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62-709: Baldwin Township may refer to: In Canada [ edit ] Baldwin Township, Ontario In the United States [ edit ] Baldwin Township, Iosco County, Michigan Baldwin Township, Delta County, Michigan Baldwin Township, Sherburne County, Minnesota Baldwin Township, North Carolina , in Chatham County Baldwin Township, Barnes County, North Dakota Baldwin Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania [REDACTED] Topics referred to by

124-508: A branch line thereafter known as the Algoma Branch. Surveying and construction began on a new mainline route starting from the junction at Sudbury along a new route around this time. During blasting and excavation along the new mainline a short distance to the north of Sudbury, high concentrations of nickel - copper ore were discovered by Thomas Flanagan, a blacksmith working for the CPR, at

186-471: A transcontinental railway connecting it with the original eastern Canadian provinces of Ontario , Quebec , New Brunswick , and Nova Scotia ; this would result in a route through the largely-uncolonized Prairies, including the restive province of Manitoba , which had only recently been the site of the Red River Rebellion in 1869–70. Around the same time, amid fears of American expansionism north of

248-593: A brief postwar economic revival due to the presence of the Soo Highway. Factors such as this, as well as the arrival of Greyhound coach services, depressed passenger ridership and non-industrial freight along the line. Additionally, due to the lack of a north-south CPR corridor paralleling the Algoma Central Railway (which had been built by the Lake Superior Corporation and was later acquired by

310-412: A decade. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Baldwin had a population of 579 living in 238 of its 326 total private dwellings, a change of -4.3% from its 2016 population of 605 . With a land area of 82.49 km (31.85 sq mi), it had a population density of 7.0/km (18.2/sq mi) in 2021. CP Webbwood Subdivision The Huron Central Railway

372-462: A location for crew changes. The main historic building in the community was the McKerrow Hotel or McKerrow Tavern, which originally opened in 1910 as a typical railway station hotel. Over several decades it gradually expanded, with multiple outbuildings built next to it and the original building being enlarged. At various times it functioned as a hotel, bar, coffee shop, and roadside restaurant, but

434-515: A mine shaft collapse destroyed a portion of the town of Worthington along with approximately 500 feet (150 m) of Canadian Pacific track, forcing the railway to permanently relocate its line around the crater left by the collapse as well as briefly rerouting its traffic along the Algoma Eastern line. Starting in the 1920s, efforts were made to build a modern highway connecting Sudbury with Sault Ste. Marie. This route had been surveyed along with

496-462: A plan from the railroad for business development to justify their funding. The investments are intended to support running heavier trains on the line. The most notable derailment on the line, the 1910 Spanish River derailment , occurred when the line was still operated by Canadian Pacific. A westbound Soo Express passenger train derailed while crossing the Spanish River bridge near Nairn, causing

558-434: A report two years later on March 8, 2017, citing drainage issues and rail joint defects as the cause of the derailment. On January 1, 2017, 13 cars carrying steel coil derailed near Blind River . No injuries were reported, and no hazardous materials were involved during the derailment. The line was closed due to the incident until January 5. Several locomotives lettered for affiliate Quebec-Gatineau Railway also populate

620-593: A spur line which would connect Espanola with the CPR, and ultimately the CPR with the Algoma Eastern Railway , which was routed through Espanola parallel to the CPR line. The place where this spur joined with the CPR was initially named Stanley Junction in 1908, then changed to Espanola Station in 1919. The name was then changed again to McKerrow in 1931, after Jack O. McKerrow, a manager at the Abitibi Pulp and Paper Company . The population slowly grew, and Baldwin

682-531: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Baldwin Township, Ontario Baldwin ( 2016 population 620) is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario . Located in Sudbury District north of Espanola , the township's two main communities and population centres are McKerrow and Lorne. The junction of Ontario Highway 17 and Ontario Highway 6

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744-454: Is in Baldwin, just west of McKerrow. An old abandoned fire tower still stands north of McKerrow on Agnew Lake. The township is part of the federal riding of Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing (MP Carol Hughes ) and the provincial riding of Algoma—Manitoulin (MPP Michael Mantha ). The township of Baldwin was surveyed in 1871 and subdivided in 1885, and was named after F. A. Baldwin. In 1901,

806-615: The 49th parallel and border tensions resulting from the Fenian raids , American companies such as the St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad were pushing northward to connect Manitoba with the American Midwest and promoting cross-border trade along a north–south axis. One of the notable promoters of this effort was the Canadian-American railway industrialist James J. Hill , known as

