An alternate history of rails in the Ottawa Valley

There is no shortage of lamentations online about the state of railways in the Ottawa Valley and loss of much-loved rail lines. The other day, I found myself in Bells Corners with a few minutes to spare, so I sat trackside, hoping to catch CN 589 on its way back from Arnprior. The train never showed, but I began to think of some documents I read years ago from the Canadian Transportation Agency about the Renfrew Spur, a long stretch of track, between the former Nepean Junction and Arnprior, that would be long gone by now if CN had its way. Strangely enough, you can thank the Canadian Pacific Railway (okay, CPKC if you want to get technical) for the survival of the former Renfrew Subdivision.

Long story short, in 1987, CN applied to discontinue service on what was then known as the Renfrew Subdivision because the railway claimed it lost more than $328,000 per year on the line. The reasons were pretty obvious. Its one main customer was Nylene Canada (formerly BASF), which required weekly service, mostly one to three tank cars of caprolactum from Texas. CN, in its filings to the CTA, said there weren't enough customers on the line to justify continued service. In 1987, there were less than 100 car movements on the line. Hardly worth the price of maintaining the tracks for a large railway.

Read the specific details of this line's status from my earlier post.

At the time, the Teamsters Union claimed that Sullivan's Lumber in Carp (later Rona) and a flour mill both wanted rail service, but nothing seemed to come of the union's claims.

Instead, there were discussions with both CN and CP over how Nylene Canada would continue to get rail service in a way that didn't cost a railway money. When you consider that the Renfrew trackage now runs roughly 50 kilometres from what was once Nepean Junction (where the Beachburg Sub once veered northwest toward Fitzroy Harbour and beyond) out to the Nylene plant, you understand that this is a lot of infrastructure to maintain for one eastern and western movement a week. 

At some point in these proceedings, it was decided that Nylene must have rail service, as the cost of shipping caprolactum by truck wasn't worth it for the company, which remains a major employer in Arnprior to this day. So the issue was how would the plant get served and which railway would provide the service in a way that was workable for everyone involved?

In 1987, Arnprior had both the Renfrew Subdivision and CP's Chalk River Subdivision running through the town. At the time, neither line could be described as a critical stretch of track, but CP did still use its Chalk River Sub for through freight, even if there was little to no trackside business. Also, Via Rail used the Chalk River Sub, as well as the CP Carleton Place Sub, for the Canadian, which once ran through Ottawa all the way to Montreal.

We all know how the story ends. We don't know what happened during this time between the government and the two railways, but we know the discussions over rail service to the Arnprior plant ended with the decision that CN would continue to serve the plant, instead of CP. But here's the question that I find intriguing. What if it was decided that CP would serve Nylene Canada?

If the Canadian Transportation Agency's discussions about rail service to Nylene Canada resulted in CP being the railway to provide the service, would there have been an Arnpior Turn originating in Smiths Falls? It might have happened.
 

Here are the possible scenarios that could have resulted from this decision, including my take on how likely they would be in a parallel universe.

1. CP would have retained part of the Chalk River Subdivision. (LIKELY) I think this could have been a likely scenario. Would the track have been owned by CP or would the land have been sold to local governments and the rails sold to Nylene? Possibly over time. But what makes this scenario less likely is the fact that, at the time the decision was made in 1987, the Chalk River Subdivision still hosted daily through freights as well as the Canadian. That's a far different situation than what CN was facing with the Renfrew Subdivision, which essentially hosted nothing but a weekly freight out to Arnprior and back. Possibly the Chalk River track would have remained a CP concern. 

2. CP would have retained the entire Chalk River Subdivision. (FAIRLY UNLIKELY) The other fascinating question would be if this weekly service, as mandated by the CTA, have caused CP to rethink its plans to abandon the Chalk River Sub in 2010-11? I ask this because possibly the weekly Arnprior service would have ensured that the subdivision between Smiths Falls and Arnprior remained in place. If that was the case, possibly Via Rail could have come in to maintain the remainder of the track to ensure the Canadian had its connection to Ottawa and beyond. And if that scenario seems possible, would it be a stretch for CP to keep running through freights on this line as a guest on a Via line? Or would the Ottawa Valley Railway still be involved on the sub? There are a lot of factors to consider here, but I think it might have happened.

