Ottawa Railway History Circle

Objectives
To create a clearing house for research being done on railway subjects in the Ottawa area by:

(1) identifying researchers carrying out such research,
(2) identifying the subjects being researched, and
(3) reporting progress being made on such projects.

By so doing it is hoped that duplication of effort will be minimized, researchers will benefit from the work of others, and researchers not already on the link-up may become aware of what is being done.

Membership

Membership in the Ottawa Railway History Circle is by invitation only.  It is available for those, with e-mail access, who can satisfy the members that they:

    Have actively studied Ottawa railway history, usually through the publication of articles, books or presentations, or;
    Have an intimate knowledge of the subject and are willing to share this knowledge, or;
    Have a desire to study the subject and wish to learn more through active involvement in the Circle’s activities.

The Findings of the Circle contain a great amount of detail on Ottawa Railway History
Some Articles written by our members are shown here

Guidelines for Posting Messages

Our Members

Bruce Ballantyne
Minda Bojin
Paul Bown
Pat Brennan
Colin Churcher
Paul Delamere
Nikola Delja
Andrew Elliott
Raymond Farand
Gerald (Gerry) Gaugl
Brian Gilhuly
Bernie Geiger
Rene Gourley
Bruce Morgan
Chris Granger
Chris Hall
Phil Jago
Andrew Jeanes
David Jeanes
Eugene (Gene) Kirkham
David Knowles
David Langner
Bill Linley
Shawn MacWha
Rian Manson
Bill McConnell
Bob Meldrum
Fred Mills
Ronald Newby
Peter Newgard
Railway Bob
Ted Rafuse
Doug Smith
David (Dave) Stremes
Doug Stoltz
Jacques Valiquette
Malcolm Vant
Ian Walker
Mark Walton
Doug Wilson

In Memoriam

Fred Adams
Derek Boles
Bruce Chapman
Bruce Dudley
John Frayne
Ken Healy
Mike Iveson
Bill Naftel
Bud Nelson
Dave Page
Dennis Peters
Bert Titcomb

Bruce Ballantyne

Bruce Ballantyne
I've lived in the Ottawa area all my life and can recall the more active days of the railways in the Region in the late 1950s and 60s.  I can even recall the dying days of steam having lived near CN's Beachburg and CP's Prescott Subs in the Alta Vista area.  In 1992, I began a project to create an inventory of railway stations across Canada regardless of present location or use.  This has culminated in the publishing of the Canadian Railway Station Guide by the Bytown Railway Society.  Consequently, I am continuing to do research on stations, particularly in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

I am also interested in the history of CP's Maniwaki Sub for which I have done quite a bit of research, although not too recently.  This interest comes from many years spent at the family cottage at Blue Sea Lake watching the passenger trains pass through the village of Messines.

I enjoyed Colin's account of the history of the Thurso and Nation Valley Railway which has spurred my interest in what can be found about other logging railways that were built up the Ottawa River Valley (primarily, I think in what is now Algonquin Park).  This could make an interesting and perhaps challenging research project.  For example, there was the McCauley Central near Barrys' Bay which was owned by JR Booth and connected to his Ottawa Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway.  There were others farther west but I don't recall any names.  Anyone interested?

Pat Brennan
Pat Brennan

I am a dreamer. I dream about time travel back to an age when the railways were at their peak in the Ottawa area but more specifically Aylmer, Quebec.
 
Since I haven't figured out a technical solution to time travel I am following the path of research and modelling of former railways. I love to talk to people who have experienced life on the rails, whether they were passengers or workers on the railways. I also love to look at pictures from days gone by and study the many changes that have taken place over time. I am keen on actually setting foot on some of these locations in order to imagine what life was like before my time.
 
This feeds into the modelling, currently in HO Scale, of past Aylmer scenes when the train passed my house at least 4 times a day. Current projects also include modelling a future rail line to Aylmer (and perhaps beyond) from Gatineau, Hull and Ottawa.
 
P.S. some people call me the Aylmer Train Nut.

