Old friend and a new twist

In late June, I was told by a friend that CN was using two Iowa Northern-painted geeps as power for local operations. Naturally, with so little to see in Ottawa from a freight train perspective, I was excited. Even better, CN's weekly freight west, Train 589, was operating on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, which is a holiday for Quebec workers like me. My first plan was to camp out trackside along the Beachburg Subdivision, which is not too far from my house. But then I heard the train was making its way up the Smiths Falls Subdivision to Kott Lumber and on to Richmond, where it would do a runaround move on a switch, as the train was not going to Arnprior that day.

So, change of plans. I got in my car and went to Fallowfield Station, which is also not all that far from where I live. I missed the train as it made its way west to Kott, but I knew I was going to catch it on the way back, as there was a large group of railfans awaiting its return.

The double header dropped off two centrebeam lumber cars at Kott Lumber, on Moodie Drive, before heading further up the Smiths Falls Sub to Richmond, where the power ran around the two empty lumber cars it picked up, so the crew wouldn't have to shove its way back to Walkley.

It didn't hit me until later that these types of geeps, clad in the classic Canadian Pacific maroon, grey and gold, were likely similar to the diesels my grandfather saw when he worked as a rolling stock mechanic for the CPR in Chapleau and Windsor. 

Iowa Northern mystery

I will admit that I knew next to nothing about the Iowa Northern Railway before seeing these two units. It was formed in 1981, when a group of grain elevator owners took over local lines from the bankrupt Rock Island Railroad. Over the years, the short line railway expanded and brought its tracks back up to speed. After a few ownership changes, the line was purchased by the Canadian National in 2025, which explains the appearance of these units up here in Ottawa. The Iowa Northern operates 163 miles (262 kilometres) of track in Iowa, from Cedar Rapids into northern areas of the state. It handles around 40,000 carloads of freight, according to stats listed on Wikipedia. It has connections with CN, CPKC and the Union Pacific.

You will notice below that the small eastbound 589 is taking the siding at Fallowfield Station, since it has to wait for the arrival of Via westbound Train 45 for Toronto.

Next up, I backed up into the parking lot to see if I could get a shot with the train's reflection in the rain puddles. The other railfans remained on the platform, getting very tight wedge shots, which is not my thing at all. I needed to see the sides of the train and that beautiful livery!

Not quite what I wanted, as I didn't get a terribly clear reflection in the puddle. I also didn't get enough of the car behind the power. But it's always worth a try to get an image that is not a standard shot. Next up, Via's Train 45 was due. A meet!

I had to get onto the platform and accept that this shot was going to be a tight wedge. I am reasonably happy with this image, given the harsh glare of the morning sun and the railfans I had to shoot around (everyone was quite accommodating to each other). The Venture had barely come to a stop before 589 geared up and headed back east to Federal Junction. Before it departed, I tried to get another two-for-one shot with both trains in the same frame. The CN freight train was a little too far east on the siding to get a side-by-side shot, but I tried my best to get something. 

Finally, it was time for a few going away shots.

I think this was the best of the bunch as the train pulled away, as I switched to my iPhone and was surprised that it captured the blue sky better than my regular camera, although that could be a function of me not having the camera on the best setting. I'll figure it out, one of these days. 

I am grateful for the tips I received from friends that allowed me to capture this unique train. I noticed the following week that the power in Ottawa had changed again, meaning this rare site is all the more precious. 

I don't know how quickly CN will be able to recover from the Canada Day flooding that slammed the west end of the city. The Beachburg Sub and Renfrew Spur both suffered washouts. CN will have to deal with the Beachburg damage while Nylene Canada and the city will have to fix the Renfrew tracks, as those rails are owned by the company while the right-of-way is owned by the city. I'm not sure how that responsibility breaks down.

All in all, it was a fun morning to capture a rare sight. It was also my first experience with local railfans. I know they're out there, but I so rarely run across them.  

Hello, I must be going

Summer is about to officially begin. My daughters are finished with their schooling and my family's thoughts are turning to time off, trips, visits to family and other leisurely pursuits. With that in mind, I am going to park all activities on this blog for the coming week.

