Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

The parent company of the GTP was the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR), which was one of the earliest railway companies in Canada. It was incorporated in 1852.

Grand Trunk operated mainly in Ontario and Quebec, as well as some northeast and Midwest US states. Around the turn of the century, the company decided to expand into the western Canadian provinces to increase its profitability. It formed a partnership with the Canadian Government, whereby the government would build the eastern section of a transcontinental railway, from Winnipeg to Moncton, NB under the name National Transcontinental Railway (NTR). Grand Trunk would build the western section to Prince Rupert, BC as the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR/GTP).

The one exception to this arrangement was the branch from NTR at Graham/Superior Junction (now Sioux Lookout, ON) to Fort William, ON. Construction on this 188-mile line, which would give Grand Trunk access to Lake Superior, began in 1905. It was completed in 1908 and became known as the GTPR-Lake Superior Division/Branch (it was also referred to as the Fort William Branch or Thunder Bay Branch). The contractors were the Foley Brothers, Larson and Company of Minnesota and purportedly the cost to build the line was close to 10 million dollars. During World War I, issues arose over the operation of the NTR, and in 1915 it and several others were consolidated into newly formed Canadian Government Railways (CGR). On July 1, 1915, the line was leased from Grand Trunk Pacific and became the CGR-Fort William Branch with two subdivisions; Fort William (Fort William to Raith 60.76 miles) and Raith (Raith to Superior Junction 131.33 miles). Numerous improvements were undertaken during these years, including the construction of concrete culverts and bridges, as well as the filling in of wood trestles with gravel, taken primarily from the Dona Pit (near Dona Station on the west bank of the Kaministiquia/Dog River).

In 1918, the CGR took over the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) and became the Canadian National Railways (CNR) on January 1, 1919, an arrangement which was finalized in 1923. The line initially was known as the CNR-Fort Willam and Raith Subdivisions, but was changed to the Lake Superior Subdivision by October 1919. In 1922, the name was changed yet again to the CNR-Graham Subdivision, but two years later it was split into the Crest and Graham Subdivisions (this will all be explained below). In 1925, it was split into 3 subdivisions; the Crest Subdivision ran from the junction with the Kashabowie Subdivision (MP 5) to the junction with the Raith Subdivision on the north bank of the Matawin River (MP 0.3), the Raith Subdivision ran from Conmee Junction to Graham, while the Quorn Subdivision continued from there to Sioux Lookout.

This unusual arrangement was the part of the nationalization process, whereby approximately 28 miles of the Crest Subdivision west from Fort William would soon be abandoned, which was a result of a duplication of lines with the former Canadian Northern Railway. To facilitate this arrangement, a new bridge was constructed across the Matawin River north of the Kashabowie Subdivison, which became Milepost 0 of the Raith Subdivision. The remaining two subdivisions were eventually remerged into the Graham Subdivision in 1931. 

The beginning of the end of the line began in November 1985 with the termination of passenger service between Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout (you can read more about it here). In 1991, the closure of the Mattabi Mine meant there was little to no traffic on the subdivision. The last train ran in November 1992 and CN began making preparations to close the line. After the formal committee process was complete, CN was given permission by the Canadian Transportation Agency to abandon the line on May 31, 1994. You can read the CTA decision here.

The stations and some of the notable locations on the line are listed below (mileage shown is per the original line):

*Abandoned 1925 **Relocated ***Added 1924 ****Renamed *****Planned, but never constructed

For more information and photos, please read the following great article: The Grand Trunk Pacific’s Lake Superior Branch by John Todd (Canadian Rail Magazine, September 1976)

For more information and pictures the Lake Superior Branch stations on this line, please see: Canadian National’s Western Depots : The Country Stations in Western Canada by Charles Bohi

Link to 1929 & 1925 maps. Link to some of the timetables at Railway Pages and Traingeek. Link to the 1982 timetable. Link to the 1952, 1965 and 1990 systems maps. Other timetables courtesy of J. Smith and Ingenium.

Maps

Timetables

There are numerous videos of the remains of the GTP in the YouTube playlist below.