Canadian Pacific Origins and route One of the terms of
British Columbia entering into the
Canadian Confederation in 1871 was the construction of a
transcontinental railway connecting it with the original eastern Canadian provinces of
Ontario,
Quebec,
New Brunswick, and
Nova Scotia; this would result in a route through the largely-uncolonized Prairies, including the restive province of
Manitoba, which had only recently been the site of the
Red River Rebellion in 1869–70. Around the same time, amid fears of American expansionism north of the
49th parallel and border tensions resulting from the
Fenian raids, American companies such as the
St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad were pushing northward to connect Manitoba with the
American Midwest and promoting cross-border trade along a north–south axis. One of the notable promoters of this effort was the Canadian-American railway industrialist
James J. Hill, known as the "Empire Builder" and namesake of the modern-day
Amtrak Empire Builder passenger train. Hill was the general manager of the
St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, and in 1880 became part of the Montreal-based five-man syndicate who were awarded the transcontinental railway contract by the Canadian federal government under
John A. Macdonald's
Conservatives, and subsequently formed the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Railway construction had already been ongoing at the time under the previous
Liberal government of
Alexander Mackenzie, managed by the
federal Department of Public Works and led by the renowned
Scottish-Canadian engineer
Sandford Fleming, who was dismissed in 1880 and replaced by
Collingwood Schreiber as chief engineer on the project. Under Fleming's direction, the symbolic "first spike" had been driven at
Fort William (now part of
Thunder Bay) in 1875, and construction had commenced with the goal of connecting
Winnipeg with the
Lake Superior Lakehead in
Northwestern Ontario. station in Blind River, Ontario, 1910. Exploratory surveys had been conducted as early as 1871 along two prospective mainline routes connecting the Lakehead with the east: a direct inland route through the rugged terrain of the
Canadian Shield (proposed by
Sandford Fleming), and a "water route" which would use
steamships to connect the Lakehead with a port on the north shore of
Lake Huron, and then continue on via rail. •
Blind River, which originated in 1789 as a
North West Company fur trading post at the mouth of the
Mississagi River •
Spragge, the place of a meeting between
Samuel de Champlain and local Ojibwe people, which developed into a mill town named Cook's Mills by 1882 • Slightly to the north of the
Hudson's Bay Company trading post at
Whitefish Lake, which was established in 1824 at a key
portage route near the
Vermilion River and which marked a point along
Salter's Meridian Additionally, by passing largely to the north of the
La Cloche Mountains, which divide the interior from the Lake Huron shoreline, the railway's route would pass through fertile lands with agricultural potential that were noted as early as the 1847 and 1848 surveys by the
Scottish geologist and explorer
Alexander Murray.
Construction of the line Ultimately, Canadian Pacific would construct lines along both the northern inland and the southern lakeshore routes. At first, however, the company decided in favour of the southern route for its mainline, where the water route through
Lake Superior was set to begin, and which was more accessible through existing means of transportation. Worthington also placed a
junction and construction camp at a place nearby, which he named Sudbury.
Race to the Soo The CPR was not the only company pursuing a link between Southern and Eastern Ontario and Sault Ste. Marie. Another interested party was the
Midland Railway of Canada, a conglomerate formed out of smaller lines around
Central Ontario. A shell company named the
Ontario Sault Ste. Marie Railway was incorporated in 1881, and a line was surveyed for it. The Midland Railway, however, was insolvent and involved in a set of complex structural maneuvers which would eventually result in its amalgamation with the
Grand Trunk Railway in 1893, putting the Midland in a poor position for further construction and dooming the new line to being a
paper railway. Also in 1881, the
Northern Railway of Canada was going through its own complex reorganization, which would result in the incorporation of the
Northern, North-Western, and Sault Ste. Marie Railway, which was to reach Sault Ste. Marie via North Bay through an extension of the Northern's existing line, which terminated at
Gravenhurst. Construction began within several years, but the project lagged, and the line only reached
Callander, just south of North Bay in 1886. Financing issues for the line caused a public scandal, and the goal of reaching Sault Ste. Marie was abandoned. Instead,
Nipissing Junction was created as the new terminus, joining it with the Canadian Pacific line just southeast of North Bay, and the whole line was renamed to the
Northern and Pacific Junction Railway. and was replaced with Abbott as supervising engineer on the remaining eastern section of the mainline. and there is
significant archaeological evidence of copper working by the
Mississippian people among others, who largely sourced their copper from the Great Lakes region. The western Great Lakes were the epicentre of the
Old Copper Complex as early as 4000 BCE, with evidence of indigenous copper mining on
Isle Royale from around this time.