But not before sharing this quick shot captured yesterday (June 24) at Fallowfield Station. 

This might be the biggest rail sensation to hit Ottawa since the Canadian Pacific brought up its vintage rail cars for the CP Canadian Women's Open several years back. Here are two Iowa Northern-painted geeps on the siding at Fallowfield Statiom, coming back from dropping off two loaded centrebeam lumber cars to Kott Lumber on the Smiths Falls Subdivision. 

The train, CN 589, was awaiting the arrival of  westbound Via Train 45. Once the Venture set arrived, the two-car train shuttled off back toward Federal Junction, on its way to Walkley Yard. There was no run up to Arnprior. But the appearance of two locomotives adorned in the vintage CP maroon and grey was amazing to see. 

I'll have much more to share about this meet later on. For now, I'll leave you with this one shot. I have a summer full of railfanning to do, which will fill the pages of this blog in the coming months. 

But I have to say one quick thank you. I would not have seen any of this had I not been given some great tips from railfans nice enough to help me out. Also, it didn't hurt that I am a Quebec worker and had the St-Jean-Baptiste Day holiday off.

Have a good summer. I'm closing in on 500 posts. But for now, let's just enjoy this vintage scene! 

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

In the first two posts about the former CN Renfrew Subdivision, I explored the rail line's creation as an important link between Western Canada and Eastern Canada. The line, as originally conceived, was meant to handle prairie grain at Depot Harbour on Georgian Bay and move it east. The same goes for timber harvested in Algonquin Park, which the railway's owner, John Rudolphus Booth, also controlled. In the 1930s, the line was severed in two in Algonquin Park, as a faulty bridge was never repaired. From that moment on, the rail line, now a CN concern, was a regional right-of-way with significantly less traffic.

Read Part I and Part II.

After that transcontinental resource and timber traffic died away, what were left were local freight and passenger services, linking the Upper Ottawa Valley with Ottawa. We traced the path of the CN Dayliner from Ottawa all the way to Barrys Bay in the first two posts. 

Through the years following the line being severed, the Renfrew Subdivision saw its share of interesting equipment, including the precursors of the Budd cars, the doodlebugs (as above). These units were meant to make marginal passenger lines more cost-efficient, but by the 1950s-1960s, the car was king and these passenger lines could barely hang on. 

In 1961, the passenger service was discontinued, as the line essentially became a marginal freight route. 

 

But, up until the discontinuation, you could ride the rails from Ottawa to Barrys Bay six days a week and back, except Sunday. There were even times when the passenger service came in the form of a full-fledged consist, with a steam engine, baggage car and coaches (all images in this post come from the Canada Science and Technology Museum Archives). 

 

As we explored in the first two posts, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, you could leave Ottawa's Union Station downtown at 4:30 p.m. and arrive in Barrys Bay at 7:30 p.m. via Budd car. If you were making your way to Ottawa from Barrys Bay, you would leave bright and early at 4:30 a.m. and arrive in Ottawa at 7:30 a.m., in time for some breakfast and the work day. 

 

However, the Renfrew Subdivision's story doesn't end in Barrys Bay, where regular passenger service ended. Up until the very end of passenger service in 1961, you could take a CN mixed train from Barrys Bay all the way to Whitney, which was the end of track after the line was severed in Algonquin Park. 

 

The mixed service ran Tuesday through Friday as 221 westbound to Whitney and 222 eastbound from Whitney to Barrys Bay. Since we took the train from Ottawa to the Bay in the first two posts, I thought it'd fun to take the mixed to Whitney in this post. There are very few passenger shots of the line past Barrys Bay, so we'll have to make do with what we found.

 

Barrys Bay Station - 9 a.m.

 

Given that the daily CN Dayliner arrived from Ottawa at 7:30 p.m., let's hope you found accommodations in town before getting ready for your morning departure west. This 1958 image, below, of a combine car, gives you an idea of what your accommodations would be on the mixed train west, near the end of service. 

