Mount Pleasant station (Brant County, Ontario)

Last updated
Mount Pleasant station
General information
Location Mount Pleasant, Brant County, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates 43°04′51″N80°19′02″W / 43.08090°N 80.31717°W / 43.08090; -80.31717
Operated by Lake Erie and Northern Railway
Grand River Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
History
Opened1916
Closed1955
Former services
Preceding station Lake Erie and Northern Railway Following station
Lundy Lane Mainline Maple Grove (Ontario)
towards Port Dover

The Mount Pleasant railway station is a disused railway station in Mount Pleasant, Brant County, Ontario, Canada. The station was built in 1916 for the Lake Erie and Northern Railway (an interurban electric railway which was a Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiary) according to a standard Canadian Pacific design, and was later used by the Grand River Railway, which was also a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific. [1] The station, along with the rest of the Lake Erie and Northern system, was closed to passenger traffic in 1955 after a series of final excursion trips. [2]

Interurban railway service in the area began when the Grand Valley Railway Company purchased the Brantford Street Railway and extended it northward to Galt via Paris, Ontario, a process which was completed in 1904. [3] By 1912, however, this line had been shut down due to poor track quality, and was ultimately sold to the City of Brantford, and later the Lake Erie and Northern. The Lake Erie and Northern, with its line still under construction in 1914, was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was beginning to buy up and consolidate interurban railways. To complement its northern section between Galt and Brantford, the Lake Erie and Northern quickly built a southern section, initially to Simcoe, then to Port Dover, both in mid-1916. The surviving station building dates from this era, and is constructed according to a standard CPR pattern, with a steep roofline and prominent gables. [4]

After the station closed, the building was moved onto private property on Mount Pleasant Road. [4] A local group, the Brant Railway Heritage Society, is hoping to restore or recreate the station building as a railway museum. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brantford</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Brantford is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independent of the county's municipal government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambridge, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Cambridge is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, located at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers. The city had a population of 138,479 as of the 2021 census. Along with Kitchener and Waterloo, Cambridge is one of the three core cities of Canada's tenth-largest metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County of Brant</span> City in Ontario, Canada

The County of Brant is a single-tier municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario. Although it retains the word "county" in its name, the municipality is a single-tier municipal government and has no upper tier. The County of Brant has service offices in Burford, Paris, Oakland, Onondaga and St. George. The largest population centre is Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waterloo County, Ontario</span> Former county in Ontario, Canada

Waterloo County was a county in Canada West in the United Province of Canada from 1853 until 1867, then in the Canadian province of Ontario from 1867 until 1973. It was the direct predecessor of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.

Galt is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario on the Grand River. Prior to 1973, it was an independent city, incorporated in 1915, but amalgamation with the village of Hespeler, the town of Preston and the village of Blair formed the new municipality of Cambridge. Being the largest constituent community in the city, it is commonly seen as the downtown core of Cambridge. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway</span> Former railway in Canada

The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was a railway based in Hamilton that ran in Southern Ontario from 1892 to 1987. It never reached the other two cities in its name although it had branch lines extending to Dunnville and Port Maitland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand River Railway</span> Former interurban railway in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

The Grand River Railway was an interurban electric railway in what is now the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.

King's Highway 24, commonly referred to as Highway 24, is a highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that currently begins at Highway 3 in Simcoe, and ends at the southern city limits of Cambridge. The south–north route travels through Brantford, as well as the community of Scotland. Outside of those communities, Highway 24 travels through a predominantly agricultural area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brantford and Hamilton Electric Railway</span>

The Brantford and Hamilton Electric Railway (B&H) was an interurban electric railway which operated between Hamilton and Brantford in Ontario, Canada. According to Hilton & Due, this was the last radial (interurban) railway constructed in the Hamilton area and the only one built to a high standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron Horse Trail, Ontario</span> Recreational trail in Canada

The Iron Horse Trail is a multi-use urban rail trail which connects the cities of Waterloo and Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Erb Street West in the north near Uptown Waterloo, to Ottawa Street South in Kitchener to the south. It covers a distance of 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi). The trail was opened on 5 October 1997 on abandoned Canadian Pacific Railway right of way sections, including portions of the right-of-way of the now-defunct Grand River Railway. The two cities combined resources to purchase the property. It is a part of the Trans Canada Trail.