Geophysically, the presence of magnetic anomalies around the
Sudbury Basin had been noted by
Alexander Murray in his 1847–48 surveys. As well, in the course of charting his north–south
meridian,
Albert Salter observed "severe compass needle deflections" about north of the
Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Whitefish Lake. Nevertheless, this development would ultimately shift the economic focus of the region away from Sault Ste. Marie and toward Sudbury. 1920. The mine
headframe is visible to the left and the low-slung CPR station to the right. With the new mainline still under construction, the Algoma Branch went disused until 1888, when it was brought up to standard and finally extended to
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with a symbolic "meeting in the middle" of eastbound and westbound trains at Whitefish in 1889. Around the same time, the CPR acquired the financially struggling
Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM) through intermediaries. The MStP&SSM line had been extended up to
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and it and the CPR had jointly funded the construction of the
Sault Ste. Marie International Railroad Bridge in 1887. •
Worthington, which developed around the Worthington Mine, staked out when
Charles Francis Crean discovered copper traces when examining
track ballast along the line •
High Falls, a
company town formed in 1904–5 around the nearby
Huronian Power Company dam •
Nairn, originally known as Nelson and grew informally in the 1890s as a CPR town until it became a lumber mill town •
McKerrow, originally known as Stanley Junction in 1908 and later Espanola Station, formed around a
junction station with the spur line diverging from the Algoma Branch south to Espanola •
Espanola, formed as a lumber mill town next to the
Spanish River as a
company town of the
Spanish River Pulp and Paper Company •
Webbwood, formed in the mid-1880s as the main CPR
divisional town along the line •
Massey, where a town coalesced around the CPR station within an existing decentralized farming community •
Walford, a CPR town formed within an existing decentralized farming community •
Spanish, originally known as Spanish River Station, which formed around the CPR line as a commercial centre in a mining and logging area •
Serpent River First Nation's Cutler Station area formed In its first few decades, the line saw traffic primarily from the mining and logging industries, as well as local farmers in the
Beaver Lake area exporting
milk to dairies in
Copper Cliff and Sudbury for processing. It also saw passenger traffic, including
express trains connecting Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, and Toronto; notably, in 1910 an express train
derailed while crossing the Spanish River near the town of
Nairn, resulting in scores of deaths and going on record as one of the worst railway disasters in Canadian history.
Algoma Eastern line The competing
Algoma Eastern Railway was built in 1914 by the Sault Ste. Marie-based
Lake Superior Corporation, which served a more primarily industrial corridor largely north of the CPR line in the east, though it did operate some passenger services. The decline along the eastern portion of the line was exacerbated by the Worthington mine disaster in 1927, when a mine shaft collapse destroyed a portion of the town of Worthington along with approximately of Canadian Pacific track, forcing the railway to permanently relocate its line around the crater left by the collapse as well as briefly rerouting its traffic along the Algoma Eastern line.