 

From Barrys Bay, you'd be on the train for less than half an hour before coming to the first stop.

 

Aylen Lake flag stop - 9:20 a.m.

 

There are no images for this stop, which sits at the southern edge of part of Algonquin Park. It is listed as an access point for the park, so it makes sense that the railway would have service here at some point, if only for people looking to access cottages. 

 

From Aylen Lake, depending on if you stopped, you would make your way through the former flag stop of Opeongo, which is listed on the timetable, but without a time, which likely means it was no longer a stop.

 

Next up is a former division point and railway town, one that played a major role in the earliest days of the Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway. 

 

Madawaska Station - 10 a.m. 

 

A this point, you've been on the mixed train for an hour and have travelled 21 track miles or 35 kilometres. That means you've averaged about 35 km/h so far. This might be a result one of two factors. Either there were slow restrictions on this part of the line, or the mixed train might have to stop to pick up or drop off freight cars along the way. I can't imagine a lot of trackside business at this point, but you never know.

 

 

This is an image of the Madawaska Station in the 1940s, although it is not clear from the archives information when it was taken. The caption mentions that there was a railway restaurant in the station at this point. This all makes sense when you consider that Madawaska was once a service point for the railway, as evidenced by the roundhouse that once dominated the railway lands.

 

The text accompanying the images from the museum archives mentions the roundhouse was abandoned in 1933. This would make sense, as this was around the time when the line was severed, which would mean it was no longer a through route to Georgian Bay.

 

Here's another image that points to Madawaska's time as a railway servicing point. This image above is from the Grand Trunk era and is labelled as a coaling station. You can see the water tower in the background as well as a caboose. The photos tells a story of a town that once was quite prominent in the CN network.

Stay on the mixed train for another half hour and you get to the second last stop on the remaining subdivision.

 

L'Amable Station - 10:30 a.m.

 

At this point, you're about 30 track miles outside of Barrys Bay, in an area that, judging by the photos I found, is increasingly remote. This is the only image I could find of the L'Amable stop. The caption reads that the water tower was installed here when the tower in Madawaska was torn down. There is another shot of an earlier L'Amable train station on the Bancroft, Ontario website. According to this site, the community was popular with early settlers, who liked its fertile soils for farming. L'Amable is just south of Bancroft.

 

 

With this stop out of the way, you are now into the home stretch of CN territory in this part of the province. You are now headed to the end of the line.
 

Whitney Station - 11 a.m.

 

Half an hour after passing through L'Amable, you will arrive at Whitney, the end of the line for this subdivision. You can see that there are loaded cars, possibly full of agricultural goods. Off in the distance is a caboose as well. 

 

 

Again, the stations on this stretch of the line seem much more suited to cottage country. They do not follow the architecture of the stations closer to Ottawa. And while this rail line by the 1960s was a branch-line operation, there is some photographic evidence that the line still held an important purpose for local businesses and farmers.

 

This shot, above, is one of the first I found when researching this line. You can see a truck dumping farm products into a car on the right side of the image. This means that the subdivision was still very much a vital link for farmers and their markets in the 1950s and 1960s. You get the idea how much the transport of grains has changed by looking at this image. No hoppers or cylindrical Canada cars; just these cars, which are loaded from the top by dump trucks. 

If you needed to get back east from Whitney, you'd have to take the following day's mixed train back to Barrys Bay at 11:30 a.m., which would put you in the Bay at 1:30 p.m. In many ways, right up until the line was torn up all the way to Arnprior, the Renfrew Subdivision was a throwback in most respects. It served the small communities along its line for decades, until the business dried up. 

 

Today, these images, which were taken over the decades by Aubrey Mattingly, give us a clear picture of what life was like along the rails decades ago. We're incredibly lucky to have this time capsule available to see, which is not the case for many other forgotten rail lines across Canada. 

 

A special thanks to Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure for helping me figure out some aspects of the history of the rail lines in this part of the province in the 1960s. Between him, Steve Boyko of traingeek.ca and Kevin O'Neil, I was able to share some fascinating history for a forgotten stretch of track.  

