From Main Street to the Back Forty: The Renfrew Subdivision (Part I)

To most railway enthusiasts in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, what was once the CN Renfrew Subdivision is now technically Nylene Canada's Renfrew Spur. The track hosts one train a week, delivering tank cars of caprolactum to Nylene Canada's plant in Arnprior.

CN 589 crosses March Road in 2021 en route to Arnprior. The weekly train is the last vestige of a long history of operations on the former Renfrew Subdivision. Just to the right of the track is Station Street, where the old South March railway station once stood.

But what many people often forget is this lonely right-of-way was once one of the busiest railways in Canada. Yes, that's right. In all of Canada. 

Today, you'd hardly even be able to imagine it. Let's start briefly at the beginning. John Rudolphus Booth built a rail line from Depot Harbour*, on Georgian Bay, all the way to Ottawa, where it connected to Booth's other railway, the Canadian Atlantic. The two railways were soon joined under the CAR banner. The Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway began operations in 1897. 

(*- if Depot Harbour sounds unfamiliar, it's because Booth made the decision to establish his own port, away from Parry Sound, to foil the schemes of railway speculators in the town) 

Why was it the busiest rail line in Canada? Two reasons. Booth gained timber rights in Algonquin Park, which provided a great deal of traffic to his saw mill in Ottawa, not to mention to eastern U.S. markets via the CAR's terminus in Vermont. 

Secondly, Booth's OA&PS also shipped as much as 40 percent of the grain from the Canadian west to the St. Lawrence, as the fourth Welland Canal had yet to be completed. This meant that shipping grain via modern freighters on the Great Lakes was not yet possible due to the limitations of the smaller canals in the Welland area. The final Welland Canal was completed in 1932, which essentially replaced the Renfrew Subdivision's source of through grain from the Prairies.  

Booth's line was incredibly busy before this development, which is why it isn't surprising that the operations were acquired by the Grand Trunk in 1905. Of course, the boom years inevitably came to an end.

A Canadian National passenger train makes its way along the Renfrew Subdivision in the 1940s at an unknown location. Photo from the Canada Science and Technology collection.

The sharp downfall of the old Booth line happened mainly because of the grain movements shifting south to Welland, not to mention the fact that Booth had exhausted the useful timber in Algonquin Park, meaning the two main sources of through freight were gone. That meant that, by the 1930s, the Booth line had very much shifted to a secondary railway line under what was then the Canadian National Railways company, which bought the Grand Trunk in 1923.

It was a swift decline for a line that opened up vast stretches of Algonquin Park to tourists, considering it led to the creation of the Highland Inn and Cache Lake Station in the park. Many people forget that the Renfrew Subdivision was one of two major rail lines that crossed through the park, the other being the CN Northern Transcontinental Line. That line, the Beachburg Subdivision, went through what is now northwest Ottawa into the Pontiac Region in Quebec before crossing back into Renfrew County and all the way up to Pembroke, Petawawa and beyond.

The writing was on the wall for the Renfrew line as far back as 1933, when a trestle over Cache Lake/Lake of Two Rivers in Algonquin Park was closed due to safety concerns. That meant the line was cut in two and never reconnected. The western section between Depot Harbour/Parry Sound and Cache Lake was operated until 1952, when it was closed for good. The eastern section, terminating at Whitney, on the eastern edge of Algonquin Park, soldiered on as a local branch line for some time.

Fast forward to more recent times when most of the car load business dried up. For many years, CN tried to rid itself of the trackage, even when it was severed west of Arnprior. The line's final customer,  Nylene Canada (formerly BASF), still requires train service, as it cannot easily receive its needed product, caprolactum, by truck.

In the 1990s, there was talk of BASF being serviced by CP Rail's Chalk River Sub, which also reached up through Arnprior at one point. That connection was never made and the Chalk River Sub is history. In the end, a compromise was reached, which meant that the former Region of Ottawa-Carleton bought the land on which the tracks sit, while Nylene Canada bought the rails. That relieved CN of the obligation to maintain the line. 

When the Ottawa Central Railway took over CN's local operations in 1998, there was no longer any real threat to the Renfrew Sub. But when OCR sold back to CN in 2008, the same threat that has faced this line for decades resurfaced.

CN now serves Nylene on contract each week, essentially with running rights on an otherwise dormant line. This system seems to work, although CN has tried in recent years to remove itself entirely from Ottawa once again. Right now, its focus is mainly on customers east of the city. 