The issue working against this possibility is that Via Rail did not have multiple trains using this line. Think about Via Rail's ownership of the old CN Smiths Falls Sub and the old CP Brockville Sub. These two lines see many movements a day, which makes sense for Via Rail to own and maintain them. The Chalk River Sub is not in the same league as these other lines. I think the entire track would likely not have made it.

3. CP would have retained the Carleton Place Subdivision. (UNLIKELY) This is where the alternate history gets a little murkier. Remember that Via Rail used the Carleton Place Sub and the Chalk River Sub as its route for the Canadian up until 1990. If CP had been forced to provide service to Arnprior, which would have necessitated a major stretch of the Chalk River Sub to be saved, would it mean that the Carleton Place Sub would have been saved? I don't think it would have saved this piece of track, which is but a memory now.

The reason I think this line was doomed no matter what was because it was essentially in the same situation as CN's Renfrew Subdivision, with no freight activity. In its final days, it was hosting Via Rail and nothing else. The discontinuance documents show the line had two car loads in and out in 1986 and nothing else afterward. This document from 1988 shows that CP was essentially losing anywhere from $250,000 to nearly $500,000 a year on this stretch of track, even though Via and officials from Carleton Place wanted the line kept in place. Notice from the document that the former Region of Ottawa-Carleton did not take a position on the rail line, but asked for the right of first refusal to buy the land.

My guess is that the Canadian, if it still had access to the Chalk River Sub and was running through to Montreal, would have gone to Smiths Falls and switched onto the old CN Smiths Falls Sub, where it could then continue on its way to Ottawa and then Montreal. It's fascinating to consider that train stopping at Fallowfield Station.

Is the platform at Fallowfield long enough for the Canadian? It's interesting to consider.

 

4. CN would have torn up the Renfrew Subdivision (SURE THING) There's no doubt at all that the Renfrew Sub would have been a goner had the CTA decision on rail service to Arnprior been different. Most likely, the land would have either been converted to a trail or sold off in parts of the city where it could be developed, like in Kanata. As it stands today, the line is still in place, with a 10 mph speed limit, giving you an idea of the condition of the rails. 

The final factor to consider in this alternate history is the fact that CPKC now has a transcontinental link across Canada re-established. Given that CP can run trains all the way out to port in New Brunswick, possibly there could have been consideration to keeping the Chalk River Sub in place or at least re-establishing a connection between Chalk River and Arnprior, if that part of the line saw a discontinuance even with the CP service to Nylene.

 

Of course, in the early 1990s, no one could have foreseen CP relinquishing its cross-Canada network only to reacquire it years later, but it's fascinating to think what might be possible if CP had been mandated to serving Nylene in Arnprior.

Let's begin at the end

I'm old enough to remember when freight trains had cabooses at the end. I remember, in fact, the union campaign, Trains are safer with a caboose. Of course, the march of progress was unstoppable and the caboose went the way of the dodo on many railways in the 1980s. CSX maintained them on the Sarnia Subdivision until the early 1990s, which was cool for me when I watched trains when younger.

So imagine my surprise on June 8 when I heard the Arnprior Turn (CN 589) making its way through my neighbourhood and I decided to follow it, only to see this at the end. It was a GTW 79047 caboose still in its original scheme. Of course, there was no crew in the cupola, or even in the caboose. The car is clearly being used for shoving moves, giving the conductor a safe platform to watch the tracks ahead.

Of course, this isn't the first time CN has made use of an old caboose in its Ottawa operations. CN has made use of an former Devco caboose and the famous Millennium caboose in past years. Walkley Yard even hosted an old CN caboose hitched to an old RDC unit, both of which were owned by a company in Toronto and patched DAWX.

Over the course of my wanderings trackside, I did see CN using the infamous Millennium caboose once when it was shunting cars in Walkley Yard. I just managed to get this shot from the end of Albion Road on public property.

I will get into the history of CN's cabooses in its Ottawa operations in my next post, but for now, let's just admire the fact that the railway has used more than one caboose locally over the course of the last 10 years. It's an anomoly for sure, but not unexpected, given that there is a significant amount of shoving operations that the railway needs to perform in this area.

