The Thousand Islands Railway (originally Gananoque & Rideau Railway) was an 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 ...
running from the town of
Gananoque
Gananoque ( )
is a town in the Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Leeds and Grenville area of Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,383 year-round residents in the 2021 Canadian census, 2021 Canadian Census, as well as summer resident ...
north to 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 rai ...
(now
CN) Toronto-Montreal mainline, just south of present-day
Cheeseborough. The service ran for 111 years between 1884 and 1995. The rails were removed in October 1997.
History
The railway was originally incorporated as Gananoque & Rideau Railway on 15 February 1871, but construction did not begin until 1883 due to lack of money. The town provided tax breaks and $10,000 in debenture financing to Rathbun's
Bay of Quinte Railway and Navigation Company
The Bay of Quinte Railway was a short-line railway in eastern Ontario, Canada. It was formed as the Napanee, Tamworth and Quebec Railway (NT&QR), chartered in 1878 by Edward Rathbun and Alexander Campbell, with plans to run from Napanee throug ...
to build the line; that company already operated steamship docks in the village. The original line opened 1 January 1884. The company name was changed to Thousand Islands Railway four months later. A
swing bridge
A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...
over the mouth of the
Gananoque River
The Gananoque River is a river in Leeds and Grenville United Counties in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Shows the course of the river highlighted on a map. The river is in the Atlantic Ocean drainage basin and is a left tributary of the Saint Lawrence R ...
was constructed in 1894 to provide service to businesses on the east side of the river.
The line originally served to carry timber and freight to Gananoque's docks, where it could be loaded onto ships. While available timber stocks soon diminished, passenger traffic increased as the Grand Trunk under
Charles Melville Hays
Charles Melville Hays (May 16, 1856 – April 15, 1912) was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway. He began working in the railroad business as a clerk at the age of 17 and quickly rose through the ranks of management to become the General M ...
promoted the tiny town as a vacation destination.
The original junction between the Thousand Island Railway and the Grand Trunk Railway was moved east in 1902 to a flatter location. A 1947 map of the Gananoque terminal shows a nine-switch track arrangement, a coal/wood yard, a coal dealer, a number company, a mill, the Cow and Gate dairy, a two-stall engine house, passenger station and freight/express building.
["By road, rail and water to Gananoque", Douglas N.W. Smith, 120 pages (out of print)]
The Thousand Islands Railway was merged into the Canadian National Railway in 1958. Passenger service ended in 1962; freight service ended in 1995. The line was dismantled in 1997.
What remains today
The unique locomotive #500 is preserved at Sculpture Park, where King Street crosses the Gananoque River. The waterfront station became a restaurant after passenger service ended, but was destroyed by fire in 1990; the
Arthur Child Heritage Museum was built on the site. The former
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
is readily visible on satellite imagery, and is now a hiking trail. The
Gananoque Junction station remains on Station Road which is west of Hiscocks Road.
References
TrainWeb Old Time Trains detailed history and pictures.
(built on site of former station)
Further reading
*
External links
Gananoque trail map
showing part of former railbed (from "Trailhead" to "Lions Loop" and on beyond Hwy 401)
Photos of Gananoque trails
including former TIR railbed
* Gananoque Junction station (1902–present)
{{Canada class 2
Transit agencies in Ontario
Defunct Ontario railways
Railway companies established in 1884
Railway companies disestablished in 1958
Predecessors of the Canadian National Railway
Rail transport in Leeds and Grenville United Counties