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Oshawa Community
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Oshawa Railway Co.
The Oshawa Railway played a significant part in Oshawa’s
development, both industrially and residentially. Its origin was
brought into to being through three men: W.C. Rathbun, R.C. Carter,
both of the Rathbun Lumber Co., and Eli Edmondson. Edmondson was
a businessman himself and started an electric light and power plant
on the site of a mill, originally owned by Edmondson, which had burned
down. The plant furnished the power for the street railway in
its early days and had signed a contract to do so for 10 years.
At the time of its inception there were 9 miles of
main line, 2 miles of second track, and 1 mile of siding and ran from
the lake north to Rossland Rd. Fares for passengers were 6 cents
or five tickets for 25 cents. The Oshawa Railway was to be used
for both passenger and freight service, but in the beginning, it did
not earn much profit due to the small population and few industries.
As the growth of the industries grew, so did the profits for the business.
Freight service was available right down to the pier at the harbour
as the tracks would go down to the lake and up to the grain elevators.
The first freight delivery was an order of sheet metal to the Pedlar
Metal Roofing Co. Dr. D.S. Hoig described the railway as,
“showing itself to one of the most valuable institution ever settled
among us.” The Railway continued to operate and between the years 1920-30,
improvements were made to the actual railway: Hydro replaced the
old power generator, new locomotives were added, and new steel poles
replaced the old wooden ones. By now there were 18 miles of track
with 6 freight cars, and 8 passenger cars.
The replacement of the old power generator was a blessing because when the cars were running, house lights would lose power and dim. When the lights were all on in the houses, the service of the railway suffered and it often stopped entirely during cold and wet weather. The final street car run was on
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