A moment of pause in the spring

I've had a few appointments in and around the city recently, which has given me opportunities to check out some railway spots that I don't always get to see that often. On one my jaunts into the city's east end, I was able to swing by the main Via Rail train station, as well as the Canada Science and Technology Museum. When I went to the museum, I saw this sight, as volunteers with the Bytown Railway Society were busy doing some refurbishments to their 1913 wooden Canadian Pacific caboose 436436. 

Note: My series on the history of the Renfrew Subdivision will continue with my next post. You can check out Part I here and Part II here. 

It was a neat scene, as a volunteer on the roof and one inside the cupola were busy working on the caboose's windows. Later on, that scene I had captured gave me a moment of pause. It occurred to me that my grandfather likely did work like this in Chapleau where he worked as a rolling stock mechanic at the CP facilities there. It made me smile thinking of my grandpa, who worked much of his adult life for the CP, in Chapleau and then in Windsor. 

While I was there, it was also nice to see the society's fully refurbished maintenance of way car, Central Vermont 4313.

The crew at BRS sure does heroic work in preserving railway history in Canada, which is all the more impressive given how little fanfare the organization gets in a city like Ottawa. While outside, I made sure to get a shot of the society's old 1946 GE switcher as well, which was coupled to the CP caboose. If you didn't know this was Ottawa in 2026, you might mistake this scene as being from the edge of a busy rail yard just about anywhere. I suppose the modern museum building in the background is a bit of a giveaway as well. I wonder if I could photoshop out the building and create a vintage image out of this.   

One final surprise was out on display, which you might have already caught a glimpse of in the second photo. The society's 1958 Pontiac hy-rail inspection car was also sitting in the spring sunshine, in its brilliant orange CN livery. This car is in operating condition and can sometimes be seen when the BRS crew goes to train shows. It's incredible how much thought and chrome went into the styling of cars in the 1950s. This would have been a comfortable way for railway crews to make it out to remote parts of the CN system back in the day.

You can see in the background that the doors to the BRS indoor rail shop were open. I was hoping that I might be able to see the Thurso & Nation Valley Official's private car 27. I could see a bit of it behind the half open door, but I couldn't get any short worthwhile. 

While I was in the east end, I was sure to swing by the city's Via Rail station, just to see what was going on in the yard. Unfortunately, there was not much to see from the Belfast Road overpass, which is where I chose to set up.

I wanted to get a shot of this train from a bit more of an angle so I could capture its profile, but there was construction happening at that area of the Belfast bridge, which prevented a more suitable image. This was also the only image I could get where the power wires weren't slicing through the train. Other than a baggage cart on the platform, that was about it. This is the lull in the day when most of the early westbound and eastbound trains to Toronto and Montreal respectively are gone. Closer to the evening, the pace picks up as trains originating from the big cities make their way to Ottawa and the evening runs from this city make their way east and west.

It's interesting to be able to contrast the lines of the Via Rail Ventures set at the Via station with the more angular lines of the heritage equipment at the museum. All in all, it was a fun bit of railfanning before my appointment. 

I had a few other small adventures recently, but I'll save those for another post. 

 

  

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

In part I of this topic, I covered off the history of the Renfrew Subdivision trackage, which once extended from Ottawa all the way to Depot Harbour (Parry Sound) on Georgian Bay. The line, built by John Rudolphus Booth in the late 1800s, was a resource line at the beginning, carrying western grain from Georgian Bay and timber from Algonquin Park all the way to Montreal or Vermont, where Booth's railway lines (Canadian Atlantic) gave way to others. 

Over the years, the western grain shifted to Great Lakes freighters via the most recent Welland Canal and the timber in the park was exhausted. The line ceased to be a busy link in the transcontinental  network. The original Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway gave way to the Grand Trunk and finally the Canadian National. In more recent years, the line was cut back all the way to Arnprior and is now owned by Nylene Canada.

