Goderich–Exeter Railway
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| File:GEXR railway.svg | |
 GEXR #3843, an EMD GP38AC, in 2007. | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Kitchener, Ontario |
| Reporting mark | GEXR |
| Locale | Southern Ontario |
| Dates of operation | 1992– |
| Predecessor | Canadian National Railway |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Length | 181 miles (291 km) |
The Goderich–Exeter Railway (reporting mark GEXR) is a short line freight railway that operates around 181 miles (291 km)[1] of track in Southern Ontario. Created in 1992,[1] it was the first short line railway in Canada to be purchased from a class I railway, in this case Canadian National Railway (CN). It took over operation of further CN trackage in 1998. As of 2004, the railway has 44 employees. Its headquarters, formerly in Goderich, were moved to Kitchener in December 1998.
History
The Goderich–Exeter Railway was created in 1992[1] by its owner, RailTex (which has since been purchased by RailAmerica in 2000, eventually purchased by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in late 2012), to operate over Canadian National Railway's Goderich Subdivision, 70 miles (110 km) of track between Stratford and Goderich, Ontario that was acquired from CN. The railway started operation on April 3, 1992. On November 15, 1998, the Goderich–Exeter Railway took over operation of CN's Guelph Subdivision, which runs over 99 miles (159 km) between Silver Junction (in Georgetown) and London, Ontario.
The railway had expressed an interest in acquiring the former CN branchline from Stratford to Owen Sound, but was unable to do so as a result of changes to Ontario labour law which made the acquisition uneconomic.[2]
Current Roster
List of GEXR's active units (as of January 2013) Locomotive type Engine # GP 9 - 4001 GP 35 - 2211 GP 38 - 3821, 2210, 2236 GP 40 - 4095 SD 40-2 -7362, 7369 SD 45T - 9392
Inactive units GP 38 - 3834 GP 40 - 4046 SD 40 - 2652, will run in the future, bought in 2012 and will run in the near future.
Freight services
The Guelph Subdivision handled around 25,000 carloads of freight in 2008, consisting mainly of automobile parts, chemicals and grain.[1] Many industries in the area rely on rail shipments. Spur lines exist to access industrial parks in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Guelph. There is also a spur line to Elmira that serves a Uniroyal plant.
The Goderich Subdivision handles over 8,000 carloads of freight per year. Much of the traffic on the Goderich Subdivision is salt from the Sifto Canada salt mines in Goderich. Other commodities handled on the line are grain (there are some grain elevators on the route) and construction equipment produced by a Volvo Motor Graders plant in Goderich (closed 2010). It also connects with the port facility at the Port of Goderich.
Interchanges
The Goderich–Exeter Railway interchanges with CN in London and Toronto (it has running rights between Silver Junction and MacMillan yard north of Toronto to interchange cars with CN), with the Canadian Pacific Railway in Kitchener, and with the Ontario Southland Railway in Guelph.
Locomotives
As of 2005, the railway owns around a dozen locomotives, which were acquired used. Its first four locomotives, purchased between 1992 and 1994, were given names of Shakespearean characters (#177 was named "Titania", #178 "Paulina", #179 "Portia", and #180 "Falstaff"), as Stratford is the home of the Canadian Shakespearean Festival. Unit #'s 178, 179, and 180 have since been sold to other railways. The railway also leases a few locomotives. All of its locomotives were made by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and include EMD GP38s, EMD GP35s, and EMD GP40s.
External links
- Goderich-Exeter Railway shortline overview at www.cn.ca
- Goderich-Exeter railway on Genesee & Wyoming
- GEXR locomotive roster
References
- ^ a b c d "RailAmerica's Empire". Trains Magazine. Kalmbach Publishing. June 2010.
- ^ Quote: "We tried to buy a rail line in Ontario for over four years. It runs from Stratford up to Owen Sound. It was during the time the NDP was in power when there was successor rights legislation in Ontario. This meant that we would have had to take all the existing CN rail unions. We worked very diligently to accommodate rail labour in this case. We could not come to an agreement, and all that track has now been torn up."
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