SIGNIFICANT DATES IN CARLETON PLACE RAILWAY HISTORY

1859, June 20 - the first train arrives in Carleton Place over the Brockville & Ottawa Railway (B&O); the first Carleton Place station building is nearly complete, north of the river, and the first station agent, Thomas Hughes, has arrived in the village. (Carleton Place Herald 23 Jun 1859 p3 c1)

1859, July 12 - the first excursion over the B&O from Carleton Place to Franktown for an Orange Day celebration. (Carleton Place Herald 23 Jun 1859 p3 c5)

1859, August 22 - the B&O opens from Smiths Falls to Almonte. (Carleton Place Herald 25 Aug 1859 p4 c1)

1859, August 25 - a one dollar excursion operates over the B&O from Almonte to Brockville and return. 600 passengers ride the train. (Carleton Place Herald 1 Sep 1859 p3 c2)

1860, September, 3 - the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, rides a train over the B&O between Almonte and Brockville, via Carleton Place, but does not stop there. (Ottawa Citizen 8 Sep 1860 p4 c4)

1868, August 14 - the formal ground breaking ceremony for the Canada Central Railway (CCR) section between Ottawa and Carleton Place takes place at the Hyde property on Richmond Road, three miles west of Ottawa. (Ottawa Citizen 21 Aug 1868 p4 c1)

1868, August 26 - Reverend James A. Preston of St. James Anglican Church, Carleton Place, turns the first sod for construction of the CCR at the Carleton Place end of the line. (Almonte Gazette 2 Sep 1868 p2 c5)

1870, July 6 - the CCR’s Carleton Place station building, located at the Junction, near Moore Street, is complete. (Ottawa Times 8 Jul 1870 p2 c1)

1870, September 15 - the CCR opens from the Chaudière (Lebreton Flats) to Carleton Place Junction with an inaugural trip to Sand Point and return. (Ottawa Times 16 Sep 1870 p2 c2)

1871 - the CCR builds a wood-frame engine house at the Junction, with two locomotive inspection pits. (Carleton Place Herald 22 Nov 1871 p2 c2)

1872, July 1 - the CCR leases the B&O line between Carleton Place and Sand Point for 999 years. (Tasse, 1994, p22)

1876, January 25 - Archibald Cecil Burgess opens a restaurant at the CCR station at the Junction. (Ottawa Times 26 Jan 1876 p4 c2)

1878, May 10 - The B&O is amalgamated with the CCR under the name of the latter. (Tasse, 1994, p28)

1878, after June 10 - the former B&O station north of the river closes, with all service consolidated at the Junction station. (Brian Gilhuly email 10 Apr 2025)

1879, May 27 - A fire allegedly started by a spark from a locomotive destroys 12 million board feet of lumber in the piling grounds at Carleton Place owned by Peter McLaren. McLaren sues the CCR for damages, in a case whose final appeal is only resolved by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the UK in July of 1884. (Carleton Place Herald 4 Jun 1879 p3 c2 )

1879, July 9 - D'Alton Corry Coleman is born in Carleton Place. He would begin working for CP in 1899 and serve as its president from 1942 to 1947, dying on the 17th of October, 1956. (Canadian Railway and Marine World N305 Jul 1923 p317 c1; Windsor Star 2 May 1942 p11 c2; Ottawa Citizen 17 Oct 1956 p7 c6)

1880, February 3 - a head-on collision between two express passenger trains on the CCR at Franktown causes extensive damage to both locomotives but no serious injuries.
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Wreck%20Details/1880Franktown.html; Kingston Daily British Whig, 5 Feb 1880 p3 c6)

1880, April 24-25 - the CCR, including the lines of the former B&O, converts its tracks from 5'6" broad gauge to 4’8½" standard gauge.  The work, carried out by 300 men, is accomplished without interruption to train service. (Ottawa Citizen 27 Apr 1880 p4 c1)

1880, November 29 – The CCR renames Carleton Place Junction to Carleton Junction in its public timetable. (This may actually have taken place as early as the 17th of September 1879, per Ottawa Citizen 18 Sep 1879 p2 c4)

1881, June 9 - the Canadian Pacific Railway absorbs the CCR. (Ottawa Citizen 11 Jun 1881 p2 c3)

