The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, or OA&PS, is a historic railway that operated in central and eastern Ontario, Canada, from 1897 to 1959. It was for a time the busiest railway route in Canada,"Track and Tower" brochure, Friends of Algonquin Park carrying both timber and wood products from today's Algonquin Provincial Park areas, as well as up to 40% of the grain traffic from the Canadian west from Depot Harbour at Parry Sound through to the St. Lawrence River valley.
The railway was built by John Rudolphus Booth, a 19th-century Canadian lumber baron and entrepreneur who owned considerable timber rights in the Algonquin area as well as a major sawmill in downtown Ottawa. To open markets for the mill's products, he purchased Donald Macdonald's lines and formed the Canada Atlantic Railway (CAR) from Ottawa to Vermont. To supply the mills, the OA&PS shipped timber in from across central Ontario. Together, the OA&PS and CAR allowed through shipment from the Canadian west to the US eastern seaboard areas. The lines were amalgamated under the CAR marque in 1899, and sold to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1905.
Use of the OA&PS fell dramatically with the rapid stripping of most of the useful timber from the Algonquin area. Traffic was further reduced with the 1932 opening of the widened Welland Canal, which allowed lakers to bypass trans-shipping points on Georgian Bay, along with the dramatic decrease in grain prices and trade during the Great Depression. The trestle bridge between Cache Lake and Lake of Two Rivers closed in 1933 due to safety concerns and was not re-built. Both ends of the now-separated line continued in use for some time; the western section between Parry Sound and Cache Lake ended services in 1952, while the eastern section saw use in some locations until 1959.
Its route through Algonquin Provincial Park saw it play an important role in the park's development of the tourist industry, with a large station and the Highland Inn on Cache Lake being a focal point of the park though the 1910s and 20s. Sections through the Park now form an expanding group of rail trails used mostly for cycling. Outside the park the line forms various rail trails including the Park-to-Park Trail, Seguin Trail, and others.
History Logging empire John Egan opened logging in central Ontario in the 1840s with a string of saw and grist mills along the Ottawa River. The drainage area for the river allowed timber rafts to be floated to the mills from an enormous area, and Egan purchased lands throughout central Ontario to feed timber to the mills. In 1854 a crash in red pine prices forced the entire empire into bankruptcy, and Egan turned his attention to politics."Biography of John Ega", Dictionary of Canadian Biography
In 1867 John Rudolphus Booth purchased a 250 square mile tract of Egan's lands on the western side of today's Algonquin Park. Booth continued to add to his collection of holdings and by the 1890s held title to over 7,000 square miles of lands. Mill work was centralized at Booth's operations at Chaudiere Falls in downtown Ottawa, which evolved in the largest sawmill operation in the world. Logging was initially carried out in areas with easy access to waterways leading to the Ottawa River, but over time these started to be used up.
Into railways In 1884 Booth entered the railway world with the formation of the Nosbonsing and Nipissing Railway, a 5½ mile portage railway that allowed lumber collected into Lake Nipissing to be carried to Lake Nosbonsing, which connected to the Ottawa. The railway was originally private, but received a charter in 1886 after a dispute with the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway over crossing rights.Brian Westhouse, "History of Logging and Lumber Railways in Ontario", 1 March 2006
Booth then began a massive railway expansion program, both to supply the mills from areas not on the River, as well as to send the products from the Ottawa mill to markets not easily served via the St. Lawrence. This program started with Booth's purchase of Macdonald's Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway (M&O) from Ottawa to Coteau Junction, where it met the Grand Trunk Railway lines just west of Montreal, as well as the Coteau and Province Line Railway and Bridge Company which linked the M&O to the Central Vermont Railway just across the St. Lawrence. Construction began in 1881 and finally crossed the St. Lawrence in 1890.Colin Churcher, "Montreal and Ottawa", Papers of the Ottawa Circle
In 1888 Booth chartered the Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew Railway to build a line from Ottawa to Renfrew, as well as the Ottawa and Parry Sound Railway which ran from Parry Sound to Renfrew. The two lines were amalgamated into the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound in 1891.Adrian Hayes, "Parry Sound: Gateway to Northern Ontario", p. 227 Together with the Ottawa to Vermont lines, the OA&PS would open up vast areas around the Great Lakes for rapid shipment to the US eastern seaboard, as well as providing a route for his own timber to reach Ottawa from areas not well served via the Ottawa River.
Competition The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) running westward from Fort William on Lake Superior provided lake port access to the Canadian west from 1882. Grain shipments on the lakes were a major source of income, but the ships could only reach as far as Lake Erie, as the canal between Lake Erie and Ontario was, at that time, quite small. Moreover, the St. Lawrence passed through the Lachine Rapids at Montreal, which meant that loading back onto ships had to take place in Montreal or further east. This led to burgeoning business at ports on Georgian Bay for trans-shipment by rail to the east, but all of the lines in the area ran south, through Toronto, which was already heavily congested.