Undated photo of a freight train passing by South March (Kanata) along the Renfrew Subdivision. Photo from the Canada Science and Technology Museum online archives

But in 1959, CN still operated local service all the way to Whitney. West of Whitney, the line was severed in Algonquin Park. The western portion was then operated as a stub before it was shut down. As we outlined in the last post, you could still take a CN Dayliner all the way to Barrys Bay on the Renfrew Subdivision, although this service would not last much longer. It was discontinued in 1961.

We began our evening passenger ride from Union Station in downtown Ottawa, where CN's evening train left at 4:30 p.m. Here is what you could expect from this train.

Union Station - 4:30 p.m.

Bells Corners (flag stop) - 4:50 p.m.

South March (flag stop) - 4:58 p.m.

Carp Station - 5:08 p.m.

Kinburn Station - 5:19 p.m.

Galetta Station - 5:27 p.m.

At this point, we are leaving what was then known as Carleton County, later the Ottawa-Carleton Region, and what is now the City of Ottawa.

Once the train crosses over into Renfrew County, it will pass by the former flag stop of Marshalls Bay, which was listed on the CN schedule but without any service. At this point, the railway had already eliminated what it considered more marginal flag stops. The first stop after Carleton County would be Arnprior Station, one of the biggest towns on the line.

Arnprior Station - 5:35 p.m. 

This is a shot, also from the Canada Science and Technology Museum archives of the last CN Dayliner calling at Arnprior Station in 1961. You can see from the image that the Budd car is split in half with one part being for baggage and cargo and the other for passengers. There clearly was not much left in terms of demand. Still, from downtown Ottawa to Arnprior in an hour isn't all that bad. Try doing that by car on the Queensway-417 these days. According to the passenger schedule, the train has travelled 42 miles or about 68 kilometres. That means the train was averaging more than 70 km/h on the line, with station stops considered.

That brings us further west into Renfrew County, into the Upper Ottawa Valley, which once saw multiple train lines running through it (CN Beachburg, Renfrew subs and CP K&P, Chalk River subs). 

Glasgow Station - 5:48 p.m. 

What fascinates me about stops like Glasgow is how close they are to towns. Glasgow was less than six track miles from Arnpior, yet it still warranted a regular stop on the line. This tiny hut trackside is very much in the style of the South March Station, which we saw in the first post. Despite its rural locale, there are two tracks at Glasgow, suggesting there was a passing siding that was perhaps used for local freight delivery. You can see a large barn beyond the station. What I don't see is any road or parking lot next to the station. There looks to be a ramp from the building for a speeder to be eased onto the tracks.

Goshen (flag stop) - 5:55 p.m.

Just a few miles down the line, Goshen is listed as a flag stop station. There is no photographic record of what was trackside at milepost 53.4. but at this point, you would have been quite close to the actual town of Renfrew, so I'm thinking this was a minimal priority at best by 1959. 

Renfrew Station - 6:03 p.m.  

Next up is the town of Renfrew, one of the larger towns on the line. 

Renfrew was one of a few towns in the Upper Ottawa Valley that was served by two railways at one point. The town boasted not just a CN station, but a CP station as well. The CPR took over the former Kingston & Pembroke Railway, which terminated in Renfrew. Its Chalk River Subdivision once passed through town as well. This image above shows you what the Renfrew CN Station looked like 1972, 11 years after the last passenger train called at the depot. Unlike other stations on the line, Renfrew's seemed to have a more decorative turret on the roof instead of a squared off gable. 

It's interesting to note, as well, that CN also had facilities at what was known as Renfrew Junction. This image below showed its facilities at that junction. This building was demolished in 1957, so you wouldn't have seen it if you were taking the Dayliner in 1959.

Admaston Station - 6:15 p.m.

A few miles past Renfrew, you will reach Admaston, although no photos in the archive I check exist for this station. 

Douglas Station - 6:23 p.m.

A few miles past Admaston and you will hit Douglas Station. Here is an example of a station with different architecture compared to what we've seen so far. The platform is covered from beginning to end by a station-length eave. You can see a pallet at the end of the platform and a luggage cart. There's a piece of the community visible in the background to the right as well.

Caldwell Station - 6:28 p.m.

