Chessie & Conrail in Niagara Falls, ON

[Ulrich]

On a school trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario  in 1979 I saw Chessie and Conrail on double track near the Falls. Was this part of the C & O's Ontario division or was this some kind of run through agreement Chessie and Conrail had with one of the Canadian railroads?  

[lone geep]

As far as I know, the C&O only ran from Windsor to St. Thomas on its own track and used the Conrail's Canada Southern route to Buffalo until the 70's or 80's. Around that time the C&O tore up their Windsor/St Thomas track and used the Canada Southern the whole way. Additionally the C&O had a branch from Blenheim, Ontario to Sarnia as well. Since you say you saw them at Niagara falls, I would think it was trackage rights since the Canada Southern passed into the U.S. at Fort Erie.

[lenzfamily]

Ulrich

In i979, CASO (Canada Division) was owned by Conrail. It ran, as lone geep points out, from Windsor to /Fort Erie Buffalo. It also ran a branch to Niagara Falls, leaving the CASO Mainline at Welland. Previously it had been owned by NYC/MCR/Penn Central,  C&O and latterly CSX, before being sold again for the last time to CN/CP. CN/CP bought the Canada Division IIRC in order to eliminate potential competition for fraight traffic in southwestern Ontario.

CN tore it up in stages from Fort Erie to Windsor, the last piece being a spur from Windsor still used a bit IIRC for auto traffic.

St Thomas was the division headquarters. The CASO Station has been wonderfully restored through the efforts of the community (North American Railway Hall of Fame) and is now offices, a convention and community special events centre. The MCR shops are still standing and are now owned by the Elgin County Railway Museum. BX Tower, owned by the City of St Thomas, is being gradually restored by the ECRM.

The only Canada Division track remaining now  is about 2 Km running from BX to MCR Shops. There may be potential to (re)connect with Port Stanley Terminal Rail (formerly L&PS).

I'm planning to be there in October (my mother's family is from St Thomas) so will check with ECRM about the possibility of reconnection with PSTR.

Long round about way of saying that at that point the train you saw was probably on trackage rights as lone geep says.

Hope the background helps. CASO had a complicated life....to say the least.

Charlie

Chilliwack, BC

[SD70M-2Dude]

That double track mainline ran right through downtown Niagara Falls until the late 90's, it crossed the gorge on the Michigan Central Bridge, the arch structure beside and immediately upstream from the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.  The right of way is now a trail and there are a couple of tunnels (unfortunately not part of the trail) that go underneath the large hotels beside the Falls.

CASO is indeed mostly abandoned but a few chunks still exist, notably the Detroit River Tunnel and the International Bridge at Buffalo.  The Baltimore-truss swing bridge over the old canal in downtown Welland is also still on an active rail line (Trillium), albeit a lightly used industrial spur.  CP still uses the (now single track) line from Welland to Niagara Falls as an industrial lead, the rails end just south of the current resort area.

[SALfan]

A bit of OT trivia - assuming it's the same St. Thomas, Ford had a plant there where the Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis almost-twins were assembled. I'm sitting here looking at the window sticker from my 1997 Grand Marquis as I write this.

[AgentKid]

SALfan

assuming it's the same St. Thomas, Ford had a plant there

You've got it Pontiac! - assuming that joke works outside of Canada, if you remember the commercials from when you were growing up.

Yes, it is the same St. Thomas.

Bruce