I'm skipping over decades of freight train history on this line, but it's not altogether that different from what you see on other marginal train lines. Without major freight customers, a branch line is not going to survive in today's highly centralized world of transcontinental railways. 

I figured we could relive some history and go on a trip from Ottawa to Whitney on the Renfrew Subdivision. 

Luckily for us, rail photographer Aubrey Mattingly was busy taking photographs of railways in the Ottawa area for decades. His collection passed into the hands of the Canada Science and Technology Museum. Many of his photos include everyday, somewhat mundane scenes that are now invaluable to us as we piece together the past. 

Let's start at the obvious place: Union Station in downtown Ottawa. This is what the old station looks like today, as the home of the Senate of Canada, which has been displaced from Parliament Hill due to construction of the Centre Block.

Thanks to some information supplied by Steve Boyko of traingeek.ca and Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure, I can pinpoint the final days of passenger rail service on the Renfrew Subdivision. CN ran its final trains on the line in 1961, but let's take the train in 1959, which is a significant year. It was the last year that many of the vestiges of the line's heyday remained.

UNION STATION: 4:30 p.m. departure 

Taking a Railiner (RDC or Budd Car in other words), you will leave Ottawa at 4:30 p.m.

This leads you to the first stop, which is the Bells Corners flag stop. It's important to note that, prior to the building of the Queensway, much of the land where the highway sits was the Renfrew Subdivision. After the National Capital Commission began lifting rail lines in the city under an expansive beautification effort in the 19502, the Renfrew Subdivision was largely scrapped from where it began all the way to Nepean Junction, where it branched off the Beachburg Subdivision.  

Sadly, there are no existing photographs of the Bells Corners station, but I imagine it would have been near Bells Junction, where the CN line met the CP Carleton Place Subdivision, which is also where there was once a flyover crossing. There is also a chance that the station was located west of here, near where Highway 416 is now. It's important to note that the 416 cut was obviously level ground in earlier days. 

Twenty minutes to get from downtown to Bells Corners? That seems slow by rail. There must have been serious speed restrictions. 

BELLS CORNERS flag stop: 4:50 p.m. 

SOUTH MARCH flag stop: 4:58 p.m.

This is the station that got me on the case of looking up the story of this rail line again. You might recall that I took a first crack at the history of this line in this post from 2019. I have often wondered what became of the Kanata train station, which was located on Station Street, just off of March Road, in the eastern part of the former city. My mistake was looking up Kanata Station in online searches. Needless to say, Kanata did not exist as a city until 1978, which I should have known.

Before Kanata was developed in earnest from farm land in the 1960s, it was mainly a rural township called March Township, hence the station's name, South March. The photo below is from the Canada Science and Technology Museum collection, as are all the remaining black and white images in this post.

 

This image was taken in 1958, shortly before CN demolished this building in 1959. That is why our 1959 trip west is so significant. It would have been the last time you could see all of these historic relics of the Renfrew Subdivision's past.

CARP STATION: 5:08 p.m.

This image, from 1944, is evidence of how important the railway was to small towns on this line. The Carp station seems quite large for a community so small. It's important to remember that, in the 1950s, the road network in this part of Ottawa was not nearly as developed as it is now. Same goes for many parts of Canada. Post-WWII, cars took over and the road network largely replaced short-distance passenger rail. Even in 1959, taking the train on this line would likely not have been a popular choice, as the operation was just a few years away from being discontinued.

This is where the history becomes fascinating to me. Many place names that are familiar to Ottawa residents but show no sign of their rail history, come alive, thanks to these images. Which brings us to our next stop.

KINBURN STATION: 5:19 p.m.

Note the similarity of the architecture of the stations on this line. It seems to me they were designed to provide accommodation to station agents and their families. It's hard for us now to understand the need for so many stations so close together.

 

This photo above was taken in 1959, again right before the station was demolished by CN. It's amazing that someone would think to capture images of so many stations in the 1950s. That brings us to our next stop, still in the western reaches of what is now Ottawa.

GALETTA STATION: 5:27 p.m.

You must be thinking that you're seeing double. The stations along this line were very much carbon copies of each other in many places, particularly in the smaller communities. You can see an old luggage cart on the platform of this station and the freight shed, for people who shipped goods via the railway express service.

At this point in the trip, you will be leaving what was then known as Carleton County, later the Region of Ottawa-Carleton (now Ottawa), so we will pick up our trip further east in the next post. You are by now an hour into your trip and you're not even out of Carleton County. This train is the definition of milk run!

