Hi,
while driving in Southern Ontario I am amazed at the amount of abandoned former railroad tracks. Mind you the rails are long gone but one can still easily make out the old right of way. So my question is does anyone know of any maps of Ontario with all the right of way that has been removed?
Thank you
Frank
A buddy of mine and myself have started something of a project of that sort–taking photos of and cataloguing where we find data.
The only thing that I could think of right off hand is Don Brown’s series of books on the lost, or vanished, RR’s of Ontario. He was the author of many ghost town books covering Ontario.
Thank you Barry,
it is amazing how much track has been ripped out. From personal first hand knowledge the CP line from Orangeville to Owen Sound that went to Walkerton was removed, so was the CN line that went to Durham from somewhere around Guelph. Then there used to be large yard in Palmerston. Actually looking up the town I just came across this, fascinating: http://www.palmerstonrailwaymuseum.com/history-of-/-the-railroad
Sure wish we still had all them lines functioning.
Frank
I highly recommend you get Mike Walker’s Ontario edition of his Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. The atlases (atlii?) are about 100-pages and detailed and accurate. They show all routes: current and out-of-service and dismantled! They are available from Kalmbach, Carstens, and from the publisher at www.spv.co.uk for about US$ 25 each. Great stuff!
Hays
Try checking the Libraies in your area for “Lines of Country: An Atlas of Railway and Waterway History in Canada”. It is very well done.
This shows the current network-
http://www.proximityissues.ca/english/maps1.cfm
You could also try the local thrift stores. You could find a 30 or 50 year old atlas for less than $5.
It would be nice, Frank, wouldn’t it? I can add to the first hand knowledge: all the CN lines more or less north of the 401 from Toronto to Belleville – best seen centred around Peterborough (Peterborough to Lindsey, to Belleville, to Lakefield). The original CP main line from Toronto to Ottawa east of Havelock. The lines running north from Belleville (more or less) to Madoc or Marmora and on up to Bancroft… and so on. For that matter, the CP line from Havelock to Toronto, which would be a really handy commuter line, had a 10 mph slow order on it all the way – so it hardly counts as open any more (although, believe it or not, it is used pretty much daily).
Another suggestion would be to find a snowmobile trail map published by the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs. I have a few and they show pretty well every rail line ever built especially in southern Ontario. Mind you, they don’t cover the extreme southwest but that’s expected due to the usual lack of snow.
That is a great link nanaimo73. And a great topic I have been looking for this info for awhile!
I second the recommendation for Lines of Country.
You might also try the online map collections at various universities. Here’s a set of 1880 maps at McGill University: http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/SearchMapframes.php
TWA
HI Frank,
The CN line from Palmerston up to Southampton was removed in the late '70’s after the BNPD stopped taking unit trains of Bunker C oil for their auxilliary steam plant. Ontario Hydro paid to have a branch from Port Elgin to the site to move large equipment, H2S, propane, nitrogen and fuel oil to the site. The lumber yard and 2 furniture factories in Southampton were served by a daily freight and there was daily passenger service in the later years using an RDC or 2 and on long weekends a diesel with several coaches. The CN line up to Wiarton is also gone as well as the branch to Owen Sound which served the harbor, grain elevators and various industries. The line from Southampton south to Mildmay has now become a railtrail supported by the county and vairous municipalites. Every so foten there is talk of trying to re-establish the line north. I have read that the provincial govennment is also podnering re-opening the Orangeville to Owen Sound line.
Regards, John
Hello everybody,
Thank you for all the replies. This has given me a lot of information. In my opinion it is almost criminal to have all this rail removed. Unfortunately one can only wish.
thank you
Frank
Hi Frank,
Another great idea I found is to get a Private pilot small GPS, an older model (perhaps kijiji or ebay) black n white
I bought a garmin pilot lll gps (discontinued) when I flew small planes (might get one now for 100.00 or 50.00).
NOW I put it on the dash of my car
it contain many very old Ontario and Canadian raillines long long gone because for pilots they can still use the old Rail Bed for navigation so it’s in the data base. So check an older GPS.
make sure it’s for aviation as car gps’s only have recent lines
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=71&ra=true
Must be one for a small plane / runs on AA’s
Second idea is TOPO maps of Ontario.
Hope this helps,
Mark
There are some very good Google Earth overlays available.
This one is run out of the University of Toronto http://individual.utoronto.ca/sorailmap/
This one shows electric railways of Southern Ontario. http://www.cermc.webs.com/
Class 1 steam and diesel railways in Southern Ontario http://www.ontariomap.webs.com/
If you run all three at the same time, there will be slight errors which appear as double track or alternate lines; they aren’t really
larrcast