Love my small Town.

[JRouche]

Though without the Rail Line. As with Most towns.

I like the Towns. I just happen to be in a small town.

It is Ironic. The Rail Way would not survive without the need.

The Towns would not have prospered without the Rail. JR

[CCWKen]

The small town I'm near was built around a rail line after the original town flooded. It was build between two prongs (creeks). The only remnants of the old town is an empty shell of a brick school house. The "new" town faced the rail tracks until some time in the late 30's, I think. After the town's main street became a "Main St." and north/south route for auto traffic, most of the buildings were changed to face the main road instead of the tracks. A few of the old buildings still have front entrances on what is now the back side.

The only time the train stopped locally since the switch was when it derailed.

[Baz]

The railway arrived in the nearby town in the 1870s and lasted about 100 years. An American outfit ran part of the line as a heritage railway for a while but has been stagnant for a few years. It opened up travel to nearby villages like where I live for Edwardian tourists some of whom stayed hence my house was built for an artist. I love the village which has a good community aspect but it has lost both the shop and post office and while the town has doubled in population due to immigrants and commuters it has lost the livestock market and traditional shops so it is now just the place where the school and supermarkets are.
The town started near a river ford but the initial settlement moved after the Great Plague leaving the church off centre isolated above the town. Both the Roman camp and the Norman Castle would have been built to control the trade route to London.

[Alan Smith]

Baz, going to guess Ongar?

[garyhlucas]

I live in Hightstown NJ. The John Bull engine on display at the Smithsonian in DC used to run between here and Jamesburg, NJ. When they tore out the low railroad bridge across the center of town and excavated the ramps they found the original path of the rails and the sleeper blocks, stones with spike holes used before ties. Some of them were sent to the Smithsonian to display with the engine.

In a sad statement of the current times they are setting up a Corona Virus test site at a local church.

[jmm03]

I grew up in a small town in north Jersey, up in Sussex county. Was a great place to grow up in, on a lake, miles of forest, no crime, maybe a few thousand year round residents, (50's through the 70's) I did a Google earth search and wish I hadn't, hardly recognized it, oh well... one historical note, it was the home of Hudson Maxim, brother of Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun.

[JRouche]

I grew up in a small town in north Jersey, up in Sussex county. Was a great place to grow up in, on a lake, miles of forest, no crime, maybe a few thousand year round residents, (50's through the 70's) I did a Google earth search and wish I hadn't, hardly recognized it, oh well... one historical note, it was the home of Hudson Maxim, brother of Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun.

Neat. During the early 70's I lived in Byram Township in the community of Forest Lakes. The name says it all. What a great place. They used to do ice racing on the lake in the winter.

Ima-fraid to do a google earth, wont be the same. JR

Oops! Before the net police get one me

I lived in the community of Forest Lakes, in Byram Township. JR

[gellfex]

Yeah, my little town had a rail line or 2 also! The left 2/3 of the pic is now Liberty State Park. All the rail freight going to NYC and Long Island came to Jersey City and was barged across.



Sorta rail, a funicular up the Palisades in Hoboken.

[darryl]

I spent all my grade school years living in a place called Vedder Crossing. From the first year, the army base was there, so I didn't get to see the original place. There was an old fellow living a couple houses away, and we kids used to go visit 'old man Fraser'. I don't recall whether his name had anything to do with the river by that same name (The Chilliwack river becomes the Vedder river, which flows into the Fraser) but he had lived there long before we got there, and he would tell us stories of the old days. Fascinating to us, especially at that time. I started school in '57, and he was in his mid 80s then- he got married at 88 and lived to around 96 or thereabouts.

It was a pretty laid back town when I lived there. You should see the traffic flow through it now- or maybe no you shouldn't. There's only basically one house now at my end of town- the rest is military museum and river access.

[George Bulliss]

Just saw that our town will be 125 years old this month. It didn't start due to the railroad; it was water and timber. A river that reached deep into the stands of virgin white pine and a protected (mostly) bay to serve the ships that carried the boards and products away.

