Canadian Railroads > Early days on the Huron Central, 1997

In 1997, the Genesee & Wyoming took over the CP's Sault Ste.Marie to Sudbury ON line as the Huron Central. This line connected with the Wisconsin Central and the Algoma Central at Sault Ste.Marie.

Some of the first Huron Central lettered locomotives were a pair of GP9's shown switching at Sault Ste.Marie ON while a leased CP RS-18 coupled to an ex-SP SD45 is receiving attention on the shop track in 1997. 

G&W has twice asked for a subsidy to continue to operate this line, or abandon. Time will tell.

I have read the reports that Huron Central will cease operation of their Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury line at the end of this year.
Is that correct or inaccurate?

renf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have read the reports that Huron Central will
> cease operation of their Sault Ste. Marie to
> Sudbury line at the end of this year.
> Is that correct or inaccurate?

That is what I heard too.

Just about everything around the Huron Central has  changed hands, as in the the Soo Line becoming Wisconsin Central and finally CN and the Algoma Central becoming CN also.

On line businesses have either changed hands or closed down. The pulp mills of northern Ontario have had a rough time over the last two decades.

Canada's rail line abandonment process allows for a quicker process if a short line or regional has already tried to profitably run a rail line where the original railway could not. 
Different short line operators such as Cando Contracting will sometimes take over and operate the line, but equally they can scrap it too.

This is the second time in recent years that G&W has threatened to close the line. Unless someone comes up with a suggestion to continue operating, I suspect it will happen.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/19 07:56 by eminence_grise.

So does the last photo mean that Rapido can make an SP SD45 to match their RS-18 project?

https://rapidotrains.com/ho-mlw-rs18

...ok, maybe not.

Does this line haul any nickel-copper ore from the Eagle mine near Republic, Michigan? I am thinking that this ore would be hauled to Sudbury for smelting.

MThopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does this line haul any nickel-copper ore from the
> Eagle mine near Republic, Michigan? I am thinking
> that this ore would be hauled to Sudbury for
> smelting.

With CN ownership of the former WC and Algoma Central, such loads could be routed via Algoma Central/CP via Franz, or AC/CN via Oba ON.