Red Rock

Nipigon Station Red Rock Station Robford Station

Red Rock was a stop on the railway located just south of Nipigon at Milepost 82.4/132.1.

It’s name stems from the large, red cuesta in the area. While plans called for a station named Crawford to be established there when the line was built, nothing occurred until 1920s when the population began to grow. Eventually a paper mill was constructed in the community and the station was established in 1937. It remained a station until the line was discontinued in 2005.

There was no siding in Red Rock, but a spur was constructed at the same time as the paper mill. Eventually, several side tracks were built that acted as storage rails for cars being shunted to and from the paper mill. Canadian Pacific, who had initially built their own spur to the mill west of the CNR station and over the CNR rails, later moved their transfer line to the east. It crossed the CNR mainline approximately 80 metres east of Highway 628 on two sets of switches. The CNR line, which was unsignalled (otherwise known as “Dark Territory”), had several signals installed east and west of the interlock to facilitate this arrangement.

Canadian Northern had originally asked for running rights on the Canadian Pacific line between Port Arthur and Nipigon. When the request was denied, the company was forced to find a route for their line in an already difficult area. Between Red Rock and Nipigon, there was no other option than to build outboard of the Canadian Pacific, which was already hugging the western shore of the Nipigon River. A tremendous amount of money and effort was required to place the rock fill required to support the grade. Unfortunately two workers lost their lives during construction.

Click here to see a 2009 Google Streetview image of Red Rock with the rails still in place.