronto; E-Mail: [email protected] Brampton station and join us for train • The three-kilometre (two-mile) Longford watching at this busy spot on CN's Halton Scott Haskill - The Rapido and In Transit Spur, a remnant of the Newmarket Sub., 2520 Bloor Street West # 15 Subdivision. You can travel on any of four south of Washago, Ontario; and Toronto, Ontario M65 IR8 GO trains to Brampton; the latest leaves • The 58 km (35-mile) Cayuga Sub., be• E-Mail: [email protected] Union Station in Toronto at 17:45, and ar• tween Miles 81.0 and 115.0, east of St. rives at Brampton at 18:27. There are half- Art Clowes - Railway Archaeology Thomas, Ontario. hourly bus return trips available, up to 234 Canterbury Avenue CN also intends to discontinue opera• 22:30, with a final bus departure at 23:30. Riverview, N.B. EIB2R7 tions on the following lines: Another attractive return option is Train 88, E-Mail: [email protected] • The 17 km (10-mile) Montfort Spur, Mile the VIA/Amtrak International, with its Su- 13.6 to Mile 23.1, north of Montreal; Gray Scrlmgeour - The Panorama perliner equipment. The train is scheduled • 12 km (seven miles) of the Newmarket #570 - 188 Douglas Street to depart Brampton at 22:29 and arrive in Subdivision, near North Bay. Victoria, B.C. V9V2Pi Toronto at 23:01. E-Mail: [email protected] For lines being discontinued, the usual Watch for details of our August excur• process established in the Canada Trans• sion in the next Rail and Transit. Regular Correspondents and contributors portation Act will be followed, with the Friday meetings at Metro Hall will resume Tom Box, John Carter, Alex Campbell, Richard railways being successively offered for sale on September 18 with an interesting presen• Carroll, John Legg, Bill McGuire, Don to other operators, and then the federal, tation by Ted Wickson on the railways of the McQueen, Sean Robitaille, Chris Spinney, provincial, and municipal governments. Denis Taylor, Gordon Webster. Toronto harbour. In 1997, under the same procedures, CN Subscriptions If you have renewed ... sold or discontinued 2500 km (1500 miles) of track. Since 1992, CN has sold or discon• Subscriptions to Rail and Transit are available . then please check the mailing label on with membership in the Upper Canada the envelope in which this issue was mailed: tinued more than 10 000 km (6500 miles) of Railway Society. Membership dues are $29.00 an expiry date in 1999 should be shown. If secondary lines. As of December 31, 1997, per year for addresses in Canada; $35.00 (or you have not renewed your membership, CN operated 24 600 route-kilometres $27.00 in U.S. funds) for addresses in the U.S. there is no need at this time; your 1998 dues (15 292 route-miles) in Canada and the and overseas. Please send inquiries and include this issue and the next one. United States. -CN changes of address to the address at the top of this page. Prince Edward County A visit to Picton and Prince Edward County Meetifigs Railway news from eastern Canada in late April revealed evidence of the possi• Regular UCRS meetings are held twice each THE RAPIDO ble new tourist railway on the largely-lifted month. Toronto meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. former CN Marmora Subdivision. In Picton, CN line sales plan on the third Friday of each month (except July Nelson Aggregates 50-ton diesel locomotive In early May, CN announced its latest plans and August), on the third floor of Metro Hail, No. 07040, which was leased to the York- for railway line sales and discontinuations. 55 John Street, at King Street. Hamilton Durham Heritage Railway for a spell, and The railway is planning to transfer 2087 km meetings begin at 8:00 p.m. on the fourth which still wears YDHR green, red and yel• (1250 miles) of secondary lines to short-line Friday of each month, at the Hamilton low, was standing on a section of re-laid railways, and to discontinue operations on Spectator auditorium, 44 Frid Street, just off track. On the track to its north was an empty another 561 km (336 miles) of line. Main Street at Highway 403. CN flat car, with the CN reporting marks and CN intends to convey the following lines numbers painted-out. Directors to short-line railways: CN rails remain in place at a number of Scott Haskill, President 604-207! • The 220 km (132-mile) CN/C&CT line