Three miles beyond Douglas brings you to Caldwell Station. There were no shortage of stops on this route for the Dayliner. There is no photographic evidence of what was trackside at this stop.

Eganville Station - 6:40 p.m.

Eight miles further west and you will come to another larger community on this line, Eganville, home to a well-known community newspaper, the Leader. Eganville has struggled in recent years, but the community was featured on the CBC Show Still Standing, where they profiled the community's efforts to keep going amid challenges. The photo below, also from the Canada Science and Technology Museum archives, shows you what the station looked like in the early 1970s, long after the last passenger train stopped at its platform.

 

Like other towns in the Ottawa Valley, Eganville once boasted a CPR station as well, when railways were building lines throughout the area in a competition to exploit the resources of the area. One reference to the CPR station stated that it was on the Eganville Subdivision, which terminated in the town. I had never heard of that old trackage before.

 

Golden Lake Station - 6:52 p.m.

 

We are beginning to near the end of our journey on the Dayliner. The next stop is the community with the picturesque name, Golden Lake. This shot, from the 1950s, shows you another example of somewhat unique architecture on the line. The station is a two-level structure without the angled roof and dormers that many of the stations on this line boasted. It looks more like a commercial building you'd find on a main street. There is a bay window jutting out onto the platform, where the station agent would have worked. The platform has two baggage carts. Off in the distance, you can see a boxcar set off on a siding.

 

Ruby (flag stop) - 7:00 p.m.

 

There is no photographic evidence of what was at this flag stop. But, again, it sounds quite nice, given its picturesque name.

 

Killaloe Station - 7:08 p.m.

 

Killaloe (pronounced Kill-a-LOO) is a name many people in Ottawa are familiar with, as this is a spot where many from the region escape to, as it is commonly known as cottage country in this part of the province. The community's station was very much consistent with other stations on the line closer to Ottawa. I would imagine that this area's status as a getaway was a source of passenger revenue for years for the Canadian National.

 

Simpson (former flag stop) 

 

At this point in the line's history, the Simpson flag stop is still listed on the schedule but there appears to be no service offered at this point, as the timetable does not even list a time.

 

Wilno Station - 7:20 p.m.

 

The second-last stop is Wilno, which is 105.7 track miles from Ottawa, or 170 kilometres. The station has a bit more of a rustic cottage-country look to it, which is in keeping with its location and surroundings. At this point, you've been on the train for nearly three hours and travelled nearly 200 kilometres. Not exactly a speedy ride.

 

Barrys Bay - 7:30 p.m.

 

Finally, you have reached the end of the line for this passenger run, 112 track miles or 180 kilometres from downtown Ottawa. Barrys Bay, unlike other communities on the line, has preserved its station and railway heritage. This is what the station looked like when you would have been taking the Dayliner. This photo was actually taken in the 1970s, after service ended. The station looked a bit rough, but the rail yard it still in place and the station looks like it is still ready to receive passengers or express cargo.

 

Now compare that to what the station looks like today, thanks to friend of the blog, Kevin, our eyes and ears in Windsor. Kevin was recently in Barrys Bay and shared these photos of the station and the adjacent water tower, which once served the railway.

 

The station looks great and has found new life as a restaurant in the community. 

 

 

 

I also like that the community preserved the CN sign on the water tower. It's the little things that make a difference.

 

There is more to the story of the old Renfrew Subdivision than this one train, which made its run between Ottawa and Barrys Bay six days a week (Sunday being the exception) as Train 689 and 690. I'll leave the additional service details for a third post, as the history of this line just keeps offering more for me to share and for us to discuss. I'll finish this post with another image from the Canada Science and Technology Museum archives of a CN special that made its way up the line into the Ottawa Valley in 1972. I would imagine that some of the 1970s photos in this post were captured by Aubrey Mattingly, who might have been aboard this special. It's incredible to me that so much history of this line was chronicled.

 

At one point, it seemed like every community in our vast country was either served by a train or was near a train line. Although much of the Renfrew Sub is a memory, we have lots of chronicled history to relive its glory days. One final post to come, which will chronicle another surprise.

