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Caption: Canada Cement #2 in 1965 on the neatly kept company grounds in Port Colborne. According to Colin Churcher’s Industrial locomotive guide, Canada Cement Port Colborne received two (2) new 45T units from GE in 1946. The #2 GE unit was sold to Quebec Iron & Titanium in 1968, and the sister #1 unit to ZALEV Brothers in Windsor (relocated to PSTR in recent years and undergoing restoration now). The plant existed in Port from the early 1900’s and ceased operations around 1969. It was taken down shortly after including all the Company housing on what was Maple Avenue (now Elgin Street west of Steele - Portal Village Complex). Canada Cement had their own spur that connected the factory with loading docks on the Welland Canal. The spur crossed the NS&T (later CN Elm Street Spur) on diamond, and also had a Wye connection onto Elm Street. In addition, the plant operated a line immediately parallel to the Dunnville Sub (south side) from the factory east of Cement Plant road approx. 3 km west to Quarry Road in Wainfleet. Canada Cement operated at least 9 facilities across the country and the Port Colborne facility was a major employer with a very extensive network of rail lines inside and outside of their property. The plant sat on the north side of Macey Yard which is still occasionally used for car storage by GIO. Canada Cement was eventually sold to LAFARGE, and probably the most impactful legacy of the Company Key Man was the creation of Butchart Gardens in Victoria BC by Jennie Butchart, wife of Canada Cement shareholder Robert Butchart.
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http://www.niagararails.com/cgi-bin/img.cgi?/c/cementplant1.jpg
This would give some visual on the extent of trackage …
Wild… an industrial cement line with a few miles of track. Very cool.
So.. based on your map Klaucker.. the Trillium “new” spur built along the canal … was a prior right of way and it looks like they put the rails back
Wild… well, some of it anyway..
the right of way is clearly visible.. in fact some rails still in an old closed road at far west end!
And the underpass… you can see it – theright of way went all the way to the “clay pits” – the structures there clearly indicate places to dump.. or load.. then the quarry just west of there. Wild. All done by 1969.
Steve, yes, the Trillium reboot was ver 2.0 for the line (partial) along the 3rd Welland Canal west wall, and the lines did run all over, and yes, you can still find embedded rails in concrete on remnants of the Cement Plant property… most interesting for me was the line that went out to Quarry Road parallel to the Dunnville Sub (3 km or so to the west)… I can remember riding my 10 speed along there when the Dunnville Sub was still active..remains of the Canada Cement spur to Quarry road…
Wild – you certainly have my juices flowing for this one! When were the rails lifted and did any survive for other railway service?
All rails out circa 1970, nothing survived, there was a company in the 1980’s called Hannon Lumber that applied for zoning to bring one to two hundred railcar loads of lumber per week, former Canada Cement property…but never materialized…land sold to Hong Kong investors for something called Portal Fashion Village…pipe dream…Hong Kong investors will not sell the land , and it sits undeveloped west of Westside Road to Cement Plant
That explains why the right of way is still intact after all this time.