Orangeville-Brampton Railway (OBRY)

[Towered]

Hey, if the Libs win the next election and proceed to lay fresh track where it was just ripped up, I'm all for it!

And uh, get that Collingwood connection going too, while you're at it.

 

[Krypto98]

Hey, if the Libs win the next election and proceed to lay fresh track where it was just ripped up, I'm all for it!

And uh, get that Collingwood connection going too, while you're at it.

Idk how fast you could get it, a 1970s timetable shows it was 30 mph

 

[SaugeenJunction]

The 1967 and 1970 CP timetables show 1 hour and 18 minutes from Toronto Union to Orangeville using an RDC. I think you could get that down a bit using modern DMUs and some targeted banked curves.

For reference, Google Maps estimates 1h10mins to 2 hours for this trip by car on a weekday morning, between Orangeville and Union. The consistency of a train trip would be quite nice, and the timing from the 1970s is competitive with car travel to downtown today.

 

[Allandale25]

 

[lenaitch]

Of course the Eaton's catalogue has its own FB page!

 

[Krypto98]

The 1967 and 1970 CP timetables show 1 hour and 18 minutes from Toronto Union to Orangeville using an RDC. I think you could get that down a bit using modern DMUs and some targeted banked curves.

View attachment 529326

View attachment 529327

For reference, Google Maps estimates 1h10mins to 2 hours for this trip by car on a weekday morning, between Orangeville and Union. The consistency of a train trip would be quite nice, and the timing from the 1970s is competitive with car travel to downtown today.

View attachment 529328

The employee timetables I have from 1977 have it as 35 mph maximum, I'm wondering if it was faster before. If you could get 50mph track it could be decently competitive with driving.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

View attachment 529610View attachment 529611View attachment 529612View attachment 529613

The employee timetables I have from 1977 have it as 35 mph maximum, I'm wondering if it was faster before. If you could get 50mph track it could be decently competitive with driving.

Awesome historical docs!

The last passenger train to Orangeville (and Owen Sound) was November 1st, 1970. I assume tracks speeds were allowed to degrade significantly after that, which aligns with your slower timetables compared to the ‘67 and ‘70 ones.

 

[crs1026]

^I'm not near a scanner to capture an image, but a. 1968 ETT shows a zone speed of 70 mph with a generic 45mph restriction on curves, and some specific 35 and 45 PSO's at Cataract and the Forks.

- Paul

 

[SaugeenJunction]

^I'm not near a scanner to capture an image, but a. 1968 ETT shows a zone speed of 70 mph with a generic 45mph restriction on curves, and some specific 35 and 45 PSO's at Cataract and the Forks.

- Paul

Awesome intel. Those are not bad speeds compared to what we’ve seen in the modern era.

 

[History fan]

The Chinguacousy Road crossing has been paved over.

(Sorry if the pictures are blurry, it was very foggy and misty when I took these pictures)

Pictures of the sidewalk paved over

Pictures of the road paved over

And last but not least, here's a picture of where one of the crossing signals used to stand, now dug up.

 

[Wm Perkins Bull]

On the bright side, the line being ripped out means there is no interference with track reconstruction, making it much faster to do major rebuilds of the track. Orangeville is a viable start of a major GO bus extension up Highway 10 with a long term goal of Owen Sound

 

[CapitalSeven]

Also a letter to the editor in the Orangeville Citizen about the OBRY from a resident.

A Fool’s Bargain – two years later….​

The letter mentions an abandoned right of way between Bolton and Orangeville that could be used as an alternative. Even using the map in Lines of Country, I was unable to find any trace of the majority of the ROW in Google or Bing maps. Its unusal for a ROW in farm country to disappear so completely. It seems to have branched off south of the proposed Bolton GO.

 

[CapitalSeven]

Also a letter to the editor in the Orangeville Citizen about the OBRY from a resident.

A Fool’s Bargain – two years later….​

The letter mentions an abandoned right of way between Bolton and Orangeville that could be used as an alternative. Even using the map in Lines of Country, I was unable to find any trace of the majority of the ROW in Google or Bing maps. It's unusal for a ROW in farm country to disappear so completely. It seems to have branched off south of the proposed Bolton GO.

 

[Allandale25]

The letter mentions an abandoned right of way between Bolton and Orangeville that could be used as an alternative. Even using the map in Lines of Country, I was unable to find any trace of the majority of the ROW in Google or Bing maps. Its unusal for a ROW in farm country to disappear so completely. It seems to have branched off south of the proposed Bolton GO.

There's the Ontario Railway Map that Paul Delamere created. It's a Google Earth layer. Ever seen it? It's offline by the Waybackmachine captured it and the link to download the .KMZ file.

 

[Northern Light]

The letter mentions an abandoned right of way between Bolton and Orangeville that could be used as an alternative. Even using the map in Lines of Country, I was unable to find any trace of the majority of the ROW in Google or Bing maps. It's unusal for a ROW in farm country to disappear so completely. It seems to have branched off south of the proposed Bolton GO.

1955 passenger railway map for Ontario shows these ROWs:

ArcGIS Web Application

walkitect.maps.arcgis.com

There's also this map of abandoned rail corridors:

Abandoned & Out of Service Railroad Lines Map

An interactive, continuously updated map of abandoned and out-of-service historical railroad lines and corridors across the entire world.

www.frrandp.com