Essex Terminal Railway (often referred to as ETR) is a Canadian shortline terminal railroad, running from the City of

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

through LaSalle, to

Amherstburg, Ontario 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 i ...

, for a distance of approximately . ETR has direct connections to

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

and

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

. ETR is owned by Essex Morterm Holdings. Founded in 1902, it is one of the oldest existing railways in Canada .

History

The railway was founded in 1902 as a western connection of the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

(now

) to factories in the east end of Windsor. Construction of the line took place between 1902 and 1918. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the trains hauled military and industrial equipment (e.g. Bren Gun carriers, and trucks) from Ford Windsor and other industries, to interchanges with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways.

New York Central 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 ...

Pere Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Igna ...

, and Wabash Railways. Its four-stall engine house and main offices are located on Lincoln Road. Due to heavy development along much of the mainline and almost 40

level crossings A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term als ...

along ETR's entire route, trains often operate at around 10 mph. The approach to River Canard and Long Marsh bridges is limited to 5 mph. As a part of the urban renewal of Windsor, the railway sold several kilometers of spur line in central Windsor to the City of Windsor and various developers in 1998, allowing new homes and businesses to be built along the former rail. The main line was generally unchanged however ETR became more dependent on down river traffic and several upgrades were made. In September 2002, ETR celebrated its 100th anniversary and brought its newly restored 1923 Number 9

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrang ...

locomotive down from St. Thomas, Ontario. The company was loaned several 1930s CPR and CN passenger cars to give rides to nearby residents that celebrated with the company. Number 9 currently operates out of

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...

. A week after the centennial celebration, the ETR had its first serious derailment in decades, caused by abnormally heavy rains. Cars carrying

soybeans The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu ...

were involved. There were no injuries, the tracks were repaired and two nearby grade crossings repaved. In early 2013, a connection was made so that ETR could provide service to the Hiram Walkers tank farm just west of the

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

Walkerville Station. Ex-CN rail track is accessed (stopping short of George Ave.) but is not connected to the VIA mainline. It is now the only active track to cross Walker Rd near Riverside Dr, after the VIA station tracks were terminated east of Walker. In 2017, ETR purchased the former

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

plant property in south Walkerville and renovated into a automotive logistics yard for new

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

vehicles that await shipment. The site is run under the name MotiPark, and is owned by Essex Morterm Holdings. As of 2020, the ETR services 9 customers, including ADM and Plains Midsteam, and often handles hundreds of railcars every day. Ojibway yard is used as a central location for switching operations and car storage, with other smaller storage yards located in both west and east Windsor.

Diageo Diageo plc () is a multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweichow Moutai of China in 201 ...

and the former

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

/General Chemical property, which also used for railcar storage, is located in Amherstburg at the southern end of the line.

ETR locomotives and rolling stock

The ETR currently has 4 units on the roster. They are 104 (ex-ICG SW14), 105 (GMD SW9), 107 (EMD SW1500) and 108 (GMD GP9) ETR has several pieces of rolling stock used for storage; a covered hopper and a boxcar are on-trucks but stationary at the engine facility on Lincoln Rd. They had two ex-CP wide vision cabooses which have been sold to Waterloo Central Railroad and were renumbered from ETR 1610 to WCRX 1040 and ETR 1600 to WCRX 1042. The cabooses departed August 14 for London. They are routed to Sarnia according to a source. Branchline Magazine reports one is supposed to be Waterloo bound while the other is Sarnia bound. The ETR now no longer has cabooses on the roster.

References

External links

ETR official website

Southwest Ontario Train at TrainWeb.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Essex Terminal Railway Rail transport in Essex County, Ontario Rail transport in Windsor, Ontario Ontario railways Railway lines opened in 1902 1902 establishments in Ontario