The

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

Alderdale Subdivision was a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line in Northeastern

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It originally opened in 1915 as a part of the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canada, Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonto ...

's transcontinental mainline. It connected Brent in the east with

Capreol Capreol ( ) is a community in the Ontario city of Greater Sudbury. Situated on the Vermilion River (35 mins north of the downtown core), Capreol is the city's northernmost populated area. From 1918 to 2000, Capreol existed as an independent to ...

in the west. At Capreol it formed the eastern component of an east-west-south wye junction. The line's

divisional point In Canada and also in the United States, a divisional point (or division point) is a local operational headquarters for a railway. Divisional points are significant in railway maintenance of way operations. Especially historically, they could be the ...

was at Alderdale.

History

Origin

The line originated as a part of the

(CNoR) mainline, which was pushing eastward from the

Prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

in an effort to connect its network to

Montréal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. The segment from Capreol to North Bay opened to passenger traffic in 1915. After the Canadian Northern's amalgamation with other railways, resulting in the Canadian National Railway (CN), the line was used as CN's most direct route between

Québec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

and the

, paralleling the competing CP North Bay Subdivision to the north along its eastern stretch and the CP Cartier Subdivision to the south along its western. As part of CN's reorganization of the Canadian Northern lines, the stretch from Brent to Capreol became known as the Alderdale Subdivision and was part of the Capreol Division, Northern Ontario District.

Flagship route

Throughout the mid-20th century, the subdivision formed part of the route for CN's flagship

transcontinental Transcontinental may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel'' * TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary ...

passenger trains, such as the ''Continental'' and ''

Super Continental The ''Super Continental'' was a transcontinental Canadian passenger train operated by the Canadian National Railway from 1955 until 1977, when Via Rail took over the train and ran it until it was cancelled in 1981. Service was restored in 1985 ...

''. Its main use, however, was as a

freight railway Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

, with large amounts of timber from the mills at Kiosk, Fossmill, and Skead, as well as ore from Crerar, being transported along the line. Local passenger services declined and were discontinued by CN in the 1960s, but the ''Super Continental'' continued despite repeated applications by CN to the Canadian Transport Commission to end it. In 1977,

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

was formed as a

Crown corporation Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

under the Canadian federal government and immediately assumed control of CP's passenger service, while also slowly integrating CN services. This resulted in the ex-CP ''

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

'' from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

as the primary transcontinental passenger service and CN's ''Super Continental'' as the secondary one. By 1979, services had been reorganized such that the ''Canadian'' was routed along the CP North Bay Subdivision between

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...

and North Bay, and the ''Super Continental'' routed along the modern-day route of the ''Canadian'' south to Toronto from Sudbury along CN tracks, with the Alderdale Subdivision seeing no passenger service along most of its length. However, in 1980, a short stretch of the Alderdale Subdivision near North Bay was used by the

Ontario Northland Railway The Ontario Northland Railway is a Canadian railway operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a Crown agency (Ontario), provincial Crown agency of the government of Ontario. Originally built to develop the Lake Timiskaming ...

's ''

Northlander The ''Northlander'' was a passenger train operated by the provincially-owned Ontario Northland Railway in southern and northeastern Ontario, Canada. In 2012, rail service was discontinued and replaced with express bus service. Rail service will ...

'' passenger train as a way to connect Ontario Northland's Temagami Subdivision with Toronto in the south via the Huntsville Subdivision (which later became part of the Newmarket Subdivision and then the Bala Subdivision after successive reorganizations of the CN system).

Pépin's Axe and end of passenger service

In 1981, Via Rail experienced its first wave of significant cuts, sometimes called "Pépin's Axe" in an evocation of the 1960s

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, under federal Transport Minister Jean-Luc Pépin (a member of

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his no ...

's Liberal cabinet), resulting in the cancellation of the ''Super Continental'' and making restoration of service along the Alderdale Subdivision increasingly unlikely. This resulted in protests and a political backlash, and after the 1984 election which resulted in the victory of

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studi ...

's Progressive Conservatives, the ''Super Continental'' was partially reinstated, but only between Winnipeg and Vancouver. CN North Bay 1925

In 1986, ownership of CN's passenger station in North Bay was transferred to

. At the time, the station saw traffic from Ontario Northland's daytime ''

'' running Sunday to Friday, unnamed Via Rail local trains 120 and 123 which served small communities on Fridays and Sundays between Toronto and North Bay, and an overnight ''Northland''

sleeper train The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the main American innovator and owner of sleeper cars in the lat ...

which ran daily from Toronto to Hearst. In 1990, passenger services through North Bay were cancelled by Via Rail after severe cuts to its funding by the Canadian federal government. With abandonment of services along the CN line, Ontario Northland built a new intermodal station in 1996 along its own track and relocated its services there.

Freight decline

Meanwhile, freight traffic along the line had steeply declined, as available timber in the area had been depleted and several of the

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s had closed. Around 1987–88, the Alderdale Subdivision was abolished as a designation by CN, with the section from Brent to Nipissing combined with the Beachburg Subdivision and the section from Nipissing to Capreol combined with the Newmarket Subdivision. This situation would be short-lived, however, as in 1995 CN applied to abandon the Beachburg Subdivision west of Pembroke, which included the Beachburg portion of the former Alderdale Subdivision. The application was approved by the

Canadian Transportation Agency The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA; , OTC) is the independent, quasi-judicial tribunal of the Government of Canada that makes decisions relating to federally-regulated modes of transportation ( air, rail and marine). Its headquarters ar ...

in 1996 and the tracks were removed shortly after. A number of existing communities along the line were devastated, such as

Kiosk Historically, a kiosk () was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Iran, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist ...

, where residents were forced to leave and their houses were demolished by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as they fell within the boundaries of

Algonquin Provincial Park Algonquin Provincial Park is an Ontario Ontario Parks, provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River, mostly within the Nipissing, Unorganized, South Part, Ontario, Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established i ...

Abandonment and redevelopment

By the early 2000s, a local community group, Rainbow Routes, was organized to promote the conversion of the section from Capreol to North Bay to a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

. This was projected to occur in 2001, with a CN Rail transfer of ownership of the disused

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

to the Trans Canada Trail Foundation. However, by 2011, development of the trail had not occurred and was still being pursued by Rainbow Routes. In 2002,

Vic Fedeli Victor Anthony Fedeli (born August 8, 1956) is a Canadian politician who has been the Ontario minister of economic development, job creation and trade since 2019 and chair of Cabinet since 2018. He is the member of Provincial Parliament (MP ...

was elected Mayor of North Bay. As mayor, he engaged in an aggressive redevelopment policy which saw much of the old CN rail infrastructure dismantled after the

was sold to the city for a symbolic $1 sum, including the demolition of many of the rail-over-road

trestle bridge A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames usually carrying a railroad line. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a st ...

s around the city in order to widen roads and eliminate "traffic bottlenecks". A development boom ensued, with much of the old railway lands undergoing

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

. As a result, a large number of single-family detached suburban homes were constructed in neighbourhoods like Pinewood, with some higher-density, more affordable housing also being constructed in other areas.