Lake Simcoe Junction Railway
It branched off the Toronto and Nipissing Railway at Stouffville and ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) north to the town of Sutton and then beyond to the shore of Lake Simcoe where a large wharf was built.
Service below Sutton continued through a connection to the standard gauge Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), 4 km (2.5 mi) west of the town of Zephyr.
It saw some use during the construction of Maple Leaf Gardens three years later, when a spur line was built to a gravel pit a short distance south of Sutton.
[3] In the early 1870s, businessmen in the Sutton area, about 85 kilometres (53 mi) north of Toronto, began talks with the T&N about a branch line.
[3] He agreed to design and build the LSJR for $290,000, and an initial agreement with T&N was signed on 1 December 1874 to provide rolling stock and operate the line for 25 years in exchange for 25% of the receipts, although this was not finally ratified until 19 October 1876.
The bush cut for the line was stacked and burned, heating nearby rails to the point that the crews would roast crows on them for food.
Early service was often disrupted by livestock wandering onto the lines, and upset farmers would retaliate by spreading lard on the rails on uphill sections.
The arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) at Pefferlaw only a short distance to the east the same year did the same to much of the secondary agricultural shipping business.
In 1928 the LSJR was connected to the CNoR about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the town of Zephyr, just north of Mount Albert.
[7] A spur off the remaining northern section of the line was opened to a gravel yard near Sutton, which saw significant use during the construction of Maple Leaf Gardens, starting in 1931.
It ran north-west for about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to a point just south of the Vandorf Sideroad, before turning northward to pass through the western side of Ballantrae.
From there it ran north, paralleling the modern Ontario Highway 48, passing on the west side of Mount Albert, Baldwin and then into Sutton and Jackson's Point on the lakeshore.