Colin Churcher
Colin 2003

The railway scene in Ottawa has changed incredibly in the last 40 years or so.  I came to Ottawa in 1968 after the changes had been made and I have had great difficulty trying to undertand how it used to be.  I feel it is important to preserve information on the part played by railways in Ottawa.  To this end, I have gone through the orders issued by the Board of Railway Commissioners and its successors and picking out all orders related to the railways in this area.  This represents a very rich historical record because just about everything the railways did was regulated (opening of lines, closure of stations and lines, relations between railways, crossings etc).  The Boards issued about 160,000 orders between 1904 and 1988.  I have also complted a similar search for Orders in Council.  Eventually I will  produce printouts showing this regulatory history by line, by location and chronologically.

I have defined my study area as being bounded by Waltham, Maniwaki, Marelan, Rigaud, Coteau, Cornwall, Prescott, Brockville, Kingston, Tichborne, Sharbot Lake and Whitney.

Other projects currently under way are:

- a thorough review of the Merrilees photo collection in the National Archives (some 339,000 images).
-  preparing a database of all pictures identified in my study area.
- cataloguing the Aubrey Mattingly picture collection housed in the Canada Science and Technolgy Museum.
- reviewing the local papers and extracting all local items into a database.
- completing a data base and then preparing a manuscript on industrial locomotives in Canada other than BC (BC has already been covered by Mervyn T. Green).  This covers locomotives before 1990 (since 1990, the Canadian Trackside Guide by the Bytown Railway Society, is a useful reference for industrials).

Paul Delamere
The purpose of my mapping project is to offer the user a comprehensive collection of geographically and historically accurate Canadian class 1 steam and diesel railway maps as well as all manner of electromotive street and interurban systems. Also included are American railroads within Ontario, independent railways and industrial tram systems. With the technology that is avaliable today scale is no longer an issue. This map is also fully useable in the field with the aid of a mobile GPS that runs the .kml/.kmz file format. You must have Google Earth, ARCGIS or ARC Globe on your computer before you can view our work.
Map files are avaliable free here:
Ontario - http://ontariomap.webs.com/

Quebec - http://quebecrailwaymap.webs.com/
All Canadian electric systems - www.cermc.webs.com

Nikola Delja
 I am (2023) a fourth year University of Ottawa student currently studying History and Political Science. At several points in my studies I’ve used railways and rail transportation as part of or as a focus of papers for classes both in the historical and analytical context.
My interest in railways began with the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield Steam Train during the early 2000s both on the train and observing its operations at Wakefield during family day trips. During the late 2010s when trackage and eventually coach stock of the HCW were being dismantled, I observed any developments that occurred, which included my documentation of the removal of the HCW coaches which occurred in May of 2019.
Another area of interest that I have looked into and am interested in exploring more is that of public transit. I had volunteered from 2014 to 2017 at the Streetcar 696 restoration project (hoping to return to it in the near future) and have been following the developments regarding the Ottawa LRT and the future of rail transit in Ottawa. I’ve also read literature on the subject of urban transit such as Michael and Brian Doucet’s ‘Streetcars and the Shifting Geographies of Toronto’ in regards to the social impact and change public transit brings as well, which is another area that I am wanting to learn more on.
I’m interested in learning more about the aforementioned subjects, in addition to rail operations in and around the Ottawa region. My current projects in regards to rail history have been assisting Colin in the conversion and uploading of several DVD transfers of Video8 recordings of the Ottawa area during the late 1980s. In addition to this, the same channel hosting Colin’s tapes has other footage, mostly from VHS, of primarily Canadian rail operations, several of which are within the Ottawa Valley. I’m always looking to expand my interest in these fields as well as in others, and I’m interested in sharing in addition to discussing findings with the Ottawa Railway Historical Circle.


Raymond Farand

I’m an Ottawa Valley born and raised ‘railfan’, and a resident of the City of Ottawa since 1971.  I think of myself mainly as a photo archivist of all things railway related, with the historical aspect of my photography an important element in my image-making philosophy.

In the early '80s as my chosen career path led me away from the business of railroading I became serious about having an arm’s-length relationship with the industry in the form of a hobby.  I used the good will of an established family name (there were three career railroaders in my family) to introduce myself to those who worked in the business.  It has served me well over the years.  I am comfortable around train operations and employees at the local level are accepting of my presence.  Over the years I have been told by several of the running trades that they think of me as one of their own.  For me no greater compliment can be paid by those who serve.

