Canadian Pacific's Abandoned Railway lines
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- Video of the lines that are abandoned by Canadian Pacific in Southern Ontario. As with CN there are still several others that we did not include in this video. We wish we were alive to see these lines still in operation.
Music:
Illa Tidandi- Burzum
*All photos are property of the photographers and we were not given permission to use them*
***Check out part 1 and two of the CN series
***If you are interested in more pictures we recommend purchasing the book Singnature in Steel by Greg McDonnell***
It happens everywhere. In former Yugoslavia we had the biggest network of narrow gouge railways in Europe and now there is almost nothing left of it. Just couple of local lines x
I remember getting a call to work an extra yard out of John St roundhouse to switch those TH&B engines after CP bought them. They were re-built into the 8200's you see in some of the other photo's. I also remember sleeping in the Owen Sound station while working the 'Moonlight' assignment out of Toronto Yard.
Here in Pennsylvania CP gave up on their Sunbury Subdivision from Binghamton, N.Y. down thru Scranton to Sunbury, Pa. Now NS owns the line & runs alot of freight north or southbounds so they can get their trains up to New England connections. I remember the D&H freights lightning striped locomotives Geep 38's among their other motive power making their runs on the rail line. Do'nt remember the Pennsy days but do recall the ill fated operational days of the PC on the very same line back in the late 60's up to the 1972 flood.
Go to Canfield Jct (Station Road) back over the escarpment from Stoney Creek and you'll see the meeting place of three railway roadbeds. New York Central,CN Wasbash and the CN Buffalo and Lake Huron Rwy. What a shame they're gone!
Seeing all these abandoned lines reminds me all too much of my hometown of Lindsay Ontario. Once a major terminal for 6-7 major railway lines, now all reduced to dirt paths which are constantly having housing subdivisions built over them. So sad the way it turned out
It’s just sad how all of these railways have been torn out. This happens in a lot of places but I feel like this mainly happens in Canada. Also the Owen Sound Sub has been abandoned from Mile 2.2 Almost Streetsville all the way to Orangeville. The tracks are starting to get ripped up now.
This video hits hard in 2024. Back in the fall of 1998, my high school years, we walked over the Rainbow bridge to hang out at Clifton Hills then walked to and from Horseshoe Falls on the Montrose tracks and back to the Rainbow bridge. Never seen a train but that was a fun night and little did I know those tracks days were numbered.
The mixed train shot at 3:36 is gorgeous. Thanks for putting this out.
Melancholic. I love trains, especially the ones I remember from childhood. Everything changes, trucks and cars takeover, economies change, lines become unprofitable - why they were laid originally, don’t forget, not for sentiment - tracks are removed. Just part of the great ebb and flow. At least there are pictures and memories.
Very nicely done. Makes a guy kind of happy sad. I especially enjoyed the section you had on the abandoned section of the Montrose Sub. I grew up in the falls and train watching was a favorite activity. It was an especially rare treat to see the trains use the spur into the old nabisco plant, across victoria ave, near the intersection with clifton hill.
Or into the crane factory at the far end of Victoria Ave. Good times, sadly plowed under by "progress" and casinos. Enjoyed all the same! Thanks
I remember the Owen Sound line from when I was a kid going to the cottage..part of it runs along highway 6 or 10 whatever the main highway there is, and now it's gone. There used to be an old caboose sitting at a McDonalds in Owen Sound from that line.
Sad to see this The Railway here in New Brunswick went through this in the mid-ninties alot of CP's branchlines are gone and there is no such thing as railway in fredericton anymore the only remaining trackage is the CN mainline that cuts throught the province the VIA line. but on the upside the traffic has been up on the mainline the last 3 years and moncton saint john and the NBSR are a hotbed of activity now which is great.
It only makes me see the ghost or ghost trains of the past and reminds me of a few dreams I've had of these abandon lines and ghost trains. You looks back at a different time.
