Where Trains Once Rumbled

WHERE TRAINS ONCE RUMBLED

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)

Friday, November 30, 2007 (Picton Gazette)

Last week I picked up an episode of The Cisco Kid and a package of Blackjack gum at Ormsby. The source was a curio shop, located in this small community west of Highway 62 near the village of Coe Hill and south of Bancroft. The entire shop was filled to the brim with memories of the past and it wasn’t long before I required the assistance of my debit card before we decided that we had purchased enough that day.

While having lunch later that day at a small restaurant in Coe Hill, I mentioned our shopping frenzy to some friends we bumped into, and while all knew of the popular store, few seemed to know much about Ormsby Junction, when I asked. It was scary to think that I must have been older than any of them there at our table! However, they did know abut the Coe Hill train station since it is now a concession stand and museum at the Coe Hill fairgrounds. The rail line ran behind much of the village, and I have enjoyed a walk on several occasions along part of its length through the village. The Ormsby Junction tracks were removed in the early 1970s and many of those earlier lines where trains used to puff their way along have become popular snowmobile trails.

Last week, my wife and I explored a couple other abandoned rail lines, both of which have become popular shared use trails. The Catartaqui Trail runs from Strathcona to Smith Falls, a distance of 104 kilometres. We have taken in a six kilometre stretch in the Yarker area, and last week we walked a short section in the Newburgh area. The trail was opened in 2000, and has 48 access points along its entire route. Train services were discontinued in 1986 and I well remember a train passing through in the late 1970s when I worked for the Quinte Scanner newspaper out of Deseronto, owned by Mary and the late David Taylor, when I had been assigned to do a feature story on Yarker. The train added a romantic touch to my story as it made its way through the village, part of the route taking it high over two of the streets of the village. Today, that same overpass is part of the Cataraqui Trail and was refurbished by the Lennox and Addington Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club who maintain the western portion of the trail up as far as Harrowsmith.

Snowmobile clubs have become invaluable partners in these trails and their contribution is evident on many of the trails we walk, including another we explored last week in Tweed. The Trans Canada Trail is a bit longer than the Cataraqui Trail, and according to their website, will be an incredible 18,000 kilometres when completed, winding through every province and territory, linking over 800 communities along its route. It will be the longest trail of its kind in the world. Locally, the trail enters Hastings County near Campbellford and follows eastward via Tweed towards Kaladar. I have been on sections of the trail in the Jack Pine Barrens where it approaches Kaladar. Cindy Cassidy of the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance explains that the trail is a year round multi-use trail that open in 1995. At Tweed, the trail meanders through some gorgeous countryside including rolling hillsides dotted with erratics, and a delightful mixture of wetlands and both deciduous and coniferous woodlands.

There are so many similar trails, some of which we have explored to some degree, but many others that still await us. The Trail of Two Lakes at Madoc is an interesting section that runs from Madoc south to Moira Lake, and beyond. It passes by several interesting habitats, and there is still one part we have yet to check out, south of the former Two Loons Restaurant. While not everyone is in favour of the multi-use trail concept, many of these trails would not be possible were it not for the generous assistance of local snowmobile and ATV groups.

Of course, the Millennium Trail in Prince Edward County which runs for 52 kilometres from Picton to the Murray Canal is another abandoned railway line, now enjoyed by a wide variety of users. I have walked the entire length several times now in both directions, each time filling me with fond memories when trains once used this route on a regular basis. We often wonder about little spurs that ran off the main line and try to imagine what purpose they might have served. A little research usually provides the answers.

The old train stations that once served us well, have either been destroyed or moved to new locations. The original Picton train station is at the corner of Lake and Main Streets, across from the LCBO, but the second station is more recognizable and forms part of Evans Lumber. One station serves as a restaurant in Stockdale, another in Bancroft is an art gallery and museum, and others like the one at Consecon remains in its original location as a sombre reminder of a once vibrant era.