Fonds F 0171 - Erie and Ontario Railroad Company fonds

The Erie and Ontario Railroad, one of the first railway lines in the colony of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario), was formed in 1831 by businessmen from communities along the Niagara River between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. They were looking to restore business lost when the opening of the Welland Canal reduced the amount of road traffic to their communities. Construction on the line began in 1835; it began operating in 1838-39 and was completed in 1841. The original railway consisted of rail cars pulled along a wider gauge track by teams of four horses, and consisted primarily of a passenger service, which ran during the summer season.

Ownership passed to Samuel Zimmerman in 1854, when the route was altered and extended, and the horse-drawn cars replaced by steam trains that ran on a narrower gauge track. The company was renamed the Fort Erie Railroad Company; after its 1863 purchase by William Thompson it was again renamed, this time as the Erie and Niagara Railroad Company; it became the Niagara Division of the Canada Southern Railroad in 1869 and then simply part of the Canada Southern Railroad as of 1878. In 1882 a cash-strapped Canada Southern transferred its assets to the Michigan Central Railroad. Declining passenger rail travel after the advent of the automobile led to the end of passenger service along the former Erie and Ontario railway line by 1926, but freight service continued until 1959 (with the Michigan Central lease of the line taken over by the New York Central Railroad in 1929).

After further changes of ownership, freight service resumed between 1976 and 2001, initially under the banner of Conrail, and then of the Canadian Pacific Railway. For safety reasons, as of 2001 the portion of the CPR line through the City of Niagara Falls was purchased by the city; rail traffic is now re-routed along the Canadian National Railway line instead.

Sources: “Erie and Ontario Railway,” Niagara Falls Museums, https://niagarafallsmuseums.ca/discover-our-history/history-notes/erieandontariorailway.aspx ; “Erie and Ontario Railroad,” Niagara Falls Info, https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-municipal-history/railroads-of-niagara-falls/erie-ontario-railroad/ (both accessed 23 March 2021).