On June 8, I would not have caught up to the train if not for the fact that the crew stopped at a private crossing before March Road to grab a coffee at Tim Hortons, which sits trackside along the Renfrew Spur. That allowed me to park near the Tims and get some shots from March Road, like this head-on shot, which is not possible usually. The skies washed out on this shot, given the angle of the sun but I did manage to frame the trackside sign. You can just make out a railfan to the left of the shot. He had a camera set up on a tripod on the private crossing, which is blocked to vehicles.

Right when the train was easing to a stop, I took a quick photo of the two units from across Carling Avenue. I noticed the GATX unit doesn't seem to be a leased unit anymore. It's patched CN 4905, which suggests to me that the unit is now CN property.

 

As the train slowly made its way toward March Road, I tried to get some shots of the overall consist, which featured four tank cars loaded with caprolactum and the GT caboose bringing up the rear.

CN continues to use two GP38s on its run to Arnprior, including the GATX unit, which has been a common site in Eastern Ontario for the last several years. The March Road crossing offers a fairly unobstructed view of the Renfrew Spur right-of-way, although you do have to position your shots around a few guy wires and trackside poles. But at least the crossing gives you clearance against the trackside shrubbery, which can ruin your shots.

This is a shot of the March Road crossing, which gives you a better shot of the GATX unit. This is the first time I have captured anything at this crossing. Now that I know what I'm facing here, I will definitely come back, if the chance presents itself.

Even though I was on the sunny side of the train, this side of the caboose was not nearly as photogenic as the other side, which sat in the shadows. There was no graffiti on the other side, while this side was pretty marked up. 

Not knowing if I would ever see this old relic again, I tried to get it from as many angles as I could, including this profile shot, which gives you a view of the entire train as it makes its way slowly east toward the Huntmar crossing and eventually, Arnprior.

One final shot as the train made its way west. I don't take a lot of vertical shots but I took quite a few this past week, which made for some interesting shots. All in all, it was a lucky meet, as I decided at the last minute to chase this train on my break from work and caught it only because of its unscheduled stop near March Road.

It was quite a week for the Arnprior Turn, as it was featured in a story on CTV Ottawa's local newscast. The message that Nylene Canada was delivering was nothing new. There's 40 kilometres of track that the company owns that is being used by one customer. The company would obviously like to see more customers use rail service. It's a great idea in theory, but as readers of this blog know, Nylene has made this pitch before to the Ottawa Sun. I mentioned that story, which was behind a paywall, in this blog entry from 2014.  

I guess I'm skeptical that this latest pitch will get anywhere, since CN is a reluctant service provider in this case, as it is mandated to provide this service to Nylene. If CN does indeed pull out of Ottawa, as it has publicly stated that it wants to do, who steps in? All of the publicity in the world won't help if there is no railway company to provide the service.

Almonte: A town proud of its rail heritage

This post is the first in a rail history series I intend to extend through 2017 as we celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

It's been six years since Canadian Pacific trains have thundered through Almonte, Ontario, a picturesque town just southwest of Ottawa in Lanark County. The town, which is now known as a haven for tech entrepreneurs, has been a railway town since before Confederation. Having been settled in 1818, due to the Mississippi River rapids that powered several mills, Almonte was first served by the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. In 1864, the railway opened an extension between Almonte and Arnprior, which connected the Grand Trunk in Brockville with the timber concerns in the Ottawa Valley, all the way up to the Ottawa River at Sand Point.

Over the years, Almonte's numerous mills, many of them involved in textiles, were served by the B&O and its successors. That was because the B&O quickly ran into financial trouble when it extended its line to Arnprior. The Canada Central was given the rights to build rail further up the Ottawa Valley, which it did. By 1881, the Canada Central reached Mattawa, which would form an important part of the backbone for the Canadian Pacific transcontinental mainline. CP purchased the CCR in 1881, which essentially established railway service for Almonte for the next 120 plus years.

This shot, above, is one of the earliest photos I could find of the railway in Almonte. Amazingly, this scene would not change much over the next hundred plus years, as much of the town's 19th century buildings were preserved, This image, from Library and Archives Canada, is undated, but would likely date back to the early 1900s or the turn of the century. The only information listed on the photograph states that the train is passing a flour mill on the Mississippi River.