Even though I have benefited handsomely from my position of acceptance, for a time I felt that I had arrived at the party too late for my images to have much historical value.  Much of the steam-era architecture surrounding railway operations (stations included) had been removed leaving the right-of-ways appearing relatively barren.  Then the focus on short line creation and leasing hit the industry, and with it came photographic diversification like we had not seen in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec since the early days of dieselization.  I was fortunate to find myself in a position to photograph a wonderful cross-section of this spin-off activity.

As the short line era began to whither here in Eastern Canada with companies such as the Ottawa Central disappearing entirely, images from the previous 10 or so years now became more historically important.  Soon a downturn in the world economy resulted in the re-evaluation of regional leasing operations, ultimately leading to the demise of lines of railway such as the Chalk River Subdivision and a portion of the North Bay Subdivision east of Mattawa ON.  The seemingly unimaginable was occurring right before my eyes, making the removal of trackside structures in the '60s and '70s appear secondary compared to the actual dismantlement of the lines of railway themselves.  Suddenly pictures of operations on these impacted subdivisions, along with those taken of the Beachburg Subdivision prior to its dismantlement through Algonquin Park in 1996-97, took on a whole new sense of historical importance, and I was there to record the final 'curtain call'.

Over the past 30 years I have done my best to record the changing face of contemporary railroading here in the Ottawa Valley so that future railfans and historians might look at what once was and dream of what could have been had more favourable circumstances prevailed.

I am pleased to be a member of a collective known as the Ottawa Railway History Circle
.

Bernie Geiger
Bernie Geiger

Areas that I have an interest in and have collected some information on include:

- Ottawa, Hull and Kingston Streetcars
- Rail lines around Kingston
- the NYC line to Cornwall
- the "plank" railroad from the  nearby quarry to Hogs Back used to build the canal/dam around 1829
- lines into and around the Uplands Airport

I also have some experience with the National Air Photo Library at 615 Booth St. which is an amazing source of aerial photographs of much of Canada from the 1930's onwards.  These photos often show lines, rights of way, yards and railcars.  In some Ottawa series you can see the streetcars moving along the street from frame to frame as the plane flew over!

Brian Gilhuly


I grew up above the CPR telegraph in Perth, leading to a life long fascination with communications technology and networks.  Hanging around the station in the steam era pretty much sealed the deal.  Travelling  by tyrain, modelling, study and collecting railroadiana have been lifelong pursuits.

Now living in Arnprior, I undertook as a volunteer at the Arnprior & Braeside/McNabb Archives the development of a presentation to commemorate the sesqui-centennial of the arrival Brockville and Ottawa's arrival in our town in 1864. The presentation used maps I drew to illustrate the development of regional steamboat and railway networks.  Out of that grew my book, Tracing the Lines, Eastern Ontario & West Quebec Railway History in Maps, available as a free download from the Archives' web site.

https://search.adarchives.org/media/tracing-the-lines/tracing-the-lines.pdf

Current particular interests are the Brockville & Ottawa, Canada Central and Temiscouata Railway and the history of the CPR car shops in Perth.
Rene Gourley
While I currently live in British Columbia, I had the good fortune to grow up in Ottawa, which explains my interest in railways of the area.  While researching is, needless to say, difficult from this distance, I do manage to steal the
odd day in archives or museums when I go home to visit my family. My interest is focused on the Canada Atlantic Railway, its subsidiaries and leased lines.  I have been researching this line since 1988 and have accumulated a reasonable, but by no means complete body of information. I have put some of this on my home page at  https://sites.google.com/site/canadaatlanticry/

Chris Granger
I've been interested in railways since I was a child.  My earliest memory of seeing a train was when I lived in Petawawa and my dad showed me some military trains.  I lived in Calgary for a number of years and I can still remember watching the trains run along Ninth Avenue and on CNR's Drumheller Sub.  I returned to my birthplace of Cornwall in 1981 and my interest in railways continued to progress.  I grew up watching the CNR spur activity here and my backyard was right beside the former NYC line to Ottawa.  As I matured, my curiosity in learning more about these lines increased, but it wasn't until 1997 that I began to research thoroughly on the subjects.  I began with my family tree where I found that I had past relatives who were railroaders.  From what I have learned, various members of my family worked for/at:

-CNR: McGiveny Junction, NB (great-grandfather on father's side in the late 1920s)
-CPR: Ottawa area (great-uncle on father's side)
-GTR: Aultsville (great-great-uncle on mother's side, whom took employment a year later with...)
-O&NYR/NYC: Crysler, Newington, Cornwall Junction and Cornwall (on mother's side, great-great-grandfather; great-great-uncle and great-grandfather)

