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Rule 105 Territory - Not to exceed 15 mph on entire trackage.
Mile 0.0 (Jct. with TR Canal Spur) : Forks Road West, Dain City : This is the Jct. switch between TR's Canal Spur and TR's Harborline. It is located just north of Forks Road West in Dain City. This a great place to catch the train SB coming up to the Forks Road crossing.
Mile 0.2 : Forks Road West, Dain City : This is Forks Road.
Mile 1.9 : Elm Street, Port Colborne : At Mile 1.9 is Elm Street. The line runs along Elm Street about 100 feet from Elm Street. At Mile 1.9 of the TR Harborline, the line curves east and crosses Elm street on a slightly graded hill. The line heads EB for about four tenths of a mile
then heads south along the west side of the old Welland Canal waterway.
Mile 3.2 : Barrick Road, Port Colborne : Barrick Road is located here. Barrick Road is a dead end. The track runs across Barrick Road at the eastern most end of the Road. This is a great place again to photograph the TR train.
Mile 3.9 : Sherwood Forest, Port Colborne : Before mentioning this location, Robin Hood Multi-foods is serviced by rail. They are service on a regular business day, except weekends. Now, at Mile 4.0 is Hwy 3 (Main Street). I don't really believe this is a very accurate mileage.
I think it should be Mile 4.15. You can catch the train here but the angle is sharp.
Mile 4.8 : Princess Street, Port Colborne : This is the Jct. switch to the old Dunnville Subdivision trackage. This stretch of rail between mile 3.9 and 5.0 is new trackage put down since Bridge 20 was removed.
The TR Harborline was formerly part of the NS&T Welland Division trolley line from remnants about 20 feet south of Forks Road in Dain City to the former Port Colborne landfill site along Elm Street, heading down towards Port Colborne. The landfill site is now a large dog park. Sometime after the NS&T stopped trolley service in March 1959 or March 1960, the line was torn out south of Riverside Drive in Welland.
back to Forkes Road and Elm Street, CN rebuilt the line in 1985 as the CN Dunnville Subdivision was torn out westward from roughly the QEW at Fort Erie in 1981, because it was probably taking too long coming down the CN Humberstone Subdivision at the time.
CN then bent the track east across Elm Street and east to the tree line of the field that ran along the old Welland Canal and turned the line south and across Barrick Road and through the rock cut beside Robin Hood and then from that point connected it into a segment of track that was already in place that ran through Sherwood yard and came out just north of where Sherwood Lane is and connected in with the old NS&T line down Elm Street that the NS&T used during trolley service that connected westward onto the CN Dunnville Subdivision.
That being said, the CN Port Colborne Spur is one of the newer Subdivisions in the Niagara Region.
The line changes in 1985 were built to exclusively provide service to Robin Hood Multifoods and Casco (Canada Starch Company) when the CN Elm St. Spur (formerly part of the NS&T Welland Division) was ripped up which led off of the old Dunnville Subdivision, from the west in Port Colborne.
The TR Harborline as just mentioned was built as the CN Port Colborne Spur when CN pulled up the track leading from the old Dunnville Subdivision in the heart of Port Colborne northward up the CN Elm St. Spur. The 'CH' yard map. The only difference between the TR Harborline and the old CN Port Colborne Spur is that the TR Harborline is an inclusive addition of an added ROW along the west side of the weir in Port Colborne and the west side of the old CN Macey Spur, after bridge 20 was removed. The Harborline was that from day 1 of Trillium operations.
Some notes about how this line was built in 1985 at the north end of the line... Just south of Forks Road at Dain City, the CN Port Colborne Spur was shifted a bit westward by a foot and a half to start the westward curve prior to crossing Forks Road and heading west. This is because the old NS&T Welland Division went directly north. But the CN Port Colborne Spur was bent westward and connected in at mile 2.2 of the CN Canal Spur.
If you see asphalt on the north east side of the crossing and going back several feet towards the CN Canal Spur, this whole area including the towing company to the west side of the tracks was the former CN Signals dept office property before the Welland Canal bypass was put in.
Originally before 1985, the line to Robin Hood Multi-foods was serviced from the south, via the CN Elm St. Spur. During the NS&T days the NS&T Welland Division continued up Elm Street to just south of the Sherwood Forest Lane intersection on Elm Street, and the rail line pulled off of Elm Street onto the grass and paralleled Elm Street all the way up to the existing bend of this Harborline at Elm Street bend but stayed northbound all the way to the (CN) TR Canal Subdivision (Spur now), just north of Forks Road in Dain City and northward. This was the NS&T line originally.
At Sherwood Forest Lane, at the north end of the Sherwood Forest yard, there is a lead off of the Harborline into Robin Hood Multifoods.
