Flush with cash from the merger, the new company built the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway to the CPR at North Bay in 1886.

The H&NW's Collingwood branch was considered sub-par and the subject of jokes, but it was not until 1955 that CNR finally received permission to stop daily service along it.

Through the middle of the 19th century, the growing cities of Hamilton and Toronto were in a constant battle for resources in order to establish themselves as the industrial capital of Upper Canada.

This included the city of Hamilton, which pledged $100,000 if the railway would run along Beach Strip, which they were developing as a recreational site.

[3] The announcement caused the Northern to begin plans for their own expansions in the area, approaching the same towns with offers to build new lines.

The lines continued for a short distance past the station to the Collingwood Milling Company on the lakeshore, and there were plans to extend this onto a wharf with a large grain silo to compete with the Northern's on the east end of town.

[6] The two railways eventually came to an agreement to share the waterfront and the grain elevator and the H&NW built a bridge over the river to connect to the PD&LH.

[6] With the completion of the Collingwood and Port Dover portions in 1878, the network now provided a route that connected lakes Huron, Simcoe, Ontario and Erie.

[2] In 1884, the Silverbrook Tramway chartered to build a short connection westward from Tioga station to a lumber mill.

As the railhead began to approach North Bay, a new railway rush broke out to connect the CP line to Toronto.

The Northern was an obvious choice as a starting point as by this time they had constructed an extension to Bracebridge, Ontario and had most of the good routes west of Lake Simcoe locked up.

The merger with the H&NW provided the capital and cashflow needed to build the remaining section, the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway, which reached North Bay in 1886.

The next year, the rapidly expanding Grand Trunk purchased a controlling interest in the N&NW, and completed the takeover on 24 January 1888.

Service along the H&NW route was reduced from two to one trains a day, and in 1930 the passenger stations at Duntroon and Glen Huron were closed.

The rails were very lightweight at 56 pound/yard, and it was said the contractor saved money by backfilling with trees which then rotted and left the line in very rough condition.

[4] The northern section was used only briefly until April 1960,[11] mostly between Collingwood and Glen Huron for the Hamilton Brothers lumber yard.

Between August 1955 and January 1957, a 4-6-4 "Baltic" tank engine was used for this service as it eliminated the tender which made operations somewhat simpler.

A second wye about a block east of the split connected it the Hamilton and Lake Erie, which ran south through town.

The mainline continues roughly northward out of Georgetown to Inglewood station, turns north-northeast through Palgrave, then north again through Tottenham and into Beeton.

The Collingwood spur runs northwest from Allmil through Alliston and on to Everett where it begins a more northerly route to Tioga.

It provides a crossover route from what was formerly the Hamilton and Toronto along the lakeshore, and the Grand Trunk Railway running to Guelph further north.