CN DUNNVILLE SUBDIVISION

TRACKSIDE GUIDE & PHOTOS

EX-NW & NS RUNNING RIGHTS | EX-CN DUNNVILLE SUBDIVISION
EX-CN MACEY SPUR: MILE 1.5 to 3.29

MACEY SPUR: MILE 0.0 to 1.4 - EX CN OWNED | MACEY SPUR: MILE 1.5 to 3.29 - TR OWNED

Present timetable listing for this line:

INCO ~ MACEY SPUR
JUNE 2001 - PRESENT

MILE
End Of Steel
0.85
INCO Siding1.00
Sherk Lumber Siding1.15
Mitchell Street
(Jct. with INCO Humberstone Spur)
1.18
Fares Street1.24
Furnace Yard Siding1.25
Welland Street1.32
End Of Steel1.4

TR ~ MACEY SPUR
JUNE 1997 - SEPTEMBER 18, 1999

MILE
Princess St.
(Jct. with TR Port Colborne Spur)
1.50
King St.1.58
Catherine St.1.65
Elm St.1.75
Fielden St.1.87
Jct. with TR Government Spur1.9
Steele St.2.01
Macey Yard2.57
Cement Road3.17
End Of Steel3.29

TR ~ HARBOUR LINE
SEPTEMBER 19, 1999 - PRESENT

MILE
This is the old Macey Spur at Mile 1.54.80
Fielden Jct.
(Jct. with TR Government Spur)
5.2
Macey5.9
End Of Steel7.1

Traffic movement on this line:

     INCO:Rule 105 Territory - Not to exceed 15 mph on entire trackage.
     No trackage exists between Fort Erie and Port Colborne and between Port Colborne and Caledonia.

Traffic movement on this line:

     TR:Rule 105 Territory - Not to exceed 15 mph on entire trackage.
     TR maintains trackage, CN service INCO, INCO owns trackage.


Points of interest along this line:(INCO)

     Mile 0.0: This is the east end of the INCO Macey Spur. The track just ends in amongst brush.

     Mile 0.41 : INCO's siding lead runs off of the Macey Spur at this location

     Mile 1.15 : Sherk Lumber has a lead here, but I haven't heard of them receiving rail cars ever since I have railfanned.

     Mile 1.16 : At this location is the SNS for CN Nickel. There used to be an average sized yard which was very seldomly saw many cars. Whenever there were any, there were 3 or 4 at the most. This yard is mainly used for storing unneeded rail cars, and the odd car for INCO.

     Mile 1.18 : This is the Jct. with the CN Humberstone Spur. It is the only way of getting out of Port Colborne on the east side of the Welland Canal by rail. CN very seldomly goes down here.

     Mile 1.25 : There is another siding here, but I have never seen any rail cars here.

     Mile 1.4 : This is now the end of the CN Macey Spur as bridge 20 was removed from over the Welland Canal. That's what caused the CN Macey Spur to be broken into two lines!


Points of interest along this line:(TR)(HARBOUR LINE MILEAGES)

     Mile 4.80 : At mile 4.80, this is the old mile 1.50 of the CN Macey Spur prior to the CN Port Colborne Spur and west side of the CN Macey Spur combined and remileaged.

     Mile 4.88 : Here, you can see the old CN Port Colborne Station still standing at King Street. It is now a restaurant.

     Mile 5.2 : This is the switch to the TR Government Spur. The TR train pulls west past this switch and backs down the Government Spur.

     Mile 5.87 : Macey yard is located here. There are only a few tracks left, since the yard used to be very active two decades ago. Occasionally, the TR train pulls into the yard to change ends with the engine, so that they can head back up the TR Harbour Line, engine first. Simply to do a run-around.

     Mile 6.59 : This is simply the west end of the TR Harbour Line.


Operations on this line:

     The CN Dunnville Subdivision once ran between the the per-say 'east leg' of the wye at Fort Erie on the CN Stamford Subdivision and previously the CN Cayuga Subdivision. The CN Dunnville Subdivision ran through Ridgeway, Port Colborne, Dunnville, Canfield Jct, Caledonia and terminated at Brantford. The CN Dunnville Subdivision did have access to the CN Hagersville Subdivision at Caledonia.
     There were 2 yards on the CN Dunnville Subdivision at Port Colborne. Nickel yard on the east side of Port Colborne and Macey yard on the west side of Port Colborne.
     I believe this rail line was built in the last few decades of the 1800s., but in 1985, CN shut down portions of the CN Dunnville Subdivision. Initially they tore out the CN Dunnville Subdivision from roughly the QEW overpass at Fort Erie, to roughly Miller Road at the east end of Port Colborne. That meant the track through Ridgeway disappeared. There was once a station there. Back at Port Colborne, the CN Dunnville Subdivision was removed from Cement Plant Road west to about 1/4 mile east of Argyle Street Caledonia. The remaining portion of the line to Brantford stayed in place and the CN Hagersville Subdivision that ran north south from Hamilton to Nanticoke was also altered. The CN Hagersville Subdivision between Hamilton and Caledonia minus a mile northeast of Caledonia was also torn out. This meant that the CN Hagersville Sub south to Nanicoke from Caledonia and the CN Dunnville Subdivision west from Caledonia to Brantford was renamed the CN Hagersville Subdivision. Mileage of the CN Hagerville Subdivision then was started at Nanticoke. The portion of the CN Dunnville Subdivision and CN Hagersville Subdivision that was put together and went a bit northeast of Caledonia was renamed the CN Rymal Spur... as I believe as a name. This piece of track is what crosses Argyle Street in Caledonia.
     Back at Port Colborne, trackage of the old CN Dunnville Subdivision connected to the CN Humberstone Subdivision (Spur) from the north and the CN Government Spur to the harbor at Lake Erie. When the CN Dunnville Spur in Port Colborne was isolated from track east and west, it was renamed the CN Macey Spur from Miller Road to the east and Cement Plant Road to the west. This as said was in 1985.
     The CN Macey Spur was now only accessible via the CN Humberstone Subdivision and later Spur, coming down from CN Yager on the CN Stamford Subdivision. At this point (mentally jumping ahead) the TR Harborline from the old CN Port Colborne Spur hadn't been built to mile 19.1 of the CN Dunnville Subdivision, or mile 1.5 of the CN Macey Spur.
     From I'm guessing 1985 to mid 1997, there was only a weekly train, which serviced INCO, Maple Leaf Mills (ADM Milling later), and the Government Grain Elevator (Goderich Grain Elevator now).
     In the early months of 1997, bridge 20 over the Welland Canal was taken out of service and removed. It was a lift bridge like the Clarence Street lift bridge on it's south side. This mow caused the west side of the CN Macey Spur and the CN Government Spur in Port Colborne to become landlocked from rail service all together. I believe the last train before the bridge closed was in late January 1997, and service couldn't begin until after the extension of the CN Port Colborne Spur was completed in June 1997.
     After the extension of the CN Port Colborne Spur as it was known as prior to Trillium and the extension south from Sherwood Forest Lane was completed, the west side of the CN Macey Spur was reopened to service on June 25, 1997. Very few people were there to see the opening, but I was there on that day of first service and I took several photographs of Trillium (NYLE 6101 moving down the trackage.
     When the CN Macey Spur on the west side of the Welland Canal was reopened, the line was now ownership of Trillium. The CN Macey Spur reopened on June 25, 1997.
     Trillium kept the old name of Macey Spur for awhile, along with CN's old name of the other two former CN lines within Port Colborne. It wasn't long I believe when the TR Harborline and TR Macey Spur merged into one long section and called it the TR Harborline.
     The east side of the Welland Canal was also left as the CN Macey Spur, but left as CN ownership because the bridge over the Welland Canal was gone. This portion on the east side was joined in as part of the CN Humberstone Spur in 2001 when the City of Port Colborne bought it from CN.
     The 'two' Macey Spurs each had a rail yard for a few years after the changes. Trillium has Macey yard on the west side and CN had, yes had Nickel yard on the east side until 2000 or 2001 when the yard was torn out. It is really nice to see rail cars in CN Macey yard on the west side from time to time, because they haven't been there since the mid 1980's, when the yard was used to store cars for Robin Hood Multi-foods.
     At the west end of TR Macey yard, the yard ends with a long lead to the yard going west from the west end. The bumper is located a few hundred feet wast of Cement Plant Road.
     For years up until 1985, when the CN Port Colborne Spur was built off of the CN Canal Subdivision (Spur later), the line serviced Robin Hood. But prior to that, the old NS&T Welland Division trackage heading off of the CN Dunnville Subdivision was renamed the CN Elm Street Spur. The Elm Street Spur went north up Elm Street crossing the Main Street intersection and north still till you hit Sherwood Forest Lane to the east. The track was bend eastward to connect in with the south end of Sherwood Forest yard. But I believe in 1985, the CN Elm Street Spur was torn out and a bumper of the CN Port Colborne Spur was then put in to end the track by Elm Street. I think there was a ramp for unloading cars here for a bit. Nothing major. When the TR Harborline (CN Port Colborne end of track was built southward, this loading spit was taken out as far east as where the new TR Harborline crossing is, to go south to the old CN station in downtown Port Colborne.
     Back in the 1970's, CN Macey yard was used to reorganize the outbound cars from Robin Hood, the Cement Plant.. on the north side of the CN Dunnville Subdivision, north of CN Macey yard, INCO and Canada Furnace, which I think was in the area of the Cement plant.
     Nickel yard on the east side of the canal was mainly used for the use of Nickel yard's TH&B's interchange with CN. In early 1997, I did see a bunch of grain cars stored here for a couple of weeks.
     When I first got into trains, Port Colborne was rather interesting, though most of the past had already taken away the rail activity. There used to be a semaphore on the south side of the track by the Elm Street crossing. It was for eastbound trains approaching bridge 20. I saw it in 1992.
     Before bridge 20 and up until 1996 I believe, there were lit two 2 aspect interlocking signals that protected the bridge. I only saw them red.

