Ontario l’Orignal

Company History: The OLOR was launched in 1996 by the RaiLink Canada family of shortlines to take over operation of the 21 mile former Canadian National line from Hawkesbury to Glen Robertson, Ontario plus a 4 mile branch to l’Orignal. The largest customer was an Ivaco steel mill. In 2000, RaiLink Canada (which had become a subsidiary of RailAmerica the year before) sold the operation to the Société des chemins de fer du Québec shortline group who merged it into their Ottawa Central Railway.

Successor/Parent History: OCRR was launched in 1998 as a subsidiary of the Société des chemins de fer du Québec shortline group to take over operation of the 123 mile former Canadian National line between Ottawa and Pembroke, Ontario. In 2000, they purchased the 26 mile Ontario L’Orignal between Hawkesbury and Glen Robertson from RailAmerica. The OCRR also had 86 miles of trackage rights on VIA’s line from Ottawa, Ontario to Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec. Traffic on the OCRR included newsprint, forest products, paper pulp, road salt, gas, steel and scrap. The locomotive fleet included ten RS-18u’s, one M-420W and three C-424’s.

At the end of 2008, Canadian National came to an agreement with Société des chemins de fer du Québec to buy the Ottawa Central, Compagnie de gestion de Matane, Matapedia & Golfe, and New Brunswick East Coast railroads for C$50 million. Operations were then merged into CN.

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.