868-533: The CN Newmarket Subdivision . Significantly, in 1883 and 1884 there had been a sea change at the CPR: an increasingly bitter James Hill resigned from the company, and became a major opponent of the company and its future president, William Cornelius Van Horne . On 1 May 1884, Worthington also resigned from the company after a disagreement with Van Horne and was replaced with Abbott as supervising engineer on

930-546: The Canadian National Railway , or CN), the line was never used for through passenger services to Northwestern Ontario and Western Canada , as the CPR transcontinental mainline to the north was used instead. Passenger service was drastically cut in the 1960s and almost every remaining station was demolished by Canadian Pacific in the 1970s and 1980s, and the line never experienced the nationalization of passenger rail services under Via Rail starting in 1977. Toward

992-604: The Canadian Shield (proposed by Sandford Fleming ), and a "water route" which would use steamships to connect the Lakehead with a port on the north shore of Lake Huron , and then continue on via rail. The latter would pass through the newly formed Algoma District , paralleling the historic voyageur route through the North Channel of Lake Huron and connecting a number of pre-existing points or transportation corridors with

1054-523: The Great Depression , a number of dairy farms in the area were permanently shut down and mining and lumber operations reduced to skeletons or mothballed entirely. This drastically reduced traffic along both lines, and Canadian Pacific bought the Algoma Eastern line from the financially distressed Lake Superior Corporation. Over the next several decades, the Algoma Eastern line and rolling stock were gradually integrated into Canadian Pacific's operations and

1116-696: The Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Whitefish Lake. This drew little attention at the time, as the Sudbury area was located well inland and composed of rough terrain, and was less desirable than locations such as Bruce Mines or in Michigan 's Copper Country . Within several years after the official discovery, however, mining activity had increased significantly in the Sudbury Basin , mostly by small companies which struggled with limitations in mining and smelting technology of

1178-642: The Northern Railway of Canada was going through its own complex reorganization, which would result in the incorporation of the Northern, North-Western, and Sault Ste. Marie Railway , which was to reach Sault Ste. Marie via North Bay through an extension of the Northern's existing line, which terminated at Gravenhurst . Construction began within several years, but the project lagged, and the line only reached Callander , just south of North Bay in 1886. Financing issues for

1240-589: The Ontario Sault Ste. Marie Railway was incorporated in 1881, and a line was surveyed for it. The Midland Railway, however, was insolvent and involved in a set of complex structural maneuvers which would eventually result in its amalgamation with the Grand Trunk Railway in 1893, putting the Midland in a poor position for further construction and dooming the new line to being a paper railway . Also in 1881,

1302-595: The Spanish River Pulp and Paper Company was planning a mill town nearby which would become the modern-day town of Espanola . It situated the mill site next to the Spanish River , which fell to the south of the Canadian Pacific Railway 's Sault Ste. Marie branch or "Soo Line", with the portion of the line west of Webbwood being a part of its Webbwood Subdivision . Therefore, a decision was made to build

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1364-470: The steel industry , slab steel, paper , and miscellaneous goods are also carried. In 2008, the railway handled 16,000 carloads a year, though carloadings have decreased in subsequent years. The route has variable topography and parallels Ontario Highway 17 for much of its length. One of the terms of British Columbia entering into the Canadian Confederation in 1871 was the construction of

1426-510: The "Empire Builder" and namesake of the modern-day Amtrak Empire Builder passenger train. Hill was the general manager of the St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad , and in 1880 became part of the Montreal-based five-man syndicate who were awarded the transcontinental railway contract by the Canadian federal government under John A. Macdonald 's Conservatives , and subsequently formed

1488-581: The Algoma Eastern name was retired. Much of the Algoma Eastern line was abandoned, and remaining portions were incorporated into the CPR Algoma Branch, which by that point had been reorganized as the Thessalon and Webbwood Subdivisions of the CPR, but was still known less formally as the "Soo Line". The decline along the eastern portion of the line was exacerbated by the Worthington mine disaster in 1927, when

1550-488: The Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Railway construction had already been ongoing at the time under the previous Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie , managed by the federal Department of Public Works and led by the renowned Scottish-Canadian engineer Sandford Fleming , who was dismissed in 1880 and replaced by Collingwood Schreiber as chief engineer on the project. Under Fleming's direction,

