The Ottawa Central Railway was a Canadian
short-line railroad
:''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 opera ...
subsidiary of the
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
. The headquarters were at the Walkley Yard, 3141 Albion Road South,
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada.
The OCRR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Quebec Railway Corporation
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...
(QCR). It consisted of former CN subdivisions, and operated between
Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec
Coteau-du-Lac is a small city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality.
The name of the town comes from the French word ''Coteau'' which meant " ...
, at an interchange with the
CN Montreal-Toronto main line, to Ottawa and
Pembroke, Ontario
Pembroke is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario at the confluence of the Muskrat River (Ontario), Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Pembroke is the location of the administrative headquarters of Renfrew County, thoug ...
.
The OCRR started operations on December 13, 1998, and two years later, QRC acquired the assets of
Ontario L'Orignal Railway from
RailAmerica
RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada.
In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it t ...
.
The OCRR consisted of of track and spurs: of main line between Ottawa and Pembroke, and of the former Ontario L’Orignal Railway (OLO) between
Glen Robertson and
Hawkesbury Hawkesbury or Hawksbury may refer to:
People
*Baron Hawkesbury, or Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1727-1808), English statesman
Places
;Geography
*Hawkesbury Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada
* Hawkesbury Island, Queensland ...
. It also had of
running rights
Railway company, Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies.
Operating
Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a Main line (railway), main lin ...
between Ottawa and Coteau on track owned by
Via Rail
Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...
.
[ ]
Major commodities carried by the OCRR included newsprint, salt, medium-density fibreboard, linerboard, forest products, pulp, gasoline, lumber and board, wire rod, billets and scrap.
CN purchase
On November 3, 2008,
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
announced that it was purchasing the OCRR and its sister companies
Chemin de fer de la Matapédia et du Golfe
The Chemin de fer de la Matapédia et du Golfe (in English, the Matapedia and Gulf Railway) was a short line railway that operated in eastern Québec from 1998-2008.
Owned by the holding company Quebec Railway Corporation (QRC), CFMG operated ...
(CFMG),
Compagnie de gestion de Matane
Compagnie de gestion de Matane Inc. (COGEMA) is a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway (CN) operating a dedicated railcar ferry service in Quebec between Matane and Baie-Comeau; additionally it provides occasional Train ferry, railcar ferry s ...
(COGEMA), and the
New Brunswick East Coast Railway
The New Brunswick East Coast Railway was a railway that operated in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.
It included of track of which were mainline between Campbellton and Pacific Junction near Moncton. Important spurs connected Dalh ...
(NBEC) for $49.8 million (CAD) from the Quebec Railway Corporation.
The CN announcement indicated that the reacquired rail lines will be integrated back into the CN network with no significant changes, other than introducing CN locomotives and rolling stock to train operations. CN also mentioned investing significant capital upgrades in the rail network for outstanding maintenance.
References
External links
Ottawa Central Railway (OCRR)Chemins de fer du Québec
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ottawa Central Railway
Ontario railways
Canadian National Railway subsidiaries
Railway companies established in 1998
Quebec railways
Companies based in Ottawa
Rail transport in Ottawa