The copies of the old NYC Headlight's magazines are worth the price of admission to your site. I've read them all (and remember some of them that my father brought home). The best part of the stories? Reading about guys that I knew and worked with in my PennCentral/Conrail days! Especially the stories written during WWII, and the NYC men in the RR Battalions who I later worked with. Thanks again for this great site, and please keep up your excellent work keeping the NYC alive!

Great site....I come form an old NYC family (greatgrandfather, 2 grandfathers, uncle, father, brother and myself (retired Amtrak conductor)). Thank you for efforts of keeping the NYC alive for a new generation to get to know!

I am delighted to see the CASO site back on line. It is a very valuable resource for discussion of the locomotives, rolling stock and schedules of the New York Central System, and I have cited it in many discussions on the NYC and Passenger Car Lists.

Thank you for your efforts.

Thank you....Big New York Central Fan...Cant understand why CN would remove trackage from Welland to St Thomas....then points south west to Windsor....This track was the fastest way west X Niagara falls/Buffalo NY to Detroit....Heavy rail/Flat roadway/Fast trains....Now just a memory.

Very nice site, keep it going please. Yes I will donate before Feb 2012

My son made me aware of this site. It is fabulous. the railway lines in lambton county (born and raised) that are depicted on this site are somewhat known to me. tkx.

Yup, the CASO has been abandoned from Windsor to Fargo... I noticed there was no maintainance since spring... I believe CN is using the old C and O line from Chatham to access the grain elevators in Blenheim now so there is no reason to keep the line...Bloody sad.

Does anyone know if the wigwag signal is still there by Tilbury? THAT definately has to be preserved as it could very well be the last one in Canada...

We are going to be very, very sorry in a decade or two that we abandoned highly engineered main lines like the CASO as the oil dries up and trucking becomes increasingly expensive.

Great site...I really enjoy reading the old NYC Headlight magazines, I remember them when my father (who worked on the NYC in Albany) brought them home. Please keep up the good work.

this is a great site. It's too bad that CN has quit running the CASO altogether they're now running on the VIA line out to London. I would love to see whats left of this line presserved and used as a tourist line instead of being turned into trails.

The site is very nice. You have put in a lot of work.

Thanks

Thank you for all your hard work.

Back in the early 1980's, I started to acquire a significant ownership position in the Canada Southern Railway. I had acquired most of the shares on the public market (Montreal Stock Exchange) at about $ 65 per share. I knew that Penn Central wanted to buy out the minority shareholders of CASO as the CASO has an outstanding lawsuit against the Penn. The suit alleged non-payment on a gold bond issue.

A special purpose corporation was set up to acquire the minority. Penn thought it would be easier to buy out the shareholders than settle the litigation. The deal was being managed by Pope and Company, a legendary brokerage firm based in Toronto that helped CP clear up owenrship issues with the various leased lines companies.

In the offer documents prepared by Penn, it went into great detail on the through traffic rental income and the condition of the rail and bridges. The line was profitable and it regularly paid dividends. As for the rail, it was heavy weight rail and other than some brush clearing, ballast and the occassional tie replacement, the line was in good shape.

At the time the offer was done, I was the largeest non-insider owner of the company.

Following the takeover, Penn sold the newly acquired line to CN-CP so each could get access to the two main assets, the Windsor Tunnel and the Niagara River Bridge. The net cost of the takeover less the proceeds from the sale to CN-CP saved them millions.

What a great site with many wonderful photo's! Sad to see all that's left is the old raised railway beds in this area. Your photo's are a great trip back through time to when the iron horse was king.
P.S. I can still hear the old TH&B local (CP Rail) making its way from Welland to Port Maitland regulary.

Great site. I have learned a lot about the rails near my hometown in the Sarnia area.

Thank you very much for maintaining an excellent site. The information that I have been able to retrieve regarding NYC System exceeds that of the NYCRRHS site.

Terry,

Fantastic resource you have developed here! I am currently working for CP out of Elkhart on their Windsor-Chicago trackage rights trains and was glad to find your website to help educate me on what I'm seeing.

Best,
Mike

Great website with a wealth of information ! I refer to it often for historical information and modeling information. I am sending a donation (check) to help keep the site open. The site is more informative than the New York Central System Historical Society website. Keep up the good work !!

Have long been curious about the history of the Canada Southern. Have watched the le&n, the l&ps, the cp branch to port burwell and other lines disppear - seems the most we can hope for is museum status. Visited the st thomas depot in 1950 (was 16(!) = the experience stayed with me.

Thanks for the wealth of information, I have used the site for gleaning ideas from the historic photos. I will make a donation and hope others will too.

Chris

This site is absolutely invaluable to anyone interested in the CASO and the NYC in general. I too have made a donation to show my support and that my support is more than just talk!

Jim Yaworsky