1612-619: The Great Lakes region. The western Great Lakes were the epicentre of the Old Copper Complex as early as 4000 BCE, with evidence of indigenous copper mining on Isle Royale from around this time. Geophysically , the presence of magnetic anomalies around the Sudbury Basin had been noted by Alexander Murray in his 1847–48 surveys. As well, in the course of charting his north–south meridian , Albert Salter observed "severe compass needle deflections" about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of

1674-503: The Little Current route had been cut, leaving McKerrow with a single eastbound and single westbound train per day. In 1976, passenger service to McKerrow was eliminated altogether and never restored. In the 1980s, the town's historic two-storey station was demolished, though a shed from the original station was moved and is now privately owned and preserved. Today, the CPR has some maintenance sheds at McKerrow and occasionally uses it as

1736-535: The Midwest, access to Sault Ste. Marie's industries, and the opportunity to open up the North Shore of Lake Huron to increased European settlement and natural resource extraction. Much like in other areas of Canada, townships were quickly surveyed and lots sold either to natural resource interests or to prospective settlers, including Québécois , Scots , and Finns . New or refounded settlements, concentrated heavily toward

1798-472: The Spanish River near the town of Nairn , resulting in scores of deaths and going on record as one of the worst railway disasters in Canadian history. The competing Algoma Eastern Railway was built in 1914 by the Sault Ste. Marie-based Lake Superior Corporation , which served a more primarily industrial corridor largely north of the CPR line in the east, though it did operate some passenger services. During

1860-614: The Webbwood Sub at McKerrow. The CPR retains running rights over about 22-mile (35 km) of track at the east end of the Webbwood Subdivision, and the HCRY has running rights all the way into Sudbury. Coil steel manufactured by Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie and freight from the Domtar paper mill at Espanola account for 80% of freight traffic, although pulpwood , chemicals used by

1922-529: The closure of the Huron Central was officially postponed pending the possibility of further bailouts from the provincial and federal governments. With no further government funds, G&W announced in September 2020 that the railway would be shut down on December 18, filing official notice to do so. In October, layoff notices were issued to all 43 railway employees, to take effect after the end of operations. It

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1984-590: The deaths of 44 passengers and crew. On June 12, 2006, 15 cars carrying generators derailed near Webbwood . No injuries were reported, and no dangerous materials were involved, but a small brush fire had started from the derailment. The fire was later put out by the Sables-Spanish Rivers Fire Department. On April 14, 2014, three locomotives and one flatcar were derailed likely due to collapsing infrastructure at milepoint 30 (about 3 km from Nairn Centre ). There were no injuries; however,

2046-575: The east end of the line near Sudbury, sprung up along the line, including: In its first few decades, the line saw traffic primarily from the mining and logging industries, as well as local farmers in the Beaver Lake area exporting milk to dairies in Copper Cliff and Sudbury for processing. It also saw passenger traffic, including express trains connecting Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, and Toronto; notably, in 1910 an express train derailed while crossing

2108-570: The east: Additionally, by passing largely to the north of the La Cloche Mountains , which divide the interior from the Lake Huron shoreline, the railway's route would pass through fertile lands with agricultural potential that were noted as early as the 1847 and 1848 surveys by the Scottish geologist and explorer Alexander Murray . Ultimately, Canadian Pacific would construct lines along both

2170-509: The end of 2018, citing a lack of provincial funding. Temporary funding was secured, but in October 2019, G&W announced the line would close in early 2020. In early 2020, it was announced that G&W itself was being sold to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and GIC Private Limited , the latter of which is the country of Singapore 's sovereign wealth fund. Not long after this, in February,

2232-588: The end of the 20th century, the line became almost exclusively an industrial freight railway , serving a handful of high-volume customers such as the Espanola pulp and paper mill, the Nairn lumber mill and Essar Steel Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie. With traffic declining, in 1997, Canadian Pacific leased the line to the Huron Central Railway, Inc., a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming . The railway had been asking

2294-582: The line caused a public scandal, and the goal of reaching Sault Ste. Marie was abandoned. Instead, Nipissing Junction was created as the new terminus, joining it with the Canadian Pacific line just southeast of North Bay, and the whole line was renamed to the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway . The Northern Railway of Canada collapsed soon after, and it was merged into the Grand Trunk Railway, which had, through agents and proxies, been involved in