     Here is some information regarding the removal of bridge 20.
     For those of you who are not familiar with the Niagara Region, Bridge 20 ran across the Welland Canal in Port Colborne, Ontario. It was at mil,e 19.05ish and handled only a single railline. It was built in 1927 and taken out in 1997.
     Demolition of Bridge 20 across the Welland Canal began shortly before the expansion of the CN Port Colborne Spur in February 1997, along the west side of the weir, from Sherwood Forest Lane.
     First, the counter weight on the east tower was lowered onto large wood logs resembling ties. Next, the cables on the east tower were carefully dropped to the ground and removed from site. The west tower weight was then dropped and so again the cables were also removed. It had approached mid March of 1997 by now. The St. Lawrence shipping season was about to be reopened for the year on March 27th. The span of the bridge across the Welland Canal had to be still removed from the waterway.
     Workers removed the welds between the span and the bridge towers that kept the bridge span aligned with the towers. Once this had been done, the bridge span was carefully lowered onto a barge and floated over to the west side of the weir on March 24 or 25, 1997, where it then was dismantled by a private contractor.
     The tower on the east side was next slowly taken down, taking only a couple of weeks. The tower was only removed as far down as the top of the weight, as to prevent someone from pushing it into the canal. The counter weights weighed about 300 ton each as I was told. Once that was complete, the west tower was taken down in the same matter. The west tower took only a week to complete through demolition.
     Then again, during mid June, a special backhoe with a bit came and broke up the east weight. This took less than a day. The following day, the west weight was broken in the same way. As of the end of June the remaining part of both towers still existed.
     About a month later, the remaining part of the bridge towers were removed.
     During the removal of the bridge, I read a few comments in the local newspaper the construction site would be cleaned up.... such as replanting vegetation. I didn't see any of that ever accomplished as of 2003. In 2004 cleanup had begun. I was told it took so long because the City of Port Colborne had to purchase the grounds from CN.
     To finalized things, Bridge 20 was built in 1927 and removed in 1997. It lasted a total of 70 years in service.
     The last 10 years or so, since the Dunnville Subdivision was pulled up on the outskirts of Port Colborne, the line hadn't seen more than one train across the bridge each week to Sugarloaf Harbour--Sunday Nights at 11pm.
     In June of 2001, CN Nickel yard was removed along with INCO trackage from the east end of the property. A new crossing was put in across the road in front of INCO. A run around track was left in.
     A new switch was put in not too far east of the west end of the southern most track of the yard. This switch was put in place to get into INCO from the west end of the property, via that new crossing.      Some comments from the past on access from the CN Humberstone Subdivision. There used to also be a west leg at one time between the CN Humberstone Spur and the CN Dunnville Subdivision. I was told TH&B and CP used this part the most. But it was taken out in the late 1980s.. before I started railfanning.


     Please take notice these days, the CN Macey Spur is now un-named trackage at the south end of the COPC Humberstone Spur, on the east side of the Welland Canal, and on the west side, it is part of the Harborline.
     Signals no longer exist on either CN Macey Spur, as there is no bridge anymore.
     Where you see EX Mile.... that is the approximate mileage of when the CN Dunnville Subdivision was in service in it's entirety. I didn't know the exact mileage, so I had to use a ruler on a map to estimate the mileage. The mileages are within a 1/4 mile or so of the original location.


Pictorial view of this line:

274 photos in gallery

Select a mileage to display
| 0 - 5 | 5 - 10 | 10 - 15 | 15 - 20 | 20 - 25 | 25 - 30 | 30 - 35 | 35 - 40 | 40 - 45 | 45 - 50 | 50 - 55 | 55 - 60 | 60 - 65 | 65 - 70 | 70 - 75 | 75 - 76 |


Mile 5.01
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 5.01
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 5.40
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 5.40
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 5.79
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 5.79
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 6.75
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 6.75
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 7.07
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 7.07
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 7.50
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 7.50
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 7.72
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 7.72
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 8.04
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 8.04
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 8.40
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 8.40
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 8.75
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 8.75
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 9.00
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 9.00
Looking West
(1998)

Mile 9.30
Looking East
(1998)

Mile 9.30
Looking West
(1998)

Select a mileage to display
| 0 - 5 | 5 - 10 | 10 - 15 | 15 - 20 | 20 - 25 | 25 - 30 | 30 - 35 | 35 - 40 | 40 - 45 | 45 - 50 | 50 - 55 | 55 - 60 | 60 - 65 | 65 - 70 | 70 - 75 | 75 - 76 |


     These photos are of a track that left the old CN Dunnville Subdivision around Mitchell Street to the north to a lumnber store. I remember the track was still in place in the 1990's, but was covered over by pavement after that in 2001 when the walking path was built on the old line ROW.

4 photos in gallery


Looking Northeast
(2012)

Looking Northeast
(2012)

Looking West
(2012)

Looking West
(2012)


     These photos are of the old lead into the Inco plant at the east end of the property along Durham Street at Reuter Road in Port Colborne.

2 photos in gallery


Looking West
(2012)

Looking West
(2012)