1.
London, Ontario
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London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 383,822 according to the 2016 Canadian census, London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximately halfway between Toronto, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. The City of London is a municipality, politically separate from Middlesex County. London and the Thames were named in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe, the first European settlement was between 1801 and 1804 by Peter Hagerman. The village was founded in 1826 and incorporated in 1855, since then, London has grown to be the largest Southwestern Ontario municipality and Canadas 11th largest metropolitan area, having annexed many of the smaller communities that surrounded it. London is a centre of health care and education, being home to the University of Western Ontario, Fanshawe College. Londons university and hospitals are among its top ten employers, London lies at the junction of Highway 401 and 402, connecting it to Toronto, Windsor, and Sarnia. It also has an airport, train and bus station. Prior to European contact in the 18th century, the present site of London was occupied by several Neutral, Odawa, archaeological investigations in the region indicate that aboriginal people have resided in the area for at least the past 10,000 years. The current location of London was selected as the site of the capital of Upper Canada in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. Simcoe intended to name the settlement Georgina, in honour of King George III, however, the choice of a capital site in the midst of extensive hardwood forests was rejected by Guy Carleton. In 1814, there was a skirmish during the War of 1812 in what is now southwest London at Reservoir Hill, the village of London, named after the English capital of London, was not founded until 1826, and not as the capital Simcoe envisioned. Rather, it was a seat for the area west of the actual capital. At the time, Crown and clergy reserves were receiving preference in the rest of Ontario, in 1832, the new settlement suffered an outbreak of cholera. London proved a centre of strong Tory support during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, London was incorporated as a town in 1840. On 13 April 1845, fire destroyed much of London, which was at the time largely constructed of wooden buildings, one of the first casualties was the towns only fire engine. This fire burned nearly 30 acres of land destroying 150 buildings before burning itself out later the same day, one-fifth of London was destroyed and this was the provinces first million dollar fire. Sir John Carling, Tory MP for London, gave three events to explain the development of London in a 1901 speech
2.
Reporting mark
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A reporting mark is an alphabetic code of one to four letters used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain railroad networks. In North America the mark, which consists of an code of one to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment. The Association of American Railroads assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U. S, surface Transportation Board, Transport Canada, and Mexican Government. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name, as it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code, the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. In another example, the mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX because the state transportation agency owns the equipment used in these services. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation, which is a railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR, the standard ISO6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When the owner of a mark is taken over by another company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway in the 1990s, some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If the acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas, CMO originally belonged to a predecessor of the CNW, which passed it on to them, from which the UP inherited it. Some of these still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on the first letter of the reporting mark, railinc, a subsidiary of the AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Railinc offers a free online look-up of reporting marks and other industry reference files through the Railincs Freight Rail 411 website, a railway vehicle must be registered in a national vehicle register using a 12-digit number derived from the old UIC system of vehicle numbering. The number contains the country in the third and fourth digit. The VKM must not contain special signs or digits, the VKM is preceded by the code for the country, where the vehicle is registered and a hyphen. Some examples, When a vehicle is sold it does not normally be transferred to another register, the Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD, the UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number
3.
Southern Ontario
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Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, situated south of Algonquin Park, it covers between 14 and 15% of the province, depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts. The region is home to one-third of Canadas population, Southern Ontario differs greatly from Northern Ontario, in that it has a larger population, different climate, and different culture than its northern counterpart. It is broken into smaller subregions, including Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Southwestern Ontario, Southern Ontario is part of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, which extends northeast into Quebec. Southern Ontario can be distinguished from Northern Ontario because it is far more densely populated and contains the majority of the cities, major roads. Northern Ontario, in contrast, contains natural resources and remote wilderness. Although it has no coastline, the region has an abundance of freshwater coastlines on three Great Lakes, as well as smaller lakes such as Lake Simcoe and Lake St. Clair. It is a vineyard region and producer of Canadian wines. Territorial Southern Ontario was explored and colonized by the French in the 17th century, Southern Ontario was where a large portion of the battles took place during the War of 1812, and was a major destination for escaping slaves using the underground railroad. Following the enactment of Prohibition in the United States in 1919, Southern Ontario is home to over 94%, or 12.1 million, of Ontarios total population of 12.9 million people, compared to approximately 750,000 in Northern Ontario. For thousands of years, Ontario has been home to aboriginal communities. Over 200,000 aboriginal Canadians live in Southern Ontario today, Southern Ontario was colonized by the French and the British. Since the late 20th century, many immigrants have come from Asia, the region is one of the top destinations for immigrants worldwide, particularly the Greater Toronto Area. The area has a manufacturing sector. Since the mid-2000s, Ontario has produced more vehicles per year than the state of Michigan, in a cross-border definition, a swath of Southern Ontario could be considered a part of the Rust Belt. Factory closings because of restructuring, globalization have for the past few decades taken their toll. This is most evident in the southern tier cities which have large automobile or associated industrial bases, such as Windsor, London, St. Thomas. Still affected by these factors but to an extent is Hamilton, the centre of steel production, and Sarnia
4.