1882, circa April - CP opens the third Carleton Place station, located at the Junction, adjacent to the Franktown Road. (Almonte Gazette 7 Apr 1882 p3 c6)

1882, circa July - CP relocates its eastern Ontario locomotive and car repair operations from Brockville and Prescott to newly-built shops at Carleton Place. (Almonte Gazette 13 Jan 1882 p3 c2; Kingston Daily News 6 Sep 1882 p3 c5)

1882, Nov 27 - two CP freight trains collide at the Carleton Place Junction, damaging both locomotives.
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Wreck%20Details/1882CarletonPlace.html; Almonte Gazette 1 Dec 1882 p3 c2)

1886, June 28 - the first Pacific Express passes through Carleton Place to inaugurate CP transcontinental passenger service. Toronto passengers had to travel east to Carleton Place to connect with the westbound transcontinental train. (CRHA News Report N124 Aug 1961 pp92-101; Ottawa Journal 29 Jun 1886 p4 c3)

1887, March 26 - two CP freight trains collide at Franktown, with two locomotives and 16 freight cars derailed, engineer of one train injured.
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Wreck%20Details/1887Franktown.html; Ottawa Journal 26 Mar 1887 p1 c8)

1888, February 21 - CP makes Carleton Place the division point for freight traffic between Montreal and Chalk River. (Almonte Gazette 24 Feb 1888 p1 c3)

1888, March 23 - CP moves approximately 50 employees from the Ottawa roundhouse and car shops to Carleton Place. (Almonte Gazette 23 Mar 1888 p1 c2)

1889, June 3 - CP begins operation of a through train from Montreal to Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, the "Soo Express." The first train originated at Sault Ste. Marie but the second and subsequent trains ran right through. (Ottawa Journal 4 Jun 1889 p2 c2)

1889, June 28 - less than a month after it was introduced, the "Soo Express" derails at Carleton Place, without any injuries or serious damage. 
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Wreck%20Details/1889CarletonPlace.html; Almonte Gazette 5 Jul 1889 p8 c1)

1896, December 22 - the town of Carleton Place votes to give a bonus of $20,000 to the CPR to expand its shops, which are expected to cost $40,000 to $60,000. The shops at this time employed 135-200 hands. (Carleton Place Herald, 22 Dec 1896, quoted in Brown, p68).

1897, July 27 - the CP carpenter's shop at Carleton Place is destroyed by fire. (https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Findings_FireCarletonPlace1897.html; Lanark Era 28 Jul 1897 p1 c5)

1897, July 28 - the old roundhouse at Carleton Place has been completely removed and the first engine cleaned in new roundhouse. (Lanark Era 28 Jul 1897 p5 c1)

1897, October - the new CP shops at Carleton Place are fully operational. (Almonte Gazette 12 Nov 1897 p8 c2)

1901, September 24 - the Royal train of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York passes through Carleton Place. (Ottawa Journal 25 Sep 1901 p3 c5)

1902 - CP replaces the bridge over the Mississippi with a new steel span on stone piers. (https://carletonplacelocalhistory.wordpress.com/category/mills/; Carleton Place Herald 14 Oct 1902 p1 c3 c4)

1906, October - the 1882 car repair shops are demolished. (Renfrew Mercury 5 Oct 1906)

1907, Dec 11 - the eastbound "Atlantic Express" crashes into a stopped freight train just west of the Mississippi River bridge at Carleton Place. The caboose and one boxcar of the freight train are destroyed, but there are no serious injuries. (Ottawa Journal 13 Dec 1907 p4 c3)

1908, May 1 - Carleton Place ceases to be a division point. After this date train crews on the Canadian Pacific Chalk River subdivision operated out of Smiths Falls. This change affected approximately 80 running trade employees formerly living in and working out of Carleton Place. (Ottawa Journal 6 May 1908 p8 c5)

1911, December 12 - fire damages the roof of the five-pit CP running shed. CP announces it will spend $8,000 on repairs to the shop buildings.
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Findings_FireCarletonPlace1911.html; Ottawa Journal 20 Dec 1911 p2 c4)

1917, March - CP installs electric power in the Carleton Place shops. (Kingston Daily British Whig 16 Mar 1917 p13 c4)

1920, January - George Arthur Burgess, brother of Archibald Cecil Burgess, sells the restaurant at Carleton Place Junction along with nine other restaurants he had operated at CP stations in eastern Canada, having taken over the business upon his brother's death. (Almonte Gazette 16 Jan 1920 p1 c5) 