Highway development Starting in the 1920s, efforts were made to build a modern highway connecting Sudbury with Sault Ste. Marie. This route had been surveyed along with the rail line in the late 19th century, and was displayed on some maps as the "Trunk Road", which a number of pioneer roads and industrial access roads connected onto. It also incorporated portions of old trails and portage routes, such as the one running parallel to the Serpent River. The railway had been asking the provincial government since 2006 for funding to improve track conditions, and in April 2009, Genesee & Wyoming warned that, due to the ever-deteriorating track and the resulting increased operational costs, it would be forced to shut down the railway, unless the provincial government would provide money with which to undertake the necessary upgrades. On June 15, 2009, Genesee & Wyoming announced that the railway's operations would be discontinued by October and that 45 people would be laid off. Due to the
economic downturn, it suffered a significant reduction in carload volume (down by almost 50% from the previous year) which rendered the line insolvent. This announcement, however, triggered a series of negotiations between the HCRY, the
City of Sault Ste. Marie,
Essar Steel Algoma, and Domtar in order to keep the rail line open. A temporary agreement was reached which provided $15.9 million to cover operating expenses and maintain service until August 15, 2010. On September 24, 2010, $33 million in funding was announced for the rehabilitation of the railway, with the provincial and federal governments each contributing $15 million and Genesee & Wyoming making up the remaining $3 million. Work began on August 10, 2011, with contracts going to Swift Contractors for tie replacement and track surfacing and M'Anishnabek Industries (a joint venture between B&M Metals of Sudbury and
Serpent River First Nation) for
ballast distribution. Work continues through summer 2012. In May 2018, G&W announced that operations would cease by the end of 2018, citing a lack of provincial funding. Temporary funding was secured, but in October 2019, G&W announced the line would close in early 2020. In early 2020, it was announced that G&W itself was being sold to
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and
GIC Private Limited, the latter of which is the country of
Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Not long after this, in February, the closure of the Huron Central was officially postponed pending the possibility of further bailouts from the provincial and federal governments. With no further government funds, G&W announced in September 2020 that the railway would be shut down on December 18, filing official notice to do so. In October, layoff notices were issued to all 43 railway employees, to take effect after the end of operations. It was announced on December 11, 2020, that due to ongoing negotiations with the Canadian federal government and the province of Ontario, that the deadline to close the line would be extended to June 30, 2021. All present employees with lay off notices, have had their notices rescinded for the time being. G&W rescinded its plans to end its operation of the Huron Central Railway in the end of May 2021, following agreements with the provincial and federal governments to support the company via
Transport Canada's National Trade Corridors Fund. Another threatened shutdown was averted by $21 million provided by the provincial and federal governments in January 2023, each matching a $10.5 million commitment by G&W towards infrastructure improvements. Both the provincial and federal governments had previously requested a plan from the railroad for business development to justify their funding. The investments are intended to support running heavier trains on the line.
Derailments . The most notable derailment on the line, the 1910
Spanish River derailment, occurred when the line was still operated by Canadian Pacific. A westbound
Soo Express passenger train derailed while crossing the Spanish River bridge near Nairn, causing the deaths of 44 passengers and crew. On June 12, 2006, 15 cars carrying generators derailed near
Webbwood. No injuries were reported, and no dangerous materials were involved, but a small brush fire had started from the derailment. The fire was later put out by the Sables-Spanish Rivers Fire Department. On April 14, 2014, three locomotives and one flatcar were derailed likely due to collapsing infrastructure at
milepoint 30 (about 3 km from
Nairn Centre). There were no injuries; however, the spilled diesel from the locomotives required the issue of a drinking water advisory for the small community. The locomotives that derailed were QGRY 800, QGRY 3800, and HCRY 3011. QGRY 800 made it over the washout and sat upright with its rear truck off the tracks, QGRY 3800 ended up off the track and rolled onto its side, while HCRY 3011 remained upright, but sitting on its fuel tank at a 90° angle to the track with its rear truck hanging by the electrical cables. On June 13, 2015, 15 cars left the tracks near Fairbanks Provincial Park in
Worthington, which spilled
steel coil. Ontario Transportation Minister
Steven Del Duca requested a meeting with the federal Minister of Transport
Lisa Raitt about rail safety in Ontario following the derailment. On November 1, 2015, 13 cars jumped the tracks near
Spanish. There were no dangerous goods and no injuries. The
Transportation Safety Board of Canada released a report two years later on March 8, 2017, citing drainage issues and rail joint defects as the cause of the derailment. On January 1, 2017, 13 cars carrying steel coil derailed near
Blind River. No injuries were reported, and no hazardous materials were involved during the derailment. The line was closed due to the incident until January 5. == Locomotive Roster ==