Unfortunately, Almonte's railway history is best known for a horrific crash that happened on Dec. 27, 1942. On that day, in bad weather, a troop train bringing soldiers from the Canadian West slammed into the back of a local, which was carrying passengers from various Ottawa Valley towns to Ottawa for the evening. The crash killed 30 people, all in the local. A number of factors were blamed for the crash, but the largest cause was that the railway had no official in Pakenham to stop the troop train, which was gaining on the local. If the troop train had been stopped for 20 minutes, the crash would have been prevented.

This shot, from the National Archives, shows the aftermath of the crash. There is a plaque near the site of the crash in Almonte, which honours the 39 people killed and remembers the bravery of local residents and soldiers in the troop train, who worked to help 150 people who were injured in the crash.

Almonte's rail history sadly no longer includes the old Canadian Pacific station. It's unfortunate that the station didn't get saved, given how much of the town's 1800s-era stone structures have been faithfully preserved.

However, you need only look at the rail bridge over the Mississippi River today to see what impact the railway had on this town.

This shot, above, is from the Canada Science and Technology Museum archives. I would say this shot is probably from the early to mid 1980s, given the prominence of the large multimark on two of the three units and the yellow reefer boxcar.

This shot, above, also gives you an idea of the importance of the rail line that went through Almonte. The Chalk River Subdivision was a strategic line for CP for years, as it gave the railway a connection between its northern main line in eastern Canada with its more southerly main line, which in Eastern Ontario is the Winchester Subdivision. Just like CN had with the Beachburg Subdivision, CP used the Chalk River Sub as its northern main line through the Ottawa Valley.

But, just like the Beachburg Sub, the Chalk River Sub was soon deemed too expensive to operate, since most of CP's traffic to Montreal was concentrated through its southern route through Toronto. This made the northern main line rails through the Ottawa Valley obsolete (see also the CP Prescott Subdivision).

In 1996, the Ottawa Valley Railway began operating on trackage between Sudbury and Smiths Falls after leasing the lines from CP. The arrangement meant that freight from the west still travelled over CP's northern route, as CP was a major source of carloads for OVR. That arrangement worked well for OVR until 2009, when CP stopped using this northern route for its eastbound freight, which cut the carloads for OVR from 4000 to 1000 (OVR, which is now a Genesee &Wyoming concern, continues to operate between Sudbury and Temiscaming, Quebec)

An interesting side note to this abandonment is that CFB Petawawa is no longer served by rail. At one point, the military base used both CP and CN (later the Ottawa Central) for delivery of some of its equipment. This made for some pretty interesting movements.

By the end of 2009, OVR's parent railway bailed out on operations in the Ottawa Valley and CP proceeded to start the process of abandoning the Chalk River Sub. Municipalities fought to save the line, none more so than Mississippi Mills, the municipality that includes Almonte. Those efforts failed, as is often the case, and all that is left of the Chalk River Sub now are memories and, in some spots, a recreational trail. This is what has been happening in Almonte, as efforts have been made to develop this section of the old rail line into a trail. Lanark County has leased the old rail line from CP and has recently begun the process to buy the old right-of-way. Meetings were held in January to update the public on how this trail will take shape.

1956 scene from Almonte's old railway station

On a personal note, I am happy to say that I was lucky enough to see trains roll through Almonte a few years ago. The sight of freights rumbling over the Mississippi River is one of the best moments you would have had as a railfan in Eastern Ontario.

Now, all you can do is relive the experience via YouTube. This is one of many railfanning videos you will find at the EasternOntarioTracks YouTube channel, which I highly recommend if you are looking for a nice variety of railway action in this part of the province.

Who killed the train in the Ottawa Valley?

These past few weeks have been frustrating for me as an Ottawa rail fan. I was twice able to leave the house early to try and catch the one weekly freight train that travels over this blog's namesake subdivision. Only to be disappointed.

As I spent time waiting for the train that never came, I began to wonder, are railways in any way relevant in the Ottawa Valley anymore? And who or what killed the train in this region? As I pondered those questions this week, I surprised myself with some of the conclusions I reached.

This deer was the only thing I saw on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 16, as I waited for the Arnprior local.

