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Ontario Southland Railway by R.L.Kennedy All photographs: Walter Pfefferle Changes Over the Years Many changes have taken place over the years as Ontario Southland has continued to grow and expand including adding an additonal branchline. Increased traffic has resulted from good service and competition through connections to both CN and CP. New customers have been added to further increase traffic on all lines. CPR St.Thomas Subdivision A major expansion came about effective December 15, 2009 after the CPR decided to shortline their St.Thomas Subdivision 33.6 miles between Woodstock and St. Thomas where connections are made with CN. Prior to this Ingersoll was the start of OSR's operations. This new operation brought OSR into Woodstock and included trackage rights in the yard and on the Galt Sub. to Coakley to facilitate exchange of traffic. The CPR thus ended all branchline operations out of Woodstock. Included with this was access to the CAMI Automotive plant in Ingersoll. Originally owned 49%/51% by Suzuki and General Motors producing Japanese Suzuki Sidekick and Geo Tracker vehicles beginning April 1989. In 1994 adding Pontiac Firefly. In 2004 Chevrolet Equinox. Others were built from time-to-time. By December 2009 Suzuki had withdrawn and it became 100 % subsidiary of General Motors of Canada Ltd. (GM CAMI Assembly) producing GM vehicles on the 570 acre property employing nearly 3000 by 2015. The popularaty of these GM vehicles has grown to 1. 5 million vehicles a year requiring 90 multi level auto carriers daily. It expaned operations to 3 shifts 7 days a week. In addition to assembling new vehicles this is also a mixing centre where vehicles built in USA plants are brought in by rail unloaded, sorted and reloaded for their final destinations. Loads in, loads out! Note: In 2015 GM announced a $560 Million expansion to build the new Chevy Equinox. CN had access to the CAMI plant over CPR track with CN switching certain hours and CPR at other times. This arrangement ended with CN no longer having trackage rights to the plant. OSR assumed these additional switching requirements effective July 1, 2012 handling CN traffic to/from CN Ingersoll. This required 2 OSR jobs every day utilizing two sets of two units each. This way if one train got delayed running to and from sidings on the CPR Galt Sub. or for any other reason the second crew could start work on time thus providing dependable service to this very important customer. Woodstock
Bridge repairs undertaken by OSR. Beachville Siding: 2453 feet
Beachville siding used for setting off and lifting cars. Here we see 503_182 passing by with CAMI multis. 4/30/2011
Ingersoll Ingersoll yard consists of a few short tracks immediately south of Thames Street South level crossing. This is Oxford County Road 119 and is a main street through Ingersoll. Located here is a recently built short transload track which is available for use by any customer making a direct transload. No storage facilities etc. It is like an old fashioned team track (more technically a public team track) available for shipping or receiving carload freight by anyone not having their own private siding. It has been used by OSR for their own OCS supplies such as ties etc.
Tank car spotted with three OCS ballast hoppers behind
and stacks of ties on ground. A little farther down is the junction with the Port Burwell Subdivision where the following took place. A track relocation project in Ingersoll was a major project for a shortline. It came about when a small watercourse next to the right-of-way threatened to undermine the track. OSR planned to shore it up with cement blocks. However, the local conservation authority insisted on an elaborate and expensive method involving heavy rip rap for this tiny water stream. OSR decided to eliminate the problem with a simple solution shown in the photographs below.
Port Burwell Sub. at left and St.Thomas Sub. at right with new switch and track between. 10_20_2013
Switch cut in with track leading to Charles Street West level crossing. 10_27_2013
Completed new alignment with old track still in place
at far left. 11_07_2013 Above three photos looking south. Opposite direction views below.
Shortened before level crossing. This created more yard
storage capacity. October 3, 2015.
This view of RS-18 182 southbound on the St. Thomas
Sub. shows the pre-relocation track. Port Burwell Sub. at right.
Pretty full yard on this quiet Sunday. St.Thomas Sub. mainline at far right. Ontario Refrigerated Services Aerial view of warehouse including lead off St.Thomas Sub. A locally owned warehouse decided to take over an adjoining warehouse and convert half of it to a cold storage warehouse. This required constructing a connection off the mainline and private sidings to the modified warehouse. Initial effort to reuse an old abandoned private right-of-way to another small industry was deemed not suitable due to curvature required and the length of newer refrigerator cars (the newest are even longer!) It did require a fairly steep curved track leading into the new warehouse operation. Various refrigerated food products are placed here for reloading into tractor trailers for delivery.