 

Again, thanks to Steve Boyko of traingeek.ca and Kevin O'Neil for their help with this post. All photographs, except for the two modern Barrys Bay images, are taken from the Canada Museum of Science and Technology Archives.   

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. 

Post 490: Thirteen years later...

I received an email recently from a friend who is celebrating a milestone in his online writings, which got me to thinking about my little corner of the internet, the Beachburg Sub. With this post, I have reached 490 posts, meaning I'm closing in on that magical milestone of 500. 

 

On April 30, 2013, I posted my first entry on this blog. I was a fairly new father at that point, not to mention a little less grey. A lot has changed since then. I became a father again (in 2015), changed jobs in the public service twice, moved twice, and have grown into the person I am today. I say grown into who I am today because my mental health journey from 2013 until now was not without its bumps. However, with hard work, I was able to overcome bouts of mental instability and enjoy life.

The name Beachburg Sub was my first choice and only choice. I think it symbolizes my approach to railway blogging, which is talking about the old and the new. Waxing on the nostalgic and looking forward. The Beachburg Sub is now a short piece of track that was once part of a national transcontinental line. It now sits in limbo, possibly as a key future piece to Ottawa's commuter rail network. 

Much of my journey has been made easier through the online bonds I have formed with other railway bloggers. Everyone I have encountered has been most gracious with their time and with helpful information. And I'm not just talking about Eric Gagnon and Steve Boyko, two of the best railway bloggers out there today. Eric (of Trackside Treasure) and Steve (of traingeek.ca) have helped me along the way and offered encouragement as well.

But many others (Dave M., Keith Boardman, A.J., Kevin from Windsor, J.D. Lowe to name a few) have contributed to this blog just by reaching out, offering information, asking questions, steering me to new topics and pointing out where I've missed the mark.

I consider myself lucky for getting to know everyone who has helped me. Whenever I encounter something where I don't know as much as someone else, I always find those people are quick to fill in the blanks for me. I recall how intimidating it was to start a blog in 2013, simply because people often give in to their worst impulses online. I wanted no part of that.

Thankfully, I have encountered almost no hostility on this blog. To be honest, I don't know if I have ever had to deal with anything unpleasant from readers. You have all been very kind. 

That's why I thought it would be a good time to express my gratitude to you all now, rather than wait for some other arbitrary even number.  

 

 

My family's history in the railways is what sparked my lifelong interest. But everyone who has dropped by this blog is what has kept me going. We live in a time when railways are not nearly as colourful as they once were. We also live in a time when civility is sadly at a premium. That is why I value everyone that has helped me along the way. This blog is in my name, but it is the work of everyone who came before me and is as much the product of your contributions as it is mine.

 

Thank you.

 

Michael

 

hammmond DOT michael77 At gmail DOT com

GO Trains return to Stratford, but what about Ottawa?

The recent news that Metrolinx is once again extending its GO Train service to Stratford, Ont., well west of Kitchener-Waterloo, got me to thinking about Ottawa's beleaguered rail transit service. My thought was, if GO Trains can regularly operate between Toronto as far west as Stratford, what's preventing Metrolinx from applying the same logic to Ottawa? 

A shot of an evening GO Train making its way through Stratford in summer 2023. That pilot service was cancelled soon after this photo was taken.

For those who might not know, the province agreed to work with Ottawa so that Metrolinx would take over operation of the O-Train. That arrangement has led Metrolinx to send new axles for Line 1 O-Train sets that had been damaged due to spalling issues. We need not get into the many, many issues that have plagued Ottawa's east-west Line 1, formerly known as the Confederation Line. Rails not properly installed, axle issues, catenary failures, door jamming problems and weather delays are just a few problems that have reduced the line's schedule many times since it launched. 

The end result is the city's electrified rail transit line is notoriously unreliable and the winters make the problem worse. The state of the line is such that, trains now have to slow at various curves to avoid derailing and causing further damage. The trainsets, which were once coupled end to end, are now single sets, due to the same track issues.

