The Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway (H&LE) is a historical

shortline railway :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that oper ...

in Ontario, Canada. It ran from

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Port Dover Port Dover is an unincorporated community and former town located in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie. It is the site of the recurring Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. Prior to the War of 1812, this community ...

, about , providing trans-shipping service between

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

and

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

, and with connections, to Lake Huron at

Georgian Bay Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...

. Formed in 1834 as the Hamilton and Port Dover Railway, it rechartered in 1853 and purchased the Hamilton and Southwestern Railway in 1855. Nothing came of any of these companies. When the charter was renewed in December 1869, it was purchased by the newly formed H&LE. Construction began in 1873, but the $1 million cost of driving up the Hamilton Mountain (part of the Niagara Escarpment at Hamilton) and building a bridge at the Grand River at Caledonia was too much too bear. The company ran out of cash after reaching Jarvis in January 1875, only a few miles short of Port Dover. The company was purchased by the well-financed

Hamilton and North-Western Railway The Hamilton and North-Western Railway (H&NW) is a former railway in Ontario, Canada. It ran north from Hamilton on the western end of Lake Ontario to Collingwood on Georgian Bay and Barrie on Lake Simcoe. Through the purchase of the Hamilton an ...

(H&NW) in 1877. Through this merger, the H&NW controlled a network that connected Lake Erie, Ontario, Simcoe and

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...

. The line was finally completed to Port Dover the next year. In 1881, the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

purchased both the H&NW and the competing

Port Dover and Lake Huron Railway A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

. The operations were merged over the next several years with a new station being built in GT style. GT's 1918 bankruptcy and subsequent formation of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) in 1923 led to the line becoming part of the Hagersville Subdivision. CN lifted the line between Jarvis and Port Dover in 1935. In 1969 they constructed a new line running to the

Nanticoke Nanticoke may refer to: * Nanticoke people in Delaware, United States * Nanticoke language, an Algonquian language * Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, a state-recognized tribe in New Jersey Place names Canada * Nanticoke, Ontario ** Nanticoke Generating S ...

industrial area on Lake Erie. The remaining spur from Garnet to Jarvis was lifted in the 1970s. The

Southern Ontario Railway The Southern Ontario Railway is a shortline railroad in the province of Ontario, owned and operated by Genesee & Wyoming Canada Inc., the Canadian subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operated of track from Brantford to Nanticoke, Ontario, ...

purchased several lines in the area in 1997, forming an extended route from Brantford to Nanticoke as their newly reformed Hagersville Sub. The section from Hamilton to Caledonia, including the run up Hamilton Mountain, was abandoned in 1997 as part of this purchase. Of the original line, only the section from Caledonia to Garnet remains in use.

History

Through the early 19th century, Toronto and

were locked in a battle to become Ontario's primary industrial center. With most of the banking power of the province located in Toronto, that city continued to win new businesses, especially railway lines, and by the 1850s began to dominate shipping in the province. Looking to address this problem, businessmen in Hamilton began planning a network of new rail lines that would provide more convenient shipping than Toronto due to their location at the very western tip of

. On 22 April 1853, the Hamilton and Port Dover Railway was created to connect the two cities, providing transshipment between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, as well as connections to the Great Western Railway for shipment east and west. Two years later, it purchased the assets of the moribund Hamilton and Southwestern Railway, which had been chartered in 1834 but never raised capital for construction. The H&PD did no better than the H&SW in fundraising and no construction was carried out. After 15 years the charter came up for renewal, and on 24 December 1869 a new company was charted to buy the rights of the H&PD. The new Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway (H&LER) was more successful in fundraising, and finally began construction of the route in 1873. This was, unfortunately, also the year the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

which started the

Long Depression The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1896, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing st ...

