Then and now featuring the railway grades and gorgeous scenery between Nipigon and Red Rock, Ontario. The first photo, a 1970s or earlier postcard, shows Canadian Pacific’s “Canadian” as it hugs the rocky shoreline of the Nipigon River, sandwiched between the Canadian National Railway Kinghorn line and the immense bluffs.

The next two photos show the same area in June 2021, taken from the grade of the now decommissioned Kinghorn Subdivision. The Canadian Northern Railway, who originally built the line between 1911 and 1914, had no other option than to run their grade, at an extraordinary expense, outboard of the Canadian Pacific line. Construction entailed the dumping of tons of fill to create the right of way and extensive use of rip rap to keep the eroding water at bay.