Curry Hill Ontario -
The whistling won't stop anytime soon.
The Township of South
Glengarry council decided to reject a residents' petition at its
regular council meeting on Monday, that would have sent South
Glengarry on the tracks towards towards rail whistle cessation.
The
petition asked the township to request CN stop using whistles near
SDG County Road 27 and Fifth Line Road near Bainsville.
The
request was received in October, when council tasked administration
with preparing a report on the matter.
CN's main line between
Montreal and Toronto runs north of Highway 401 through this section
of South Glengarry.
It carries most of the company's freight
through this portion of the continent, and is also used by VIA Rail
for its passenger service between Toronto and Montreal.
Transport
Canada allows municipalities to stop train whistles if the sound is a
nuisance to residents.
Municipalities must consult with the
railway, notify the public, and pass a council resolution.
There
is an associated cost to pursuing whistle cessation, as the safety of
a level crossing must be improved to make up for trains not whistling
as they approach and cross over it.
Ultimately, the administration
recommended against whistle cessation.
Primarily because of safety
concerns, as well as the cost of moving forward with the changes."We
can never effectively replace the use of a whistle," said
general manager for infrastructure services Sarah
MacDonald.
MacDonald went on to inform council that the local CN
track supervisor did not support the change.
Further, it would
cost South Glengarry $30,000 just to find out what sort of work would
need to be completed to move forward with whistle cessation, such as
improving the line of sight near the track.
While South Glengarry
council expressed some sympathy for concerned residents, the overall
consensus for local decision makers was that without the track
supervisor's support, this would be $30,000 down the drain.
"I
don't have to put up with the train whistle, unless it's a really
foggy overcast day, and then it's sort of a pleasure to hear since
it's once in a blue moon that I have to hear it," said Deputy
Mayor Martin Lang.
Lang also said that without CN's support, this
initiative was going nowhere.
For Julie Bellefeuille, the South
Glengarry resident who brought forward the petition, council's
decision came with heavy disappointment.
"I understand
they're saying it's a safety thing. There's things CN could do to
make it more safer, we're on a dirt road, it's not a busy area,"
said Bellefeuille."
According to Bellefeuille, this is the
second time in recent history that South Glengarry has declined to
pursue whistle cessation.
A previous request went to council
chambers in 2010.
HometownTV12.ca 11 April 2025
Unveiling
of the New Athens B&W Railway Station Outdoor Museum Sign April
13th
Athens
Brockville, Westport & Sault St. Marie Railway/Brockville,
Westport & North-Western Railway original station with B&W
#66. – (National Archive-Dale Elliott Collection)
Athens –
The Township of Athens and Area Heritage Society invites you to join
them for the unveiling of the new Athens B&W Railway Station
outdoor museum sign.
It
is being held on Sunday, April 13th at 2:00 pm at 30 Henry St, in
Athens.
The
second Athens Railway Station was built by Canadian National,
replacing the original that burned down. – National Archive
1948-Dale Elliott Collection)
Please
monitor this event, https://www.facebook.com/events/564225085990275,
as it does depend on the weather. If high risk of getting soaked,
they will determine and post a new date.
The
sign will be placed near the site of the former Athens B&W train
station. Trains connected communities between Brockville and Westport
along the railroad from 1888-1952.
The
unveiling will be near the chip truck. Parking should be available in
the rink lot.
This
event is intended to be brief. But it is always interesting to hear
stories.
BlogTo 4 May 2025 from OK the PK
Forgotten
and Abandoned Ghost Town Was Once a Bustling Port
Depot
Harbour Ontario -
Ontario is a province rife with ghost towns, once thriving
communities that met untimely ends.
One
such town is Depot Harbour near Parry Sound, which was once a
thriving trade port in Georgian Bay that was left abandoned after a
devastating fire.
Despite
its location near a still thriving community, the ghost town remains
one of the most inaccessible in the province.
There
are many mysteries to this now desolate town, its history deeply
rooted in and ultimately scarred by colonialism.
Here's
a closer look inside this forgotten trade port town and what's going
on with it today.
The
Town's Foundation
In
the late 1890s, one of the largest lumber exporters in North America,
John Rudolphus Booth, acquired railways in the area to eventually
form the Canadian Atlantic Railway (CAR).
At
first, the people of Parry Sound were thrilled to finally be getting
a railway that connected them with Ottawa.
But
the price tag on the dock fees was too high, so Booth opted to create
his railroad haven on the island of Parry Island.
Parry
Island was, and still is, home to the Wausauksing First
Nations.
Because
of legislation at the time stating that you could expropriate native
owned land for railway purposes, Booth used his influence to
expropriate 314 acres of land.
It's
unclear how much he paid for this land exactly, but the deal clearly
changed and disrupted the indigenous peoples who lived on Parry
Island at the time.
A
Grainy History
With
his railroad established and Depot Harbour constructed, Booth
established one of the most renowned ports on the Great
Lakes.
Because
of its close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, it was the fastest way
to ship anything from the Great Lakes, making it the ideal hub for
the grain trade.
At
its peak, the town was servicing trains coming in every 20 minutes,
both from Canada and the U.S., building two grain elevators, a hotel,
boarding houses, homes, stores, and three churches.
The town
had just under 2,000 permanent residents, with the population bumping
up to around 3,000 during the summer.
Booth expanded his
empire and worked to gain a controlling interest in nearly every part
of the town, from the railway to the boats that dock in its harbour,
to the point that he essentially wielded total control over
it.
Going
Up in Smoke
Unfortunately,
this dominance only lasted until the early 1900s when Booth was hit
with devastating financial blows due to a lack of government funding
for improving the town, and a fire that took out many of his Ottawa
lumber mills, and 100 million feet of finished timber.
To
maintain his profits, Booth sold off his stock in CAR to the Grand
Trunk Railway, where it would later go to the Canadian National
Railways.
This transfer and the 1926 closure of a rail yard
and roundhouse ultimately kicked off a sequence of events that would
transform Depot Harbour into ruins.
The Welland Canal
reshaped the balance of Great Lakes shipping just a few years
later.
Soon, the grain stopped coming, leaving the town to
deteriorate over the decades.
What
Happened to the Town?
The
last ship to dock in Depot Harbour was in 1941 at the height of the
Second World War.
In 1945, by the war's close, the grain
elevators that were once the port's lifeblood were in the process of
being torn down.
This town served as an explosives
manufacturer during World War II and contained a warehouse full of
cordite, a low-grade explosive that replaced gunpowder for
munitions.
Sadly, the war industry that helped sustain the
port would help bring about its downfall.
During the
demolition, one of the grain elevators caught fire, which blew ash
and flame to the nearby town of Nobel.
The ensuing explosion
caused by this conflagration was so bright that it was said you could
read a newspaper by its light seven kilometres away from the
blast.
A coal distribution operation would take over the
harbour in 1946, but the town's resurgence was short-lived.
In
the 1950s, with the war years in the past, and industry declining,
the town began to shut down, first with the closure of the coal dock,
then the rail bridge, and then with few jobs sustaining the town,
homes were finally sold off for $25.
By the mid-1960s, only
three buildings remained.
The final death knell for what was
already a long-dead town came when the railroad was finally ripped up
in the late 1980s.
It was around this time that the land was
returned to the Wausauksing First Nations, who had inhabited it in
the first place.
While it served as some justice, they
inherited land contaminated with cordite and waters containing sunken
ships believed to hold live munitions from its years of war-industry
shipping.
The history of Depot Harbour is preserved in the
Parry Sound District Museum to this day, and the town is said to be
the largest to ever become a ghost town in Ontario.
Chris
Middleton.