During the late 1980's, 1990s, up to June 1997, CN 569/564/567 supplied service to the above two mentioned businesses during the mornings, though I do remember 569 crossing Elm Street in Port Colborne during the late afternoons. The train seemed to never have more than 15 cars going to or from the businesses. Trillium handles a lot more cars down the TR Harborline from time to time, especially when it is grain season.
During the early months of 1997, the extension of the TR Harborline (Port Colborne Spur) was put in by several contractors, directed by CN officials. The line was built from the south end of the old 3 track Sherwood Forest yard, down along the west side of the 'weir' as it is known to people in Port Colborne. The line then was joined westward into the old Dunnville Subdivision trackage (Macey Spur) beside the former CN Port Colborne station on the Macey Spur at mile 1.5.
It was on June 24, 1997, that the CN Port Colborne Spur changed ownership from CN to the new shortline, Trillium. The shortline became known as "The Port Colborne Harbour Railway", then just known as Trillium a few years later in 1999. I think it was because they expanded and possibly because the City of Port Colborne may have had some ownership and financial stake in keeping a railway in the city to keep business stable in the city.
The line would now extend from the CN Canal Spur in Dain City to the old CN station in Port Colborne in 1997 and westward to the west end of the old CN Macey yard. Mote that in 1997, CN removed about 3 or 4 tracks of the former Macey yard. These tracks were the shortest tracks in the yard.
The interchange for this new railroad became located at CN's 'WH' yard beside Forks Road in Dain City because Trillium didn't have exclusive rights to the CN Canal Spur or over to CN's Feeder yard, at the time.
The Robin Hood Lead that services Robin Hood Multi-foods runs off of the TR Harborline and ex Port Colborne Spur at Robin Hood Multifoods, at the north end of Sherwood Forest yard. The Lead is .04 miles in length. Please see the photos below for a pictures of the Robin Hood Lead.
Some other notes to be aware of... The Harborline looking West from Elm Street, you will see the track curves a bit. It's because the line was bent around connecting into what I believe was a service track or yard track after the main track was removed westward. So much has changed.
Before the Port Colborne Harbour Railway took over the line, CN serviced the CN Port Colborne Spur Mondays to Saturdays, though I wasn't yet into travelling around chasing CN, I had only been able to see then a few times.
Trackage extension...
The extension of the CN Port Colborne Spur was planned during the Summer and Fall of 1996, when the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority decided it was too costly to upkeep bridge 20's maintenance. At first CN and the SLSA were in a confrontation with each other over the problem that the SLSA had to supply access across the Welland Canal, because the SLSA built the bridge in 1927.
Finally they both decided they would remove bridge 20.
A new route was planned along the west side of the weir; (the old canal prior to 1971). At the end of January 1997 ground was broken south of Main Street West, in Port Colborne.
Bulldozers worked steady clearing the land between Main Street West and Princess Street.
Once the land was prepared, crews began digging beside the old CN station to place a water drainage system in the ground. As this was going on, other crews were ripping up the track that went up to Elm St., from the CN Port Colborne Spur's old section of line that hadn't been used in over 10 years.
These tracks weren't used since the early 1980's when the CN Port Colborne Spur was built from the CN Canal Subdivision, west of Dain City.
It took about a day to fully pull up the rails, fiche plates and ties. The ties and fiche plates were kept at the site for future use between Sherwood Forest and Main Street West.
After the water drainage system was by the CN Station at Princess Street was complete, the track beside the station was bent around from the eastbound direction to the new northward direction where it was then placed all the way up to approximately
75 feet south of Main Street West.
Next, Main Street West had to be dug up causing traffic congestion in both directions. Only half the road was done at one time. Some sort of support bridge was placed underground to support the weight of the train, due to pipes going underground across the weir bridge on Main Street West.
At this time, May had arrived and the line was still not complete. The line continued across Main Street West only to stop about 2 feet over on the North side of the Street.
It wasn't until the middle of June when the last remaining stretch of track still had to be laid. Over the weekend of June 21, 1997 the last part was placed continuing north to the End Of Steel beside Sherwood Forest.
On June 25 at 11:03am the first Trillium train headed south across Forks Road on the TR Harbour Line. It was carrying cars for both Robin Hood Multifoods and Casco. The train was operated by CN.
Once these businesses were serviced the train headed back to 'WH' yard on the CN Canal Spur in Dain City. Shortly after the TR train returned with only 6101 to Port Colborne.
At 2:05pm the first trip south of Robin Hood Multifoods saw the new 1.1 miles of track go into service. A flag man was used to stop traffic at all of the crossings in Port Colborne that day. Probably because the old Dunnville Subdivision (Macey Spur) hadn't had a train on it in six months. Bridge
20 had been out of service for several months and that was the only way to the west side of Port Colborne's shoreline of the Government Spur.
