Port McNicoll, Ontario

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Port McNicoll, is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the Simcoe County township of Tay.

[edit] Busy Terminal

The community of Port McNicholl was established in 1912 as a Great Lakes port on the southern shores of Georgian Bay. It was the home port of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Great Lakes Service from 1912, when the eastern terminus of the marine operations were relocated from Owen Sound. Port McNicholl was also the western terminus of the CPR's Georgian Bay and Seaboard Railway, connecting to its Ontario and Quebec Railway, near Bethany.

Warehouses were constructed on the western side of the port for handling package freight, as well as the station for passengers, the roundhouse and railyards for servicing the trains, the community was west of the harbour. On a peninsula to the east, the railway constructed a large grain elevator for storage of grain brought in by bulk freighter, from the Canadian Lakehead. At Port McNicoll the grain was loaded into box cars, for shipment to the Port of Montreal, via Orillia and Lindsay.

[edit] The Boat Train

From 1912, Port McNicholl was home port of the CPR's passenger and package freight steamships, SS Keewatin and Flagship SS Assiniboia. The steamers would take on passengers from the "Boat train," arriving from Toronto, upbound to Port Arthur / Fort William to connect with their trains there. Downbound, the steamers would carry passengers back to Port McNicoll, returning to Toronto, via Medonte and Midhurst.

During the depression of the 1930s, the rail connection between Orillia and Lindsay, was abandoned. The CPR's older steamers, SS Alberta, SS Athabaska and SS Manitoba continued to run from Owen Sound until the mid 1930s when the Alberta and Athabaska were withdrawn from service. With an increase in the handling of package freight, these two ships were pressed into freight-only service from Port McNicoll, until the end of the war. The SS Manitoba was retired in 1950, following the SS Noronic disaster.

The SS Keewatin and SS Assiniboia continued operating until the cessation of passenger service in 1965, when they too were reduced to freight-only service. The coal burning Keewatin was withdrawn from service in November 1966, while sister ship Assiniboia, with boilers converted to burn oil years earlier, was likely the reason she lasted longer. The SS Assiniboia retired November 26, 1967.