If you're able, check out the abandoned second main that the Milwaukee Road once had across northern Illinois between Elgin and Savanna on Canadian Pacific. The MILW had two tracks all the way across northern Illinois until 1977, when the reorganization that year trimmed many route miles from its once-expansive system. Following this and during the 1980s until it was acquired by the Soo Line, the Milwaukee Road kept its onetime second main intact between Genoa and New Lebanon, Davis Junction and Adeline as lengthy passing sidings. But under Canadian Pacific, these onetime passing sidings are no longer there and instead they have been retrenched to hold freights barely a mile long. Also, the line doesn't see the same amount of trains under Canadian Pacific that the Milwaukee Road had in the 1980s before the Soo Line era; CP has just one train each way daily between Chicago and the Quad Cities plus an infrequent extra to and from Mason City and an occasional unit train hauling ethanol
So sad to see. Arnprior Ontario is where i would go in the summer to stay with my grandparents, there used to be CN line that ran a mile from there house, i miss the trains that would come through on a nice summers day and excitement me and my cousins would get. The tracks more or less represented some great memories and now there gone, a real shame.
Its sad that so many rail lines have been abandoned and torn up. Im from Renfrew County and it hits close to home right now with CP recently abandoning the OVR (Ottawa Valley RailLink) short rail line. In Cobden ON all of the ties are pilled were once a main and 2 siding rails once laid for many years. :( Will you eve make a video of CP and OVR?
Tough not to shed a tear here. When I was 20 we walked into Canada from the US and got lost. We ended up walking the tracks at 6:33 to get back. So sad to see them gone now
You see, We use to make & manufacture things in Ontario, In small little towns. That required raw materials coming into these towns & finished products going out. When the globalists got their way this all stopped & brought the end to all this commerce & sadly the end to the rail links that tied all this together.... Sad indeed....
56pw A lot of the manufacturing places resorted to moving to the big cities and even worse overseas like China and Japan
I've been trying to tell people this for years!!!!! THANK YOU!
Nice video...It looks much like the old Milwaukie Rd back in the 70s...Over here in Oregon..The old Southern Pacific did the samething...Thanks
It's always sad to see tracks rusting away, and not being used.
so sad, the roads that carried people and goods are no longer needed. good video reminder!
It's a shame that we did not put more emphasis on developping railways instead of roadways... Rail is much more efficient, especially with a good, strong and integrated network...
The CP Chalk River Subdivision, is also an abandoned route.
I like this very much!!! I've been dying to take a day and burn some memory cards up! Excellent pictures!!! Thank you
So sad but very true, this has happened all over the world I guess,
i am from the states, I was 8 years old when they took the steam locomotive off the grand trunk line that ran just a 1/4 mile behind my home. put a small diesel on, ran it another 25 years, and shut that line down, and riped up the tracks.
....oh boy..............................sad ...I use to live right across from the CPR station in Owen Sound back in the early 1990...'s for a bit...The CP locomotives use to idle there . I remember the hot summers and cold winters watching them... and also watching the old freighters coming in to the grain elevators....Sad too the CNR on the other side was tore out too .I remember seeing trains on it too once in a while in the 80's .............
In the USA, there is at least one abandoned line on Canadian Pacific that comes to mind - parts of the former Milwaukee Road Southwestern Division in Wisconsin and Illinois. The places you can see the site of the former ROW are between Kansasville and Burlington, from Burlington west to Elkhorn, and from Bardwell Jct. on Wisconsin & Southern west to Clinton. Then there's the empty ROW west of Rockton to the junction at Kittredge near Lanark.
One important line in South Dakota that was embargoed by the Milwaukee Road and eventually abandoned was the west end between Rapid City eastward to Mitchell and eventually across northern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin with the final destination being Chicago. The Milwaukee Road's Sioux passenger train ran these rails until the 1950s when it was retrenched to Sioux Falls, and disappeared altogether by 1960. The bridge across the Mississippi was torn up the year after, completely severing what was once a viable railroad between Chicago and Rapid City, and could have made the ideal transcontinental route to California and not the Pacific Northwest had the Milwaukee Road's management not been so inept. It's one of the most important examples of what could have been.
