Georgian Bay and Seaboard Railway
| Locale | Ontario, Canada |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1908–1993 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 141 km |
The Georgian Bay and Seaboard Railway (GB&S) was a former short-line railway in Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The first sections opened in 1908, and the entire 140 kilometres (87 mi) route was fully completed in 1912.
The GB&S was designed to compete with the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway (OA&PS). Both acted as trans-shipment points between lakers on the upper Great Lakes and Atlantic ports in the east, especially grain shipments from the Canadian prairies to docks in Montreal and the east coast. CPR had originally planned to run a line almost parallel to the OA&PS, but lost an important court case and were forced to build the line much further south than intended. To service the new route, CPR built Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay outside Midland. From here the line ran east-southeast to connect to the CPR's Ontario and Quebec Railway mainline for shipment further east.
The GB&S had a short lifetime as a complete line. CPR abandoned the section between Orillia and Lindsay in 1937 at the height of the Great Depression when the lake trade crashed. The section between Port McNicoll and the CP mainlines at Coldwater were used until 1971, under the name McNicholl Subdivision. The section from Lindsay to the mainlines, part of the Bobcaygeon Subdivision, closed in 1987. The lines on docks in Port McNicoll closed in 1992, along with most of the ports on Georgian Bay. The final section serving a limestone quarry in Uhthoff was used as a spur until 1993.
Some sections of the line have been re-used for local roads, rail trails and other purposes, but the majority has returned to farmland.
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