, making further fundraising extremely difficult. By January 1875 the line was complete for to Jarvis, only short of its goal in Port Dover. However, the $1 million cost of running the line up Mount Hamilton (part of the Niagara Escarpment) and building a bridge across the Grand River at Caledonia had eaten up the company's funding, and further construction was abandoned. On 5 August 1877 the company was purchased by the

(H&NW), who were in the process of completing the last leg of their route to Collingwood. Through the purchase, the H&NW now had a route that connected Lake Erie, Ontario and

on Lake Huron. They began surveying the final section south of Jarvis in May, finally reaching Port Dover in June 1878. By this time, the

(PD&LH), chartered in 1875, had already reached the town in 1875 and had subsequently built up an extensive dockyard area on the west side of the Lynn River that precluded further construction on the shore. Instead, the H&NW built the terminal slightly up the Lynn River. In June 1879, the H&NW merged with its former nemesis, the

Northern Railway of Canada The Northern Railway of Canada was a railway in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first steam railway to enter service in what was then known as Upper Canada. It was eventually acquired by the Grand Trunk Railway, and is therefore a p ...

, and began consolidating its routes. They arranged an agreement with the PD&LH to share the docks and

grain silo A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes ...

downtown, and built a bridge over the Lynn. In 1887, the entire group of lines was purchased by the rapidly expanding

(GTR), completing the takeover on 24 January 1888. As part of the GTRs bankruptcy in 1918, the lines eventually became part of the Canadian National Railway on 31 January 1923. The portion from Jarvis to Port Dover was abandoned on 13 July in 1935 and lifted shortly thereafter, along with the bridge over the Lynn River, as the company also controlled the PD&LH's more convenient route into town. The last passenger train to Port Dover ran in 1957. In 1969, CNR constructed a new branch line south from Garnet into the newly built industrial area at

, leaving the short section between Garnet and Jarvis as a spur. The spur was lifted some time in the 1970s. Many of the lines in the area were purchased by the

in 1997. As part of the purchase, they reorganized the route to run primarily on the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railway, which crossed the H&LE at Caledonia, and this became the main route for shipments ultimately going to Nanticoke. The section from Hamilton to Garnet was lifted that year. This leaves only the section from Caledonia to Garnet in use today, part of the reorganized Hagersville Subdivision.

Route

:''From the Ontario Railway Map Collection, unless otherwise noted.'' Starting in Hamilton, the H&LE starts at the dockyard areas in what is today known as Industrial Sector A. The line ran for a short distance in the dockyards before starting to run southwest parallel Ferguson Avenue. The first station was on Ferguson at Main Street. A short distance beyond the station the line bends 90 degrees to run southeastward upward along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment. It runs about to the area near modern Kenilworth Avenue, where it turned southwest again, now on top of Hamilton Mountain. After another was Rymal station. From Rymal the line runs almost perfectly straight to Caledonia, bending slightly westward to meet the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich in a large wye on the southeast side of town. It follows that line only a few hundred meters before bending southwest again to cross the Grand River, running almost straight to Hagersville and then Jarvis where it bends westward for a short distance before returning to its original route for the final run to Port Dover. It turns only slightly in Port Dover, running more westward into town, before turning sharply southward for its final approach to the dock area. Principle stations on the route were Hamilton, Caledonia, Hagersville, Jarvis and Port Dover. Smaller stations were located in Rymal, Glanford and Garnet. Three of these stations survive. Caledonia station, the third to be built in the town, remains in use as a Grand Trunk Railway Museum and various local offices. Jarvis station, built in 1906 taking over both the Canada Air Line Railway station and the original H&NW station, is now a commercial space. Garnet was moved and is now used as a storage shed. Like many railways that were abandoned in the late 20th century, the eastern sections of the line are now used for rail trail use as the Escarpment Rail Trail, part of the

Trans-Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. The trail extend ...

. The western sections, abandoned much earlier, have largely disappeared under modern agricultural fields, while some sections form the basis for modern roads in Port Dover, like Donjon Road and Grand Street. Its final terminus in town is now a marina and any trace of the connection at Bridge Street is gone.

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