In the beginning there were lots of trains, going to lots of places, then things started to change. The "local" no longer stopped at Sand Point. The short walk to the station became a 5 mile drive to the CPR station in Arnprior.
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| Trains and tracks going everywhere... |
The improvements to The King's Highway meant shorter travel times between Arnprior and Ottawa, resulting in fewer passengers taking the train. Soon the "local" was history. This cycle was happening all over the Dominion at an ever faster pace. Not only were the passenger trains abandoned, so were the freight services, ultimately the tracks themselves were removed. What to do with unused strips of land became the next question.
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| Cars, trucks & asphalt replaced coaches, box cars & rails, road maps replaced timetables... |
In some cases the railways sold the ROW (right of way) to the adjacent landowners or to the county in which the line ran through. In the mid-sixties another phenomenon happened in the American Midwest, people started walking, snowshoeing or skiing down these unused ROWs. This was a time before dirt bikes, ATVs or snowmobiles became popular. By the mid-seventies the environment and conservation movement gained more predominance in the hearts and minds of the general public. The idea of land banking these ROWs for possible future use as transportation corridors appealed to a lot of folks. Using these ROWs as recreational trails in the interim was even more appealing, the "Rail to Trails" movement was born.
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| CPR's Chalk River sub being lifted, this was the line that ran directly in front our home in Sand Point, ON. Photo: Mike Britt |
Although I did miss the opportunity to ride many trains because of my age and the money to do so, I did get to ride to places over lines that are not around to do so today. Victoria, Kelowna, Waterways, Red Deer, Davidson, Fort Qu'Appelle, Hadishville, Lynn Lake, Kakabeka Falls, St Thomas, Vankleek Hill, Granby, Chicoutimi, Fredericton, Chipman, Clarksville, Liverpool, Gaff Topsail and Argentia are a few of the place I was able to take a train to that one can't today.
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| CN Extra 6112 at Fort Qu'Appelle,SK on a sunny fall day in 1976. The tracks remain but the passenger service is long gone. |
I have been cycling since I was six years old. I loved my bike because it was a means to explore worlds even farther from home. Finding railway facilities or going fishing was always high on the list when biking. In my mind turning abandon railway lines into bike trails was a match made in heaven!
In 1967, the 3 speed bike was "the dream bike" if one was interested in touring. Single speed bikes were fine around town but did not cut it out on the road. This of course is in the mind of a 12 year old boy earning the princely sum of 8 to 10 dollars a week delivering papers, mowing lawns, caddieing and babysitting. By the age of fourteen I had the CCM three speed bike I wanted, thank-you Santa! The money I saved for the bike now was put towards bike accessories such as carriers, lights, tools and towards slide film for my Kodak "Instamatic" camera.