Canadian National Railway
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The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec that serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CNs slogan is North Americas Railroad, CN is a public company with 24,000 employees. It had a capitalization of 32 billion CAD in 2011. CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding to its privatization in 1995, bill Gates was, in 2011, the largest single shareholder of CN stock. Its range once reached across the island of Newfoundland until 1988, the railway was referred to as the Canadian National Railways between 1918 and 1960, and as Canadian National/Canadien National from 1960 to the present. On November 17,1995, the government privatized CN. Over the next decade, the company expanded significantly into the United States, purchasing Illinois Central Railroad and Wisconsin Central Transportation, now primarily a freight railway, CN also operated passenger services until 1978, when they were assumed by Via Rail. The Newfoundland mixed trains lasted until 1988, while the Montreal commuter trains are now operated by Montreals AMT, the absorption of the Intercolonial Railway would see CNR adopt that systems slogan The Peoples Railway. The federal governments Department of Railways and Canals took over operation of the GTPR until July 12,1920, the Canadian National Railway was organized on October 10,1922. After several years of arbitration, the GTR was absorbed into CNR on January 30,1923, Canadian National Railways was born out of both wartime and domestic urgency. Railways, until the rise of the automobile and creation of taxpayer-funded all-weather highways, were the only viable long-distance land transportation available in Canada for many years. As such, their operation consumed a great deal of public, in the early 20th century, many governments were taking a more interventionist role in the economy, foreshadowing the influence of economists like John Maynard Keynes. This political trend, combined with broader geo-political events, made nationalization an appealing choice for Canada, the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and allied involvement in the Russian Revolution seemed to validate the continuing process. The need for a rail system was paramount in a time of civil unrest. CN Telegraph originated as the Great North West Telegraph Company in 1880 to connect Ontario and Manitoba, in 1915, facing bankruptcy, GNWTC was acquired by the Canadian Northern Railways telegraph company. When Canadian Northern was nationalized in 1918 and amalgamated into Canadian National Railways in 1921, CN Telegraphs began co-operating with its Canadian Pacific owned rival CPR Telegraphs in the 1930s, sharing telegraph networks and co-founding a teleprinter system in 1957. In 1967 the two services were amalgamated into a joint venture CNCP Telecommunications which evolved into a telecoms company, CN sold its stake of the company to CP in 1984. This led to the creation of a network of CNR radio stations across the country, as anyone in the vicinity of a station could hear its broadcasts the networks audience extended far beyond train passengers to the public at large
5.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
6.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
7.
