I was in Kingston, Ontario this past week and drove through the downtown area just to see it for the first time in 35+years (I didn't have the time to stay). Where did the CP railroad station-cum-information center come from? I'm not aware that the CP ever had a line leading into Kingston.
Railroad Forums
Depot in downtown Kingston, Ontario
- Discussion relating to the past and present operations of CPR. Official web site can be found here: CPKCR.com. Includes Kansas City Southern. There is also a KCS sub-forum for prior operations: kansas-city-southern-and-affiliates-f153.html
I actually have a large map across from my desk that still shows a RR going north from Kingston to Perth, skirting the larger lakes on their western sides. I believe that I even once hicked sections of the ROW near Kingston as part of the Rideau Trail. I remember hearing about the "Kick and Push" RR, so I assume the RR's name was Kingston & Perth before the CP buyout.
the Kick and push aka kingston and pembroke railroad never made it to pembroke, but ended in Renfrew with a switch over to the CP main line. Also crossed the CNR in Renfrew ( former parry sound and arnprior railroad, might not be the full name)
I am here back home in Canada
The station on the Kingston waterfront was known as Inner Station (the old CNR depot on Montreal Street was Outer Station). CPR 4-6-0 1095, on display next to Inner Station, most likely saw service on the K&P. My late father told me that he rode the Kick and Push from Harrowsmith into Kingston several times in the 1930s and 1940s, and that the mixed train consist he boarded was usually headed up by a CPR ten wheeler with a combine bringing up the rear.
When I visited family in the Kingston area in the 1970s, the southernmost 40 or so miles of the K&P, between Kingston and Tichborne, were still intact. By the 1980s, however, the last remnants of the line, as well as the old CNR line from Napanee up through Harrowsmith and Sydenham and on to Smiths Falls, were abandoned and removed.
As a note of historical interest, when Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, died in Ottawa in June 1891, his body was transported back to his native Kingston on the Kingston and Pembroke. Thousands of people were on hand at the Inner Station on June 11 when the Old Chieftain who helped create the Canadian confederation came home for the final time.
When I visited family in the Kingston area in the 1970s, the southernmost 40 or so miles of the K&P, between Kingston and Tichborne, were still intact. By the 1980s, however, the last remnants of the line, as well as the old CNR line from Napanee up through Harrowsmith and Sydenham and on to Smiths Falls, were abandoned and removed.
As a note of historical interest, when Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, died in Ottawa in June 1891, his body was transported back to his native Kingston on the Kingston and Pembroke. Thousands of people were on hand at the Inner Station on June 11 when the Old Chieftain who helped create the Canadian confederation came home for the final time.