Central Counties Railway

This documentary is about a local railway that once existed where I live in Cheney, Ontario Canada. This homemade video shows how the railway impacted the area and is interconnected to persons, places and events.

This is where I live this is where I call home Cheney is located about 30 minutes east of Ottawa on Russell Road its main Crossroads are guu and Indian Creek roads we moved here in August 2014 to retire for our forever home we were seeking a simpler lifestyle

Away from the hustle and bustle of suburbian what Drew us to this area was the amenities of the outdoors mainly speaking lose forest and surrounding area having nature just behind our house was very appealing one day I decided to do some exploring nearby along the banks of B

Creek to my amazement I discovered what seemed to be the remains of an old train bridge to me it seemed to be a bit out of place in the middle of a forest when I returned home I decided to do some research on it and found a website titled

Apple.ca I learned it was part of an Old Railway starting in Rockland and ending in lamos built in the late 19th century having fed my initial curiosity I had a feeling there was much more to the history of this train bridge over the years I began to formulate many

Questions about this Railway such as who built it what did it look like when it was in service what happened to it was it built for transporting goods or was it also a passenger train where did the stone come to construct the abutments were there train stations Nearby to answer all these questions I decided to further investigate to my surprise I discovered this Railway had a profound impact in this area I learned many persons places and things have a strong connection to this line lastly the more I learned the more I realized there was even more to

Discover hello my name is Michael Green join me as I take you on a virtual train ride of the central C’s railway from above on this adventure I will try to answer all the questions and maybe we’ll uncover a few surprises along the Way this is where all began this is Duma Land Park on the shores of the Ottawa River in Rockland these Stone foundations are the remains of a once important structure this was a bustling work environment for locals William Cameron Edwards a native of Russell County entered the Family Lumber business in

1863 5 years later the first firm of WC Edwards and Company was established the saw mills Edwards built in Rockman contributed substantially to the community’s economic development the main Mill was located at the location of zuman Park a smaller pimu was located about a kilometer West along the bank of the

Ottawa River he employed many French Canadians and built homes for them during the Mill’s operational Peak it employed over 1,000 persons with the opening of the Edwards Mill many people settled in the Rockland area the Edwards company opened a general store at the top of Edward Street when Mill employees needed to get

Food clothes or tools they mostly depended on the company’s General Store tokens were used for money by employees for their purchases at the WC Edwards store the opening of The Sawmill coincided with the founding of Rockin which Edwards named based upon the rocky landscape in the surrounding area in

1886 realizing how important a railway would improve the shipping of lumber out of his Rockland Mills Edwards requested a railway link to be created connecting Rockland to South India he was a major financier of this project Edwards was Rockland’s first postmaster and then he entered politics in

1887 he sat as the federal member for Russell until 1903 when he was appointed to the Senate he once owned 24 Sussex official residents of the Prime Minister of Canada before we start our virtual train ride on the central Count’s Railway also known as CCR we need to provide some initial

Background to the beginnings of the rail line Ottawa other towns and Villages cut timber for export eastern Ontario was originally built on the lumber industry prior to trains and Railways logs were floated down the Ottawa River to the the St Lawrence River destination Quebec City where seagoing vessels were waiting to sell them

Overseas when Railways were established Lumber Barons realized transporting pre-cut Lumber by rail was much more profitable as a result many Rail lines were built crisscrossing eastern Ontario as a matter of fact there were three branches of the CCR in eastern Ontario they all traveled north south one was in the pemrick area which

Is not on this map the other was in hawksbury and lastly there was the rocking Branch they all intersected the Canada Atlantic Railway also known as the C the C went West to the shores of lake hiron and East crossing the St Lawrence River heading to the northern tip of Lake sh

Plan this provided an East West Corridor for the shipment of grain from the west and Lumber in both directions we will talk more about c a bit later Brin was at the northern Terminus of the CCR it also had business related lines also called Spurs running through the

Town one of the Spurs started at the main Mill and followed the shore of the Ottawa River where it met up with a smaller Pang the spur then started heading south at the western part of Rockland and intersected with the Canadian Northern Railway this intersection was known as The

Diamond at this intersection a signal house was erected the Canadian Northern Railway went from hawksbury to Ottawa following the path of the current Trans Canada Highway 17 passengers could travel a round trip from hawksbury to Ottawa for only 75 after passing the diamond the spur would hook up with the CCR headings

Out the official beginning or Northern Terminus of the CCR starts at St Jean and Raymond streets the train station still exists today as a semi detached home on St John Street in July 1895 the CCR line was complete a year later the rockon station was built ready for

Passengers okay it’s time to depart All Aboard we are now heading south towards lamos with a few stops along the way the railway headed south following St Jean but went around the escarp south of the city to avoid the hilly terrain we are now heading south out of

