page_title: Lake Simcoe Junction Railway
section_title: Competition, realignment
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Simcoe Junction Railway / History / Competition, realignment
caption_attribution_description: English: Sutton Radial Station
context_page_description: The Lake Simcoe Junction Railway was a short-line narrow gauge railway in Ontario just north of Toronto. It branched off the Toronto and Nipissing Railway at Stouffville and ran 42 kilometres north to the town of Sutton and then beyond to the shore of Lake Simcoe where a large wharf was built. The presence of the railway helped the town of Jackson's Point form on the lakeside. The line serviced timber and agricultural shipping, but was more widely used for shipping ice cut from the lake in the winter, and allowing weekend day trips to the lake in the summer.
  The arrival of the Toronto and York Radial Railway at Sutton in 1908 took most of the summertime passenger business away, and the introduction of refrigeration did the same for the wintertime ice business. Service ended to the Point in September 1927 and the rails were lifted. Service below Sutton continued through a connection to the standard gauge Canadian Northern Railway, 4 km west of the town of Zephyr. It saw some use during the construction of Maple Leaf Gardens three years later, when a spur line was built to a gravel pit a short distance south of Sutton.
context_section_description: The Toronto and York Radial Railway (Metropolitan line) ran a radial tram service along Yonge Street from Toronto reaching Sutton in 1906. This provided service to Toronto in about 2½ hours, far faster than the T&N, causing the LSJR's passenger service to disappear overnight. The arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) at Pefferlaw only a short distance to the east the same year did the same to much of the secondary agricultural shipping business. The introduction of home refrigeration eliminated the ice shipping business over time. Local service continued, but the wharf on the lake was abandoned on 24 September 1927, and the lines between there and Sutton were lifted in 1929. Mixed passenger/freight service ended on 19 May 1928.
  The new CNoR line ran across the LSJR almost exactly at its midpoint, where the two lines paralleled each other for some distance near the town of Mount Albert. In 1928 the LSJR was connected to the CNoR about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the town of Zephyr, just north of Mount Albert. A short connection running east off the original LSJR alignment connected to the CNoR in a large wye known as Zephyr Junction. Toronto access was now provided by the CNoR line. The section south from Zephyr Junction to Ballantrae was lifted between the 12th and 25 October 1928, the rest of the original alignment from Ballantrae to Stouffville operated as a spur until it was lifted in 1930.
  A spur off the remaining northern section of the line was opened to a gravel yard near Sutton, which saw significant use during the construction of Maple Leaf Gardens, starting in 1931.
caption: The LSJR could not compete with the high-speed service provided by the Radial Railway's electric cars.
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