Scooby Carr ..Who cares this documentary is about Canadian content not u.s ..post u.s content somewhere else
dude he literally has a right to post that lmao
We had a named Dr Beeching in the 1960's who weilded the axe on our railways three villages in Wales were isolated, now even our government want the old lines opened back up, what beeching didn't allow for was the amount of people going out and buying cars,
our roads are now murder to drive on plus the roads get damaged by the big lorries. someones worked it out that beeching saved 25 millions pounds over ten years but spent way over that repairing the roads and laying new ones. it's now cheaper to re lay tracks for trains and re open the lines. we've also got a lot of train enthusiasts who give up their spare time to bring the old trains back to life. the most famous one being the 7 valley railway. all these trains are packed on holidays you can even hire them for parties and weddings.
Great video. If only they were all still here today!
I am glad i had the pleasure of seeing a train on the abandoned section of the Montrose Sub, although, i was a baby, and i dont remember what it was, and it was about a month before they ripped it up, but i do remember seeing a train there. I also saw a couple of geep 9s switching at marineland about a month ago. At least part of it survives.......
So sad to see all that abandoned railroad.
One route that the Milwaukee Road used to have that could've been an ideal route for Canadian Pacific in the USA after the Soo Line's purchase of the MILW was the line between Green Island and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Now CP has only the portion of route from Sabula to Green Island and north up to Dubuque and Marquette.
Anyway if you wanted to know, the Southwestern Division didn't survive the Milwaukee Road's embargo of unwanted lines when it went into bankruptcy in 1977. The tracks were out of service when Soo Line took over the MILW in 1985 and stayed that way when Canadian Pacific took over the Soo in 1991. Finally, Canadian Pacific officially abandoned the route in 2000 and the tracks were torn up.
Abandonned row's are a fascination with me. Hope you can do the New York Central one day between Cornwall and Ottawa. Lots of vestiges.
was in owen sound the other day, saw an over pass of the old owen sound sub, so sad, I wish I could have seen it in action........
The Chicago & North Western had in its system the line between DeKalb and Troy Grove, but the tracks once upon a time went beyond Troy Grove across the IC-CNW diamond at Dimmick and through the town of Ladd where it served the coal mines. Then the CNW made a connection with the Rock Island at Spring Valley, but I don't know exactly where this connection is located. It may be to the east of Spring Valley where BNSF has a branch and the branch may indeed be former CNW. Now under Union Pacific, the line that once went to Dimmick and Ladd has been extended about a mile for UP to store silica sand hoppers southwest of Troy Grove. But it's very unlikely that Union Pacific would want to extend its former CNW all the way to Ladd.
Scooby Carr Hello Scooby! I find all of this history very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful pictures, thank you!
I once saw an old, red Canadian Pacific diesel engine behind two NS Engines.
this makes me cry. so sad
Me too! Makes me cry too! It is very sad
Great compilation! It's too bad they are all gone, but at least trains are still very important in the world's economy! :)
So good and nostalgic, hopefully someone in Ontario will "do" the NYC line between Cornwall and Ottawa, still lots to see.
It makes me want to cry to see the line left there :'(
rail lines in the middle of towns and neighborhood streets is fucking badass, how cool would it be to just be walking down the street and a train just rolls by lol, id be excited i know that
:( i wish those lines were still in operation, it would be great to see it :)
The Dundas Museum has excellent colour film of the troops disembarking from the train on this rail line - I believe about the site of the former Cotton Mill. From there they marched up Hatt Street to the Armouries for a formal ceremony. These rail lines were important for more than commerce.
Seeing abandoned railroad lines just kills me, I wish they restored them instead of tearing them out.Near me there fighting against turning the railroad lines into horse trails,even though there are wide trails next to the tracks on each side.