My first conclusion is that, despite everything that has happened since the 1950s, railways are still very much relevant in the Ottawa Valley, more specifically Ottawa, although the impact of the decisions in decades past are now being felt more than ever. What I mean is that trains, specifically passenger trains, could be relevant in the Valley, if the infrastructure was still in place. I won't wax on about the possibilities if the CN northern main line and CP Chalk River Sub were still in place. The reality is they are gone and for good reason. Rail lines need heavy industry trackside and other rail-friendly businesses in order to thrive. This, in turn, allows passenger lines to thrive by extension. The sad reality is globalization has killed many small-scale manufacturing businesses that were once common throughout Canada. Railways, specifically CN and CP, have become continental long-haul railways that do a good job moving imported goods from port to major centres, not to mention moving bulk commodities from their source to refineries and the market. These railways are not in business to provide local services on local spurs.

So, why do I think railways are still relevant in Ottawa? Well, it's clear that Via Rail is doing quite well in Ottawa, as evidenced by the opening of its second local passenger station, Fallowfield, in 2001. More recently, major track improvements have been made in the city, including a new passing siding at Wass. Via's local schedule of trains departing for and arriving from Toronto and Montreal is impressive. This is Via's third busiest hub. That says something.

Typical busy day at Ottawa's main railway station, April 2014.

The distance between Montreal and Ottawa is such that driving between these cities is no big deal. But the train still thrives between these cities because it is not all that convenient to drive to either city during rush hour and it's certainly not advisable to drive in either city's downtown core without a solid game plan.

This reminds me of European railways. They connect neighbouring cities where cars aren't always a feasible means of transportation. For this reason, Ottawa's passenger rail service will more than likely continue to be strong, government willing.

This leaves one question in my mind: What happened to the towns in the Valley that once had a reliable rail link? This is where I think you can make several arguments, but I think it's more easily explained by a chain of events. To be clear, the loss of passenger trains in the Valley isn't as cut and dried, or as romantic, as railfans would have you believe. It's simple economics. The rail lines in the Valley became less busy for freight railways, driven by the same economic factors that have hallowed out manufacturing towns in eastern North America for decades. In CN's case, a northern main line was overly expensive to maintain, particularly through stretches like Algonquin Park.

A CN freight train passes over a shoo-fly track near Moodie Drive in 1973. This rail line now hosts one round-trip per week (Canada Science and Technology Museum).

Once the freight railways lost business on lines like the Beachburg and Chalk River subs, passenger rail was in trouble. There were two reasons why these passenger trains have disappeared. The first reason is simple: passenger trains travel over CN and CP tracks at the whim of these freight railways. Once a line is redundant to a freight railway, Via's chances of keeping that route are slim. Ask those who fought to have that rail line in New Brunswick retained for Via's service there (happily, the line was retained, but not without lots of drama). More close to home, the Canadian travelled on CP's Carleton Place Sub only until CP decided it wasn't worth keeping that line around.

The second reason passenger trains have disappeared are closely tied to the first. When business dries up in these small towns, the very nature of these towns change. Unless these towns manage to reinvent themselves as tourist hotspots or in some other way, their economy suffers. The demand for rail travel diminishes as there are fewer reasons to go to these towns by train.

We can't overlook the obvious fact that passenger rail in small towns has also been affected by the development of bigger, better, safer highways, even in fairly remote areas in the upper Ottawa Valley. This was a continental trend, which has resulted in a number of problems in American cities where freeways have destroyed neighbourhoods and segmented cities. But for towns in the Valley, highway construction has become the main form of local transportation.

Finally, deregulation made it much easier for CN and CP to dispose of rail lines that were not profitable, including the Beachburg, Chalk River, Ellwood, Prescott and Lachute subdivisions, all lines that were once prominent in the region. Of course, this factor is not unique to Ottawa. Rail fans in every corner of the country can point to a line close to home that has since been abandoned. The complicating factor for rail fans is that the Canadian government does not have strong legislation that prevents railways from ripping up track when there is a compelling local case to be made for retaining those rails. For example, if the city wanted to save Beachburg for whatever reason but could not immediately afford the asking price, there would be little to stop CN from ripping up the track. The situation in the United States seems much easier for local groups who are interested in retaining rail lines.

All these factors have combined to make stops like Carleton Place, Almonte, Perth, Arnprior, Pembroke, Petawawa but a memory.

The question that I often have when I think of these old train stops is what do people do for a living in some of these more remote towns (Petawawa being the exception, everybody knows it's a military town)? The businesses close, the rails disappear but these towns persist. What keeps these towns alive? Some exist as bedroom communities for people who commute to Ottawa, but the others struggle. It's a question that I cannot answer.