2356-450: The northern inland and the southern lakeshore routes. At first, however, the company decided in favour of the southern route for its mainline, where the water route through Lake Superior was set to begin, and which was more accessible through existing means of transportation. This was supported by James Hill , as a line through Sault Ste. Marie into the United States would benefit his St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad , and open up

2418-573: The operations of both it and the Midland Railway for some time. The Grand Trunk, seeing Canadian Pacific as its new rival following its own acquisition of the Great Western Railway in 1882, acquired numerous railways around this time and "depleted its treasury" in an unsuccessful bid to keep Canadian Pacific out of Ontario. Ultimately, the line as it was built would later come under Canadian National ownership and most recently forms part of

2480-461: The parish of Sainte-Anne-des-Pins . Worthington also placed a junction and construction camp at a place nearby, which he named Sudbury. The CPR was not the only company pursuing a link between Southern and Eastern Ontario and Sault Ste. Marie. Another interested party was the Midland Railway of Canada , a conglomerate formed out of smaller lines around Central Ontario . A shell company named

2542-700: The possibility of a joint Canadian-American transcontinental mainline through the Midwest. It was also initially the more practical, as the CPR was being faced with the challenge of transporting construction materials to the Lakehead to complete the line through the Prairies. This was done initially with steamships , which had already been operating on the Great Lakes for decades. By 1881, a line had been surveyed westward to Algoma Mills , where temporary port facilities were built out of expediency rather than using existing facilities at Sault Ste. Marie. Construction work on

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2604-449: The provincial and federal governments to support the company via Transport Canada's National Trade Corridors Fund. Another threatened shutdown was averted by $ 21 million provided by the provincial and federal governments in January 2023, each matching a $ 10.5 million commitment by G&W towards infrastructure improvements. Both the provincial and federal governments had previously requested

2666-464: The provincial government since 2006 for funding to improve track conditions, and in April 2009, Genesee & Wyoming warned that, due to the ever-deteriorating track and the resulting increased operational costs, it would be forced to shut down the railway, unless the provincial government would provide money with which to undertake the necessary upgrades. On June 15, 2009, Genesee & Wyoming announced that

2728-464: The rail line in the late 19th century, and was displayed on some maps as the "Trunk Road", which a number of pioneer roads and industrial access roads connected onto. It also incorporated portions of old trails and portage routes, such as the one running parallel to the Serpent River. This road was largely unusable in certain seasons, and for decades the only way to cross the Spanish River aside from

2790-749: The rail line open. A temporary agreement was reached which provided $ 15.9 million to cover operating expenses and maintain service until August 15, 2010. On September 24, 2010, $ 33 million in funding was announced for the rehabilitation of the railway, with the provincial and federal governments each contributing $ 15 million and Genesee & Wyoming making up the remaining $ 3 million. Work began on August 10, 2011, with contracts going to Swift Contractors for tie replacement and track surfacing and M'Anishnabek Industries (a joint venture between B&M Metals of Sudbury and Serpent River First Nation ) for ballast distribution. Work continues through summer 2012. In May 2018, G&W announced that operations would cease by

2852-473: The railway's operations would be discontinued by October and that 45 people would be laid off. Due to the economic downturn , it suffered a significant reduction in carload volume (down by almost 50% from the previous year) which rendered the line insolvent. This announcement, however, triggered a series of negotiations between the HCRY, the City of Sault Ste. Marie , Essar Steel Algoma , and Domtar in order to keep

2914-534: The remaining eastern section of the mainline. In preparation for the opening of the new terminus at Algoma Mills, three steamships, the Alberta , Algoma , and Athabaska , had been built in 1883 by Charles Connell and Company of Glasgow . These ships began service in May 1884 from Owen Sound to Port Arthur , pending the opening of the line. By the end of 1884, however, this new mainline section had been suddenly downgraded to

2976-476: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baldwin_Township&oldid=1127789651 " Categories : Place name disambiguation pages Township name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

3038-464: The same time, the CPR acquired the financially struggling Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM) through intermediaries. The MStP&SSM line had been extended up to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan , and it and the CPR had jointly funded the construction of the Sault Ste. Marie International Railroad Bridge in 1887. This would provide a connection point with American railways in

3100-406: The section began in 1882 under the supervision of CPR engineer Harry Abbott, but went slowly as crews carved a route through the rugged La Cloche Mountains ; by the end of 1882, all 80 miles (130 km) had been graded, but only 5 miles (8 km) of track had been laid. It was completed in 1884, but was considered below standard by the CPR, with bridges constructed from local timbers rather than

