The Ottawa Central Railway was a Canadian short-line railroad subsidiary of the

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 ...

. The headquarters were at the Walkley Yard, 3141 Albion Road South,

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

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 Ca ...

, Canada. The OCRR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the

Quebec Railway Corporation Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

(QCR). It consisted of former CN subdivisions, and operated between

Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec Coteau-du-Lac is a small city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality. The name of the town comes from the French word ''Coteau'' which meant "s ...

, at an interchange with the CN Montreal-Toronto main line, to Ottawa and

Pembroke, Ontario Pembroke is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario at the confluence of the Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Pembroke is the location of the administrative headquarters of Renfrew County, though the city itself is po ...

. The OCRR started operations on December 13, 1998, and two years later, QRC acquired the assets of Ontario L'Orignal Railway from

RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it ...

. The OCRR consisted of of track and spurs: of main line between Ottawa and Pembroke, and of the former Ontario L’Orignal Railway (OLO) between

Glen Robertson Glen Charles Robertson (born 1959) is an American politician who served two terms as mayor of Lubbock, from May 19, 2012 until May 17, 2016. Robertson was an unsuccessful Republican candidate in the runoff election held on May 24, 2016, for ...

and Hawkesbury. It also had of

running rights Railway company, Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a Main line (railway), main lin ...

between Ottawa and Coteau on track owned by

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 ...

. Major commodities carried by the OCRR included newsprint, salt, medium-density fibreboard, linerboard, forest products, pulp, gasoline, lumber and board, wire rod, billets and scrap.

CN purchase

On November 3, 2008,

announced that it was purchasing the OCRR and its sister companies Chemin de fer de la Matapédia et du Golfe (CFMG),

Compagnie de gestion de Matane Compagnie de gestion de Matane Inc. (COGEMA) is a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway (CN) operating a dedicated railcar ferry service in Quebec between Matane and Baie-Comeau; additionally it provides occasional railcar ferry service to i ...

(COGEMA), and the

New Brunswick East Coast Railway The New Brunswick East Coast Railway was a railway that operated in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It included of track of which were mainline between Campbellton and Pacific Junction near Moncton. Important spurs connected Dalhou ...

(NBEC) for $49.8 million (CAD) from the Quebec Railway Corporation. The CN announcement indicated that the reacquired rail lines will be integrated back into the CN network with no significant changes, other than introducing CN locomotives and rolling stock to train operations. CN also mentioned investing significant capital upgrades in the rail network for outstanding maintenance.

References

External links

Ottawa Central Railway (OCRR)

Chemins de fer du Québec
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ottawa Central Railway Ontario railways Canadian National Railway subsidiaries Railway companies established in 1998 Quebec railways Companies based in Ottawa Rail transport in Ottawa