Orangeville-Brampton Railway

The Orangeville-Brampton Railway reporting mark|OBRY is a 55 kilometre (34 mile) long short line railway between Orangeville and Streetsville Junction in Mississauga, Ontario. It passes through the City of Brampton and the Town of Caledon.

At Streetsville, the OBRY connects with the Canadian Pacific Railway Galt Subdivsion. At Brampton, it crosses the Canadian National Railway Halton Subdivision at grade, but no interchange traffic is handled. North of Brampton, the railway winds through the Niagara Escarpment, and is notable for a curved, 349 metre (1,146 feet) long trestle over the Credit River and Forks of the Credit Road near Belfountain in Caledon.

The railway's main purpose is to service several industries in Orangeville and Brampton, but since the fall of 2004, OBRY has operated a public excursion train, marketed as Credit Valley Explorer, between Orangeville and Snelgrove (the northern edge of Brampton).

Freight trains, operated by Cando Contracting for OBRY, make weekday round trips between Orangeville and Mississauga.

History

Most of the current OBRY route was built in the 1870s by the Credit Valley Railway (CVR), with construction completed to Orangeville (with a branch to Elora) in 1879. The CVR was purchased by the CPR, which joined the tracks of the CVR with a former rival, the Toronto Grey and Bruce Railway (TGB), at Orangeville, in effect extending the line north from Orangeville to the TGB's terminus in Owen Sound.

Scheduled passenger service between Toronto and Owen Sound via Brampton and Orangeville ended in 1970, the Elora branch was abandoned in 1987, and the Orangeville-Owen Sound trackage was abandoned in 1995.

The Town of Orangeville purchased the Missisauga-Orangeville trackage from the CPR in 2000 to ensure the line's continued existence. The line is now managed by the Orangeville Brampton Rail Development Corporation.

External links

* [http://www.candoltd.com/services_business_unit.php?unitid=17 Cando Contracting - OBRY]
* [http://home.primus.ca/~robkath/railcv.htm History of the Credit Valley Railway] From the Ontario Railway History Page by Robert Hughes.
* [http://www.creditvalleyexplorer.com Credit Valley Explorer Tour Train]