Victoria Railway
The Victoria Railway is a historic long Canadian railway that operated in Central Ontario. Construction under Chief Engineer James Ross began in 1874 from Lindsay, Ontario, with authority to build through Victoria County to Haliburton, Ontario, to which it opened on. The line is best known as having been built by a large group of Icelandic immigrants, who found the Kinmount winters too rough, and so they all moved to Gimli, Manitoba. The line became part of the Midland Railway of Canada and then later part of the Canadian National Railways. The line was abandoned completely by the early 1990s.Timeline
- 1871: Formation of the Fenelon Falls Railway Company
- 1872: Renamed as the Lindsay, Fenelon Falls and Ottawa River Railway Company
- 1873: Renamed as the Victoria Railway Company
- 1880: Acquisition by the Midland Railway of Canada
- 1882: Consolidation of the Victoria Railway Company, the Midland Railway of Canada, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway, the Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay Railway, the Toronto and Ottawa Railway and the Grand Junction Railway.
Principal stations
- Lindsay, Ontario
- Cameron, Ontario
- Fenelon Falls, Ontario
- Fell, Ontario
- Burnt River, Ontario
- Watsons, Ontario
- Kinmount, Ontario
- Howland Junction, Ontario
- Gelert, Ontario
- Lochlin, Ontario
- Donald, Ontario
- Haliburton, Ontario
Closure
The line became part of Canadian National Railways in 1923 with its acquisition of the former Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Mixed freight/passenger train service ran until September, 1960. CN applied for abandonment in 1978. The Canadian Transport Commission approved the line's abandonment in 1981, and most of the line being taken up in 1983; a final short section south of Kent St Lindsay was taken up in October 1992. The entire length of the line is now the Haliburton County Rail Trail and the Victoria County Rail Trail public recreational trails.
