The Schomberg and Aurora Railway (S&AR, also nicknamed the "Annie Rooney") was a 36 km long

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

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 C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, running from the town of Schomberg to Oak Ridges, just south of

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

. It connected Schomberg to the Metropolitan Line of the

Toronto and York Radial Railway The Toronto and York Radial Railway was a transit operator providing services to the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a subsidiary of the Toronto Railway Company. The company was created by merging four Toronto-area interurban operatio ...

(T&YRR)

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

service running along

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial H ...

, and from there into the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

city proper. The service ran for 25 years between 1902 and 1927; the rails were pulled up shortly thereafter. In 1902, the Schomberg and Aurora Railway was acquired by the

Metropolitan Street Railway The New York Railways Company operated street railways in Manhattan, New York City, United States between 1911 and 1925. The company went into receivership in 1919 and control was passed to the New York Railways Corporation in 1925 after which a ...

which in turn was acquired by the

in 1904.

History

The S&AR started at the request of a Schomberg businessman who wanted to open the local produce markets to day-trippers from

. The T&YRR had greatly increased visitors to similar markets in Newmarket and they were hoping to do the same for Schomberg. The company was chartered in 1896, and construction started out from the Bond Lake area south of Aurora in July 1899. The line was completed and opened for traffic in August 1902, an oddity that used steam trains to connect to the much smaller electrified trams, a connection made at Aurora. There were four stations in total, Aurora on the west side of Yonge Street north of Bond Crescent, Eversley Station on

Dufferin Street Dufferin Street is a major north–south street in Toronto, Vaughan and King, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, two concessions (4 km) west of Yonge Street. The street starts at Exhibition Place, continues north to Toronto's northe ...

, Kettleby Station at the corner of Kettleby Road and

Weston Road Weston Road is a north–south street in the west end of Toronto and western York Region in Ontario, Canada. The road is named for the former Village of Weston, which was located near Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West. Route description In ...

, and Schomberg Station in the middle of Main Street in Schomberg. (The S&A "Aurora" station was actually in Oak Ridges, a community within today's

Town of Richmond Hill Richmond Hill ( 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 27th most populous municipality in Canada. Rich ...

to the south of

.) The S&A connected with the T&YRR's Metropolitan line at Aurora. There were also numerous street-side whistle stops along the route, numbers 158 through 171. Because the railway operated on a small budget, it purchased extant buildings for its stations instead of constructing new ones. There were four spurs, one to Mary Lake to serve a private line to the summer estates of

Henry Pellatt Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, CVO (January 6, 1859 – March 8, 1939) was a Canadian financier and soldier. He is notable for his role in bringing hydro-electricity to Toronto for the first time, and also for his large château in Toron ...

and the

Eatons The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

( Eaton Hall), two smaller ones near Pottageville serving the Lloyd and Armstrong farms, and a small wye at Brillinger farm. Initially, the S&A used two old steam locomotives and one or two passenger cars. It ran two round trips daily, three on Wednesday market days. The S&AR operated independently for only two years before it was absorbed into the T&YRR family, part of William Mackenzie's railway empire. In 1916 the line was electrified and connected to the Metropolitan line at Yonge Street, allowing full interchange of cars. Some S&A cars operated through to Toronto via the Metropolitan line, but most made connections at Bond Lake. In addition to passenger traffic, the line generated about 300 carloads of freight per year. The line was never very busy, and the T&YRR scaled back operations. Between 1923 and 1926, expenses to run the line were about $26,000 per year, but revenues for that period declined from $31,325 to $17,997. The S&AR was closed on June 20, 1927. Attempts by residents in Schomberg to reopen the line failed, and the rails were removed the next year.

Remains of the line

Portions of the former right-of-way remain easily visible on aerial photos today, notably the portions closer to Schomberg. The final few hundred yards were incorporated into Dr. Kay Road in Schomberg, running between Main Street and the much newer Highway 27 to the east. Other portions have been incorporated in the nearby 19th Sideroad, a private driveway and Brule Trail, but development to the east of Highway 400 makes it more difficult to follow. The Aurora station was converted into a restaurant before being demolished in the 1960s. The only S&AR building still in existence is a house in Schomberg that was once the terminus of the line.

References

* * * *

External links

King Township History & Heritage
includes a map showing the portion of the S&AR route in

King, Ontario King (2021 population 27,333) is a township in York Region north of Toronto, within the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. The rolling hills of the Oak Ridges Moraine are the most prominent visible geographical feature of King. The Holland ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schomberg Aurora Railway Rail transport in the Greater Toronto Area Transit agencies in Ontario Defunct Ontario railways Interurban railways in Ontario 1896 establishments in Ontario 1927 disestablishments in Ontario Standard gauge railways in Canada History of rail transport in the Regional Municipality of York

History

Remains of the line

See also

References

External links