Caption: CNR U-1-f "Bullet Nose Betty" 6060 is seen on the point of an excursion run by the NRHS Buffalo Chapter from Niagara Falls to Guelph via Lynden and return, seen passing beneath the Harrisburg Road bridge and through the remains of Harrisburg Junction. A number of fans were out chasing this day including Bruce Lowe during a photo runby and Bill Thomson at CN Guelph Junction.

Rails were laid through Harrisburg in 1853 leading off the right of this image where the original and the circa 1906 stations once sat on the former Great Western Railway Niagara Falls - Hamilton - London - Windsor mainline, on which service commenced in January 1854. Located 3.13 miles west of Lynden, Harrisburg is considered the first railway junction in Canada, as the Great Western Railway built a branch north to Galt via Branchton opening on August 23, 1854. West of Harrisburg, the mainline passed just south of St. George before crossing the Buffalo, Brantford & Goderich Railway at Paris Junction (1856). Brantford did not receive service from the GWR until 1871 via a branch line (later CN Alford and Dundas Subdivisions). After amalgamation with the Grand Trunk on August 12, 1882, the GTR worked to provide the area with better service as well as increase their profits resulting in the Lynden cutoff being constructed from Lynden (Junction) to join the Alford Branch (Alford Jct. – south of Powerline Road crossing). With the new mainline in service the Alford Sub would be abandoned in 1924, and the GWR mainline west of St. George to Paris Junction (Harrisburg - Paris Jct. renamed St. George Subdivision) abandoned in 1935. The remainder of the St. George Sub would be abandoned in 1962, leaving the former Galt Branch, now the Fergus Sub, as the only active rail through Harrisburg for another couple decades. Eventually though it too would be abandoned from mile 1.00 Lynden Junction to mile 13.88 at Galt in 1986, the last revenue carload having passed over the line in 1979. Today almost a mile of double tracked rusted rail remains in the weeds severed from the Dundas Sub as a reminder of the old mainline.

On a lighter note the Great western was a pioneer of sorts in North American rail transportation, as beginning in January 1854 the GWR would be the first North American Railway to operate travelling Railway Post Office cars which would provide revenue to many of the branch lines and local trains for over a century until the end of RPO service on April 24, 1971. Further details provided in this interesting article on Canadian RPO car operations by former RPO Clerk, Norm Giffen.

More Harrisburg:
Bill Thomson: September 20, 1970, CNR 6218 southbound with her fireman keeping watch.