grade crossings in and around Picton, Art Clowes 506 387-4258 from Saint-Andre Jet. to Matane, Quebec; Bloomfield, Wellington, and Hillier, as well Calvin Henry-Cotnam 287-9396 • The 157 km (94-mile) Sherbrooke Subdi• as in the Highway 33 crossing south of Neil McNIsh vision, southeast of Montreal; AIMaitland 921-4023 Trenton. The rails and ties have been re• George Meek 532-5617 moved from the right-of-way in both direc• Pat Scrimgeour 260-5652 COVER PHOTO: tions beyond these crossings. CP Rail RS18 1830 leads a train at PatSemple WA3-9I23 Many bundles of newish-looking ties Kilburn, New Brunswick, at Chris Spinney 754-7175 Mile 92.0 of the Shogomoc were sitting on the line north of the High- Subdivision, December 19, 1986. Complete at 17:30 on June 25, 1998, PJS Continued on Page 8 ^ Photo by Att Clowes 2 • Rail and Transit • July 1998 RaiLink in southern Ontario By Duane Jessup Editorial note: This article was prepared by the author in December 1997. Because of the delays in pubiishing Rail and Transit, some of the details are no longer current. We will keep readers up-to-date with RaiLink operations in Ontario through future news items. Ontario is fast becoming the short-line capi• tal of Canada, as large Class 1 railways are realising the need to shed marginally- profitable miles of track to independent op• erators. One of the newest arrivals is the acquisition by RaiLink Ltd. of two former Canadian National Railways lines in south• ern Ontario: the Hagersville Subdivision from Brantford to Nanticoke, and some in• dustrial spur trackage in the City of Hamil• ton's north end. RaiLink operates these two lines under the name of RaiLink—Southern Ontario. Besides RaiLink Ltd., nine other bidders tendered offers on the 21-year-lease of the Hagersville Subdivision, Burford Spur, and Brantford yard. The Hamilton industrial trackage, known as CN's Northern and Northwestern Spur, was offered separately. RaiLink—Southern Ontario officially ac• another Stelco steel mill, and one of the 3519, 3567, and 3569, a single HR412, No. quired the Hagersville Sub. on September world's largest thermal generating plants 3586, all of which are leased and still in full 20, 1997, while the Hamilton trackage was owned and operated by Ontario Hydro, most CN dress; two former CN SW1200RSs, Nos. taken over on December 15, 1997. CN antic• of which lie at the terminus of Nanticoke. 1285 and 1335, eventually to be remem• ipated job losses on the two lines to stand Located in southwestern Ontario be• bered 1200 and 1201, leased from Canac near 70, but most employees were offered tween the waters of Lake Erie and Lake and with small RaiLink decals on their cabs buy-out packages or were transferred else• Ontario, the Hagersville line runs in a and hoods; and a single CP38, No. 113 where within the CN system. RaiLink— mainly north-south direction between Simp• (previously CSXT 2079), leased from Helm, Southern Ontario then hired close to 50 new son Jet. in Brantford and Nanticoke. The still wearing most of her CSX paint. Former employees for their operations. community of Hagersville, for which this Canadian National snowplough 55219 and line was named, is known to most Canadi• former Grand Trunk Western main line ca• RaiLink Ltd., an Alberta based short-line ans as the location of a massive tire fire in boose 79051 sit silently in the Brantford company, isn't a newcomer to the short line the early 1990s. yard awaiting the call to duty. scene. In fact, they were the operators of the first short line in Canada some 11 years ago, Canadian National operated the Morning sees the two SW1200RS units, when Tom Payne and the Central Western Hagersville line six days per week and on which last saw work on the Ottawa Valley Railway began operations on CN's former Sundays as required. Canadian National RaiLink, making up the daily consist in the Stettler Subdivision, just south of Edmonton. Trains 560, the "Hagersville Switcher," and Brantford yard. The two units then work Now the company is the largest regional 561, the "Nanticoke turn" ran over the line, some switching duties around the Caledonia short-line operator in Canada with proper• and Train 725, a unit train of steel products, area if they are required to do so, allowing ties in Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario.