Napanee station

Last updated
Napanee
Napanee Ontario Railway Station.jpg
Napanee station building in the early 1900s
General information
Location301 John Street
Napanee, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates 44°15′13.3″N76°57′15.5″W / 44.253694°N 76.954306°W / 44.253694; -76.954306
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks2
Construction
Structure typeShelter
ParkingYes
AccessibleYes
Other information
Website Napanee train station
Services
Preceding station VIA Rail Canada simplified.svg Via Rail Following station
Belleville
toward Toronto
Toronto–Ottawa Kingston
toward Ottawa
Former services
Preceding station Canadian National Railway Following station
Marysville
toward Sarnia
Grand Trunk Railway
Main Line
Fredericksburg
toward Montreal
Terminus NapaneeOttawa Strathcona, Ontario
toward Ottawa
Location
Canada Ontario location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Napanee station
Location within Ontario
Canada location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Napanee station
Location within Canada
North America laea location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Napanee station
Location within North America

Napanee station in Napanee, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa. The 1856 limestone railway station was an unstaffed but heated shelter with telephones and washrooms, which would open at least half an hour before a train arrives. The platform is wheelchair-accessible. As of February 2023, the shelter was locked.

Contents

Napanee station is one of originally 34 first generation Grand Trunk Railway stations in Ontario from the same era as the opening of the line. Nine still exist, of which three remain in active service. The station building is owned and maintained by the municipality. [1]

History

Bay of Quinte Railway Engine #5 and its crew, about to leave Napanee for Deseronto, circa 1900 - 1903. Bay of Quinte Railway Engine No.5.jpg
Bay of Quinte Railway Engine #5 and its crew, about to leave Napanee for Deseronto, circa 1900 - 1903.

The original Grand Trunk stations were stone buildings constructed during or immediately after the 1856 opening of the GTR (now CN) mainline between Montréal and Toronto. Nine survive today, including a pair at Napanee and Ernestown in Lennox and Addington County which were built from Kingston Limestone using similar design. The first generation "Type C" Grand Trunk stations (small stations in Napanee, Ernestown, Brighton) were stone rectangular buildings with four chimneys and five bays for arched windows on the long side and two on each end, under a pitched slate roof with elongated eaves and soffits supported by end rafters and triangular brackets. [2]

At the time of the railway's construction, Bath, Ontario was a bustling lakefront manufacturing village with 400-1000 people. The rails led to a shift in population from Bath (which was not on the GTR mainline) to Napanee (well served by the York Road, Napanee River and Grand Trunk Railway). The railway also led to a shift in population away from small towns to larger centres such as Belleville and Kingston.

At one point, Napanee was served by two railways; the Grand Trunk (Montréal-Toronto) and the Bay of Quinte Railway (Deseronto-Sydenham). The BQR was integrated into Canadian Northern Railway's mainline to Smiths Falls in 1910 and became part of CN when the Canadian Northern went bankrupt in 1918. The former Canadian Northern line through Napanee was managed as the CN Smiths Falls Subdivision (heading north through Smiths Falls to Federal) [3] and the CN Deseronto Subdivision (heading south to Deseronto and Brighton). Much of the Deseronto Subdivision was abandoned in the 1930s, with the last section between Deseronto and Napanee being abandoned around 1986. North of Napanee, parts of the line were abandoned starting in the early 1990s. [4] The last fragment of this line was disconnected in 2010 at Napanee's historic Grand Trunk station; [5] it crossed Hwy 401 to a Goodyear Tire and Rubber factory as a dead end after the rails to Smiths Falls were removed in the 1980s. The section from Strathcona to Smiths Falls is now the Cataraqui Trail.

Napanee's station is now municipally owned and remains in active use. The train no longer stops at Ernestown, leaving a boarded-up but intact CN-owned station in a rural area at an inaccessible point on the CN mainline 500 metres (1,600 ft) west of Camden East Road. The other seven stations from this original set are CN-owned and in varying condition. Trains no longer stop at St. Marys Junction, Brighton and Prescott. Kingston's historic outer station, in use until 1974, is now abandoned and in ruins. Belleville's original station is intact but largely vacant as a new facility was built adjacent in 2012. The original Port Hope (1856) and Georgetown (1858) stations remain in active service.

With the exception of the removal of stone chimneys on the four corners, the exterior currently looks much as it did originally. The 1856 Napanee Station was provincially designated Feb 26, 1993 [6] under Part 4 of the Ontario Heritage Act; Brighton Station obtained a similar designation in 2000. [7] The other seven original stations are designated federally under the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act, a status which does not apply to the municipally-owned Napanee station as the railway no longer directly owns the building. [8]

Services

Napanee station is only served by local trains on Via Rail's TorontoOttawa route. Most TorontoOttawa trains and all Toronto-Montreal trains pass through the station without stopping.

As of October 2023 the station is served by one train per day toward Toronto, and two to three trains per day toward Ottawa. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smiths Falls</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, 72 kilometres (45 mi) southwest of Ottawa. As of the 2021 census it has a population of 9,254. It is in the Census division for Lanark County, but is separated from the county. The Rideau Canal waterway passes through the town, with four separate locks in three locations and a combined lift of over 15 metres (49.2 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Trunk Railway</span> British-owned railway in Canada and New England

The Grand Trunk Railway 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 railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It cost an estimated $160 million to build. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway.