The eastern extension of Line 1, all the way into Orleans, is set to open this year. The western extension, which will reach as far as Crystal Beach at Corkstown Road, will take more time. 

 

A commuter waits for the next eastbound trainset on Line 1 in March.

So, here's my thought. How about some sort of GO Train service here in Ottawa?

The city has already committed to seeing the second phase of the Line 1 extension through to completion, essentially linking Orleans with Crystal Beach. Fine. The missing piece here is how to serve the booming west end of the city, namely Kanata and Stittsville? Also, how to properly serve Barrhaven, which is a city in and of itself?  

I suggest that, instead of extending the problematic electrified Line 1 operations, make use of existing track and serve Barrhaven and western Ottawa with diesel trains. 

Metrolinx knows how to do this. I'm not saying that we should see massively long double-decker GO Train consists like we do in the GTA, but who's to say we couldn't extend a slightly modified diesel service throughout the city along our lightly-used tracks?

Possibly the answer would be to use the existing diesel trainsets that are currently in use on Line 2, or the Trillium Line, which now runs from Bayview all the way out to Riverside South. 

A northbound diesel O-Train makes its way past the Walkley Diamond en route to Bayview Station in early spring 2025

This is why I think it could work, if there was a will. Consider the trackage we have in the city that is greatly underutilized, to say the least. Using the city's Via Station on Tremblay Road as a possible starting point, consider the possibilities of heavy rail going west. The one challenge would be to time all diesel O-Train runs between Ottawa's westbound corridor train departures in the morning and its eastbound arrivals in the evening. This is possible, as Via has installed a passing siding at Wass, and there is also a possibility of holding trains at Federal Junction, where the Beachburg Sub connects to the Smiths Falls Sub.

Using the Beachburg Sub from Tremblay through to North Kanata*, Ottawa has the potential to connect vast neighbourhoods with hundreds of thousands of people.

Beachburg could easily host stations where the tracks pass over Merivale Road, Woodroffe Avenue and possibly Greenbank Road. After Greenbank, there would be a possibility at multiple points to connect Bells Corners, after which the train could make its way to March Road in Kanata via the Renfrew Spur (* Then, if there was a will to reconnect the Beachburg line from the old Nepean Junction, the Beachburg Sub could link North Kanata, where many people work in the North Kanata Business Park). 

And we all know CN would desperately like to be rid of the burden of maintaining what little trackage it still owns in Ottawa. 

Easy, right?

No. 

The bridge over Carling Avenue that once took the Beachburg Sub into Kanata and beyond is gone. The rails from Nepean Junction running northwest are long gone. That part of the plan would require time, money and planning.

I haven't even mentioned the Smiths Falls Sub so far, but I don't think it's unreasonable at all to assume that diesel service couldn't be extended to Fallowfield Station, as there is already a Park and Ride facility there. Fallowfield Station was originally designed to be a commuter rail stop anyway. Why not use it for its intended purpose? The passing siding is already there.

What about laying tracks on the former Carleton Place Sub, which would link Bells Corners to Stittsville, where tens of thousands of people could make use of a link to the downtown? That old trackage was initially acquired by the former Ottawa-Carleton region as a possible commuter option. 

A meet between two Via corridor trains in May 2023 shows that this station was originally designed to be a frequent stop for commuter rail. Its name was meant to connect it to the Fallowfield Park and Ride facility, where people can park and take the bus.

 

The Barrhaven part of any diesel extension would be far easier to accommodate, as the rails are in place and the station is well established, with perhaps only some small changes to be made on the platform. You can see how Via stations operate side-by-side with commuter trains throughout the GTA and even at Dorval in Montreal.

 

I guess my point is, before the city doubles down on its electrified O-Train service, which most agree has been a failure, why not extend a proven technology? Diesel O-Trains work well and are almost never out of service. GO Trains or some form of heavy commuter trains (nor LRT, in other words) can withstand the Ottawa winters. There is no catenary to maintain.

 

Better yet, Metrolinx knows how to operate diesel commuter service in the GTA. Why not let this organization do what it can do, but here in Ottawa?

 

How could it possibly be worse than what we have in place now?