Hamilton, Ontario
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Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Residents of the old city are known as Hamiltonians, since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario. Hamilton is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, McMaster University is ranked 4th in Canada and 94th in the world by Times Higher Education Rankings 2015-16 and has a well-known medical school. Possibly because of its environment, numerous TV and film productions have been filmed in Hamilton, regulated by the Hamilton Film. A growing arts and culture community garnered media attention in 2006 when the Globe and Mail published an article called Go West, the article highlighted local art galleries, recording studios and independent film production. In pre-colonial times, the Neutral Indians used much of the land but were driven out by the Five Nations who were allied with the British against the Huron. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy provided the route and name for Mohawk Road, which originally included King Street in the lower city. In 1784, about 10,000 United Empire Loyalists settled in Upper Canada, chiefly in Niagara, around the Bay of Quinte, and along the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and Montreal. They were soon followed by many more Americans, some of not so much ardent loyalists but attracted nonetheless by the availability of inexpensive. At the same time, large numbers of Iroquois loyal to Britain arrived from the United States and were settled on reserves west of Lake Ontario. The town of Hamilton was conceived by George Hamilton, when he purchased farm holdings of James Durand, nathaniel Hughson, a property owner to the north, cooperated with George Hamilton to prepare a proposal for a courthouse and jail on Hamiltons property. Hamilton offered the land to the crown for the future site, Durand was empowered by Hughson and Hamilton to sell property holdings which later became the site of the town. As he had instructed, Durand circulated the offers at York during a session of the Legislative Assembly. Initially, this town was not the most important centre of the Gore District, a permanent jail was not constructed until 1832 when a cut-stone design was completed on one of the two squares created in 1816, Princes Square. Subsequently, the first police board and the limits were defined by statute on February 13,1833. Official City status was achieved on June 9,1846, by an act of Parliament,9 Victoria Chapter 73, the city had several interurban electric street railways and two inclines, all powered by the Cataract Power Co. Though suffering through the Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, allan Skyway in 1958, and the first Tim Hortons store in 1964. Since then, many of the industries have moved or shut down operations and the economy has shifted more toward the service sector, such as transportation, education
8.
Short-line railroad
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Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line. A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada, in the U. S. railroads are categorized by operating revenue, and most shortline railroads fall into the Class III or Class II categorization defined by the Surface Transportation Board. Often, short lines exist for all three of these reasons, especially since 1980 in the U. S. and 1990 in Canada, many shortlines have been established when larger railroad companies sold off or abandoned low-profit portions of their trackage. Because of their size and generally low revenues, the great majority of shortline railroads in the U. S. are classified by the Association of American Railroads as Class III. As defined by the Surface Transportation Board, a Class III is a railroad with an operating revenue of less than $28 million. In Canada, Transport Canada classifies short line railroads as Class II, there are three kinds of shortlines in the U. S. handling, switch, and ISS. Handling shortlines exist only to move cars along their tracks for larger railroads and they are not listed in the route on a railcars waybill. Handling short lines may have agreements with the larger railroads they serve that do not depend on per car rates. Switch shortlines are similar to handling shortlines except that they are listed on a railcars route, ISS shortlines operate the same as Class I and II railroads. They are included in the routes of railcars, also, they serve as the billing railroads for loads that originate on their lines. For loads not originating on their lines, ISS shortlines still collect a portion of the freight rate. Current short line railroads in operation in the U. S. are, It was reported in 2009 that short-line railroads employ 20,000 people in the U. S. and own 30 percent of nations railroad tracks. About a quarter of all U. S. rail freight travels at least a part of its journey over a short-line railroad. Class I railroad Class II railroad List of U. S. railroads List of Canadian railroads List of Mexican railroads Switching and terminal railroad American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association
9.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
10.
Genesee & Wyoming
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The company had its roots in the Class III Genesee and Wyoming Railroad, which began in 1899. Genesee and Wyoming Railroad, predecessor of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was purchased out of bankruptcy in 1899 by Edward L. Fuller. At that time, the railroad was operating as a 14.5 miles long line serving a single customer. It was still operating the line for the salt mine when Mortimer B. Fuller III, great grandson of Edward L. Fuller. The holding company, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Inc. was organized during the year. With deregulation of the industry by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. Genesee & Wyoming acquired several of these short line railroads, scattered across the United States and its acquisitions began including railroads in other countries in 1997. In November 1997 Genesee & Wyoming purchased the South Australian freight operations of Australian National, in October 2000 Australian Railroad Group, a 50/50 joint venture between Genesee & Wyoming and Wesfarmers, were the successful bidder for the Westrail freight business in Western Australia. As part of the joint venture agreement, ownership of Australian Southern Railroad passed to Australian Railroad Group, in July 2003, the Carolina Coastal Railway, operated by G&W subsidiary Rail Link, Inc. was sold to Main Line Rail Management, Inc. On May 26,2005, G&W announced that it has agreed to purchase the operations of Rail Management Corporation. G&W paid $243 million in cash and assume $1.7 million in debt to gain control of 14 short line railroads from RMC across the southeastern United States. As of the close of 2005, Genesee and Wyoming had 2,330 employees in North America and that year, Hurricane Stan wiped out several miles of Genesee & Wyoming track in Mexico. In 2006, the Mexican government agreed to pay 75 percent of the costs, or $15 million. At the same time Wesfarmers sold its 50% share in the South Australian operation back to Genesee & Wyoming Inc for $15 million, the operation was rebranded Genesee & Wyoming Australia. Also in 2006, Genesee & Wyoming elected to write off most of the value of its Bolivian operation, on fears that the Bolivian government would soon nationalize privately held railroads there, Genesee & Wyoming remains an investor in Empresa Ferroviaria Oriental, S. A. This 1,400 miles rail line was the longest the company has leased, the deal was closed on 1 September 2011. On February 24,2015, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it has agreed to acquire approximately 95% of the shares of Freightliner Group Limited, the deal was approved by Providence & Worcester shareholders in October, and the Surface Transportation Board approved the acquisition in December. On February 7,2017, Genesee & Wyoming announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase the Heart of Georgia Railroad, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns controlling interests in 122 freight railroads, either directly or through subsidiaries, which are organized into 11 operating regions
11.
