 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Hamilton, Ontario |
| Locale | Ontario, Canada |
| Dates of operation | 1878–1990 |
| Successor | Northern and Northwestern Railway, Grand Trunk Railway, CNR |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Hamilton and North-Western Railway (H&NW) is a former railway in Ontario, Canada. It ran north from Hamilton on the western end of Lake Ontario to Collingwood on Georgian Bay and Barrie on Lake Simcoe. Through the purchase of the Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway, the route continued south from Hamilton to Port Dover on Lake Erie.
The H&NW was formed to compete with the Northern Railway of Canada, which ran from Toronto to Barrie and then onto Collingwood. Towns along the H&NW route put up bonuses for construction in the hopes that it would lead to lower prices. Construction began in 1874 but economic troubles delayed it for the next two years. Major construction began in 1876, officially reaching Barrie on 1 December 1877, and Collingwood in 1879. The entire line was officially opened in December 1879, although it had been operational for some time at that point.
To everyone's surprise,[according to whom?] in June 1879 the H&NW merged with its supposed competitor to become the Northern and North-Western Railway. Both railways saw their ultimate role as a connection between the Toronto area and the newly completely Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) mainline across northern Ontario. Flush with cash from the merger, the new company built the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway to the CPR at North Bay in 1886. The value of this route made them a takeover target, and the entire network was purchased by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1888, eventually becoming part of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) in 1923.
With the CNR takeover, the railway now had two routes into Collingwood. The H&NW's Collingwood branch was considered sub-par and the subject of jokes, but it was not until 1955 that CNR finally received permission to stop daily service along it. The northern section from Collingwood to Creemore remained in freight service until 1960, and the section from Alliston to Beeton until 1990. The mainline from Hamilton to Barrie closed in sections during the 1980s. Short sections remain in use to this day, and a section in the middle is now part of the South Simcoe Railway.