Orangeville Brampton Railway

Last updated
Orangeville Brampton Railway
Obry4009.JPG
CCGX 4009 crosses Railroad Street and the CN Halton Subdivision in Brampton
Overview
Reporting mark OBRY
Locale Ontario
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Orangeville Brampton
Railway
BSicon exCONTg.svg
BSicon ENDEa.svg
BSicon exSTR.svg
BSicon ENDEaq.svg
BSicon ABZgr.svg
industrial spur
BSicon HST.svg
Orangeville
BSicon HST.svg
Melville
BSicon HST.svg
Alton
BSicon HST.svg
Cataract
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon WFALLf.svg
BSicon cRP2q.svg
BSicon SKRZ-G2o.svg
BSicon cRP2q.svg
Forks of the Credit Road
BSicon HST.svg
Brimstone
BSicon HST.svg
Inglewood
BSicon fCONTgq.svg
BSicon mfKRZo.svg
BSicon fCONTfq.svg
Caledon Trailway Path
former H&NW Railway
BSicon hbKRZWae.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Boston Mills
BSicon HST.svg
Ferndale
BSicon ENDEaq.svg
BSicon ABZg+r.svg
Vulsay spur
BSicon CONTgq.svg
BSicon KRZ.svg
BSicon CONTfq.svg
BSicon BHF.svg
Brampton
BSicon hbKRZWae.svg
BSicon CONTgq.svg
BSicon ABZql.svg
BSicon lBHF-GO.svg
BSicon CONTf@Fq.svg
Streetsville

The Orangeville-Brampton Railway was a 55-kilometre (34-mile) long short line railway between Orangeville and Streetsville Junction in Mississauga, Ontario. It passed through the City of Brampton and the Town of Caledon.

Contents

At Streetsville, the OBRY connected with the Canadian Pacific Railway Galt Subdivision. At Brampton, it crossed the Canadian National Railway Halton Subdivision at grade, but no interchange traffic was handled. North of Brampton, the railway wound through the Niagara Escarpment, notable for a curved, 349-metre (1,145-foot) long trestle over the Credit River and Forks of the Credit Road, near Belfountain in Caledon.

The railway's main purpose was to service several industries in Orangeville and Brampton. However, between the fall of 2004 and spring of 2018, OBRY operated a public excursion train, marketed as Credit Valley Explorer, between Orangeville and Snelgrove (the northern edge of Brampton).

Freight trains on the line were operated by Trillium Railway under contract for OBRY (previously operated by Cando Rail Services Ltd.) [1] and made weekday round trips (on Tuesdays and Fridays) between Orangeville and Mississauga.

A decision was made to terminate service on the line effective December 31, 2021. [2] The last train out of Orangeville was December 17, 2021. [3] [4] In July 2022, municipal governments along the route in Peel Region acquired approximately 51 km of the former railway to convert to a trail that would connect to the Trans Canada Trail system. [5]

History

Most of the current OBRY route was built in the 1870s by the Credit Valley Railway (CVR), with construction completed to Orangeville (with a branch to Elora) in 1879. The CVR was purchased by the CPR in 1883, [6] which joined the tracks of the CVR with a former rival, the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (TGB), at Orangeville, in effect extending the line north from Orangeville to the TGB's terminus in Owen Sound.

Scheduled passenger service between Toronto and Owen Sound via Brampton and Orangeville ended in 1970, the Elora branch was abandoned in 1987, and the Orangeville-Owen Sound trackage was abandoned in 1995.

The Town of Orangeville purchased the Mississauga-Orangeville trackage between Mile 2.2 to Mile 34.6 of the Owen Sound Subdivision from the CPR [6] on September 29, 2000, to ensure the line's continued existence. [7] The line was then managed by the Orangeville Brampton Rail Development Corporation.

In early 2018, it was announced that after years of operation for the town, Cando would be discontinuing its contract to operate the line effective at the end of June 2018, and as a result, a new operator was sought by the town to operate the line. Facing an uncertain future, the Credit Valley Explorer made its final runs in February 2018, and the three passenger cars were sold off to the Waterloo Central Railway. After the final freight runs by Cando in late June 2018, new contractor Trillium Railway (later known as GIO Railways Corporation) commenced freight operations on the OBRY, starting in July 2018 with a leased locomotive.

A decision made by Orangeville Brampton Rail Access Group resulted in the termination of service on the line effective December 31, 2021. The last leader of the line would be Trillium Rail, and Orangeville mayor Sandy Brown suggested the line may become a recreational trail. [2] The last train out of Orangeville was December 17, 2021. [3] [4]

Fleet

Source. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brampton</span> City in Ontario, Canada founded 1853

Brampton is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it the ninth most populous municipality in Canada and the third most populous city in the Greater Golden Horseshoe urban area, behind Toronto and Mississauga.

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

Mississauga, historically known as Toronto Township, is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario, situated on the western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a population of 717,961 as of 2021, Mississauga is the seventh-most populous municipality in Canada, third-most in Ontario, and second-most in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) after Toronto itself. However, for the first time in its history, the city's population declined according to the 2021 census, from a 2016 population of 721,599 to 717,961, a 0.5 per cent decrease.

