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Grand River Railway
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GRAND RIVER RAILWAY

General History

Passenger Car
Photo Gallery

Freight Operations

Freight Locomotive
Photo Gallery

GRR 626 Reference Material

Preserved Equipment

Modelling The
Canadian Pacific
Electric Lines

Links Of Interest

 Preston, Ontario, Canada 
The Home Of Canada's Famous
SCOUT HOUSE BUGLE BAND

Revised October 13, 2009

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GENERAL HISTORY

The Grand River Railway Company was comprised of the Galt and Preston Street Railway, the Preston & Berlin Railway, and the Berlin, Waterloo, Wellesley & Lake Huron Railway. Operation of the Galt and Preston Street Railway commenced on July 26, 1894. The branch from Preston to Hespeler began operating in January 1896 and the name changed to the Galt, Preston & Hespeler Street Railway Company Limited.

The Preston & Berlin Railway began service on October 6, 1904. The GP&H and P&B were amalgamated, effective January 1, 1908, under the name, Berlin, Waterloo, Wellesley & Lake Huron Railway Company and leased to the Canadian Pacific Railway for 99 years. In 1914, the name was changed to the Grand River Railway Company. It should be pointed out that the present day city of Kitchener was once known as Berlin, being renamed in 1916.

From the beginning, the operating power was 600-volts DC. On December 4, 1921, the line changed to 1500-volt DC operation to match that of the Lake Erie & Northern Railway. All 600-volt equipment was immediately withdrawn from service. This consisted of eight 54 foot cars, six of wood construction throughout, and two with steel under frames, plus a couple of freight locomotives.

One express and seven passenger cars, all of steel construction and built by the Preston Car & Coach Company, replaced the 600-volt equipment. These were numbered 622, 842, 844, 846, 848, 862, 864 & 866. One of these cars, 866, was severely damaged by fire in one end in August 1933. In 1937 it was rebuilt as a combination baggage/express/passenger and renumbered 624.

Three of the former Galt, Preston & Hespeler and Preston & Berlin Railway 600-volt wood cars were rebuilt for 1500-volt operation, becoming 824, 826 & 828. The car ends were modified to have them looking more like the new steel passenger cars in appearance, complete with end doors to facilitate movement between cars when operating in multiple car trains. Both 600-volt freight motors were also rebuilt and equipped for 1500-volt operation, one becoming box-cab motor 222 and the other, a steeple-cab, numbered 224. The balance of the 600-volt equipment was scrapped.

Serving the highly industrialized area of Central Ontario north and south of Preston (now part of Cambridge), the Grand River Railway and the Lake Erie & Northern Railway, together formed the Canadian Pacific Electric Lines with headquarters in Preston, Ontario, Canada. Legally they were two seperate railways but were operated as one under the Canadian Pacific Electric Lines. Following the conversion of the Grand River Railway to 1500-volt DC operation, equipment of both lines was inter-mixed and running crews also worked both.

The Grand River Railway served its area in a "Y" shaped pattern, Galt (Main Street) being at the base, Preston at the fork, Kitchener/Waterloo at the west, or left tip, and Hespeler to the east, or right. Electric "inter-urban" or "radial" service, as well as freight service, was provided on daily schedules.

The original Preston & Berlin trackage, into what is now Kitchener, was on a marginal right-of-way along the south side of King Street to a point just east of Stirling Avenue. There the freight line split off in a south-west direction on a private right-of-way. The passenger line swung to the centre of King Street and continued west to Albert Street, Berlin, and from there through downtown to Water Street over Berlin & Waterloo Street Railway trackage. This practice was discontinued in 1921 when the Grand River Railway put larger cars into service with the conversion from 600 to 1500 volt operation. A new cut-off line was constructed from Kitchener Junction to Courtland Avenue where it rejoined the freight line. The GRR then ran passenger service to its Queen Street station and up into Waterloo on its own line.

The street trackage on Concession and Water Streets was removed from service in 1921 with the conversion to 1500 volt operation. Passenger operations were moved over to the freight line. In 1939, all passenger service moved to the freight trackage in Galt and Preston, and the track paralleling highway 8 between Galt and east Preston was removed as was the trackage on King Street in Preston.

Supplementing the rail passenger service of the Grand River Railway was a bus service operated by the Canadian Pacific Transport Company.

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[CAR STOPS] STATION STOPS====

Galt to Kitchener/Waterloo Station Stops
MileStation Name
0.00Galt Main Street
0.75Galt C.P.R.
(spur line to C.P.R. mainline station)
1.48Delta Park
2.98East Preston
4.54Preston Junction
5.73Hageys
7.65Freeport
9.24Centreville
10.73Kitchener Jct.
(transfer point to local city service)
12.41Kitchener Queen Street
15.03Waterloo
Hespeler Branch Station Stops
MileStation Name
0.00Preston Junction
0.38Pattinson's
2.08Idylwild
3.05Forbes'
3.60Hespeler

The Official Guide to the Railways - January 1930 Edition - Grand River Railway/Lake Erie & Northern

The Official Guide to the Railways - February 1950 Edition - Grand River Railway/Lake Erie & Northern

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camera PASSENGER CAR PHOTO GALLERY====

[King St. Bridge] [GRR 826] [GRR 622] [GRR 626] [GRR 844] [controls] [8 Car Train] [Preston Car & Coach]
Speed River 826 622 626 844 Controls 8 Car Train Preston Car
& Coach
(click on thumbnails for larger view)

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FAREWELL TO PASSENGER SERVICE

Following the abandonment of passenger service on April 23, 1955, the National Railway Historical Society sponsored two final farewell trips. On a rainy April 24, 1955, the Syracuse Chapter trip was operated with cars GRR 626, 846, LE&N 939 & 937. GRR 862 was added at Brantford due to the number of people boarding there. Believe it or not, the fare for this farewell trip was $3 when paid in advance, $4 on the car. Of note, on the ticket stub was the phrase, 'To enjoy for yet another moment, the romantic saga of flanged wheels, air whistles and trolley wires'.