Needless to say, my main focus is on the NYC's Ottawa Division and I am currently involved in extensive research with Colin Churcher and Tony Burges, as well as help from Douglas Smith in hopes to publish a book. Also involved on this subject is my work with Heritage Cornwall (the city's LACAC) in raising of a swing wheel from the St. Lawrence River, an artifact from the 1908 bridge/canal accident.  One of the side projects I am
involved in is expanding the extremely thin railway history files that now exist in the Cornwall History Room.  This will involve railways as far west as the K&P, eastwards into Montreal, as far north as the QMO&O and southwards into the States to the Rutland's Ogdensburg line, all focussed on the basic important dates and events as well as what remains today of the lines encompassed in that area.  I have also been writing articles, one was printed in Branchline, while others have been and continue to be featured on the Cornwall LACAC web site.
Chris Hall
My key areas of interest revolve around the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway, in particular the entirety of the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal line including the former Federal terminals and the L'Orignal Subdivision.  Due to the early dates of abandonment of the various lines and structures, information has been particularly hard to come by, making it all the more rewarding to find.

My research mainly includes the study of aerial photographs (found at the National Air Photo Library), survey plans, topographical maps and employee timetables as well as some very basic archaeological poking about in the bush looking for old foundations and trackbeds.

There are several things that I have not yet found in my on again-off again pursuit that I eventually hope to come across. These include plans and photographs of the Federal roundhouse, as well as photographs of other stations and structures on the Toronto-Deseronto and Ottawa-Hawkesbury stretches of the CNoR.

Beyond satisfying my own personal thirst for knowledge, I hope to bring to the group certain gems of information that would have otherwise been left unnoticed. This will be accomplished by taking a different angle and venturing into the "brave old world" of  survey plans and land ownership records. This should be valuable in explaining the whats, whens and hows of major changes in the railway landscape over the past few decades.

Phil Jago
My interests are the rail lines of eastern Ontario western Quebec - roughly in accordance with Colin Churcher.
- Of strong interest are the CPR Brockville Subdivision, the CPR Prescott Subdivision, the Brockville and Westport Railway and the GTR/CNR trackage which was removed during the St. LawrenceSeaway project.
- I have secondary interest in the rail plant in and around Belleville, GTR line relocations between Trenton and Toronto.
- I have tertiary interest in the CNoR - especially the L'Orignal Subdivision and would love to see examples (photos) of track plant from the various stations on that pike.
Andrew Jeanes

Andrew Jeanes and Shaunessy

My interest in railway history has led me into the perils and pleasures of graduate school.  I'm currently completing an M.A. in Canadian Studies at Carleton University, with a focus on Canadian railway heritage.  I'm interested in studying the effects of railways on the landscape, in a purely geomorphological sense as well as in the obvious economic, social and political senses.

I've lived most of my life in Ottawa, but my interest in the history of the city's railway lines often takes me to a place that disappeared long before I was born, a place I can only experience through old photos, documents and the shared recollections of those who were there to see things firsthand.

My many current research interests include the development of Walkley Yard, the history of railway station preservation in Canada, and the  history of passenger train service into and out of Ottawa from the 1850s to the present day.  In addition to the Circle, I'm also a member of the CN Lines Special Interest Group, the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders, and yes, the Ottawa Valley HOTrak modular model railroad club.

David Jeanes
David Jeanes

My specific interest areas are 

- Union Station, from its building in 1912, as Grand Trunk Central Station, to its closure in 1966.
- The 1960s railway relocation program, particularly the excavation of the Dows Lake Tunnel and the rock cut to Ottawa West.
- The CTC signalling system created in 1967.

Eugene (Gene) Kirkham

Growing up in Sharbot Lake, Ontario started me off on my railroad journey. I come from a C.P.R. railroad family: section men and section foreman all along the Havelock Subdivision and Belleville Subdivision. So that’s where my interests lie, especially the railroad heritage of Central Frontenac. For two years, 1976/1977, I worked on the railroad at the CWR plant at Smiths Falls, Ontario. After that a pursued a career in high tech, retiring in 2015.