The first industries were all related to the logging.


This photo shows the reservoir of the Boardman river that the basket factory was on and both east and west bays. My office sits near the right side of the airport, just across the street from runway 28/10. Been a while since I've seen the office though, currently holed up at home about 17 miles to the west (left) of town.

[Dan Dubeau]

A few rail lines rang through the small town I grew up in (Newcastle, ON). Grand trunk, CPR and CNR all ran through (cpr, and cnr still do). But it was just passing through, no major industry. and no stations anymore. Although Daniel Massey did have his factory there in the mid 1800's building agricultural equipment. The towns major industry now is to house people who commute into the GTA. Large subdivisions are swallowing up all the adjoining farmland now and the small town feel is gone as cookie cutter houses spring up everywhere. We live out in the sticks north of there now, and by the time it gets out here I'll be ready to move to a lake somewhere. (I'm ready now ).

https://doorsopenclarington.wordpres...ng-fast-facts/

Further to the east of me now is a very interesting piece of rail history. The bridge across rice lake. There are a few places you can cross the lake safely, but what's left of the rail bed claims many lower ends and props every year as most of it sits just below the surface, barely visible to uneducated boaters. I few good spots to catch pickerel along the bed though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobour...orough_Railway
https://hikingthegta.com/2016/07/26/...unken-railway/

There was another old rail line that ran a few miles south of my house back in the early 1900's. There are a few spots you can still see the corridor from the road, but most around here has all grown in. It's still visible from above via google maps, and a section of it further east of here turns into a snowmobile trail in the winter.

History was one of my most hated subjects in school, but I've done a 180, and love reading about it now.

[Tom S]

I read a book a short while ago on the history of my area (Haldimand, Ontario). Nothing to exciting, but it is interesting as someone who has grown up here to attach names and places in a history book to names and places I know.

In a nutshell, our history revolves in many ways around the Grand River. 6 miles on either side was given to Joseph Brant, the native chief, for his service to the British in the Revolutionary War. This land was parceled out in various ways (a very contentious subject around here) and given to many other United Empire Loyalists who moved from the northern states to settle in the area. The river never became the great economic engine that many other rivers became, mostly because major industry didn't develop along it. It was however used to move resources from Southern Ontario out to Lake Erie, across to Buffalo, over land to the Erie Canal, and out to New York. Resources included timber, agricultural goods, and gypsum. There were quite a number of canals and locks dug in the river in this area, some of which I have stumbled over while out fishing. Town is 160 years old and predates the establishment of Canada as a country.

These days I am very glad to be in a small town away from urban density.

[Dan Dubeau]

When the kids get older I want to take them on a canoe trip down the Grand. Used to drive along it's banks on the way to the racetrack in Cayuga years ago and always thought it would be a fun trip.

[Tom S]

Do it. I recommend the stretch from Glen Morris to Brantford. That's one of the advantages of the area never becoming overly industrialized - in that (large) stretch of river you can float for miles without seeing civilization, while in reality you're never a kilometre or two away from a developed area. You can pretty much float through Brantford without realizing you're in a city.

[d kirby]

Do it. I recommend the stretch from Glen Morris to Brantford. That's one of the advantages of the area never becoming overly industrialized - in that (large) stretch of river you can float for miles without seeing civilization, while in reality you're never a kilometre or two away from a developed area. You can pretty much float through Brantford without realizing you're in a city.

Tom, you are right about that stretch of the Grand River,. they run canoe tours out of Paris (just south of Glen Morris) and to the south of Brantford. My doctor who lives in Waterdown took the trip with his family and told me it was a very worthwile adventure.

It's funny to hear you say about floating through Brantford and not realizing you're in a city, as the Grand River runs right through the very middle of a city of 100,000 people. In fact if you got out of the water at the Lorne Bridge and walked a few hundred feet you would find yourself at the new City Hall, and you would.not have to walk as far to be at the Casino which sits right on the banks of the Grand.