The Hamilton–Brantford–Cambridge Trails are a network of multiuse interurban recreational rail trails connecting several municipalities in southern Ontario, Canada. The trails are part of the Southern Ontario Loop of the Trans Canada Trail. From end to end, the trail is 80 kilometres (50 mi) long, running from Cambridge south through Paris to Brantford and then East to central Hamilton.

Cainsville is a community straddling the boundary of Brantford and Brant County in Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hespeler, Ontario</span> Place in Ontario, Canada

Hespeler is a neighbourhood and former town within Cambridge, Ontario, located along the Speed River in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In 1973, Hespeler, Preston, Galt, and the hamlet of Blair were amalgamated to form the City of Cambridge. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Credit Valley Railway</span> Railway located in Ontario, Canada

The Credit Valley Railway was a railway located in Ontario, Canada from Toronto to St. Thomas. Chartered in 1871 by Ontario railway magnate George Laidlaw, it operated as an independent company until 1883 when it was leased by the Ontario and Quebec Railway, a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) operating company building a network of lines in southern Ontario.

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 and Lake Erie Railway, the route continued south from Hamilton to Port Dover on Lake Erie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preston and Berlin Street Railway</span> Former street railway in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

The Preston and Berlin Street Railway was an interurban electric street railway which served the 12.68 kilometres (7.88 mi) between what was then the towns of Preston and Berlin in Midwestern Ontario, Canada. The company was formed in 1894, but lay dormant until 1900, when construction finally began. The company began operation in 1904.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galt, Preston and Hespeler Street Railway</span> Former street railway in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

The Galt, Preston and Hespeler Street Railway (GP&H) was an interurban electric street railway connecting the three nearby communities of Galt, Preston, and later Hespeler in Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. The firm was organized in 1890, and began operation in 1894. In 1908 it merged with the Preston and Berlin Street Railway, with the new entity called the Berlin, Waterloo, Wellesley, and Lake Huron Railway Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Erie and Northern Railway</span> Former interurban railway in Ontario, Canada

The Lake Erie and Northern Railway was an interurban electric railway which operated in the Grand River Valley in Ontario, Canada. The railway owned and operated a north–south mainline which ran from Galt in the north to Port Dover on the shore of Lake Erie in the south. Along the way, it ran through rural areas of Waterloo County, Brant County, and Norfolk County, as well as the city of Brantford, where it had an interchange with the Brantford and Hamilton Electric Railway. Construction on the mainline began in 1913. The railway began operations in 1916 as a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which had purchased the line before construction had finished. In 1931, it was consolidated with the Grand River Railway under a single CPR subsidiary, the Canadian Pacific Electric Lines (CPEL), which managed both interurban railways, though they continued to exist as legally separate entities. Passenger service was discontinued in 1955 but electric freight operations continued until 1961, when the LE&N's electric locomotives were replaced by diesel CPR locomotives and the line was de-electrified. In the same year, service on the mainline from Simcoe to Port Dover was discontinued, but the remainder continued to operate as a branchline which as early as 1975 was known as the CP Simcoe Subdivision. The remainder of the line was officially abandoned in the early 1990s, ending almost seventy-five years of operation.

The Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway (H&LE) is a historical shortline railway in Ontario, Canada. It ran from Hamilton to Port Dover, about 40 miles (64 km), providing trans-shipping service between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and with connections, to Lake Huron at Georgian Bay.

References

  1. 1 2 Thompson, Brian (8 August 2019). "Effort underway to save 103-year-old railway station". Brantford Expositor. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  2. "Lake Erie & Northern Railway". Trainweb.org. 20 October 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  3. "Grand Valley Railway". Ontario Historic Railways Project. 3 January 1998. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  4. 1 2 Brown, Ron (2011). In Search of the Grand Trunk: Ghost Rail Lines in Ontario. Dundurn Press. ISBN   978-1-55488-882-5.