Town but before we continue on we must discuss another spur that connected to the CCR just past the escarment this spur served another prominent business in Rockland the Alexander Stewart Quarry was built in the late 1800s and continued operation until 1912 it was a limestone quarry stone was transported from the

Quarry along its spur to the CCR line Limestone from the quy was used to build Tas St Trin the parliament buildings in Ottawa and the sulange canal part of the St Lawrence Seaway rumor says there was enough Stone in the Quarry to build the complete redo Canal lock

System Stone was transported along with CCR and then to the C at L Mo to kotu Landing along the St Lawrence River now we are back on the CCR heading south out of Rockland next stop Clarence Creek Welcome to Clarence Creek there is something interesting about this section of the Railway even though the village had a train station the line never entered the village itself I found no documentation that explains why the railway did not enter Clarence Creek so it remains a bit of a

Mystery the closest the railway got to the Village was it passed just west of bouier road at Vette Road this is about 2 km away from the village I can only speculate why the track did not enter the village it may be due to the cost and the changes of elevations just

West farmers use the railway to transport their hay crops to Market here is the actual path of the Railway although you cannot see any evidence of a line from above the map clearly shows that it was there the train station was located just beside Vette

Road a bit further down at Gulf Road you can see where sco Trails use the former track Line now we are on our way to Hammond welcome to Hammond formerly known as North Indian and not to be confused with South Indian Hammond was founded at the end of the 19th century when loyalist descendants from the St Lawrence River Valley settled just east of the village the rail line brought workers to Hammond and facilitated the transport of lumber

And agricultural products two markets East and West Hammond had two train stations the grand trunk station was located in the general location of the current day jay lone Rona the other station was located at the Crossing of the Canadian Pacific Line at Je wrote on June 15th

1914 a fire started in the grand trunk Freight shed this evidently occurred from a spark from a passing train as a result seven buildings were destroyed by Fire we are now approaching the Canadian Pacific train in Hammond the Canadian Pacific Line today is used as a walking and cycling trail from Ottawa and ending in the vicinity of Rigo Quebec traveling down this Trail you will soon approach bourette where the train station still exists Today we are now leaving Hammond making our way to Cheney you could see the Cheney water tower in the distance about 3 km away next stop Cheney [Laughter] we are now on our approach to Cheney observant viewers may have seen references to the central Count’s Railway as the grand trunk

Railway by the time the central Count’s Railway was opened it was already under lease by the Canada Atlantic Railway in 1904 the grand trunk Railway also known as the GTR purchased the Canada Atlantic Railway the name remained as such until almost its decommissioning for this reason locals

Remember it as part of the grand trunk Railway for the duration of this documentary we will also refer to it as the GTR welcome to Cheney the train station was located between the water tower and Russell Road there is no photograph of the train station however records document the

Building was 12x 24 ft with 10t ceilings the current day Cheney is on Russell Road the original Cheney was orientated in a north south Direction in 1892 Samuel T Cheney but 200 acres of land he built a sawmill and gave his name to the small village the main street was named Brook

Street a blacksmith shop was built along with a cheese factory Cheney had a caner where residents were able to can berries that grew locally in addition to a new post office there was a general store by 1897 Cheney consisted of 20 homes with the operation of the Railway

There is a regular hmer business in Chi the rail Bridge was only in service between 1895 and 1927 in the early 1800s both Bear Brook and Indian Creeks were more like small rivers locals transported Timber and cattle on rafts to South Indian Cheney and bourette I could not find any

Photographs of the bridge when it was in service but we do know that it was listed as a steel deck trust Bridge with a 77 ft span based upon the span the type of abutments and when the bridge was built we could assume that the bridge could look like this or perhaps This we are now leaving Cheney [Applause] one of my initial questions was where did the stone come to make the train bridge in Cheney the answer to the question is to steuart Cory in Rockland each day a train would make at least one round trip from Rockland to

Lamos at the peak of its operation the line transported 165 train cars of Lumber in one week even though the GTR Rockland Branch was very successful it did experience fatalities and accidents due to fire it was also not void of Labor disputes and acts of vandalism Charles Melville Hayes was the president

Of the grand truck Railway in April 1912 Hayes was in London on business but was anxious to get back to Canada for the opening of a chat laer in Ottawa he was traveling back home on the Titanic unfortunately he did not make it for the opening Hayes helped the women in his

Party into lifeboats but remained and perished his body was recovered and he was buried in Montreal welcome to grant grant was settled in the mid 19th century The Village was not an official stop on the GTR line however the train did occasionally stop to drop off supplies The train would pass Grant slowly due to cattle grazing many locals could easily jump on and off the train as a result Grant consisted of a post office church school Cheese Factory and a store the schoolhouse was a small one classroom building it taught students from grade 1 to

