Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario
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| Established | 1914 (station) 1985 (museum) |
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| Location | Russell & William Sts, Smiths Falls, Ontario |
| Coordinates | 44°54′06″N 76°01′42″W / 44.90167°N 76.02833°WCoordinates: 44°54′06″N 76°01′42″W / 44.90167°N 76.02833°W |
| Type | railway museum |
| Owner | Smiths Falls Railway Museum Association |
| Website | rmeo |
| Designated | 1983 |
The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, a rail museum in a former CNoR station, stands on the abandoned right-of-way of a Canadian Northern Railway line which once led southwest toward Napanee. Established 1985 as the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, the RMEO works to preserve the 1913 Canadian Northern (CNoR) station and a collection of historic rolling stock, equipment and railway memorabilia.
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR, 1899–1923) struggled to build a third transcontinental railway from Québec City to Vancouver but ultimately met with financial ruin. Its assets were acquired by Canadian National Railway, which gradually abandoned much of the network as unprofitable or duplicative of its existing lines. Westward from Ottawa, CNoR operated a line through Pembroke and Algonquin Park (now removed) and a line through Smiths Falls which incorporated the CNoR-owned Bay of Quinte Railway from Sydenham to Napanee. The lines split just west of the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Federal Bridge across the Rideau River. While a portion of CNoR line between Smiths Falls and Ottawa remains in Via Rail passenger service, the line beyond Smiths Falls was embargoed in 1979 and abandoned, along with the local station. (The CPR operated its own, separate Smiths Falls railway station, a divisional point on CP's Montréal-Toronto mainline; VIA used that station until 2010. CP also owned the former Brockville and Ottawa Railway line from Brockville through Smiths Falls to Sand Point, near Arnprior; this created a crossroads of two railways with tracks leading in six directions from Smiths Falls.)
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