For article #4 in our historical series “Lost Electric Railways of Ontario” we’ll be looking at the east side of the Grand River near Blue Lake, which is about 5km north of the Town of Paris, Ontario.  This article will be focused on photos of the lost electric railways of this area, but will not be an in-depth history of those railways. There are links at the bottom for further reading.

CLICK THE PHOTOS BELOW FOR A CLOSER LOOK:

Long before the arrival of electric railways in this area, the Great Western Railway (GWR) built a bridge across the Grand River in 1854. The GWR was taken over by the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) in 1882.

The Grand Valley Railway was built by the Von Echa Company, under the charter rights of the “Port Dover, Brantford, Berlin & Goderich Railway.” The interurban company was legally separate from the Brantford Street Railway, which was also owned by the Von Echa Company at the time. Service began on the GVR from Brantford to Paris in 1903, with the line reaching downtown Galt in 1905.

From John Mill’s book: “In 1904, a start was made on a 5 3/4 mile branch from Blue Lake to St. George. Most of the grading was eventually done, but rails were laid only 2.2 miles to the Grand Trunk Railway, where an interchange was located to handle shipments of coal for the powerhouse. This connection was a short electrified siding off the St. George line that met end on with the GTR spur from South Dumfries that served the sprawling Ontario Portland Cement Company (OPCC) complex at Blue Lake. OPCC also had its own small industrial narrow gauge railway and fleet of muck cars for hauling dredged marl from the lake to the nearby processing plant. The GVR St. George Branch kept to the north side of the lake. No further track was laid, though the company often stated that completion of the branch was about to be undertaken. It was abandoned in 1915, after the Blue Lake powerhouse was closed down in favour of purchased power.”

The LE&N set a flag stop at Blue Lake, or Mile 10.8. Passenger service along this line between Galt and Port Dover began later that year in 1916.

While not an electricity-powered railway, its still worth mentioning the last Grand Trunk Railway train passed through this area in 1927 and the tracks were removed during the 1930s. The railway bridge over the Grand River was dismantled in 1941 but the 3 support piers still stand to this day.

The Canadian Pacific Electric Lines (CPEL), which had operated both the Lake Erie & Northern Railway (LE&N) and Grand River Railway (GRR) since 1931, ended passenger service on April 24th, 1955. Electric freight service ended on October 1st, 1961, and the railway was converted to diesel-electric locatives.

The last CP freight train to use these tracks ran on July 31st, 1990.

The tracks were ripped up shortly after, and today there is a public trail along this old right-of-way.

RAILWAY REMNANTS

The supports for the old Grand Trunk Railway bridge still stand in the Grand River, now known as the “Three Sisters.” They can be viewed from the Murray Overlook on the east side of the river.

You can learn more about the Lake Erie & Northern Railway here: http://www.trainweb.org/elso/len.htm

More archival photos of the Grand Valley Railway here: https://images.ourontario.ca/brant/details.asp?ID=65039

Much of the information and photographs in this article can be found in John Mill’s book “Ontario’s Grand River Valley Electric Railways” and also “Steel Wheels Along the Grand” by George W. Roth.

Please stay tuned for more articles in this series on Ontario’s lost electric railways. You can follow our museum at Facebook and Instagram where photographs like this are posted daily!