I am a member of OVAR, the IPP&W Railway and the CFRHS (Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society) where I’m involved in local railway research and maintaining the Heritage Park and CFRHS web page.

David Knowles
Dave Knowles

My research interests range fairly widely often being sparked by the inquiries we receive. However, more specifically:

1. Historiography. i.e. the history of Canadian railway history.
2. The development of Canadian railway management.
3. Ottawa Car Co. the manufacturer.
4. Main line electrification
5. The Bytown and Prescott Railway and its successors.
6. Railway heralds

David Langner

I was born and raised in Ottawa, and have many happy memories of my dad taking my brother and I to watch trains, mainly at the Walkley yard, and at Ridge Road (while the 417 was being constructed). It was there that we watched the "Turbo Train" come to Ottawa.

We'd also take walks on little-used lines, such as the Prescott subdivision, or the old New York Central right-of-way (where I recall seeing an abandoned passenger car).
After I got hired by the federal government, my bike route took me over the Prescott subdivision, near today's Southkeys transit station. I'd try to time my trips to coincide with lumber trains heading south. It was only when the line was closed in 1997 that I realized the railway tracks of my childhood were disappearing. Since then, I've tried to learn the story behind the lines that ran into Ottawa. I'm also quick to point out the location of long-forgotten tracks to my kids, and anyone else who will listen.

Bill Linley
Bill Linley
From the Bay of Fundy to the Pacific Coast, Bill Linley has been photographing and writing about trains for over fifty years.  He was introduced to train watching by his father in his native Toronto in the early 1950s and began photographing trains on the Quebec Central in 1959 while living in Ste Foy, Quebec.

Bill shot the first of some 100,000 colour slides in April 1962 with a photograph of the Canadian Pacific’s Ottawa West Station.  He began to focus on the CPR and particularly on the changes to railways in the Ottawa region, which he photographed extensively until 1970. 

While studying geography at Carleton University, Bill worked as a message router at the Sparks Street Office of Canadian Pacific Telegraphs.  He later worked as a reservations clerk and ticket agent for the CPR at Ottawa Union Station selling their train travel experience.  Bill made trips across Canada in the late 1960s trying to catch the last of traditional railway operations in PEI, Newfoundland and British Columbia.   Always a fan of MLW/Alco locomotives, he pursued these engines far and wide, notably the FPA-4s on VIA in the 1980s.

Following graduation from Carleton University in May 1969, Bill began a 33-year career in economic development with the governments of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.   His career took him across Canada where he often managed to photograph trains in the off-hours.  He moved to Fredericton and Halifax where he was a director and oft-times treasurer of church and volunteer organizations. 

For a dozen years he owned CN caboose 79510 and a boxcar that continue to welcome guests as part of the Train Station Inn in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.  The caboose and a boxcar were re-modelled to provide first-class guest accommodation for persons seeking a unique railway experience.  In 2009, Bill was featured as a waiter in the Train Station Inn’s dining car in an episode of CBC TV’s serial The Week the Women Went.

Morning Sun Books published his first book: Canadian Pacific in Color: Volume 1 – Eastern Lines in 2003 and it sold out in 2008.  He has recently released the sequel, Canadian Pacific in Color Volume 2, Western Lines.  Bill describes the period 1948 through 1968 when steam engines gave way to diesels across the country. 

His photos and writing have appeared in a variety of magazines in Canada and internationally.  As well, he is keen to contribute to the work of others engaged in the preservation of railway and industrial heritage.  In 2002 he completed a brochure and contributed the text and photographs for an award-winning website on railway heritage for the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society of which he was a founding director.  He recently stepped down as a director and treasurer of the Orangedale Station Association that owns and operates Nova Scotia's oldest railway station. 

Current interests include completing another book for Morning Sun and cataloguing thousands of his colour slides and digital images taken over more than fifty years.   As well, he serves on the Finance and Investment Committee of Pine Hill Divinity Hall in Halifax and is actively involved in the rejuvenation of Fundy Hall, a former Temperance Society facility, in Port Lorne, Nova Scotia.

For over thirty years he has operated a home-based business, Signal Graphics, which deals in quality Canadian railway books, DVDs and images.  He and his wife, Marilynn, live in the historic Captain John G. Charlton house in Port Lorne on the Bay of Fundy near the Dominion Atlantic Railway. 