Brantford
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Brantford is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River. It is the seat of Brant County, but it is politically separate with a government independent of the county, Brantford is sometimes known as the Telephone City, former city resident Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone at his fathers home, the Bell Homestead. In 1876 he conducted the first long-distance telephone call, making it from Brantford to Paris, Brantford is also the birthplace of hockey player Wayne Gretzky, comedian Phil Hartman, as well as Group of Seven member Lawren Harris. Brantford is named after Joseph Brant, an important Mohawk chief during the American Revolutionary War and later, many of his and other First Nations citizens live on the neighbouring reserve of Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, the most populous reserve in Canada. This town, like the rest of their settlements, was destroyed when the Iroquois declared war in 1650 over the fur trade, in 1784, Captain Joseph Brant and the Six Nations Indians of the Iroquois Confederacy left New York State for Canada. As a reward for their loyalty to the British Crown, they were given a land grant, referred to as the Haldimand Tract. The original Mohawk settlement was on the edge of the present-day city at a location favourable for landing canoes. Brants crossing of the river gave the name to the area. By 1847, European settlers began to further up the river at a ford in the Grand River. The Mohawk Chapel, built in the original Mohawk settlement, is Ontarios oldest Protestant church, Brantford was incorporated as a city in 1877. The history of the Brantford region from 1793 to 1920 is described at length in the book At The Forks of The Grand, decades later and particularly since the late 20th century, numerous scholarly and artistic works have explored the detrimental effects of the schools in destroying Native cultures. Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools, a number of historic monuments have been erected within the city marking those events and Brantfords contributions to the Commonwealths defense of the realm. Her Majestys Royal Chapel of the Mohawks is located in Brantford and is an important reminder of the agreements made with Queen Anne in 1710. After the American Revolution, in 1784, Sir Frederick Haldimond granted the Six Nations their land treaty which was six miles on side of the river from the mouth to the source. Joseph Brant led a group of Six Nations members to new settlement called the Mohawk Village, the Mohawk Chapel was built in 1785 as a reminder of the original agreements made with the British. In 1904 the Mohawk Chapel received Royal status for the alliance between the British and Six Nations. He developed early improvements to it in 1876, as part of the invention and development of the telephone, Canadas first telephone factory was built here, and the city was called Brantford, The Telephone City. These buildings constituted one of the longest blocks of pre-Confederation architecture in Canada, included in the list of demolitions were one of Ontarios first grocery stores and an early 1890s office of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada, now Bell Canada
12.
RailAmerica
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RailAmerica, Inc. based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group, before that, it traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol RRA. It was relisted in October 2009 with the ticker symbol RA, in April 2011, RailAmerica made its first shortline purchase in over five years by initiating a deal with Gulf and Ohio Railways to acquire three Alabama shortlines for $12.7 million. On July 23,2012, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. announced that it intended to purchase RailAmerica in a deal valued at $1.39 billion, approval of the purchase was granted by the U. S. Surface Transportation Board on December 19,2012, while awaiting the decision, Genesee & Wyoming put RailAmerica control in the hands of a trust. They assumed control on December 28,2012 and the company was in the process of integration to G&W. RailAmerica controlled the following railroads. In addition to those listed below, RailAmericas prior owner, Fortress Investment Group, RailAmerica, RailAmerica Selected to Acquire Four Railroads from Alcoa, Additionally Announces Lease with CSX Transportation for the 48 Mile Fremont Branch
13.
