The Canada Southern Railway , also known as CSR, was a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in southwestern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. Its name was changed to Canada Southern Railway on December 24, 1869. The 1868 Act specified that it was to be constructed at a broad gauge of , but that requirement was repealed in the 1869 Act, thus allowing construction at the standard gauge of . The railway was leased to the Michigan Central Railroad (MCR) for 99 years in 1883; in 1929 it was subleased to the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

(NYC). Its successors

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

(formed 1968) and Conrail (formed 1976) later exercised control before being sold to CN/CP in 1985.

History

Background

The line was originally conceived by Kenyon Cox (brother of Jacob Dolson Cox, Governor of Ohio), Daniel Drew, Sidney Dillon and John F. Tracy to connect with the Wabash Railroad and establish a railway network extending from

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. The

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

was responsible for the failure of several large railroads in North America, together with their financial backers. In addition to the CSR, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad,

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whi ...

, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and New York and Oswego Midland Railroad were also affected. The CSR's banker, Kenyon, Cox & Co. (of which Drew was general partner) failed, and its bonds were subsequently

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooper ...

ed, although some observers felt that the move was unnecessary. CSR subsequently became insolvent, as it was unable to redeem the bonds. Within two years, it was taken over by the railroad magnate

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

at essentially no cost other than taking on the guarantee of them. When Cornelius died in 1877, his son,

William Henry Vanderbilt William Henry Vanderbilt (May 8, 1821 – December 8, 1885) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to his fortune and a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family. Vanderbi ...

, became head of the Vanderbilt railroad empire. The younger Vanderbilt took steps to separate the various railroad properties he controlled. On 1 January 1883, the

(NYC) was able to lease the CSR to another Vanderbilt railroad company, the Michigan Central Railroad (MCR), on a 21-year renewable term. Vanderbilt, who owned all three companies, ensured that each one operated independently, through its own autonomous president and board of directors. In 1929, MCR subleased CSR to NYC, its parent company.

Development of the line

The company was originally authorized to construct a railway line between

Fort Erie Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is directly across the river from Buffalo, New York, and is the site of Old Fort Erie which played a prominent role in the War of 1812. Fort Erie is one of Ni ...

and

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

(

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

), with a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

Amherstburg Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town is ...

. A second branch line was authorized in 1869 between St. Thomas and Sombra the following year. Other significant subsequent legislation included: There was an attempt in 1883 to amalgamate the CSR with the

Credit Valley Railway The Credit Valley Railway was a railway located in Ontario, Canada from Toronto to St. Thomas. Chartered in 1871 by Ontario railway magnate George Laidlaw, it operated as an independent company until 1883 when it was leased by the Ontario and Que ...

, which was dropped when the CVR opted to merge with the Ontario and Quebec Railway instead.

Corporate headquarters

CSR's headquarters were located in St. Thomas, Ontario. The site was chosen because St Thomas was roughly equal-distance between

and Fort Erie, Ontario and the city offered a $25,000 bonus to the railroad company as an incentive to build within city limits. CSR's main building, the

Canada Southern Railway Station The Canada Southern Railway Station (CASO) is a former railway station in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. The station was built by the Canada Southern Railway (CSR) in 1873 as both a railway station and its corporate headquarters.Ontario Heritage ...

, included a passenger station and dining room on the ground floor with the railway's head offices on the upper floor. The extremely long, narrow building was based on Italianate architecture and is the only known train station in Canada to embody this style. The station was the design of Canadian architect Edgar Berryman (1839-1905).

Car shops and locomotive manufacturing

A large car shop, located in the yard, facilitated the manufacture of cars and allowed repairs to be made to locomotives. Steam locomotives were also manufactured for CSR in the car shop, beginning in 1882 and closed sometime after 1905. Types of locomotives made included: * B-82b Class - Type 0-6-0 * B-82d Class - Type 0-6-0 * B-84 Class - Type 0-6-0 * B-84b Class - Type 0-6-0 * F-81c Class - Type 4-6-0 * F-82f Class - Type 4-6-0 * F-82 Class - Type 4-6-0 * F-82a Class - Type 4-6-0 * G-80e Class - Type 2-8-0 Initially all locomotives were built for use by CASO, but some ended their career with the

Later years

The CSR was never completely controlled by the New York Central (later part of

) or the Michigan Central, as the two together held only about 107,000 of the 150,000 shares outstanding, and the rest were publicly held. The shareholders had received

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-i ...

s in every year from 1887, and an extraordinary dividend in 1976 triggered a legal dispute that was not resolved until 1983. On April 30, 1985, the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway jointly purchased the former CASO from Conrail in order to acquire the

Michigan Central Railway Tunnel The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel is a railroad tunnel under the Detroit River connecting Detroit, Michigan, in the United States with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. The U.S. entrance is south of Porter and Vermont streets near Rosa Parks Bouleva ...

under the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detro ...

and the

Michigan Central Railway Bridge The Michigan Central Railway Bridge is an out-of-service steel arch bridge spanning the Niagara Gorge between Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York. The bridge is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway, which purchased the single track str ...

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

. Much of the CASO has been downgraded, abandoned or removed by CN and CP over the years. Operations through Niagara Falls (and over the MCRR bridge) were discontinued with that portion of the line through the city removed in 2001. Unlike the rest of the line, however, the Detroit River tunnel is a key part of freight movements across the Canada-US border and still sees a good number of mainline trains. The CASO rarely operated its own

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

after acquisition, and its reporting mark was abolished in 1977.

Notes

References

External links

* *
St Thomas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canada Southern Railway Railroads transferred to Conrail Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiaries Canadian National Railway subsidiaries Defunct New York (state) railroads Defunct Michigan railroads Defunct Ontario railways Railroads controlled by the Vanderbilt family Defunct locomotive manufacturers of Canada Rail transport in Windsor, Ontario History of rail transport in Essex County, Ontario Rail transport in Chatham-Kent History of rail transport in Elgin County Rail transport in St. Thomas, Ontario History of rail transport in Oxford County, Ontario Rail transport in Norfolk County, Ontario History of Norfolk County, Ontario Haldimand County History of rail transport in the Regional Municipality of Niagara Rail transport in Welland Transport in Fort Erie, Ontario Standard gauge railways in Canada