Bill Linley, Port Lorne, Nova Scotia   bill.linley@gmail.com

Rian Manson

My Name is Rian (pronounced Ryan) Manson. I have lived in Smiths Falls all my life. I was fortunate to belong to a family of railroaders. The stories and trips with my uncle to the CPR yard in the late 80’s in my PJ's and slippers introduced the affairs of iron and steel into my blood. It was only a matter of time that I began volunteering at the Smiths Falls Railway Museum and eventually met Steve Hunter and Bob Moore who influenced me to start documenting my railway interests. To simplify the aforementioned railway interests, I have narrowed them into three categories:
1) Railways in Smiths Falls (The entire spectrum) B&O, O&Q, and the CNoR, stories, pictures, employees, unions, and train operations.
2) The Canadian Northern (CNoR) in Canada, and the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway (CNoOR). My CNoOR interest is the Smiths Falls Subdivision which is an elusive line to research.
3) The Kingston & Pembroke Railway.
My interest is the “Movers & Shakers” of the railway line and the physical growth and decline of the railway. My purpose is to eventually, perhaps put out a publication on Smiths Falls’ railway heritage. I also have a motivation to educate our youth in the importance of their railway cultural heritage.
Bob Meldrum
I grew up in a railway family in Stratford Ontario where Canadian National had arguably its best steam locomotive repair shops. My great uncle, both grandfathers, uncle, father, and cousin all worked in the "shops". It was
assumed that I would join them but the end of steam came as I was in high school. With a pass to ride trains, I was fortunate to go with my Dad often for trips to such places as Toronto, Chicago, New York, and Detroit. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1964 with a degree in mathematics, I became a computer programmer. Some of my first work was with a transportation consultant in Toronto. Some of that work was part of a study showing that GO Transit was a good idea.

My main interest to this day is travelling on trains. I have been fortunate to ride every railway line in Canada that has passenger service including the Quebec, North Shore, and Labrador. In other years, I have travelled
around the world to ride trains in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Photography was incidental to the thrill of travel. A souvenir rather than a goal.

I came late to historical research and have only recently found myself becoming more interested in historic lines. It was a thrill to find in a nineteen-forties "Railroad Magazine" in the Bob Craig Memorial Library, that a line had actually been surveyed from the area around Rouyn-Noranda to Maniwaki - a line that had the potential to make "our" Maniwaki route as heavy-duty as the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador. It is gems like this (often uncovered by members of the Circle) that make this hobby so fascinating.

Fred Mills


 
I was born and raised on Drolet Street in Montreal, and at ten years of age, my family moved to Ottawa.  My father was very supportive of my introduction to Railroading, in the late 40s and early 50s.  Later I was off on my own seeing, hearing and in other ways, other than being employed by any railroad; experiencing the railroad industry.  I can safely say that I have been able to ride the "Front end and/or the tail end" in every province in Canada except Newfoundland, and the Yukon but including Vancouver Island.

I have never taken a picture that I felt was worth showing to anyone, but I have made a point of enjoying the company of people that make the railroads work, and remembering a lot of their tales, and experiences.  My grandfather was a foreman, in charge of the exterior/interior decoration of the original Ottawa Union Station when it was built, and have in my possession a momento of his work, from the official opening.

I hope that I will be able to join in discussions of the history of railroading in our area, and be supportive of it, through research and preservation.

Ronald Newby

A little background on my interest in the Canada Atlantic Railway system is as follows.  It all started when my wife bought me a book for christmas (many moons ago) called "Over the Hills to Georgian Bay".   I found this book to be an interesting read as it also was about logging in Ontario (another interest) and thought it would make an interesting subject to model.  The more I found out about the line the more interested I became in it.  It has now turned into a project on its own.  At first my research was only in the OA& PS portion of the line.  It has now expanded into the entire Canada Atlantic Railway and JR Booth other logging lines and JR Booth himself.

Peter Newgard

After spending 28 years with OTC-OCTranspo, Peter’s biggest transit interest is in buses, the history of OTC and OER, and other Ottawa and North American based bus operations.  In the 80's and 90's he worked with the late Michael Iveson over streetcar 696 while repatriating it in 1989 from Delson/Exporail back to Ottawa where OCTranspo was involved early on in providing space and some facilities for the restoration of the car.  With help from others he has researched local bus fleet history and earlier garage and terminal locations for the OER, OTC and for Colonial Coach Lines.  He is continuing to work on local transportation history with others.
Having saved and restored some older OC buses Peter is an HO model bus designer and collector.