OSRX 201 and two other ex CP hopper cars used in ballasting along with CRYX 3193 reefer load being spotted.
This view shows grade and curvature especially for second
siding.
Gallery of sidings construction. 2011 CAMI Wye and spur to auto ramps. Aerial CAMI plant including wye
off St.Thomas Sub., lead, storage tracks for multilevel auto carriers,
378 and 6508 carefully snake their way along the CAMI lead. Putnam This small point has long been home to a good sized agricultural industry handling unit trains of potash in season and other farm supplies. Both Nu-gro Corp.and Sylvite Agri-Services are situated here side-by-side. Farm land surrounds this rural facility and this attracted a new facility to serve industry supplying propane and other products in tank cars.
CEFX 6537 GP38-3 and OSR 378 switching Sylvite.
Sylvite car mover handling a single car. Putnam Terminal Co. Ltd. N.G.L. Supply Co. Ltd.
Two views of terminal with Ag plant on opposite of mainline in background.
Two tracks hold 5 tank cars each. Belmont St.Thomas Messenger Freight Sytems
Two photos: Messenger Freight Systems.
Rail King
Shoving in to lift two auto parts boxes. 7/25/2014
Note: CASO long abandoned and removed. CN Payne Sub abandoned just west of trestle west end of yard. Description of tracks in aerial view. Aerial. At left running on an angle the from top of screen to bottom is CPR St.Thomas Sub. ending at Talbot Street a.k.a. Highway 3. This is where the Frame train's power sat. It once ran across this street into the former CASO/MCR yard. Diamond at top of left of screen at Mile 32.3 St.Thomas Sub. (32.4 south connecting track) and Mile 117.8 Cayuga Sub. running to the right is Formet storage tracks and the plant itself below CN Cayuga Sub. Track to the left runs into CN St.Thomas yard via Wabash Transfer Mile 32.0 which OSR uses to interchange with CN since taking over the CPR St.Thomas Sub. CPR did not its own yard in St.Thomas.
Bridge to nowhere! Located just west of the small CN
St. Thomas yard it now ends in the distance past a level crossing.
1400_1401 westbound in St.Thomas . Two views. Below, shoving back into the yard.
Decades ago "covered wagons" of a different railway crossed this large trestle on their way between Windsor and Fort Erie. Also built by GMD in London in the era when diesels and plenty of other equipment and goods were "Made in Canada" before Free Trade destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs for Canadian workers. Wabash was unique in that although it operated through AND local freight trains (no passenger) in Ontario between Windsor and Fort Erie they actually had no track of their own! Instead they operated under a very old agreement (1898) of trackage rights over CNR dating from predecessor years with Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.
Two sets of A units headed by 676 and 725 Fort Erie Summer 1964 Bill Thomson
Wabash 671 stopped by the train order board at Simcoe. 1964 Bill Thomson Formet Formet Industries, a Magna International plant opened in 1998 in St.Thomas, Ontario makes truck frames, at one time including those for GM in Oshawa which were delivered by a dedicated, scheduled CPR train ("frame train") operating 6 days a week. Prior to its opening it was estimated that 11,500 loads would be shipped annually to 6 GM plants, 70% via CN. This facility with its 140 car yard is another contract switching operation of CANDO.
Aerials views July 2, 2005 David Graham
CPR Port Burwell Spur Salford Salford is a very small village on two lane Highway 19 running between Ingersoll and Tillsonburg. The township welcomed the added taxation in this mostly rural area and some farm land was acquired next to the mainline. OSR located their diesel shop here in part because there were no homes nearby, taxation was lower than another site elsewhere. The shop opened October 25, 2004. Prior to getting their own shop OSR used inside and outside space at Johnson Controls warehouse in Tillsonburg Mile 17.3. Far from suitable with minimal inside space. The original building measured 50 feet by 125 feet with two deadend tracks each holding two units. Additional track was laid outside to store dead units, two box cars of parts etc. and two track machines. This soon proved inadequate for OSR's needs and a large expansion was built in 2013. It is 75 feet by 185 feet with three tracks holding three units each. In addition other track was rearranged etc. and another track was laid on the far side of the mainline and parallel to it to be used to store units.
Shop tracks rearranged and three added for expansion to the right.
