B & B Railways



The History of the Fellowbrook Subdivision

South Porcupine, Ontario,-site of the end of the Ontario Northland Network. It was from this point that ground work began to build a line to help out business that were facing high cost by shipping with transports. This line would begin in South Porcupine, North to Northwark, then West to North Cove.

In 1995, the ONR had went and built a line from South Porcupine to North Cove. There was a huge demand at the time for this line, from people who wanted passenger service and freight, due to the cost of transport hauling rates. This line was named the Fellowbrook Subdivision.

The ONR at the time had an interchange with CN, which allowed the ONR to transport more and get peoples freight to new areas. During this time, Northwark became an important connection between the ONR and CN. Northwark underwent extensive track work. An agreement with the ONR and CN was made to haul directional traffic on each other’s line at the time. After this was agreed upon, track work took a big change on the Suez Sub as both track crews installed two 90 degree crossings to accommodate the traffic and also installed two connecting track for the DRZ and a double switch over. There is a passenger station at Northwark to provide people with passenger service to and from South Porcupine and North Cove. There use to be two points originally to access the east side of the ONR line-but because of the directional running agreement with CN and ONR it was decided that this line would no longer be needed, and was pulled up with the ties left in place and the switches pulled for direct travel.

This is accompanied by another set-up that was added – a double crossover in the event of derailment trains still could be kept running. A year later the power sharing agreement ended with CN/ONR as CN use to haul cars up to South Porcupine for the ONR and take its own cars out. With the CN/ONR Transfer at Lancashire, it was then decided that the ONR would bring CN’s cars down to the transfer and bring the cars needed back on the ONR line. Since the creation of the Fellowbrook Subdivision, was installed, the ONR was not limited as to what power could travel on this line compared to some other subdivisions. Six axle engines were often seen running freight to and from North Cove and South Porcupine. After a while of the ONR running & building the Fellowbrook Subdivision, the ONR had lost the ability to maintain and service the line due to cost and travel distance, and lack of capacity needed on the line. It was decided at that point to file for abandonment of this line.

B & B Railways put in a bid as did Canadian National. It was decided that B & B Railways, would better serve the area because of location and existing agreements with the ONR with those business that were served on this line. At this point B & B took over service of the Fellowbrook and the maintenance of the track. Along with this, B & B approached CN to obtain running rights over the Suez Subdivision to gain better access to and from Northwark. The only condition set out was that B & B had to maintain the former CN/ONR interchange at Lancashire and to take cars back to the ONR as far as the new ONR Interchange with B & B Railways. In the summer of 2003, two men got together and begin talking about their favourite past time-trains. By the end of supper, the two men came up with a plan and a strategy to launch a new train system along with passenger service to enhance service in Northern Ontario. Based out of South Porcupine, Ontario, the two men got working.

A year later things started to become reality as track work that was required was being installed and equipment began arriving. B & B Railways brought used equipment from CSX as the paint scheme was very similar, so only slight modifications were needed. At first B & B Railways also had to get into passenger service and offing a service like no other and filled holes where Ontario Northland had service. B & B and ONR had gotten together, and had worked out running rights. This would allow the “South Porcupine Adventure” to start and run from South Porcupine to Hearst and Northwark on the CN line.

As the years went by, B & B Railways became a strong competitor to the ONR, and started taking more tasks and work alongside the ONR. The two companies relied on each other and valued their agreement B & B Railway provided new agreements with the towns & business serviced by the Fellowbrook Subdivision that passenger and freight would be maintained and Freight would be improved in some areas. B & B would do track maintenance with their crews and trucks. There would be regular freight that travels daily (Mon-Fri) on this line picking up and dropping cars off for the lumberyard along this line and the other business that have come to rely on this line to ship their products. In 2007, the South Porcupine Adventurer was absorb by B & B Railways and then begin running the passenger train under the B & B flag. B & B Railways created a new passenger train which was required after taking over the line. With that in mind, it was deemed fitting that, RDC Budd cars would be used on this line from South Porcupine to North Cove. The passenger service would run every day-except Sunday’s. These Budd cars were brought used from VIA Rail and a couple other areas, and were refurbished at IRS (industrial Rail Service) and then once re-built, were transferred over the CN network to our Interchange with CN and were brought back to Venta, South Porcupine and North Cove.

The company took its logo in spring of 2007, and made a slight change to it. In May of 2010, B & B Railways undertook a feasibility study to try and change the way the line ran, and how to distribute supplies. They looked at breaking down the line into three subdivisions. “The old ONR line would be better served by us, if we can maximise our resources and equipment”. It was determined, that the break down would be:

Fellowbrook Subdivision – South Porcupine to Venta

McWhirter Subdivision – Venta to Lancashire

Waterloo Subdivision – Lancashire to North Cove Because of the increase of traffic and loads, B & B Railways, built a new spur heading to Field. This new spur was made possible by two companies that wanted rail. They got together, put up half the funds and approached B & B Railways. The Heartland Spur was created and now serves Hammond Refinery Company, and Custom Concrete.