1922, May - CP opens the fourth Carleton Place station, located on Miguel Street, immediately east of the wye connecting the Carleton Place and Chalk River Subdivisions. (Kingston Daily British Whig 24 Apr 1922 p12 c6)

1922, May-June - the 1882 station at the Junction is demolished. (Kingston Daily British Whig 16 May 1922 p8 c7; Kingston Daily British Whig 14 Jun 1922 p5 c4)

1931, September - CP closes the Carleton Place shops, along with other repair shops across the country, as an economy measure due to the onset of the Great Depression. The shops would reopen on November 17, but would close again and reopen several more times throughout the decade. (Ottawa Citizen 14 Nov 1931 p2 c4)

1933, April 2 - CN and CP begin pooling passenger train service between Ottawa and Toronto. Daytime passenger service is handled by CP between Ottawa and Brockville, via Carleton Place, with connections to and from CN trains 6 and 15 between Toronto and Montreal. (Montreal Gazette 3 Apr 1933 p10 c5)

1940, September - CP closes the Carleton Place shops for the final time (Ottawa Citizen 14 Sep 1940 p22 c6)

1941, April - the Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers begin operating a wool grading station at the former CP Carleton Place shops
(Kingston Whig-Standard 25 Apr 1941 p13 c1)

1942, April 25 - CP sells the Carleton Place shops to the Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers. (Brian Gilhuly email 28 Mar 2025)

1947, March 22 - CP activates Automatic Block Signals over entire Chalk River Subdivision and an automatic interlocking plant at Carleton Place.
(Canadian Pacific Railway Smiths Falls Division 1967 Yearbook)

1950, March 18 - CP wreck at Ashton; two CP employees are killed and the Ashton station building is demolished in the wreck.
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Wreck%20Details/1950Ashton.html; Ottawa Citizen 18 Mar 1950 p1 c7)

1955, April 24 - CP introduces "The Canadian," a new transcontinental train featuring Budd-built stainless steel passenger cars, which operates between Ottawa and Sudbury via the Carleton Place, Chalk River and North Bay Subdivisions.
(Canadian Pacific Railway Public Timetable 24 Apr 1955)

1957, April 27 - CP discontinues morning local trains 555 and 556 between Ottawa and Chalk River. (Canadian Pacific Railway Public Timetable 30 Sep 1956; Canadian Pacific Railway Public Timetable 28 Apr 1957; Ottawa Citizen 12 Feb 1957 p18 c3)

1957, April 28 - CP begins using “Dayliner” self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) on afternoon local trains 551, 557 and 558 between Ottawa and Chalk River.
(Canadian Pacific Railway Public Timetable 28 Apr 1957)

1960, January 8 - the last regular service steam locomotive passes over the CP Carleton Place subdivision with No. 1226 doubleheaded with diesel locomotives 8474 and 8568 on freight train 89 from Ottawa to Smiths Falls.
(https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/Last_Steam.html)

1962, March 18 - CP discontinues trains 260, 265 and 267, ending local passenger service between Ottawa and Chalk River. The last Sunday train 267 employs RDC No. 9114 eastbound. (Ottawa Citizen 16 Mar 1962 p26 c1)

1965, October 30 - CN and CP discontinue their pool agreement for passenger train service between Ottawa and Toronto. (Ottawa Citizen 1 Nov 1965 p10 c4)

1965, October 31 - CP begins operating "Dayliner" RDC service between Ottawa and Brockville via Carleton Place, connecting with Montreal-Toronto trains at Smiths Falls. This replaced pool train service previously offered but proved very unpopular with passengers. (Ottawa Citizen 27 Nov 1965 p18 c2)

1966, January 12 - The final run of CP secondary transcontinental trains 3 and 4, "The Dominion." (Branchline May-June 2022, p15)

1966, January 24 - CP discontinues all remaining passenger service between Ottawa and Toronto. CN begins operating Ottawa-Toronto passenger trains via Smiths Falls and Brockville using the CN Smiths Falls and CP Brockville Subdivisions, by-passing Carleton Place. (Ottawa Citizen 14 Jan 1966 p1 c5)

1967, December 18 - Carleton Place becomes daytime-only station, no longer staffed 24 hours a day. (Branchline Jan 1968, p4)