The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg and Moncton in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gananoque station</span> Railway station in Ontario, Canada

Gananoque railway station in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa. The station is an unstaffed but heated shelter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston station (Ontario)</span> Railway station for Kingston, Ontario, Canada

The Kingston railway station is an inter-city passenger rail station in Cataraqui, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa or Montreal, along the Corridor route. It is located on John Counter Boulevard, northeast of Princess Street and northwest of downtown Kingston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belleville station (Ontario)</span> Railway station in Ontario, Canada

The Belleville railway station in Belleville, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. The station is staffed, with ticket sales, vending machines, telephones, washrooms, and wheelchair access to the station and trains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Hope station</span> Railway station in Ontario, Canada

Port Hope railway station in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, is one of the oldest Canadian passenger rail stations still in active use. Served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Kingston and Ottawa, it was also a stop for trains to and from Montreal until January 24, 2012. The station is unstaffed, but has a heated waiting room, pay telephone, washrooms, free outdoor parking, and wheelchair access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitchener station</span> Railway station in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Kitchener station is a railway station located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, slightly to the northeast of downtown Kitchener, at 126 Weber Street West, near the corner of Victoria Street. It is a heritage building containing a waiting room and ticket counter built beside a set of tracks also used as a freight yard. A separate building to the east of the passenger area, originally built in 1925 as a freight building, now serves as the headquarters for the Goderich–Exeter Railway.

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

Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located at the mouth of the Napanee River on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, on the northern side of Lake Ontario.

The Victoria Railway was a 55.52-mile (89.35 km) long Canadian railway that operated in Central Ontario. Construction under Chief Engineer James Ross began in 1874 from Lindsay, Ontario, with authority to build through Victoria County to Haliburton, Ontario, to which it opened on November 24, 1878. The line is best known as having been built by a large group of Icelandic immigrants, who found the Kinmount winters too rough, and so they all moved to Gimli, Manitoba. The line became part of the Midland Railway of Canada and then later part of the Canadian National Railways. The line was abandoned completely by the early 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CN Kingston Subdivision</span>

Canadian National Railway's Kingston Subdivision, or Kingston Sub for short, is a major railway line connecting Toronto with Montreal that carries the majority of CN traffic between these points. The line was originally the main trunk for the Grand Trunk Railway between these cities, although there has been some realignment of the route between these cities. The majority of the Kingston Sub runs close to the northern bank of Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Ontario Railway</span> Former railway in Ontario, Canada

The Central Ontario Railway (COR) was a former railway that ran north from Trenton, Ontario to service a number of towns, mines, and sawmills. Originally formed as the Prince Edward County Railway in 1879, it ran between Picton and Trenton, where it connected with the Grand Trunk Railway that ran between Montreal and Toronto. After being purchased by a group of investors and receiving a new charter to build northward, the company was renamed the Central Ontario Railway in 1882, and it started building towards the gold fields at Eldorado and newly discovered iron fields in Coe Hill.

The Belleville and North Hastings Railway (B&NHR) was a short-line railway in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada. It branched off the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) north of Belleville and ended on the Central Ontario Railway (COR) outside Eldorado for a total distance of 33 kilometres (21 mi). In spite of its name, the line did not reach either Belleville or the northern part of Hastings County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CN Beachburg Subdivision</span>

The Canadian National Railway's Beachburg Subdivision or "Beachburg Sub" for short, was part of the former Transcontinental Mainline. The Beachburg Sub connected Ottawa to Brent, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario</span> Railway museum in Smiths Falls, Ontario

The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, a rail museum in a former CNoR station, stands on the abandoned right-of-way of a Canadian Northern Railway line which once led southwest toward Napanee. Established 1985 as the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, the RMEO works to preserve the 1913 Canadian Northern (CNoR) station and a collection of historic rolling stock, equipment and railway memorabilia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay of Quinte Railway</span>

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 through Renfrew County and on to the Ottawa Valley. Lacking funding from the governments, development never began.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory Junction Railway Museum</span> Defunct railway museum in Maplewood Avenue, Brighton

The Memory Junction Railway Museum preserved a collection of railway memorabilia in southeastern Ontario. It closed in 2017 and its collections were auctioned in 2021. It was located in the former Grand Trunk Railway station of Brighton, Ontario, which opened in 1857 and served intercity rail passengers until the 1960s.

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.

The Glengarry and Stormont Railway (G&SR) was a short line railway running from the town of Cornwall in eastern Ontario to connect to the Canadian Pacific Railway's (CP) Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&Q) mainline just inside the Quebec border, a total distance of about 45 kilometres (28 mi). The name refers to the counties it passed through, today amalgamated as Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CN Bala Subdivision</span> Major railway service line in Ontario

The Canadian National Railway (CN) Bala Subdivision is a major railway line in Ontario, Canada. It runs between the provincial capital of Toronto in Southern Ontario and Capreol in Northern Ontario, where the line continues as the Ruel Subdivision. It forms part of CN's transcontinental mainline between Southern Ontario and Western Canada.

References

  1. Beale, Charles (2012-10-17). "The transformation of a train station". NapneeGuide.com. Archived from the original on 2014-05-20.
  2. "RSR-89: CNR — Ernestown, Ontario". Historic Sites and Monuments Boad of Canada. 1991-09-11. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  3. "Smiths Falls Subdivision". CNR-in-Ontario.com. 2014-10-11. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  4. "Deseronto Subdivision". CNR-in-Ontario.com. 2014-10-11. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  5. "CN's Millhaven Spur". Trackside Treasure. 2010-09-28.
  6. "Property Information - Napanee rail station". Ontario Heritage Properties Database. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  7. "Property Information - Brighton rail station". Ontario Heritage Properties Database. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  8. "The Heritage Railway Stations Program". Parks Canada - Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. 2011-08-23. Archived from the original on 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  9. "Timetables". Via Rail Canada. Retrieved 19 October 2023.