Huron Central

Company History: The HCRY was launched in 1997 by the Canadian subsidiary of the Genesee & Wyoming shortline group to lease the 173 mile Canadian Pacific line from Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Most of the traffic comes from just three industries, Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, a Domtar paper mill in Espanola and Eacom Timber. As of this writing, the locomotive fleet consists of four GP40-2LW’s and a GP40-3/slug set. Locomotives from their G&W sister road Quebec-Gatineau Railway are also frequent guests. Typically, three trains per day ply the HCRY with two on Sunday. The route is quite long relative to the traffic levels and requires grants from the government of Ontario and the Canadian federal government to keep the track in usable condition. When it appeared that these funds would not be coming, Genesee & Wyoming announced their intention to shut down the Huron Central at the end of 2018. This threat produced a round of temporary funding but with that set to expire in early 2020, it looked like curtains for the HCRY. Then, Genesee & Wyoming was acquired by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and this may have caused the Canadian federal and provincial governments to reconsider. As of April, 2020, The HCRY was still running.

Successor/Parent History: Known today as the largest of the shortline holding companies, Genesee & Wyoming began as a shortline by that name in 1899 with a 15 mile line between Retsof and Caledonia, New York, just south of Rochester. In 1982, they extended southward to Greigsville by buying a former Lackawanna line from Conrail. In 1985, another purchase extended their reach north to Rochester and southwest to Silver Springs. This brought the mileage up to about 90. The Wyoming in the name is a reference to the Wyoming Valley.

In 1977, the railroad set up Genesee & Wyoming Inc. as a parent company. In 1985, they began to buy other shortlines and launch new ones as various Class One routes came up for sale or lease. Each of these lines operates under their own names but share the orange, yellow and black GNWR paint scheme, variations of which have been used by GNWR for decades. The logos of these related lines also use the GNWR style but with different wording and the occasional personalized element.

As of this writing, the Genesee & Wyoming family includes 121 shortline and regional railroads spread across North America, Europe and Australia. As of 2019, G&W became a subsidiary of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. G&W has also bought other shortline groups, notably Rail Link in 1996, Summit View (the Ohio Central System) in 2008, Rail Management in 2005,.CAGY Industries in 2008, and largest of all RailAmerica in 2012.

Ironically, the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad was merged into the Rochester & Southern in 2003. The GNWR exists as a paper railroad but the logos on the diesels patrolling the old GNWR now say Rochester & Southern or the neighboring Buffalo & Pittsburgh.

Brief History: Canada is a North American country stretching from the U.S. in the south to the Arctic Circle in the north. Major cities include massive Toronto, west coast film centre Vancouver, French-speaking Montréal and Québec City, and capital city Ottawa. Canada's vast swaths of wilderness include lake-filled Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains. It's also home to Niagara Falls, a famous group of massive waterfalls.