3162-548: The site of what would become the Murray Mine . Organized copper mining had occurred on the north shore since at least as early as the foundation of Bruce Mines in 1846. The use of copper by First Nations people had been documented by Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century, and there is significant archaeological evidence of copper working by the Mississippian people among others, who largely sourced their copper from

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3224-410: The spilled diesel from the locomotives required the issue of a drinking water advisory for the small community. The locomotives that derailed were QGRY 800, QGRY 3800, and HCRY 3011. QGRY 800 made it over the washout and sat upright with its rear truck off the tracks, QGRY 3800 ended up off the track and rolled onto its side, while HCRY 3011 remained upright, but sitting on its fuel tank at a 90° angle to

3286-500: The steel necessary to support heavy freight. This was intended to be the temporary western terminus of CPR line from Montreal , but construction on the eastern portion of the line north of Lake Nipissing had proceeded extremely slowly under engineer James Worthington, and only reached the Vermilion River by the end of 1883, in the process passing through a concentrated pocket of Jesuit missionary activity which would coalesce into

3348-542: The symbolic "first spike" had been driven at Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay ) in 1875, and construction had commenced with the goal of connecting Winnipeg with the Lake Superior Lakehead in Northwestern Ontario . Exploratory surveys had been conducted as early as 1871 along two prospective mainline routes connecting the Lakehead with the east: a direct inland route through the rugged terrain of

3410-428: The time. Nevertheless, this development would ultimately shift the economic focus of the region away from Sault Ste. Marie and toward Sudbury. With the new mainline still under construction, the Algoma Branch went disused until 1888, when it was brought up to standard and finally extended to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario , with a symbolic "meeting in the middle" of eastbound and westbound trains at Whitefish in 1889. Around

3472-629: The track with its rear truck hanging by the electrical cables. On June 13, 2015, 15 cars left the tracks near Fairbanks Provincial Park in Worthington , which spilled steel coil . Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca requested a meeting with the federal Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt about rail safety in Ontario following the derailment. On November 1, 2015, 13 cars jumped the tracks near Spanish . There were no dangerous goods and no injuries. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada released

3534-481: The train bridge was a local ferry service run out of Nairn . This situation would change during the Great Depression as government public works funding was made available for unemployed labourers to work in road construction, and it became easier for modern automobiles to travel through the area, especially after the highway was paved in 1931. This route became known as the "Soo Highway" and for several decades it

3596-433: Was announced on December 11, 2020, that due to ongoing negotiations with the Canadian federal government and the province of Ontario, that the deadline to close the line would be extended to June 30, 2021. All present employees with lay off notices, have had their notices rescinded for the time being. G&W rescinded its plans to end its operation of the Huron Central Railway in the end of May 2021, following agreements with

3658-475: Was established in July 1997 to operate a 173-mile (278 km) route leased from the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario . The lease agreements encompass all but 4.8-mile (8 km) of track at the Sudbury end of the 181.2-mile (292 km) line, known within the CPR as the Webbwood Subdivision, as well as the 3-mile (5 km) Domtar Spur, which branches southwest from

3720-740: Was officially incorporated as a township in 1927. Throughout its history, McKerrow would continue to function as a minor hub for the CPR, befitting its status as a junction connecting the Canadian Pacific Little Current and Webbwood Subdivisions within the Sudbury Division of the Algoma District. Throughout the mid-20th century, however, passenger service at the station slowly decreased; in 1943, there were two trains per day per direction, with one route going west to Sault Ste. Marie and another south to Little Current, but by 1970,

3782-413: Was the primary highway connecting Sudbury with Sault Ste. Marie. During the 1950s, however, the Ontario provincial government began work on a new route running largely to the south of the Soo Highway, which would become Ontario Highway 17 . This permanently shifted traffic away from communities near the CPR line like Turbine, High Falls, and Worthington, which quickly became ghost towns after experiencing

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3844-480: Was vacant for a number of years and began to decay. With the decline in train ridership and the rise of highway-based travel in the latter half of the 20th century, several new businesses were opened closer to the junction point of Highway 6 and Highway 17 , which many car-based travellers pass through on their way to Espanola and Manitoulin Island. The 110-year-old hotel was demolished in 2020 after being vacant for around

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