CN Rapido service on the Beachburg Subdivision in 1972 (Canada Science and Technology Museum)

We cannot discount how much of an impact the Greber Plan has had in driving railways out of Ottawa. The plan, for those who might not know, was devised by what is now the National Capital Commission in the 1950s. The plan called for the removal of most railway lines from the central part of Ottawa. Most of those lines were removed in the late 1960s, including the main passenger line to Ottawa's former Union Station downtown. The beautification scheme mostly made sense, since there were too many rail lines in Ottawa, including a large rail yard where much of the University of Ottawa's more modern campus now sits. It makes no sense to have such a large railway presence and related industries so close to the Parliamentary precinct.

But, I truly believe anyone who is fair minded would agree that the plan went too far. Having a passenger rail link in Ottawa's downtown core makes more sense today than ever. Via still does quite well in this city. The value a railway brings to a city like Ottawa very much depends on its ability to deliver passengers to the downtown core. Railways understood this 100 years ago and Via understands this today. If you have to drive out to an airport on the edge of town, pay a king's ransom for parking or cab fare, arrive hours early to clear security and check your baggage and wait for your plane to take off after it taxis behind a string of other planes, you will begin to consider the train as a viable form of transportation.

Ottawa's main station is perched in no man's land, beside the Queensway, without an efficient link to the highway. On the station's back side is a massive big box store development (former railway land); on another side, a busy four lane divided arterial road; on another side a cluster of small-scale office buildings and shops. Just beyond that small industrial area is a small subdivision with streets named after the letters of the alphabet. You get the idea. Imagine if the city still had use of its Union Station downtown. Granted, it would infringe on parkland near the canal, but I have never understood how having a busy parkway on either side of the canal makes any more sense than having a single railway track.

As an example of a city where this arrangement works, allow me to submit for your consideration, Quebec City.

Quebec City's Via Rail Terminal in August 2010.

This station, much like Ottawa's old Union Station, is an architectural marvel very close to old Quebec. I would imagine if Ottawa had retained a rail connection along the lines of the one in Quebec, residents would come to appreciate having such a connection in the heart of their city. But the car-crazy 1960s beautification scheme that transformed Ottawa will never permit this to happen. And make no mistake, the Greber Plan was very much geared toward creating major car thoroughfares. Anyone who sees the truck traffic on Rideau Street or the patchwork quilt of roads and abandoned stores behind the Rideau Centre mall in the downtown can thank the Greber Plan in part for this mess.

Also, the existence of the Queensway and the Vanier Parkway are both largely thanks to the use of railway lands and tracks for roads. In many respects, these thoroughfares are a product of a time when highways were seen as a showpiece of a modern city. Just look at some of the original renderings of the Queensway and you will see the vision, however flawed, that planners had at the time.

The city did do one very smart thing with old railway tracks when it created the bus-only Transitway. This rapid bus road crosses much of the city with very minimal stoppages, allowing commuters a convenient option for getting to and from work. The system has flaws, of course, like the bottleneck of buses in the old city core, where the Transitway makes use of downtown arterial streets, but on the whole, it's an excellent system. When I heard that politicians wanted a light rail system and wanted to operate it through downtown with a tunnel, I scratched my head and wondered why the same consideration wasn't given to buses. After all, the city already has much of the Transitway infrastructure in place and buses offer more flexibility than trains for commuters. No matter what your view of the new light rail system, you can't deny that using old railway lines for a bus road was a silver lining to the worst elements of the Greber Plan.

So, for those keeping track, those are all the elements that I believe led us to where we're at today. Economic forces have caused a great deal of industry to leave the Ottawa Valley, which includes pulp and paper, manufacturing and other commodities that freight railways used to rely on for revenue. Once those businesses closed, the freight railways scaled back their operations and eventually abandoned their rights-of-way. That in turn has killed passenger rail along those rail lines. Those economic factors combined with an anti-rail development plan in Ottawa, which further reduced the rail network's prominence in the region. Deregulation further eroded the national railway presence in the Valley.

The more recent developments include CN taking over for former shortline Ottawa Central and subsequently tearing up much of the remaining Beachburg Subdivision between Pembroke and Nepean Junction.