1968, November - CP proposes removing the station agent from Carleton Place.
(Ottawa Journal 13 Nov 1968 p4 c1)

1969, January 21 - 34 cars derail on a freight train between Carleton Place and Almonte. (Ottawa Citizen 22 Jan 1969 p1 c2)

1969 July 24 - The Canadian Transportation Commission permits CP to remove the agent from Carleton Place, along with 41 other stations; The change takes effect on September 1
(Ottawa Citizen 25 Jul 1969 p39 c1)

1973 - the CP freight shed on Neil's Lane (Lansdowne Ave.) is removed. (Source to be confirmed)

1973, July 1 - ex-CP D10h 4-6-0 steam locomotive no. 1057 makes an inaugural run in excursion service from Ottawa to Carleton Place. No. 1057 was also used for the next two years on excursions to Wakefield while ex-CP G5a 4-6-2 steam locomotive no. 1201 was used in subsequent years.
(Branchline Aug 1973 p5; Ottawa Journal 3 Jul 1973 p25 c1)

1978, October 29 - passenger service is discontinued on the CN Beachburg subdivision west of Federal. From this date VIA takes over running "The Canadian" from CP, and combines the operation of "The Canadian" and the "Super Continental." The VIA "Super Continental," using former CN equipment, runs from Ottawa to North Bay via Carleton Place, over CP lines. (Farand, 2011, p51)

1979, Jun 17 - VIA restores the "Canadian," using the former CP Budd stainless steel cars, running over CP lines between Montreal and Sudbury. (Farand, 2011, p52)

1981, Nov - VIA removes the "Canadian" between Montreal and Sudbury and replaces it with a three-times per week RDC service running over CP lines between Ottawa and Sudbury.
(Farand, 2011, p53)

1982, October 12 - CP closes Carleton Place as a train order office.
(Branchline Nov 1982, p10).

1983, August - CP replaces the bridge over the Mississippi River (Branchline Sep 1983, p7).

1985, 24 May - VIA's Ottawa-Sudbury RDC service runs for the last time, replaced by a temporary bus service until the 31st of May. (Farand, 2011, p54)

1985, Jun 1 - VIA once again restores operation of the "Canadian" through the Ottawa Valley, running between Ottawa and Sudbury over CP lines.
(Farand, 2011, p54; Ottawa Citizen 21 May 1985 p21 c2)

1985, December 1 - CP introduces a Manual Block Signal system on the Carleton Place, Chalk River and North Bay Subdivisions. (Branchline Jan 1986 p13)

1989, April 29 - the last day for regularly scheduled VIA sleeping car service through Ottawa. After this, the "Canadian" operates as a coach service-only train between Montreal and Sudbury. (Farand, 2011, p56)

1990, January 14 - VIA operates the final westbound "Canadian" between Montreal and Sudbury, hauled by VIA No. 6409. (Branchline Mar 1990 p2)

1990, January 15 - with the passage of the last eastbound "Canadian," hauled by VIA No. 6443, CP abandons the Carleton Place subdivision between Nepean (m. 9.0) and Carleton Place (m. 28.1). The west switch of the wye at Carleton Place is removed the same day. (Branchline Mar 1990 p22 c1)

1990, January 18 - CP begins removing the rails of the Carleton Place Sub at Carleton Place. (Ottawa Citizen 19 Jan 1990).

1990, May - CP's former Carleton Place Sub is completely removed.
(Branchline May 1990 p20 c1)

1991, June 10 - the federal government designates the CP station under the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act. (Ottawa Citizen 11 Oct 1991 p4 c1)

1993, July 27 - the Town of Carleton Place designates the former CP station under the Ontario Heritage Act. (Town of Carleton Place By-law No. 52-93)

1993, July 29 - CP completes the sale of the Carleton Place subdivision right-of-way between Carleton Place and Nepean to the Regional Municipality of Ottawa Carleton.
(Branchline Oct 1993 p23 c2)

1993, December - the former CP station becomes a daycare centre. (Branchline Dec 1993 p21 c1)

1996, October 30 - Ottawa Valley RaiLink takes over operation of the former CP line between Smiths Falls and Cartier, Ontario, as well as the Mattawa to Temiskaming branch in Quebec. (Branchline Dec 1996 p5 c1)