Note: Blue unit is CEFX 3143 SD40M-2. OSR provides shop space for outside
company.
Original shop area. 503 and 1249 with 502. Mount Elgin Cargill closed its operation and while a number of companies have looked at the site nothing has yet materialized. Tillsonburg Mile 15.2 Tillsonburg is/was a maze of tracks of CNR, CPR and MCR. In addition to the CPR Port Burwell Sub. mainline and a small yard there is another smaller yard that connects to the CASO (Michigan Central) double track mainline between Buffalo and Detroit. Between these two yards was a CNR branchline (Burford Sub.) long abandoned which connected with the Cayuga Sub. Another CPR track branched off to reach the small CPR station. South of town the Port Burwell Sub. connects with the CNR Cayuga Sub. and a small CNR yard presently used by Future Transfer and expaned for their use. There were no less than four stations used by these railways. Two are preserved with the small CPR station relocated next to the old (1879) large brick GWR station (CN Tillsonburg North) on it original site. Presently these are used as Station Arts Centre and also Tillsonburg Farmers Market. These are located near the main business area. The ex NYC Tillsonburg station is in use as a commercial property also still on its orginal site. See all the stations here:
Major track work to accommodate a new transload facility in the small East Yard.
TTX bulkhead flat being loaded with pipe (oil, gas & water) by Wellmaster Pipe and Supply Inc. an old local business with a 60,000 square foot plant on 9 acres but without its own rail siding. OSR built this facility to serve them. Kissner Milling Former CASO connecting track between Tillsonburg yard and former CN CASO Sub. 22 Clarke Street East
This facility ended rail traffic from Saskatchewan following acquisition
by October 12, 2015 Future Transfer Co. Inc. 291 Tillson Avenue c. mile 15 Monsanto Canada Inc 281 Tillson Avenue (County Road 53) Located in a former TDS building this is a second Future transload facility and does not require access via CN.
A Future Trackmobile car mover handles tank cars at this location.
Former TDS Automotive Canada Inc. 301 Tillson Avenue warehouse closed
November 30, 2008 Note: Telephoto lense distorts tracks. Johnson Controls Inc. Aerial view inc.closeup Future Transfer on Cayuga Sub. Loop Line transfer St. Thomas and Eastern St.Thomas & Eastern owned by Trillium Ry. was another independent shortline. Effective November 9, 1998 it leased the CN Cayuga Sub. from just east of St.Thomas 33 miles through Aylmer, Tillsonburg (connecting to OSR) to Courtland and Delhi a deadend as track long abandoned beyond this point. It also had running rights into CN's yard in St.Thomas. ST&E struggled on for years with minimal traffic and little growth providing service twice a week. Ironically, the biggest increase resulted from a new customer that was unable to find land with rail access to OSR in Tillsonburg. Future Transfer an independent trucking operation in Aylmer relocated to Tillsonburg in CN's yard after ST&E had taken over. Initially CN traffic going to OSR was handed over in Tillsonburg as was CPR traffic handled by OSR going to ST&E destinations including Future Transfer. Once OSR leased the CPR St.Thomas Sub. they were able to connect to CN in St.Thomas directly cutting out Trillium. Eventually, low traffic combined with minimal track maintenance and the need for major bridge repairs in Tillsonburg and between Courtland and Delhi did in St.Thomas & Eastern and parent Trillium abruptly ended operations with minimal notice (30 days?) December 20, 2013. OSR stepped in to provide interim local service for CN customers in Tillsonburg (east of the bridge) and Courtland. No service was provided to Alymer (new ethanol plant) and Delhi. Note: CN traffic destined to CPR customers has been interchanged directly to OSR in St.Thomas since OSR leased the St.Thomas Sub. Short term arrangements were renewed a number of times while CN sought another operator. As of September 2015 none was secured and OSR continues to operate part of the line. Tillsonburg Future Transfer Company Inc. Began operation in 2003 Clean Harbors (formerly Safety Clean) Aerial view inc.closeup Future Transfer on Cayuga Sub.
Looking east along the CN Cayuga Sub. formerly St.Thomas
and Eastern. Two views October 12, 2015 taken at our request as well as Tillson Avenue location.
One of two Trackmobile car movers. International Beams Ontario 10 Rouse Street
Note: Siding built by ORS off CN connecting track and rail traffic arrives from Quebec via CPR. |
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