page_title: Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway
section_title: Building the line
hierarchical_section_title: Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway / History / Building the line
caption_attribution_description: English: The rough terrain of the Canadian Shield is evident in this photo of the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway being built through the area of today's Algonquin Park. Note the lack of vegetation in what is today completely covered by forest.
context_page_description: The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, or OA&PS, is a historic railway that operated in central and eastern Ontario, Canada from 1897 until 1959. It was, for a time, the busiest railway route in Canada, carrying both timber and wood products from today's Algonquin Provincial Park areas, as well as up to 40% of the grain traffic from the Canadian west from Depot Harbour at Parry Sound through to the St. Lawrence River valley.
  The railway was built by John Rudolphus Booth, a 19th-century Canadian lumber baron and entrepreneur, who owned considerable timber rights in the Algonquin area as well as a major sawmill in downtown Ottawa. To open markets for the mill's products he purchased Donald Macdonald's lines and formed the Canada Atlantic Railway from Ottawa to Vermont. To supply the mills, the OA&PS shipped timber in from across central Ontario. Together, the OA&PS and CAR allowed through shipment from the Canadian west to the US eastern seaboard areas. The lines were amalgamated under the CAR marque in 1899, and sold to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1905.
  Use of the OA&PS fell dramatically with the rapid stripping of most of the useful timber from the Algonquin area.
context_section_description: Construction of the eastern sections began northward out of Ottawa in September 1892, reaching Arnprior in May 1893, and opened on 13 September 1893. When the OA&PS line started north out of town it had to cross the CPR's Brockville and Ottawa Railway (B&O) line, and on 20 September 1893 it was reported that crews from the two lines had come to blows, although later reports downplay the action.
  In order to complete the junction, CPR demanded that the OA&PS lay 1,700 feet of rail on the far side of the crossing, so their trains could be run clear of the CPR line. To aid this, the OA&PS men laid their lines right up to the B&O so they could hand-carry the rails the short distance to the far side of the road. As the crossing was not operational, they were not legally allowed to be operating rails on CP land, so the CPR men were ordered to tear it up, forcing the OA&PS crew to carry the rails from further away. The OA&PS re-laid their line again, with reports that this caused a fight.
  The CPR's Atlantic & North-West beat the OA&PS to Eganville, which ran a charter to the town on 30 December 1892 and opened regular service the next month. The OA&PS had considered running to Eganville, but the presence of the A&NW made such a detour redundant and the town had decided against paying both railways a bonus, giving their bonus to the "winner" alone. The line reached its closest approach to Eganville, about one mile to the southwest, at the end of 1893.
  By this point the two railways had been in a court battle over the meaning of the agreement about land use rights in a small strip of land near Killaloe, which would have required the CPR to run for a distance over lands deeded to the OA&PS. Booth refused this, and the courts eventually agreed with him. The A&NW was now locked out of the direct approach through the Algonquin area and would be forced along a more northerly route, closer to their Brockville & Ottawa mainline. CPR gave up, and the A&NW line ended in Eganville.
  West of Eganville the OA&PS began a steady climb through a series of rolling hills as it progressed through the Algonquin Highlands. Many trestles and bridges were required, which substantially increased the time and cost of construction. By the end of 1896 the railway was complete when it joined up with the track laid by the PSCR at the town of Scotia. The first train from Ottawa through to Depot Harbor ran with officials on 21 December 1896 The first paid trip from Parry Sound to Ottawa was William Taylor, his wife and his daughter.
caption: The rough terrain of the Canadian Shield is evident in this photo of the OA&PS being built through the area of today's Algonquin Park. Note the lack of vegetation in what is today completely covered by dense boreal forest.
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