Paris, Ontario
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Paris, Ontario is a community on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. The town was established in 1850, in 1999, its town government was amalgamated into that of the County of Brant, thus ending 149 years as a separate incorporated municipality. The town was first settled on May 7,1829, when its founder, Hiram Capron, bought the land for $10,000, the town of Paris was officially established in 1856. Paris was named for the deposits of gypsum, used to make plaster of Paris. Paris is referred to as the capital of Canada. Paris, Ontario is located at 43°12′N 80°23′W, Paris is also the transmitter site for a number of broadcast radio and TV stations serving the Brantford and Kitchener-Waterloo areas. The actual tower site is 475 Ayr Road, just south of the town of Ayr and it was officially the main transmitter for the southern Ontario Global network until 2009, when its Toronto rebroadcaster was redesignated as the main transmitter. Global leases space on the Ayr tower for broadcast clients including Conestoga Colleges campus radio station CJIQ-FM as well as local rebroadcasters of the CBCs Toronto-based outlets, the town hosts an annual Fall Fair which takes place over the Labour Day weekend. The Fair features over 100,000 rural lifestyle exhibits, a midway complete with games, rides. Canadas #1 demolition derby attracts drivers from across Ontario, the Fair is also host to country music nights and have included big name acts such as Montgomery Gentry, Gord Bamford, Emerson Drive, Chad Brownlee, Deric Ruttan and Kira Isabella. Paris is also the northernmost community to participate in Southern Ontarios Green Energy Hub, barkers Bush is a historic network of community walking/biking trails, rare Carolinian forest, thriving ecosystem and natural corridors. Its main access is through Lions Park, Paris Fairgrounds is Brant Countys Foremost Year Round Event Facility and home to the 5 day Labour Day Weekend Fair. Paris Speedway Track There´s local Motorcycle Speedway Track in Paris, where some national Venues are held, quite famous Riders there were John Kehoe and Kyle Legault. Public schools in Paris are administered by the Grand Erie District School Board, the town also has a Montessori Childrens Academy. Paris Central Public School is a school that is located near the centre of downtown. Children are close to major town attractions, north Ward School, another public elementary school, is located on Silver Street in the north end of the town. Other elementary schools include Holy Family Elementary School and Cobblestone Elementary School, Paris District High School, founded 1923, is a regional public high school in the town, with over 1005 students. The school serves as a secondary school for Paris and various other communities of Brant County, including Burford, St. George
14.
Canadian Pacific Railway
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The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known formerly as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a restructuring in 2001. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 20,000 kilometres of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, the railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885, fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canadas first transcontinental railway, but no longer reaches the Atlantic coast, the CPR became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978, a beaver was chosen as the railways logo because it is the national symbol of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company. The company acquired two American lines in 2009, the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago, the trackage of the ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP and its U. S. headquarters are in Minneapolis. The creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task undertaken for a combination of reasons by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. He was helped by Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, who was the owner of the North Western Coal and his company went through several name changes during the process of the construction of the railway. British Columbia, a sea voyage away from the East Coast, had insisted upon a land transport link to the East as a condition for joining Confederation. The government however proposed to build a railway linking the Pacific province to the Eastern provinces within 10 years of 20 July 1871, Macdonald saw it as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the continent. Moreover, manufacturing interests in Quebec and Ontario wanted access to raw materials, the first obstacle to its construction was political. The logical route went through the American Midwest and the city of Chicago, to ensure this routing, the government offered huge incentives including vast grants of land in the West. Because of this scandal, the Conservative Party was removed from office in 1873, surveying was carried out during the first years of a number of alternative routes in this virgin territory followed by construction of a telegraph along the lines that had been agreed upon. The Thunder Bay section linking Lake Superior to Winnipeg was commenced in 1875, by 1880, around 1,000 kilometres was nearly complete, mainly across the troublesome Canadian Shield terrain, with trains running on only 500 kilometres of track. With Macdonalds return to power on 16 October 1878, an aggressive construction policy was adopted. Macdonald confirmed that Port Moody would be the terminus of the transcontinental railway, in 1879, the federal government floated bonds in London and called for tenders to construct the 206 km section of the railway from Yale, British Columbia, to Savonas Ferry, on Kamloops Lake
15.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
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Surface Transportation Board