That moves leaves several remaining industries along that former line and the shortened Renfrew Spur (wood pellet plant in Portage-du-Fort, aerospace manufacturing facility in Arnprior and other businesses without rail service) with no other option than to use trucks. Despite efforts to re-establish rail service on the old Beachburg line, the rails are gone and the last remaining rails in the Valley are now only a memory.

Switcher and two old cabooses in Pembroke, 1973. That rails in this Ottawa Valley community are now gone.

All this leaves the question in my mind, what's next for railways in Ottawa? I think there is reason for faint hope and here's why.

The first reason there could be hope is that Ottawa is busy re-establishing rails for a 2018 launch of its electrified commuter rail service. While this won't have any impact on the Valley's rail network on a larger basis, it will at least bring railways back into prominence in the city. There was some talk years ago of freight railways using the city's LRT line for freight operations outside the hours of O-Train operation. I don't see this happening anytime soon, but it at least raises the possibility that it could happen, if there was a willing partner.

I think it's highly probable that a shortline operator could return to Ottawa in the future, if there is a business case to be made. Currently, I don't think there's enough carloads or traffic to entice a shortline operator along the lines of the Ottawa Central. But I think that if the CN was given a chance to leave Ottawa, it would leave in an instant for the right price. It's fairly common knowledge that CN had very little interest in returning to this city when it was given control of the OCR as part of a package of railway operations it purchased in 2008. It seems to me that Ottawa would be a natural fit as an intermodal hub, since our city is the largest urban centre this far north and could potentially act as a gateway hub for cities further north. American railways have followed this model, but CP and CN seem content to funnel their container trains to the major centres exclusively. Perhaps Ottawa is too close to Montreal for any container train facilities. But it seems like a good spot for a regional container offloading spot where trains offload container trains and trucks take them to cities throughout the Valley and into Northern Ontario.

Finally, if there was ever the political will to do so, I think Ottawa would be an integral part of a high-speed rail corridor. We seem to have lost our interest in nation building exercises, which include high-speed rail links. Thinking of the last attempt at a project of this scale, one might be able to make a case for the Trans-Canada Highway as the most recent example. I am encouraged that other countries have pursued high-speed rail with some success. Heck, if the United States can do it in California (so far anyway), then surely it's not out of the question for Canada to pursue this. But that would require the political will, which is the tricky part.

A few backers have suggested that Ottawa and its surrounding municipalities could benefit from a GO Transit model that would deliver commuters to Ottawa via commuter trains, but the appetite for that type of system has not attracted any political backers, sadly.

Unfortunately, Ottawa has been spoiled by half a century of not really having to live alongside an active rail network. Most people in the city have very little idea of just how much potential Ottawa's rail network holds. The current LRT love-in among city politicians notwithstanding, there is very little understanding of railways in Ottawa.

So, that's my take on what's happened to the rails in the Valley and what might be ahead for this form of transportation. To answer the question I first posed in the title, no single factor or person killed rail in the Ottawa Valley, but I think a number of bad decisions need to be rectified if there is to be any realistic future for this mode of transportation here.

Beyond my self interest as a rail fan, the benefits of a healthy rail system to any major city are obvious, even beyond the benefits for inter-city passenger rail. Anyone who sees the truck traffic on Highway 401 or Highways 416 and 417 can attest to the stress this puts on the highways. I'm not saying that trains would ever overtake trucks for short-haul cargo traffic, but I do think a healthy rail corridor could have prevented the flood of trucks we now see on highways here.

And to close the loop on my anecdote, I decided to head back out in the afternoon to catch the Arnprior local returning from Nylene Canada and finally had some success. This picture below, in  the context of this post, represents what is left in the western Ottawa Valley. This train is all that is left of railways in an area that was once very much defined by railways.

More on this meet in a future post.

The late great passenger trains in the Ottawa Valley

Fellow blogger Eric Gagnon has written a post that should be of interest to Beachburg Sub readers. He has written about passenger trains he rode over Ottawa Valley rails, including the much lamented Carleton Place Sub. I highly recommend checking out this week's Trackside Treasure post. This blog, incidentally, is "the definitive source for Canadian Railway Enlightenment." I should know. I won Eric's slogan contest with that slogan.

Hard to believe passenger trains, including The Canadian, used to operate over this trackage. The CP Carleton Place Sub is seen, left, at Bells Junction, where it branched off from the CN Beachburg Subdivision.

