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Canada Southern Railway Information
This is a collection of information
about or mentioning
the Canada Southern Railway.
The Canada Southern mainline ran through southern Ontario
from Niagara Falls to Windsor (and Detroit),
with branches to Fort Erie, Niagara On The Lake, Chippawa,
Leamington, Amherstburg, Courtright, Petrolia and Edy's Mills.
(See Canada Southern Places.)
Earlier railroads became part of the Canada Southern,
and it in turn became part of others.
A variety of names were involved.
- The Erie & Ontario Railroad (E&O)
was built between Niagara-On-The-Lake and Chippawa in 1854.
- The Fort Erie Railway Company (FER)
running between Fort Erie and Chippawa
was incorporated in 1857.
- The FER bought the E&O in 1863,
and the merged line was called
the Erie & Niagara (E&N).
- The Erie & Niagara Extension Railway (E&NER)
was incorporated in 1868
to build from Fort Erie through St. Thomas
to either Sandwich or Windsor.
It was granted all the assets and none of the debts of the E&N.
- Depending on the source, either:
- The E&NER was renamed the
Canada Southern Railway (CSR) in 1869,
or
- The Canada Southern bought the E&N in 1872
(if the E&NER was given the E&N in 1868
then renamed the CSR in 1869,
that would involve buying part of itself).
The CSR was allowed to use the 4' 8 1/2" Stephenson Gauge
instead of the standard 5' 6" Provincial Gauge,
and to include a branch to the St. Clair River.
- Some earlier proposals used names like
the Niagara and Detroit Rivers Railroad.
- It is sometimes referred to as
the Southern Counties Railway
or just the Southern Railway.
- For most of its life the Canada Southern was operated
as the Canada Division or Canadian Division
by the Michigan Central Railway (MCR),
which was owned by the New York Central (NYC).
Most equipment used on it was lettered for the NYC
but some was CSR or CS and some was MCR.
- The NYC later became part of Penn Central (PC),
then Conrail (CR).
- More recently the Canada Southern was bought by
Canadian National Railway (CNR or just CN)
and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR or CP).
CN and CP have abandoned much of their CaSo or CASO Divisions.
(It's speculated they bought it mostly not because they wanted it,
but because they didn't want competition.)
- A few years ago the CPR bought CN's share of
the Detroit River Tunnel (DRT),
and now appears likely to replace it.
- The Canada Southern also owned part of the
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo (TH&B),
and owned a subsidiary in the US.
- Recently part of the St. Thomas trackage
has run trains of the
St. Thomas Central,
operated by the
Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society
using the St. Thomas Station, now owned by
The "On Track" Group,
using an ex-ETR (Essex terminal Railway) 0-6-0 #9.
Much of the information here involves one of those other railroads,
but only items directly related to the Canada Southern
or equipment operated on it will be included.
This information is from complete, and
additional information, corrections or updates
are welcome.
Contact information is in
csbiblio/addresss.htm.
Contents - Canada Southern
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(C) Copyright Ian McIntosh
2001, 2002, 2003, 2013.
You may copy for your own personal use.
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