Although the CPR was completed from Fort William eastward to the Ottawa area in 1885, its route ran north of the lakes and did not offer convenient port facilities. Another route further to the south, connecting at Georgian Bay, would greatly reduce the railway section of shipments off the lakes. The obvious location for such a port would be Parry Sound, the deepest freshwater port in the world. The CPR started planning such a service under the charter of the Atlantic & North-West, and it was reported in 1892 that they wanted to beat Booth's line into operation.Colin Churcher, "Eganville", Papers of the Ottawa Circle In that year, CPR expressed an interest in purchasing and completing the PSCR as the last leg of its A&NW route from Ottawa. Booth swept in and purchased the line out from under them. This action led to a series of tit-for-tat events between the two railways. The CPR was soon making public statements about their plans to build a parallel route to Booth's, and beat his line into service. When Booth's line reached Renfrew, a fight reportedly broke out between rival construction crews.Renfrew Mercury, 2 September 1893
Booth ultimately won the contest due to a wrangle over a narrow passage at Haggarty Pass near Killaloe. A lawsuit between the OA&PS and CPR followed, which the CPR lost. Rails had already been run on the 19 mile section from Renfrew to Eganville, but the rest of the 186 mile route was abandoned. This led to an intense rivalry between Booth and the CPR that would last for decades, a business battle that the CPR would ultimately lose. Booth's OA&PS would go on to be the busiest line in Canada, at one point handling as much as 40% of the Canadian grain trade.
Selecting the route A survey party of 24 men led by George Mountain left Ottawa on 20 November 1891 to survey the line through Nipissing District, returning on 8 March 1892. They surveyed 120 miles of road after a journey of over 500 miles through rough country on foot, carrying their supplies on sleds.Renfrew Mercury, 11 March 1892
The Parry Sound Colonization Railway (PSCR) was chartered in 1885 to build a short-line railway from Parry Sound, Ontario to the newly formed Northern and Pacific Junction Railway that passed the town to the east. In 1891 about 20 miles of line had been laid from Scotia Junction to Bear Lake, a little less than half the route to Parry Sound, when the company ran out of funds for further construction. Booth purchased the line on 30 September 1892, apparently after hearing that the CPR was interested in it for their line.Eganville Leader, 30 September 1892, from "Parry Sound Colonization Railway Company"
With the eastern and western ends now fixed, a further survey between Long Lake and Emsdale, started in November 1893.Huntsville Forester, 16 November 1894 On 28 March 1893, the CPR filed plans calling for a level crossing of the OA&PS near Golden Lake, but had not yet started construction. This line would have provided service to Eganville alongside the OA&PS, and the locals were highly skeptical after having been promised CPR service in 1875.Ottawa Citizen, 29 March 1875
Building the line
Construction of the eastern sections began northward out of Ottawa in September 1892, reaching Arnprior in May 1893, and opened on 13 September 1893. When the OA&PS line started north out of town it had to cross the CPR's Brockville and Ottawa Railway (B&O) line, and on 20 September 1893 it was reported that crews from the two lines had come to blows, although later reports downplay the action.
In order to complete the junction, CPR demanded that the OA&PS lay 1,700 feet of rail on the far side of the crossing, so their trains could be run clear of the CPR line. To aid this, the OA&PS men laid their lines right up to the B&O so they could hand-carry the rails the short distance to the far side of the road. As the crossing was not operational, they were not legally allowed to be operating rails on CP land, so the CPR men were ordered to tear it up, forcing the OA&PS crew to carry the rails from further away. The OA&PS re-laid their line again, with reports that this caused a fight.
The CPR's Atlantic & North-West beat the OA&PS to Eganville, which ran a charter to the town on 30 December 1892 and opened regular service the next month. The OA&PS had considered running to Eganville, but the presence of the A&NW made such a detour redundant and the town had decided against paying both railways a bonus, giving their bonus to the "winner" alone.Renfrew Mercury, 30 September 1892 The line reached its closest approach to Eganville, about one mile to the southwest, at the end of 1893.Colin Churcher, "Significant Dates in Ottawa Railway History"
By this point the two railways had been in a court battle over the meaning of the agreement about land use rights in a small strip of land near Killaloe, which would have required the CPR to run for a distance over lands deeded to the OA&PS. Booth refused this, and the courts eventually agreed with him. The A&NW was now locked out of the direct approach through the Algonquin area and would be forced along a more northerly route, closer to their Brockville & Ottawa mainline. CPR gave up, and the A&NW line ended in Eganville.
West of Eganville the OA&PS began a steady climb through a series of rolling hills as it progressed through the Algonquin Highlands. Many trestles and bridges were required, which substantially increased the time and cost of construction. By the end of 1896 the railway was complete when it joined up with the track laid by the PSCR at the town of Scotia. The first train from Ottawa through to Depot Harbor ran with officials on 21 December 1896Renfrew Mercury, 25 December 1896 The first paid trip from Parry Sound to Ottawa was William Taylor, his wife and his daughter.Ottawa Journal, 31 December 1896
Depot Harbour