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The Surface Transportation Board of the United States is a bipartisan, decisionally-independent adjudicatory body organizationally housed within the U. S. Department of Transportation. The STB was established in 1996 to assume some of the functions that had been administered by the Interstate Commerce Commission when the ICC was abolished. Other ICC regulatory functions were eliminated or transferred to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics within DOT. The Board has wide discretion, through its authority from federal, state and local laws. The Board provides a forum for the resolution of surface-transportation disputes and it has the authority to limit or remove regulatory requirements where appropriate. The Board is composed of three members nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms, the Board’s chairman is designated by the President from among the members. As its chief executive, the coordinates and organizes the agency’s work and acts as its representative in legislative matters. Chairman Elliott is in his term at the Board, having previously served as the agency’s chairman from August 13,2009 until December 31,2014. The vice chairman represents the Board and assumes the duties as appropriate. Additionally, the vice chairman oversees matters involving the admission, discipline and she was designated vice chairman, served as acting chairman, and was again designated vice chairman on January 7,2016, in the agency’s annual rotation of the vice chairmanship. Ann D. Begeman was sworn in May 2,2011, as a member of the Board, assisting the Board in carrying out its responsibilities is a staff of 150 with experience in economics, law, accounting, transportation analysis, finance and administration. The Office of Economics analyzes rate cases, conducts economic and financial analyses of the railroad industry, the Office of the Managing Director handles administrative matters such as personnel, budget and information technology. The Office of Proceedings is an office, consisting almost entirely of attorneys and paralegal specialists. The office applies the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended by the ICC Termination Act of 1995, the Office of the General Counsel responds to questions on a variety of legal issues. However, its mission is two-fold, to defend the STBs decisions in court. Unlike most Federal agencies, the STB has independent litigating authority, STB and DOJ attorneys, in most cases, jointly defend the agencys decisions, with the STBs attorneys preparing written briefs and presenting oral arguments on behalf of the Federal Government. In performing defensibility assessments, OGC attorneys meet with other STB staff to discuss cases before draft decisions are prepared, defensibility assessments are key to issuing sound decisions that are less likely to be challenged and, if challenged, are more likely to be upheld
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BNSF Railway
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The BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroad networks in North America, second to the Union Pacific Railroad, and is one of seven North American Class I railroads. It has 44,000 employees,32,500 miles of track in 28 states and it has three transcontinental routes that provide rail links between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad, the BNSF and UP have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western U. S. and share trackage rights over thousands of miles of track. According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America, for instance, the railroad hauls enough coal to generate roughly ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the railroad is an owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company, on January 24,2005, the railroads name was officially changed to BNSF Railway, using the initials of its original name. The United States Surface Transportation Board placed a 15-month moratorium on all rail mergers, the company is investing an estimated $34 billion in BNSF and acquiring $10 billion in debt. On February 12,2010, shareholders of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation voted in favor of the acquisition, BNSFs history dates back to 1849, when the Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed. The Aurora Branch eventually grew into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a portion of the Pacific Railroad became the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was chartered in 1859 and it built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California, major branches led to Texas, Denver, and San Francisco. The Interstate Commerce Commission denied a proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in the 1980s and it absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1980. Its main lines included Chicago-Seattle with branches to Texas and Montgomery, Alabama, on June 30,1994, BN and ATSF announced plans to merge, they were the largest and smallest of the Super Seven, the seven largest of the then-twelve U. S. The long-rumored announcement was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation and this announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the Super Seven were merged down to four in the next five years. The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway, two of the five small Class Is, announced on July 19 that the former would buy the latter, but this plan was called off on October 25. The Union Pacific Railroad, another major Western system, started a war with BN for control of the SF on October 5. The UP gave up on January 31,1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger, subsequently, the UP acquired the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1996, and Eastern systems CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway split Conrail in 1998. UP was satisfied with a segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas to Superior, Nebraska. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha, East St. Louis, and Memphis, in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans
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Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway
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The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a short line railway operating in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. CBNS operates of main line and associated spurs between Truro in the part of the province to Sydney on Cape Breton Island. The rail lines operated by CBNS were previously owned by the Canadian National Railway, CBNS began operations in 1994 after the rail lines was purchased in October 1993 by the holding company RailTex. The purchase and operation of route made CBNS one of the first short line railways to operate a route previously owned by a Canadian Class I railroad. On February 4,2000, RailTex and all of its assets, on December 12,2012, RailAmerica and all of its assets, including CBNS, were sold to the holding company Genesee & Wyoming. The CBNS main line crosses varied scenery in central and eastern Nova Scotia including mixed farmland, river valleys, forests, the main line skirts various inlets of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and crosses the Strait of Canso to Cape Breton Island using the Canso Causeway. On Cape Breton Island the main line crosses the North Bras dOr Uplands before skirting the shores of Bras dOr Lake along the Boisdale Hills to Sydney. CBNS maintains the two subdivisions over this line as did its previous owner Canadian National Railway, Hopewell Subdivision running from Truro in the west to Havre Boucher in the east. Spurs at Stellarton to Abercrombie and New Glasgow to Trenton, Sydney Subdivision running from Havre Boucher in the west to Sydney in the east. Spurs at Port Hawkesbury to Point Tupper and Jefferson to Edwardsville, the line interchanges with the Sydney Coal Railway, formerly the Devco Railway, at Sydney, and with CN at Truro. Yards are maintained at Sydney, North Sydney, Point Tupper, Havre Boucher, Stellarton, the railroads business is primarily transporting coal, metal products, paper products, chemicals, drywall products and limestone. CBNS transported approximately 22,000 car loads in 2008, the section of the Sydney Subdivision from Port Hawkesbury to Sydney has undergone a significant decline in traffic since CN sold the entire route to RailTex in 1993. The first decline occurred in 1997, when CN stopped routing Terra Transport container traffic bound for Newfoundland via the Marine Atlantic ferry service at North Sydney, following railway abandonment in 1988, the containers remained on the truck chassis for delivery by truck. This change resulted in the loss of thousands of car loads per year, the railway retains several small industrial customers and wholesalers that create a combined 1,500 car loads per year east of Port Hawkesbury. The financial uncertainty of the Sydney Subdivision saw CBNS apply in 2004 to the Nova Scotia Utility and this resulted in Vias decision to permanently cancel the Bras dOr at the end of the 2004 operating season. In return, CBNS withdrew its application to the NSUARB for permission to abandon this section of its main line, a one-year extension of this subsidy was approved by the government in September 2010 that was retroactive to April 2010. On 3 October 2011, it was announced that the government had agreed to continue the subsidy for three years, allowing RailAmerica access to $2 million over the timespan of the deal. Freight service for this section of the line is currently provided by a small twice-weekly freight train that operates as a round trip between Sydney and Port Hawkesbury
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Central Maine and Quebec Railway
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The Central Maine & Québec Railway is a Class III freight railroad operating in the U. S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec with headquarters in New York, NY. It is owned by Railroad Acquisition Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group, LLC. Its United States operations are named the Central Maine & Québec Railway US Incorporated with offices in New York, NY, and was registered with the Surface Transportation Board on February 14,2014. Its Canadian operations are named the Central Maine and Québec Railway Canada Incorporated with offices in Sherbrooke, QC, the company received protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code and under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada to oversee the sale of assets. In February 2014 RAH announced that it had formed the CMQ to become the entity of the rail lines. CM&Q received its certificate of fitness from the Canadian Transportation Agency on June 24,2014, in March 2014, John E. Giles of RAH drove the length of the line, visiting communities and industries served by the railway and inspecting the condition of tracks and installations. He estimated a $10–20 million investment would be needed over three years to repair the line, currently in poor condition and not safe for the transport of oil or dangerous goods. In August 2015,15 empty boxcars of a CMQR freight train derailed at a siding in Farnham, the CMQ proposal did not account for the operation of passenger excursions that had been operated by Maine Eastern, ending 11 years of successful operations along the Maine coast. The company planned to transport of crude oil by rail in January 2016. The CMQ owns and operates the rail lines, Searsport Subdivision Millinocket Subdivision East Millinocket Subdivision Madawaska Subdivision K. I. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad / Lennoxville, QC Washington County Railroad Newport, VT Orford Express, an independently owned tourist train on part of the CM&QR line Official website
Media related to Southern Ontario Railway at Wikimedia Commons
