|
Caption: It was a somber day, but originally one that was meant to be a day at Wasaga beach with the family. I had been watching social media for a number of weeks prior anticipating the last Barrie - Collingwood train to Collingwood, but it had been some time since they last served Collingwood. This morning a last minute email changed my plans and sent me on a day long chase of the last ever train to and from Collingwood. Unfortunately it took a while to find the westbound trip so I only caught up with them east of Collingwood, but it was just light power anyway. After picking up Collingwood's mayor the train headed to the last two active customers to lift the last tank cars to ever make a trip over the line. A small celebration at the end of the spur to the last customer marked the special occasion before the slow trip back to the CP interchange at Utopia began. The train made a few stops along the way to take some photos, including stopping at this farmers field outside of Sunnidale before continuing east. Today most of the rails are still in place but are heavily grown over, with many closings paved over or filled in.
|
Very nice Marcus, funny story also about how you already planned to visit Wasaga this day some time ahead with absolutely no clue about what July 14 ment for the railway line up there… Thanks for sharing!
Of the last 2 customers in Collingwood of course everyone would know that only one saw regular service, ‘Canadian Mist’ which is why Collingwood chose to close their railway (*definitely can’t blame them… tracks were also in very poor shape leaving quite a challenge to somehow see light in the long term run) but regarding the other rail customer who VERY RARELY used the rail by this point (known at the time as ‘Amazingly Green Ethonal’) some days I just can’t help but wonder if it was somehow staged that BCRY will have 4 tanks to collect there on the last day to make the last train a bit more interesting for photographs because they literally never used it at all (stated by the former BCRY crewmen) after it was taken over by the Ethonal Buisness in the mid 2000s so some days I just wonder if that was somehow staged but of course it definitely would’nt have been knowing how the railway and Buisness worlds work so just a nice coincidence I guess will sum up but anyhow I’m sure this was quite a day for you (if only I had been able to see this myself regardless of the fact that I was only 11 at the time). Thanks again for sharing!
Thanks ????
I wish I had taken the time to do more trips up that way, other then just going to the beech, LOL. I had always thought with Blue mountain so close some sort of tourist train would have been a success, but what do I know and now it is too late anyway unfortunately.
I believe SSR actually wanted the Collingwood stretch of the Meaford Sub initially back when they first started up their operations in the early 1990s but for whatever reason things just never fell through and they ended up settling with the Beeton Sub instead. Would’ve been a nice tour forsure with them Blue Mountains but as you already stated above, just a dream now sadly
I believe the story was they wanted the section between Meaford and Collingwood, but unfortunately the want or need for a rail train was much more powerful.