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Rule 105 Territory - Not to exceed 15 mph on entire trackage.
This line had some interesting places to see the train or in the NS&T days, the trolley. These locations were at the overpass at Oakdale Avenue and the grade crossing at Glendale Avenuw, where Domtar later opened up..
The TR Townline Spur is part of the old NS&T Welland Division that Went to Welland and Port Colborne. Like all of the other NS&T trackage, the line provided Trolley service.
The NS&T days of this line and during the CN days and later the Trillium days of this line, this line connected in at a spring switch just south of the former factory south of Lincoln Street on the present day and as pass days, the TR Grantham Spur. There used to be a spring switch, but I believe in the early to mid 2000's Trillium replaced this switch with a standard use switch.
After the NS&T was absorbed into CN, the NS&T became the CN Townline Spur. The NS&T Welland Division within the Merritton area of St. Catharines was know as 'the highline'.
CN and Trillium gave regular service on the Townline Spur when required. There were plants such as Domtar, Kimberley Clark and Interlake Paper.
CN and Trillium used to head south on this line with a caboose, so that when they had to back down from Townline Road, they had a basic platform to stand on, to protect the crossings and inform the engineer to slow down. They used a whistle similar to those wooden toy whistles, but made to be legal for railway use.
The first changes I saw happening on this line was Domtar at Glendale Avenue no longer getting rail service. Then a year later, the plant started to be torn down. The plant was on both sides of the Townline Spur.
After crossing Glendale Avenue, the line crossed Merritt Street and headed up the Niagara Escarpment into Thorold to the one paper industry Interlake paper. I think this used to be park of old kimberley Clark in the past. CN 549 used to service this plant until 1999. That's when Trillium took over the switching when required.
Trillium had purchased a caboose from CP for which they used to take to St. Catharines for servicing industries on the TR Townline Spur.
In March or April of 2007, somebody set fire to the Abbott St. bridge located about mile 2.1 on the TR Townline Spur. From that day on, Trillium ceased to operate any movements on this line because all of the industries were south of this damage bridge.
I was informed that railway individual someone rode the last stranded railcar down the hill from Townline Road on it's own, while applying the brakes wheel as required.
I believe it was in March 2008, the TR Townline Spur was given back to CN between the Abbott Street overpass and I believe Merritt Street crossing just south of Glendale Avenue, for CN's disposal. But later, I believe it was all transferred.
It wasn't until August 2010 that I was able to get back to St. Catharines to take a look at this line. I saw that the switch to the TR Townline Spur had been removed since 2008.
With no switch, I moved this page to the abandoned section of trackage, though as of 2010 some rail was still in place on the line within the high grass.
Near the end of November 2011, the bridge over Oakdale Avenue was going to vw taken out. On Tuesday November 29, 2011, it all began. Photos taken at mile 2.29 in 2011 were taken the day before the bridge was taken out.
After the Oakdale Avenue bridge was removed, the area to the north was all excavated of all ROW foundation and lower to Oakdale Avenue street level. It just felt so weird to see. So vast of an area that no longer looked like rails ever went through.
The next area that was cleaned up was the section where Domtar was once. the ROW was all cleaned up. But the area going up the hill heading south from Merritt Street to Townline Road was sill overgrown with high weeds.
222 photos in gallery
Select a mileage to display
| 1 - 2 | 2 - 3 | 3 - 4 | 4 - 5 |
 Mile 1.78 Looking Northwest (2006) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking Northwest (2010) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking North (2014) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking South (1996) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking South (2006) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking South (2010) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking South (2013) |
 Mile 1.78 Looking South (2014) |
 Mile 1.80 Looking North (2006) |
 Mile 1.80 Looking North (2014) |
 Mile 1.80 Looking South (2006) |
 Mile 1.80 Looking South (2013) |
 Mile 1.90 Looking North (2006) |
 Mile 1.90 Looking North (2012) |
 Mile 1.90 Looking South (2006) |
Select a mileage to display
| 1 - 2 | 2 - 3 | 3 - 4 | 4 - 5 |
These are additional photos taken of the demo of the area at the Abbott St. and Oakdale Ave. bridges on the line.
I didn't want to overwhelm the first gorup of photos.
22 photos in gallery
 Mile 2.10 (2011) |
 Mile 2.10 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Mile 2.10 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Mile 2.10 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Mile 2.10 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Mile 2.10 Looking Southeast (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Northwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Northwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Northwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Northwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking North (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking North (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Northeast (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking South (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Southwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Southwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking Southwest (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking West (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking West (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking West (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking West (2011) |
 Mile 2.29 Looking West (2011) |
These photos are of the one stub track that heads off of the TR Townline Spur, along the old Kimberley-Clark paper plant in Thorold. I have never seen a single car on this track.
15 photos in gallery
 Looking North (2012) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking South (1996) |
 Looking North (2013) |
 Looking South (2012) |
 Looking South (2012) |
 Looking North (2012) |
 Looking North (2012) |
 Looking North (2012) |
