When I was originally reading about the Lake Erie & Northern Railway, in John Mills book "Traction on the Grand", I was struck by one image by Robert Sandusky. It was of a car traversing a low piling trestle over a lily clogged mill pond. The caption stated that it was south of Simcoe, Ontario.
When I decided to model the line I knew that was one image that I wanted to recapture.
Further research and a field trip took me to the Brook Conservation Area, a small park. There I found the remains of a dam for the Brook Woolen Mill, a company my uncle Bill Garvie worked for through the 70s.
This dam held back the head pond for the mill.
The footbridge across the dam led to the route of the LE&N right of way. This pond was the one captured by Bob Sandusky in the waning days of passenger service. In the overgrown weeds and trees at the water's edge was the rotting remains of the trestle.
I was able to take several photos from both sides of the pond to show the construction.
The paired pilings were driven into the ground, linked by cross stiffeners. The photo above shows one of the reinforced horizontal beams that held the power poles.
That was enough to give me a fair idea how to model it.
For strength, I put my power poles in tie cribbing filled with rock. I've seen this method on some northern highway routes. The modern method would be in a cofferdam of culvert piping. Gradually I filled in more cattails, reeds and lots of lily pads. I added ducks, geese, a family of swans and some Great Blue Herons. My trestle curved, but the real one was straight.
Now I have the chance to rebuild it on the new layout, straight this time.
A few hundred feet south If you follow the trail in Brook Park, are the abutments where the LE&N crossed the Lynn River proper. I don't have a photo of the bridge that was there, but from the concrete clues left behind, I can tell it was a deck plate girder bridge. I'm in the process of weathering a 70' Walthers girder bridge to go on my layout.
Just slightly north of the trestle is the crossing of two rail trails. The LE&N trail comes from the Simcoe town centre, while the CNR trail crosses at an angle. At a U.S. train show a few years ago I came across an image of that crossing taken by some rail fans in August 1941. It looks south toward the mill pond, unseen in the distance, but shows the tower and signal that protected the crossing.
Unseen to the left of the photographer is the interchange track with the CNR. I think I have room to include some of these items in the new layout.
Satellite View is great for tracing "lost" right-of-ways. In fact, I tried to see where the lines in Simcoe went this morning without much luck. Compare to this shot of Harrisburg where the GWR Brantford bypass is still clearly visible after, what, a hundred years?
Wix has some weaknesses. How do you enlarge an image to see detail? Here's a cropped version of the above image...
If you look on your google map, directly south of the LE&N/CNR crossing, in a straight line from the LE&N, the blue line of the Lynn River curves. This is where the trestle is. Continuing on that straight line the River curves back eastward again where the concrete bridge abutments are. It’s fun looking at google maps satellite view trying to line up the edges of fields and tree lines to see the r-o-w into Port Dover.
Okay, first let's muddy the waters. Here's a map I found on the authority of all resources, the internet. (No claim to accuracy.) It obviously includes pre-GTR takeover of the GWR in 1882, long before the LE&N. I think what they've done is include all railways in the county, each named for the original builder - maybe.
In my foggy distant memory, I recall a parallel set of tracks North of Simcoe, West of (old?) 24. That would be the TH&B and LE&N approaching Waterford? Those tracks converge on Simcoe, somewhere the Tramps stop and the electric continues South. Your reply makes sense and you can see why it's confusing. Logically, as shown in the morning picture of the Southbound car,…
The LE&N trail is misidentified on Google from the junction. The LE&N actually ran straight south, the CNR (exGTR) leads to the east.
Good day Mr. Chrysler! Perhaps this is where we should begin the Spring hike from Simcoe to Dover? Not sure why it's so much fun to snoop into the past - but it is. I've been to the area in your blog, only to head South towards Dover on the trail so I missed the "ex"pond. There are so many trails in the area it takes a moment to pick out the CNR and LE&N. Between Google Maps and Lines of Country though, it's easy to see the Grand Trunk (#4 - completed in 1875) coming South from Norwich crossing the LE&N (#13M - completed in 1915). Great story!