"Railway Bob"
Bob Moore 2009

I'm interested in the history of Railways of Eastern Ontario .  My website address is
http://www.railway.bob.com

I am interested in the history of the small railway lines in Eastern Ontario - before they were swallowed up by
Canadian National or Canadian Pacific.  My objective is to have a site that not only informs but also entertains.  This includes lots of historical photos and maps of the specific railway lines, timetables, the shares and
bonds that they issued.  My personal goals are two-fold - to learn about railway history and to learn about Internet technology.  For the moment, I am concentrating on the Brockville & Westport, and to a lesser extent, on
the Brockville and Ottawa, the Bytown and Prescott.  We'll add more railway lines to our website as time and motivation permits.

Railways have played a large role in the creation of Canada.  Uncovering this history is lots of fun and exciting.  If it wasn't, I wouldn't be doing it.  Each discovery answers a question about who, when, and why.  But it also raises more questions - like who were the promoters, why did the line go bankrupt?  I've had fun travelling the highways and byways of Eastern Ontario visiting local libraries and museums, talking to the people who remember when they took the train to go to school.  I' ve been fortunate in obtaining a lot of information from these people and from the official sources like the National Archives and the Archives of Ontario. So, our objective is to arrange this material in a way that will tell the story of our local railway lines, and publish it on the Internet so that others can share in my enjoyment of the history of the Railways of Eastern Ontario.


Doug Smith
Like most of the crowd, I grew up near a rail line (well actually two - CN and CP served my home town).  Almost everyday my father received express shipments on the Maritime Express and until I started school, I often went with him. Out of these trips came a fascination which remains to the present with passenger trains and their equipment and railway stations.

I also am very interested in the reasons why things happen - most rail historians are nuts and bolts type, i.e. a rail line was built to town X in 18xx or a locomotive was delivered in 19xx.  I am much more interested in why the railway went to town X, the changes in technology which made the locomotive purchase a good thing, and why the railway choose to make the purchase.

Given the interest in passenger trains, my side interest in interurban lines is probably understandable.


Doug Stoltz

CNR steam and GRR-LE&N trolleys left a big impression on me growing up on Ottawa Street in Kitchener. A move to Montreal’s west island opened up the world of main-line and big-city railroading. Steam and diesel excursions brought me into contact with the organized rail fan community and their publications revealed fascinating episodes and developments in railway history. I came to Ottawa as the massive rail relocation project was changing the landscape dramatically. My interest in train operations, timetables and rules got me curious about the regulatory framework and railway legislation. A trial balloon sent to Transport Canada led to a contract to revise the department’s statutory history of railway companies. When rail passenger services appeared to be headed toward extinction, I became active in the formation of Transport 2000 and in its early campaigns. I enjoy going to source material for information of all kinds about railways past and present. The ORHC is a great forum for the collection and sharing of suchinformation in relation to this part of Canada.

Jacques Valiquette

My interest in the railways of Ottawa consists of the period from 1950 to 1986 when I was working as a car inspector with CNR, at the "old station"  center town, and Bank St repair track.
Then the "new station" on Tremblay Rd,  Walkley yard repair track and freight yard inspection.
I came back in service with Hull Chelsea Wakefield  in Hull from the start in 1991 as master mechanic of the fleet of 8 cars, 909 steam and 244 diesel locomotives to 1996 when I retired after a fall in the cab while repairing the glass tube boiler water level, breaking my right shoulder.
I have a good memory and I am ready to assist in questions or details in the future in that range.