This is an image from my map of the CN Rail system, back when the Renfrew Subdivision was still in place to the town of Renfrew in Renfrew County. After the train leaves what is now Ottawa, there are a few more surprise in store on the line. That will wait for the next post. 

Track work in Ottawa

This summer has been spent trying to keep up with my two daughters, one of whom is now nearly five months old. The end result of our recent addition is that my train watching has basically ground to a halt for the most part, minus a trip to Smiths Falls in July. On Labour Day, I made my first trip to Walkley Yard just to see if there was anything to see. I ended up with a few tidbits I thought I'd pass along.

The shot below was my favourite from my quick trip. In the distance, you see CN 4771 parked in front of the local CN facilities, framed by a few bulkhead flatcars and a string of gondolas. Those flatcars, gondolas and that pile of wood next to 4771 lead me to my first bit of news.

 

First off, gondolas and these types of flatcars are usually a sign of two things in railways. Either a railway is transporting scrap metal, pipes or some other similar commodity or the railway is doing track work. I took a shot of this car, below, because the colours, including the yellow stripe, intrigued me. The reporting mark was for American Metal and Iron LP.

 

A close-up of GP38-2W 4771 shows that there is a load of ties next to the engine. Also, get a load of the paint. The red cab paint is bleeding through the black and white safety scheme on the long hood. I've seen a lot of shabby units in Ottawa over the years, but this one might be the worst (or best, depending on your point-of-view).

A little further down the road alongside the yard revealed more wood and other supplies in the vicinity of a ballast car (below). This looks to be wood that might be used at a level crossing or as decking on a trestle. I wouldn't have thought much of this if I hadn't found out earlier that track work is being done on the Renfrew Spur in Carp. I appreciate Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure for passing along the news.

It's great news to know that, despite the final removal of the Beachburg Subdivision northwest of Nepean Junction, there is some work being done to maintain train service in western Ottawa. This is also a great opportunity for me to pass along some pictures that local rail watcher Patrick Stever sent to me from the siding in Carp. He spotted this equipment in the spring, including this brush cutter.

The below shot, also courtesy of Patrick Stever, shows that the groundwork for track improvements was being done months ago. Look at the piles of ballast to the left of the main line. I'm glad Patrick sent me these photos. I was trying to fit them into a post and now I am able to pass them along.

For those who don't know, this spur is owned by the City of Ottawa and maintained by Nylene Canada, a customer in Arnprior that requires rail service once a week. CN continues to operate a weekly train, usually consisting of three to four tank cars, to and from the plant. The spur has seen pretty restrictive speed limits for years, due to the condition of the track. I don't expect this work to change things. But, it's good to see that there is work being done to keep trains operating in the west end of the city for years to come.

A few days later, I was trying to catch the Arnprior local and noticed bundles of ties along the Beachburg Sub, just northwest of Bells Corners, where the line turns toward the Queensway. Here is what I noticed trackside. When I blew up the photo, I noticed that bundles of ties have been placed trackside all along this straightaway, meaning CN is investing in a bit of maintenance on this line. You can see the ties below. The case was the same on the trackage in Bells Corners near the junction between Beachburg the old CP Carleton Place Subdivision spur. New ties are all trackside, awaiting work crews.

Getting back to Walkley Yard, I noticed when I first arrived that the former Devco caboose, still in its Devco green black and yellow colours, was not at its usual place close to the CN offices and maintenance facility. I also noticed that the hideous Millennium caboose was missing.

As I drove east down the access road next to the yard, I noticed an addition to DAWX caboose and RDC on a storage track. It turns out, the old Devco caboose has reached the end of the line.

It's sad to see this caboose is being left prey to looters and vandals. Here's a shot of this caboose in (slightly) better days. I guess it's no longer being used for shoving maneuvers in the region anymore. I'm not sure if the Millennium caboose is still around either. It makes me wonder what's being used for shoving these days.

 

Also sad to see that vandals have continued to have their way with this old CN caboose. A fire was clearly set in the cupola at one point. As I have mentioned before, the security at this yard is a joke outside of operating hours.

 

One final note to pass along. Via Rail had completed work on a new passing siding at Wass, east of Federal, to allow corridor trains to operate more efficiently. The siding is part of Via's investment in its local network. As I have pointed out before, Ottawa's main train station is Via's third busiest station in Canada, behind Toronto and Montreal. Thanks again to Eric at Trackside Treasure for passing along that news via another local rail watcher.

 

So there a few tidbits from my trip and from my readers. Not bad considering I have only railfanned a handful of times this summer.