Rule 105 Territory - Not to exceed 15 mph on entire trackage.
No trackage exists between Mile 0.0 and Mile 2.4.
Mile 0.0 (Jct. with CP Hamilton Subdivision) : Phillips Road, Wainfleet : The CP Welland Industrial Lead Switch was once located just west (north) of south siding switch Welland. The switch has since been removed from service since the mid 1990's. No CP trains use the
CP Welland Industrial Lead to Welland anymore. CN did CP's work in Welland after the switch removal until September 1999 when Trillium took over.
Mile 0.45 : Phillips Road, Wainfleet : Phillip's Road is located here, east of Phillip's Road on the CP Welland Industrial Lead, is the location of where the old Canada Southern trackage headed. This was the old line the Michigan Central, New York Central and Penn Central.
The line has since been pulled up. This was double track through here at one time prior to the early 1970's. Closer to Welland, there was a short passing track for both the Westbound and eastbound mainline.
Mile 1.9 : Broadway, Avenue, Welland : Broadway Avenue is located at the old mileage of 1.8, when the line did exist here. I once saw a CP Jigger here.
Mile 2.5 (Jct. with CN West Welland Spur) : Prince Charles Drive, Welland : The TR West Welland Spur is located here. The CP Welland Industrial Lead ends about 1/4 mile west of the switch. beyond the End Of Steel was the old line as mentioned above. The TR West Welland Spur services Versuvius.
Mile 2.78 (Welland Canal Bridge) : Canal Bank Street, Welland : Not listed on the timetable, is the old bridge over the old Welland Canal. It is located at mile 2.7. This is just east of where the TH&B connected, with running rights. The bridge 15 still stands these days.
Mile 2.99 : King Street, Welland : King Street is one of Welland's main streets, which has traffic running between East Main Street to the north and Ontario Road to the south. By luck, I have only one photograph of CP with 8230 at King Street.
Mile 3.28 : Plymouth Road, Welland : Plymouth Road runs between Lincoln Street and Ontario Road.
Mile 3.4 (Jct. with CP Page Hersey Spur) : Plymouth Road, Welland : Again, not shown on the timetable, was the CP Page Hersey Spur. The CP Page Hersey Spur was only 0.35 miles in length to this intersection and on into the plant. I have seen the Dain City's CN GP9 here pulling cars out of Page Hersey. The CP Page Hersey Spur was torn out in June 2003.
Mile 3.8 (Jct. with TR Canal Spur) : Ontario Road, Welland : At mile 4.0 is where the CP Welland Industrial Lead connects with the TR Canal Spur and continues to the south end of Dain Avenue. Dain Avenue is the south end of Plymouth Road. At the south end of Dain Avenue is the connection to the former Ucar Carbon Canada (Union Carbide) plant.
The CP Welland Industrial Lead is what is left over of the main line of the Michigan Central, New York Central and Penn Central into the heart of Welland from the west end of the City of Welland. The Welland Industrial Lead used to start at the bend in the track just west of South Siding Switch Welland, in Wainfleet. You will see a bend in the rail as it connects in onto the CP Hamilton Subdivision. If you went straight east through that location of the end of the curve, that is where it came from. Thought this isn't the original track of the Michigan Central, NYC, Penn Central trakc prior to 1972. The CP Hamilton Subdivision was closer to where the old line used to be before CP Welland yard was built in the early 1970's.
Once the Welland Canal Relocation Project began, this line was abandoned for mainline trains through downtown Welland. Trains were relocated in 1972 down through the Townline tunnel in 1972. Trains were re-routed down the present CP Hamilton Subdivision trackage to Brookfield and onto the present day CP Montrose Spur and across the bridge at Niagara Falls.
When the CP Welland Industrial Lead was 'completely' original, it ran between a switch on the siding at CP Welland yard, as just stated at mile 20.2 of the CP Hamilton Subdivision. A single diesel would head east from CP Welland to downtown Welland, sometimes crossing the bridge over the old Welland Canal (bridge 15), depending on the businesses that required servicing in Welland.
I have a photo on this page of Conrail servicing Page Hersey. That was via their CP Page Hersey Spur. The CP page Hersey Spur was torn out in the early 2000's. If you are wondering, the CP page Hersey Spur was rebuilt in 2009 back to the same plant, but then torn out in 2020, 7 years after the plant shut down.
Conrail and CP at their times in the past also had access into Dain City to service John Deere, via CN's Canal Subdivision at the time (now Trillium Canal Spur). The John Deere plant lead was located just south of the bridge over the cut, south of CN Tunnel Bridge by about 1/2 mile. That was another reason for keeping the line open to join in with the CN Canal Subdivision back then. The line still connects, but it is now Trillium's Canal Spur.
Back in 1980 or early 1981, a connecting track off of the CP Welland Industrial Lead was built west of the Welland Canal bridge and Prince Charles Drive. This was because the CN Fonthill Spur bridge over the Welland River was too weak to take the weight of a CN switcher. CN gave the service to CP to be responsible for. My grandfather told me he saw the CP diesels service Vesuvius (formerly Premier Refractories at the time) around 7 am during the week. If you are wondering where this plant is located, it is south of the intersection of Prince Charles Drive and Lincoln Street, on the west side.