Malcolm Vant

I have been interested in trains ever since I can remember.  I have lived in Ottawa most of my life and being born in the early 50s, experienced the dismantling of rail in the area.  I recall vividly leaving on trains with my mother from the old Union Station and riding on streetcars.  I do recall seeing the Ottawa West yards and roundhouse near the end of their lives in the mid-60s, as I rode by on the number 52 bus to Carlingwood, and I remember visiting the coal sheds that lined the hill near Mann Ave with my Dad. Unfortunately, during those early years, I was too young to have a camera and take photos.  My earliest photos are in 1967, taken with a Brownie, of the tracks of Union Station just after it closed, and then of the museum train as it arrived at the former Morrison Lamothe Bakery, now the Museum of Science and Technology, bringing several of the locomotives now in residence there.  I was, and am again, an avid model railroader, interested in particular in prototype modelling of the CNR and CPR branchlines that once radiated out of Ottawa.  Since retirement in 2009 from a busy career in Research and Development, I have combined my interests in railroads, local history, and cycling, and have cycled parts or all of the rail trails that line the former railway spokes out of Ottawa and the surrounding area, such as the Maniwaki, Waltham, Carleton Place, K&P and M&O subs of the CPR and the Cataraqui sub of the CNR.  I love trying to imagine what was there and in some cases finding traces of what existed.  I have been reading online, following fora, and participating in the Bytown Railway Society to learn as much as I can about railway infrastructure and operations in the area and I am excited about joining the Ottawa Railway Circle to contribute and to learn more.

Ian Walker

My interests are quite general. I have followed most of the lines around Ottawa both still active and torn up.
I have been to Cornwall to see where the NYC bridge was located and how their tracks connected with CN. Also Finch and Embrum.
I have also followed the Waltham and Maniwaki lines to their ends.
Recently I purchased a Railroad Map book which shows how CN integrated the CNoR and National Transcontinental railways back in the 1920’s and also the cutoff at Pelletier, QC built in the 1970’s to connect the  GTR with the NTR. Very interesting.   
I counted the members and I know personally about 15 of the “poor soles” listed there.
I am quite interested in some of your jaunts to different locations to study track layouts and so forth. 
Normally my wife and I spend our winters in Arizona but with Covid-19 that won’t be happening this year so I thought this would be a good opportunity to join the group. 
I am very interested in Railway History and feel I can contribute quite a bit to the Circle.

Mark Walton



I was born in Montreal, and lived there until I was 5. My parents and grandparents often took me everywhere on the transit system, which still had streetcars (until 1959) and trolleybuses (until 1966). I suppose that’s how “the bug” bit me. We moved to Ottawa in 1959 when my dad joined the RCAF; he later was posted to Germany, Winnipeg (I was on its last trolleybus in 1970), and back to Ottawa. Everywhere we went, I followed the rail and transit scene, but was always far more interested in electrics than steam or diesel.

I'm a member of Bytown Railway Society, OVAR, CRHA, and Transport Action (formerly Transport 2000). In the 1980s I and 2 others published Transit News Canada magazine. When traveling, most often to Calgary nowadays, I keep a keen eye to rail and transit. My travels have also included Montreal, GTHA, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Vancouver. My special interest is Montreal’s Mount Royal Tunnel, on which I have given a presentation to BRS and OVAR. That included my experiences on the day of the last runs of the old trains June 2, 1995.

Doug Wilson

I've spent my whole life in the company of trains. I'm a second generation railroader, being the son of a Lieutenant in the CN Police Department. My father joined the railway the year that I was born and as a result of my father's career, I grew up next to the tracks in such railway towns as Jellicoe, Stratford, Fort Erie and Hornepayne.

I'm a career railroader, joining CN  in 1969. I held unionized positions such Crew Dispatcher, Engine Watchman/Hostler and Train Order Operator. Having acquired that grounding, I moved into management working in the Personal and Labour Relations Department in Montreal and Toronto. I found I wasn't getting enough exposure to trains, so I went through CN's Operations Training program and worked as a Trainmaster in Capreol, Toronto Union Station, Don Yard, Sarnia and Fort Erie. I later became Manager Special Projects, working on projects such as the new St. Clair Tunnel in Sarnia. My final position at CN was Director of Interline Management, where I was involved initially in network rationalization studies and then in the creation and sale of 20 of CN's partner short lines in Canada and the United States.  I retired from CN at the end of 2000 and accepted a position as Vice President of Trillium Railway, operating short lines in the Niagara Peninsula and south western Ontario.

I've enjoyed collecting railway antiques along the way, ranging from Dining Car China all the way up to a Track Motor Car. I'm a relative new comer to Ottawa having moved here after I  retired from Trillium in 2009. Since coming to Ottawa I have been on the Board of Directors for the Bytown Railway Society and a member of Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders. My interests include modelling in HO and I have an extensive railway photo collection. 

This Page Updated 27 February 2024

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