He's got quite a few photos from before and after from various locations
I think they're about to add the line between Sturdevant and Kansasville in Wisconsin to the list of abandoned train lines on Canadian Pacific. CP had already abandoned the line in places between Burlington and Beloit in the late 1990s in the years after taking over the Soo Line which purchased the bankrupt Milwaukee Road in 1985.
and the chalk river sub here in eastern ontario
Canadian Pacific has officially torn up the former Milwaukee Road line between Sturdevant and Kansasville; it commenced in the spring of 2016.
thanks Scooby
Scooby Carr
Chalk River Subdivision is gone as well from Smiths Falls to Mattawa torn up by CP
Nice video thanks for sharing ! ! I bought a video from RAIL INNOVATION where you cant see cp rail snow plow in action on the Owen Sound Sub nice to see soo much snow ! ! !
haven't seen a video this sad in a long time.
The age of steam is long gone, and now the age of trains in the Northwest is dying too.
+Anthony Smith actually it is haven't.
I believe there is a tonnage limit and cuts requiring them to use Fort Erie thus why Niagara Falls yard has been removed on my side of the bridge. The bridge and line is actually for sale by CN as well so I'm not sure what the future is for just Amtrak using it either.
I like how you have a Burzum song in the video
Sad to see this.
Would be interesting to see photos taken from the exact spot from which the old photographs were taken.
It seems now that most of Canadian Pacific's action is west of Chicago and west of Thunder Bay in Ontario with some trackage in and around Toronto, but in and around Toronto might be the only place for CP in eastern Canada.
Thanks ,will there be any more .Would like to know if you have done anything on the line from Hamilton to Brantford and the CN Abandonihg the in and around Brantford
Very nice, but rather sad slide-show!
@grimmss1 Hell yeah man! OVR in the Ottawa Valley is Gone now! Its sad. My buddies dad worked for OVR for 26 years and in 2009 he was forced to mive farther north to work. After 2 years he got depresed from not seeing his family and started drinking again. He quite from Ottawa valley Raillink and is now living with his family again doing a job he hates at min wage.
We have lost so much, and more every day. Sad......
@chrisvazquez7 yeah i know i wish i could go back in time to like the 70's and see them all in action...
Here's another rail line that would have been an important route for Canadian Pacific if it weren't for the Milwaukee Road's abandonment in 1980 - the line between Green Island and Council Bluffs, Iowa. As it stands now, only the west end of the line between Council Bluffs and Bayard is owned by BNSF Railway.
Wonder if we will ever see one of these rail trails get turned back into an active railway.... I keep my hopes up lol.
Canada at one time had the largest railway in the world (1870 I think?) this music makes me want to cry along with the pictures. ..
This is what it would feel like if the C.P. R. ran through Silent Hill (which is ironic because part of that movie was actually filmed IN Hamilton.).
Thank you. Are they photos taken from the exact spots from where the photos in this video were taken? I would find that fascinating and nostalgic.
I recognize those photos. 😊
nice pictures
the junction at 5:19 looked like a railfan hot spot!!
Ah, here is one who is educated and intelligent by calling a rail line a railway instead of bullshit railroad. Thanks bro.
At 4:47 the sign is wrong. Locomotives don't fill their reservoirs, they get water from them. And power from streams do not drive locomotives.
They are also killing out the railway from Atlantic Canada. The only rails still in use here in Nova Scotia are in Halifax from the docks, when the southwest and I believe northeast lines have been completely removed. In Prince Edward Island, I think there are still rails but are rarely in use. I don't know about Newfoundland And Labrador, but (If any) those are probably rarely used too. The only place I can think of that still widely uses it is New Brunswick. Anyway, it's a sad thing.
Stirred some emotions man. Don't like seeing the old roads like this. Good video though
@HamiltonTrainMan Oh ok, well that's like the only CP line that I know of that has been abandoned. All of these are not really in my area, they're more to the east. It's sad that CN has plenty of ones that I know about...