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

Caledon is a town in the Regional Municipality of Peel in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. The name comes from a shortened form of Caledonia, the Roman name for what is now Scotland. Caledon is primarily rural with a number of hamlets and small villages, but also contains the larger community of Bolton in its southeastern quadrant, adjacent to York Region. Some spillover urbanization also occurs in the south bordering the City of Brampton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Credit River</span> River in Canada

The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario, which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment near Orangeville and Caledon East to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi). The total length of the river and its tributary streams is over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi).

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

Orangeville is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malton GO Station</span> Railway station in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Malton GO Station is a train and bus station in the GO Transit network, located near Toronto Pearson International Airport, in the community of Malton in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is a stop on the Kitchener line, and is a flag stop for Via Rail trains operating between Toronto, London and Sarnia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streetsville GO Station</span> Railway station in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Streetsville GO Station is a GO Transit railway station on the Milton line in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the community of Streetsville in Mississauga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurontario Street</span> Road in Ontario, Canada

Hurontario Street is a roadway running in Ontario, Canada between Lake Ontario at Mississauga and Lake Huron's Georgian Bay at Collingwood. Within Peel Region, it is a major urban thoroughfare within the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, which serves as the divide from which cross-streets are split into East and West, except at its foot in the historic Mississauga neighbourhood of Port Credit. Farther north, with the exception of the section through Simcoe County, where it forms the 8th Concession, it is the meridian for the rural municipalities it passes through. In Dufferin County, for instance, parallel roads are labelled as EHS or WHS for East of Hurontario Street.

King's Highway 10, commonly referred to as Highway 10, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The highway connects the northern end of Highway 410 just north of Brampton with Owen Sound on the southern shores of Georgian Bay, passing through the towns of Orangeville and Shelburne as well as several smaller villages along the way. It historically followed the Toronto–Sydenham Road, the southern part of which later became the southern section of Hurontario Street. The section between Orangeville and Primrose was formerly part of Prince of Wales Road, which continues northwards after the highway turns west. Between Chatsworth and Owen Sound, Highway 10 is concurrent with Highway 6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snelgrove, Ontario</span> Unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada

Snelgrove is a former hamlet in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, straddling the border between Brampton and Caledon, and centred on the intersection of Hurontario Street and Mayfield Road. It was known as Edmonton in the 1800s after the home town of local settlers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trillium Railway</span> Ontario short-line railroad

The Trillium Railway is a Canadian short-line railroad operating in the province of Ontario. Much of its right-of-way in the Niagara area was formerly part of the "Welland Canal Railway" that closely followed the route of the second Welland Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Junior Hockey League</span> Canadian ice hockey league, founded 1955

The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) is a Junior A ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. It is under the supervision of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League</span> Lacrosse league in Canada

The Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League (OJBLL) is a box lacrosse league sanctioned by the Ontario Lacrosse Association in Canada. The league features twenty-five teams in Ontario, one in Quebec, and one in the Akwesasne that annually play a 20-game schedule and four rounds of playoffs for the J. A. MacDonald Trophy. After the conclusion of the playoffs, a league champion represents the OJBLL at the Founders Cup National Junior B Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrie Collingwood Railway</span>

The Barrie-Collingwood Railway, commonly referred to as the BCRY, is a shortline railway operating between the towns of Innisfil and Utopia in south central Ontario, Canada. The line was started in 1998 and runs on former Canadian National (CN) trackage which was collectively purchased by the railway's namesake municipalities. The BCRY continues to run under the ownership of the City of Barrie and is operated by Cando Rail Services Ltd., based in Brandon, Manitoba.

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

The CN Halton Subdivision is a major railway line in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway (CN).

The Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (TG&B) was a railway company which operated in Ontario, Canada in the years immediately following the Canadian Confederation of 1867. It connected two rural counties, Grey County and Bruce County, with the provincial capital of Toronto to the east.

GO Transit is an interregional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada, operated by the provincial crown agency Metrolinx. It primarily serves the conurbation referred to by Metrolinx as the "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" (GTHA) with operations extending to several communities in the area centred around Toronto and Hamilton.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurontario LRT</span> Light rail line under construction in Mississauga and Brampton, Ontario, Canada

The Hurontario LRT is a light rail line under construction in the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, Ontario, Canada. The line will run along Hurontario Street from Mississauga's Port Credit neighbourhood north to Steeles Avenue in Brampton. The line will be built and operated as a public-private partnership by Mobilinx, a consortium of private European and Japanese companies, with provincial transit agency Metrolinx retaining ownership of the line. It will be the only street railway operating in the Greater Toronto Area outside Toronto proper.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The pandemic has affected the Cities of Mississauga and Brampton, and the Town of Caledon, within the Regional Municipality of Peel. As part of the larger closure decisions in Ontario, a stay-at-home order shuttered all nonessential businesses, and caused event cancellations.

References

  1. Cando Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 "Orangeville Brampton Rail Access Group to terminate agreement". orangeville.ca. December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "End of the line: Why Ontario will regret ripping up this rail corridor". tvo.org. December 20, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Host, Stephen C. (December 20, 2021). "Last train marks closure of Orangeville-Brampton Railway". trains.com. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  5. Eeuwes, Nick. "Orangeville Brampton Railway acquisition finalized". FM101 Orangeville Today. CKMO-FM . Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Last train leaves Orangeville". Orangeville Citizen. 23 December 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  7. CP Owen Sound Subdivision
  8. http://passcarphotos.info/Indices/O.htm