The Buffalo Chapter held their farewell trip one week later, on May 1, the day being warm and sunny. LE&N 937, GRR 848 & 846 made up the original train. On returning to Preston from Waterford, GRR 864 was added to accommodate the crowd.

FINAL FAN TRIP
GRR 846, LE&N 937, GRR 848 & 864 on the final farewell trip with trolley cars is seen at Freeport, May 1, 1955
Photo by Lorne Hymers - collection of W. E. Miller

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FREIGHT OPERATIONS

For its freight operations, the Grand River Railway had seven electric freight motors, and combined with the Lake Erie & Northern Railway, served some 450 industies along their lines. The Grand River Railway, or GRR as it was known, numbered their freight motors 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232 & 234. These last three were a deviation from the numbering system where GRR equipment was to be numbered with even digits and LE&N odd digits. During the course of their lives, all motors would be equipped with MU electrical equipment and it was common to see a Grand River and Lake Erie motor MU'd.

The Grand River Railway had interchange connections at Galt with the Lake Erie & Northern Railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the Canadian National Railway; at Preston, Kitchener and Waterloo, connections were made with the Canadian National Railway.

Freight schedules provided for over night service between Grand River Railway points, with Windsor, London, Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal. Direct freight connections are also made with C.P.R. trains to and from Pacific and Atlantic Ocean points, and the Canadian Northwest.

All train movements on both the Grand River and the Lake Erie & Northern Railways were dispatched in the regular steam road manner from the dispatch office at Preston.

Electric freight operation continued until October 1, 1961 when diesels of the Canadian Pacific Railway replaced the electric freight motors.

Trackage south from the Canadian Pacific Railway interchange to Main Street (junction point with the Lake Erie & Northern) was removed in the 1980's, as were the rails of the Hespeler Branch and those beyond the east end Kitchener Canadian National Railways interchange and Waterloo.

At 12:30 A.M., Sunday April 19, 1992, the Cambridge Fire Department responded to the Grand River Railway Shop to find it completely engulfed in flame. A wall and the roof collapsed about 10 minutes after firefighters arrived dashing any hopes of saving the building. Back on December 4, 1906, fire destroyed the car barns of the Galt, Preston & Hespeler and Preston & Berlin Street Railways at this same location. Several cars, including a new $12,000 freight motor, were lost in that fire which was believed started from a stove in one of the cars.

The rails of the Grand River Railway in the Cities of Kitchener and Waterloo were lifted shortly after service was abandoned beyond the east end of Kitchener in 1993. A portion of former GRR right-of-way in Kitchener and Waterloo is now the Iron Horse Trail. As well, the Mill Run Trail was constructed along a portion of the Hespeler Branch.

When this page was originally prepared (1997), freight operations continued on the former Grand River Railway between the CPR interchange at Galt and the east end of the City of Kitchener, interchanging there with the Goderich & Exeter Railway. The former GRR line is now known as the CP Waterloo Subdivision. The Cambridge Toyota car manufacturing plants generate most of the traffic on the line. Two MU'd SW1200RS units were assigned to switching the Toyota plants. CPR GP7/9's, GP38's and GP40's provided the motive power for trains between the plant and the CPR yard at Galt. Today, two rebuilt GP7's/GP9's work the Toyota Plant while a pair of GP38/GP38-2's, sometimes assisted by a rebuilt GP7/GP9, work the line between Galt and Kitchener.

GRAND RIVER RAILWAY
STATION NUMBERS
WATERLOO SUBDIVISION
No.Station NameInterchange Point With
3820GALT
(GRR & LE&N)
Canadian National
Canadian Pacific
Lake Erie & Northern
3830PRESTONCanadian National
3831HAGEY 
3834CENTREVILLE 
3836KITCHENERCanadian National
3837WATERLOOCanadian National
HESPELER SUBDIVISION
3830PRESTONCanadian National
3840HESPELER< >

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camera FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE PHOTO GALLERY====

222 224 228 & 337 230 232 234 Vans M-4 M-6 M-1766
(click on thumbnails for larger view)

For more G.R.R. images, go to
DAVE'S ELECTRIC RAILROADS - ONTARIO
and scroll down to Grand River Railway

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LINKS OF INTEREST

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Goes The Trolley"
On Raymond Kennedys Old Time Trains web site.

Additional Canadian Pacific Electric Lines History
On Robert J. Hughes Ontario Railway History web site.

History of Electric Rail Transportation in Cambridge
Courtesy Galganov & Associates web site.

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The Cambridge Model Railroad Club had a modular layout in HO scale which was often displayed at many of the model railroad shows in and around the Cambridge area. This layout depicted the portion of the Grand River Railway from approximately the present location of the Toyota plant, just north of Preston, to the south end of Galt, along with the branch to Hespeler. This layout was featured in the February 1997 Railroad Model Craftsman and revisited in the October 2000 issue. The layout was unfortunately dismantled c.2004.


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To learn more of the area served by the Grand River Railway,
visit these web sites

City of Cambridge
City of Kitchener
City of Waterloo
The Grand - A Canadian Heritage River

On January 1, 1973, the City of Galt, the Towns of Preston and Hespeler
and the Village of Blair were amalgamated to form the City of Cambridge

Cambridge Tourism

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Preston once boasted its own radio station, CKPC. The 'PC' stood for Preston Canada.
CKPC of Preston, Canada
The station later moved to Brantford, Ontario.
CKPC continues to broadcast from there today on both AM and FM.

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February 15, 1997
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