You can read Eric's post by clicking here.

You can read this week's regular Beachburg Sub post here.

Updated: End of the line for Beachburg Subdivision

Well, it's finally happening. The last remnants of CN's former transcontinental main line through Ottawa are being taken up in the city's northwest end. The Beachburg Subdivision north of Nepean Junction will be history in a few weeks. A couple of readers have alerted me to the presence of the continuous welded rail work train in the region. I had the chance to go and see this train on Sunday, Nov. 9.

Over the weekend, work had halted. Thanks to information from a local rail watcher (thanks Ray), I was told the work train was parked at the rural Stonecrest Road level crossing near milepost 30.0, northwest of Dunrobin. I made my way out to this secluded spot and was immediately struck by the rugged character of the the area. The path to the crossing was hilly, twisty and generally hemmed in by trees. This was about as rural as you can get within the city limits.

When I arrived at the crossing, there was a bit of a clearing and the sun was shining. You could immediately see the end of the work train by the crossing, being guarded by a lone CN employee. I spoke to him briefly and he told me I was allowed to take photos from the road. He also told me that work was to recommence on Tuesday morning. Given how much progress has been made to date, I would not be surprised if the rest of this stretch of track was gone in a few weeks.

Given the area where the work train is parked is heavily wooded, getting a shot of the entire string of cars was impossible, so I had to try and capture the consist with some condensed vertical shots. Luckily, the afternoon sun was in the perfect spot for me to get some of these shots. You can see in the shot above that there is some rail still in the process of being fed into the CWR cars.

I managed to capture some shots of the yellow work cars at the end of the train (above), but that was about all I could capture in terms of long horizontals. You can see the rail being fed into the CWR cars in this shot as well.

The above shot was taken from the crossing. The road was very quiet when I arrived, so taking shots from the middle of the crossing was pretty easy. You can see that this line has been left to its own devices for a number of years, as the ballast is largely lost in overgrowth.

Above, the dreaded CWR cars, especially for a train-starved railfan in Ottawa.

This shot gives you an idea of the immediate surroundings at this level crossing. Two CN trucks had been parked at the side of the road since the train had halted its work. Both had Quebec licence plates, so I'm guessing the railway sent work crews in from Montreal to take apart this line.

 



 

This final shot pretty much sums up the sad end for this once vital piece of CN's network. A threader was left locked in place, with a small stretch of rail yet to be fed onto the train. Beyond the loose rail, you can see the abandoned right-of-way, which will no doubt soon become a snowmobile trail. This shot gives you an idea of the types of grade crews would have had to manage on this line, when it was a transcontinental line and then part of the Ottawa Central Railway.

 

And with that, another piece of the Ottawa Valley's railway history is removed. I can't help but wonder what might have happened to this line, if Ottawa Central hadn't been purchased by CN. Many rail watchers here have grumbled over the years that CN only purchased OCR to get its hands on the actual rails, so it could use them elsewhere in its network.

 

I also wonder what might have happened if efforts to establish the Transport Pontiac Renfrew shortline railway had been successful. I recall the former president of the OCR James Allen telling me a wood pellet plant in the Pontiac wanted rail service on this line, a prospect that promised (in his words) hundreds of car loads a year. But sadly, too much industry has been lost in the valley to support a railway line in this area.

 

The city did mention earlier this year that it would be interested in purchasing the old line for a possible recreational trail. Considering how remote this part of the city is, I doubt a trail in these parts would get much use for anything other than snowmobiles and ATVs.

 

This brings me to my final question. Given the level of interest in light rail in the city, you can't help but wonder if retaining this line for future regional rail use should have been seriously considered. This approach to rail is very common in the United States, but sadly not here.

 

And, as another line fades away, the city continues to wrangle over the next phases of its light rail dreams, which require expensive new rights-of-way in areas where rail once served.

 

For those looking to capture some of this work along Beachburg, the work will continue through this week into the weekend (from Nov. 11-16 or so). I invite readers in the Ottawa area to get out there and capture some of this before it's too late. On Tuesday, the train was nearing Torbolton Ridge Road. Wednesday will likely see the train nearing the Kinburn Side Road crossing. At this rate, it should be nearing Dunrobin in the coming days.