8 over the years the crop yield began to decline the forested area began to turn as a sandy desert known as the bourette desert due to the declining soil conditions and the amount of Education the schoolhouse was able to provide people began to leave Grant now we are heading to our final destination

Lamos [Laughter] We are slowly heading south to L Mo towards the southern Terminus of the GTR you can see South of Samir Road there was a double line to assist in coordinating operations the main reason why WC Edwards built the GTR Rockland Branch was to connect to the Canada Atlantic

Railway to further distribute his Lumber east and west the Canada Atlant IC Railway came to L Mo in 1879 16 years before the GTR was built John R Booth from Ottawa was a lumber Tycoon and railroad baron Booth’s Sawmill operations in the Ottawa area could never run at full

Capacity because he required train lines just as Edwards did he purchased the Montreal and city of Ottawa Junction Railway the kotu and the province line Railway company in 1879 amalgamating them to form the Canada Atlantic Railway as mentioned before the line went from Lake hiron to the top of Lake

Champlain to access markets East and West in 1904 the GTR purchased the Canada Atlantic Railway eventually Canadian National Railway CN took it over in 1923 welcome to lamo formerly known as South Indian L Mo was founded in 1872 by a group of French Canadian settlers the first settlers ID L Mo were

Primarily farmers and the community grew slowly over the years the community was named after the city of lamo in France which was known for its porcelain industry because the GTR intersected the C there was only one train station at the intersection it belonged to the C the intersection was located on the

East side of L Mo Road the train station was located at AAR and Cambridge streets the CN line is in continued use today for rail service between Ottawa and Montreal it is also used for the transportation of goods and Materials on October 5th 1897 a tragedy known as the great fire struck the region this tragedy affected Castleman South Indians Cheney and Grant forested areas between these Villages were decimated Farmers barely escaped with their lives and hundreds were left homeless at South Indian there were only a few houses left standing four bodies

Were recovered there the people of Castleman were reported as huddled together on the rocks of the nation River without sufficient clothing or anything to eat the South Indians Cheney and Castleman train stations were destroyed the C lost eight Freight cars at South Indian and the train bridge

Over the nation River and Castleman was badly damaged after the fire and Cheney there were discussions that the village would not be rebuilt many inhabitants mostly descendants of the Loyalists left the region The Village was rebuilt by French Canadian Settlers after the fire of 1897 erosion was devastating Farmland around bourette and Cheney between the Villages of Castleman bourette and L Farmers abandoned Sandy Lands which led to the expansion of the bourette desert aware of the seriousness of the problem Ferdinand lose suggested that those lands to be reforested to stop the

Erosion he was hired by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture to address the problem in 1928 Mr lose with help of various governments bought back the abandoned farmlands and hired local workers to plant trees in 1928 6,000 Pines were planted and since then three generations of forest workers have planted trees and maintained the

Forest since the commencement of reforestation in 1928 over 18 million trees have been planted lose Forest is the second largest man-made forest in Southern and Eastern Ontario it covers 27,000 Acres or 42 square miles today it is a premier attraction to the area open to activities such as hiking cycling and CrossCountry skiing

To name a few it is a flourishing habitat and is considered a jewel of Prescott Russell the total distance of the Rockland GTR Branch was 17 miles although its primary purpose was to transport goods and materials it also provided a means of transportation for passengers when required Passenger cars were added to the

Train in Rockland July 29th 1895 a Cumberland football team took a ride on the GTR along the way the number number of spectators at train stations began to grow upon arriving at South Indian a band and a large number of citizens were at the station and gave the boys arousing

Reception in the final days of the Rockland GTR Canadian national took over the railway in 1923 shortly after the rothin Hammond segment of the Railway was closed in 1926 6 Edward’s woodmill was closed due to uncertain Economic Times this was a driving factor for the end of the

Line the last portion to be abandoned was between Clarence Creek and Rocklin in 1936 so we are at the end of the line for the Rocklin GTR we look back and asked ourselves what was the legacy of the Railway how has the GTR impacted the current day city of Clarence Rockland

And the nation municipality the answer to this question can be very subjective depending on who you ask I’ll let the current day footage of Rocklin and villages on the railway answer this question to me the answer is Clear this train line helped bring growth and prosperity to the region the result being a Canadian mix of nationalities religions and Creeds all living in neighborly Friendship I thank you for taking a ride on the central Cy’s Railway or the Rockland grand trunk Railway whatever you want to call it as mentioned at the beginning the history of this train line is Rich and interconnected my name is Michael Green it has been a pleasure to share

This piece of local history with You