I believe until 1993 or 1994, CP serviced Welland industries of which they were required to. For approximately two years after that they started storing defective flat cars on the line between Broadway Avenue and Phillips Road. One day in 1995, the cars disappeared.
By this time CP had given running rights to CN here on the CP Welland Industrial Lead, by eliminating their own services to Welland.
In 1996, CP tore out this line from the switch by South Siding Switch Welland, eastward across Broadway Avenue to the (now existing) track bumper around mile 2.4. Mile 2.0 was just west of Broadway Avenue. I remember the cross bucks at Broadway stayed in long after the track was torn out. Possibly 3 or 4 years.
Now that this line is gone from approximately 1/4 mile west of the CP West Welland Lead switch at mile 2.7, the track they leave the cars on is DW15 at the yard at CP Welland.
The trackage of the Welland Industrial Lead when it was part of the Main Line of Michigan Central, NYC was double track through here and across the bridge on the Welland Canal. Between Broadway Avenue and Prince Charles Drive, there use to be a passing track on both sides, meaning there were 4 tracks here. I'm guessing during Penn Centrals time, the passing tracks and one main line was removed about 19676ish, because it wasn't required due to the cut track at the east side of the city, due to the new Welland Canal bypass.
In comments of the removal of a portion of this line being removed.... During the weeks of May 1st to late May of 1997, the remaining eastbound line of the old CASO trackage was removed.
Since the mid 1990's after CP left Welland, CN provided exclusive service until September 1999 to CE Refractories. The plant was later name Premier Refractories then later in 1999, when Trillium took over it was already Vesuvius.
The line is still owned by CP and maintenance of the track is still the responsibility of CP, as I have witnessed over the years, by talking also to CP tracks guy working on the line.
Getting away from downtown service, when I began to railfan around CP Welland, back in 1992, I can recall the odd covered hopper type railcars parked on the line just west of Phillips Road. There was always just one railcar there at a time. I was told that a farmer had some deal or something with CP to leave cars there and the farmer unloaded them on his own. That is why in the one photo at mile 0.45 looking west, shows a railcar parked alone with an unloading device.
Until the late 1960's, there used to be a rail yard on the old main line through Welland, before it became just an Industrial Lead. I don't know how many tracks there were but it was on the south side of the mainline. It led off of the main line just east of the bridge over the Welland Canal. The track these days crossing King St. and ran eastward running short of the former location of WX tower diamond location is actually one of the yard track leads in to the yard that used to exist between King St and Plymouth Road.
When the Welland Canal Relocation project took place, the mainline was abandoned for through trains and it was then used as a track into Welland to continue servicing industries. This was really one of the biggest first things that started Welland into a decline.
Mentioning the one track that was removed on this line in the 1960's, this was the westbound main. On the east side of the Recreational canal (this Welland Canal), the main line was removed and most of the yard tracks in the yard east of King Street just disappeared. The connection to CN was left in place. It was known to CN as WR99. To Trillium, its the 'back track' up to the opposing side of the track stop sign on the north side of Ontario Road.
What was then left in the ground after that was just one track across King Street, but in 1992 I witnessed CP taking a second track out on the crossing at Plymouth Road. Obviously the other track was a track leading out of the yard. Not trying to regurgitate what was just said, there was a switch on the east side of King Street to the south side that looked like there was the second remaining track. This must have been the track going across Plymouth Road that was removed. I remember years ago, possibly 1993 or so, seeing a CP rail gang ripping out this second track.
Something I learned long after the Plymouth Road crossing used to be east of there it presently is, by a couple hundred feet. I believe the City of Welland wanted to line up Plymouth Road and Dain Avenue at a 4 way intersection at Ontario Road. The old road is still visible off of the present street curb.
You can easily see where this original mainline used to be, as there is a wide area of open area north of the present CP Welland Industrial Lead. But lets step back to the west. Coming off of the bridge, you will see the track presently jaunts a bit to the south. The mainline went directly through where the trees and chain link fence is these days. The line crossed CN in the parking lot at the Rose City mall parking lot on the north side og what is now Shoppers Drug Mart and split.One line going to Montrose and one line going to Fort Erie.
These days, Trillium backs west on the CP Welland Industrial Lead off of their TR Canal Spur and over to this CP Welland Industrial Spur and over to their TR West Welland Spur to service Vesuvius.
From 2009 until 2013, Trillium used this line to also gain access to the TR Lakeside Lead to service the Lakeside Steel plant at Ontario Road. The Lakeside Steel plant was formerly Page Hersey. Later, Lakeside Steel became Energex. But the plant closed.
I was told by a CP bridges and structures person in 2018 or 2019 that bridge 15 was in rather bad shape from rust and the bridge being about 100 years old, that rail traffic wasn't going to be happening the next year across the bridge. I haven't seen rail activity on the line since that mention.
I found this video of on YouTube of Bridge 15 under water . Credit goes to Christopher Foisey.
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These photos are of the old MC/NYC/PC Main Line. The Welland Industrial Lead east of King Street is actually the old trackage of the yard at Welland. The main line was torn out when the canal was put in. This ground shows where the track used to be.
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These photos are of the old MC/NYC/PC siding of of the Main Line that started someplace from the east side of the old station at King Street in Welland. The line headed east across King Street to a bumper west of Canalbank Street.
This siding was located on the south side of the old MC/NYC/PC Mainline. At the time that fence on the left, in the eastward looking photos, was not there back then.
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