At 2:15pm the diesel arrived at the old CN station on King Street.
Many people took photos of the diesel arriving in Port Colborne. About 15 minutes later the diesel (NYLE 6101) headed West on the old Macey Spur and onto Macey Yard where it stopped and returned to the station.
After lunch (the crew on board hadn't eaten yet), the diesel continued west again down the Macey Spur to the switch leading onto the Government
Spur. They traveled as far as Kent Street on the Government Spur where they had a major dip in the track.... That made the trip short, as they knew of the problem prior to the track test.
During this day, Mr. Ettinger and his employees were building up the ground under the track. That was completed the same day.
That is as far as they went that day with the diesel as the day had approached 5pm.
The following day I was unable to get to Port Colborne...so I don't know what happened! *-).
The track was probably tested down to ADM Milling and Goderich Grain Elevator at Sugarloaf Harbour on the following day. ADM Milling had cars waiting for several weeks, to be delivered to them.
In September 1999, the TR Harborline was extended over the trackage of the old Dunnville Subdivision (Macey Spur) from mile 1.5 westward to Macey yard).
On a visit to Port Colborne in May 2012 I noticed that some equipment was operating at the old Robin Hood plant. I found out in June 2012 that the plant was reopened after Smucker's closed the plant and the plant became Riverland Agriculture Ltd.
In 2009, Trillium delivered about 300 railcars to the plant and the grain has slowly been trucked to other locations for its use. It was I believe 2017 or 1918 that the plant received 600 railcars.
337 photos in gallery
Select a mileage to display
| 0 - 1 | 1 - 2 | 2 - 3 | 3 - 4 | 4 - 5 | 5 - 6 | 6 - 7 |
 Mile 0.00 Looking Northwest (2006) |
 Mile 0.00 Looking East (1999) |
 Mile 0.00 Looking East (2006) |
 Mile 0.00 Looking East (2012) |
 Mile 0.12 Looking Northwest (2012) |
 Mile 0.12 Looking Northwest (2012) |
 Mile 0.12 Looking Northwest (2015) |
 Mile 0.12 Looking Southeast (2012) |
 Mile 0.12 Looking Southeast (2012) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking Northwest (1991) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking Northwest (2011) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking Northwest (2014) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking Northwest (2014) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking Northwest (2015) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking North (2009) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking North (2011) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking North (2014) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking East (2010) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking East (2014) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking South (2001) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking South (2009) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking South (2011) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking South (2014) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking Southwest (2014) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking West (2010) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking West (2012) |
 Mile 0.20 Looking West (2014) |
 Mile 0.22 Looking South (2014) |
 Mile 0.25 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 0.45 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 0.60 Looking South (2012) |
 Mile 0.70 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 0.95 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 0.95 Looking East (2012) |
 Mile 0.95 Looking South (2012) |
 Mile 0.95 Looking West (2012) |
Select a mileage to display
| 0 - 1 | 1 - 2 | 2 - 3 | 3 - 4 | 4 - 5 | 5 - 6 | 6 - 7 |
These photos are of the Robin Hood Lead, located off of the TR Harbourline, near the north end of Port Colborne.
29 photos in gallery
 Looking North (2011) |
 Looking North (2012) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking Northeast (1997) |
 Looking Northeast (2006) |
 Looking Northeast (2006) |
 Looking Northeast (2009) |
 Looking Northeast (2009) |
 Looking Northeast (2009) |
 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Looking Northeast (2012) |
 Looking Northeast (2012) |
 Looking Northeast (2013) |
 Looking Northeast (2013) |
 Looking Northeast (2013) |
 Looking South (2011) |
 Looking South (2013) |
 Looking Southwest (2004) |
 Looking Southwest (2006) |
 Looking Southwest (2009) |
 Looking Southwest (2009) |
 Looking Southwest (2010) |
 Looking Southwest (2011) |
 Looking Southwest (2011) |
 Looking Southwest (2013) |
 Looking Southwest (2013) |
 Looking Southwest (2014) |
These photos are of the TR Macey yard at the west end of Port Colborne.
2 photos in gallery
 Looking East (2003) |
 Looking West (2003) |
This is the lead into the Citric Acid plant near the north end of Port Colborne.
2 photos in gallery
 Looking East (2006) |
 Looking East (2012) |
These photos are of old CN Macey yard. Photos are located near the end of the TR Harbourline in west Port Colborne.
8 photos in gallery
 Looking East (1997) |
 Looking West (1997) |
 Looking East (1996) |
 Looking West (1996) |
 Looking West (1996) |
 Looking West (1996) |
 Looking West (1996) |
 Looking West (1996) |