Allot of these lines would be so useful today for passenger travel. How stupid is it that there is no commuter rail service between Toronto and North Bay or Sudbury?
There is one in Liviingston Montana rows and rows of engines a whole yard full!
wow buddy...thats some great stuff......very interesting......
If someone purchased stock in CN when these branch lines were in full swing, then abandonment means a loss of money. The only time efficiency comes into play is in a merger situation, where multiple railroads had like lines going to like destinations, or a nearby highway steals business. If CN closed all of its track, how much money would you make then? Ask someone who invested in BC Rail in the 80's how fat their portfolios became after they closed all of their pieces of track.
I am looking for an abandoned track long enough to run a rail cart. Around here it seems, t the moment a line is out of service , tracks are ripped up in favor of a walk path.
Railroad companies run on turning a profit from hauling goods from point to point. These railroads must gross millions to billions per year to keep their trackage in running order, pay their employees for which all railroads have downsized over the years, and keep their units and rolling stock in running condition. Canadian National has R.O.W. in a majority of Wisconsin, Canadian Pacific has some trackage rights running diagnally through the state. Their abandonments can become the publics recreation by converting these areas to trails, but the railroad must give the OK, and your province probably must be involved. Check out our program called the Rails-to-Trails conservancy.
are the engines at 1:18 preserved ?
Well the Abandoned Canadian pacific Railway lines are still around today
eheemmm..I don't know where to begin........I have been witness to many of these train lines disappear just in the last 10-15 years........This is sad.....I lived in Owen Sound and saw the tracks taken out about 10 years or so ago.they ran through Shallow Lake....I remember the TH&B line in Brantford ....and the line from Cambridge to Brantford. ..also I remember when the tracks actually still ran from Simcoe to Port Dover past the old Ivey's Roses and the Harry Gamble Shipyard ...
Nice video but sad. It all in Ontario. What about the other provinces?
@intimidate2161 I know, I don't know why they get rid of such great tracks and railroads!
In sweden we move the cargo from train to truck and the train operator companies say they have no money so the trucks take over and more and more railroads is abandoned
i liked the video and yes all too sad!
the prairie branch lines..... why did it have to happen :(
Such ominous music for CP Rail's cheap-out folly to abandon these once profitable rail lines. One of the few CP lines still operating in southern-Ontario is the Havelock-Peterboro sub, it was left out of this video. It will in-time eventually become a commuter rail connection to Toronto. Albeit, CP has never improved the railbed in 40 years. Freight trains which still use this line travel at 20 kmph at several points due to the sunken and twisted railbed. Better to improve your infrastructure first CP, than to make a hapless bid for KSC railway, after all CP is supposed to be Canadian first.
The Montrose Sub....I miss it so much :( I live by Niagara Falls...
Many lines are abandoned also over here in Germany during the 60ties. Now people repent and regret due to rising gas prices!
Nothing makes more sense than a railway.
Is the old TH& B roundhouse is it gone ,if so what about the yards .Was there a TH&B railroad yard in Brantford ,if so do you have any posted I used to live in Hamilton in the 70s
Was. One of these railroads for the cannery train that went to Hamilton Montana?
Its really sad to see all of that. PLuss it would be cheaper for railroad companies to expand if they purchased these old lines and just fixed them up a little. Save the trouble of creating a path for the track and laying down as much.
I hope someone will get all these lines working in one railroad company. Maybe i can, who wants these lines running again?
So I assume the tracks are all gone for all these lines right?
@admydragon yes it is have you heard of Burzum?
thanks
yep my dad used too tell me that when he used too go to Niagara Falls the trains would scare the living shit out of him too bad i didnt get too see the last freight train too run through there:(
All gone now! Never to return! That is change! That is progress! It is the way things are! It is for the better too!
Spoken like a true asshole