An earlier 1906 plan for a Sudbury, Copper Cliff, and Creighton Electric Railway that would have connected the two centres with the now-abandoned mining town of Creighton had been discarded after heavy opposition from Copper Cliff merchants, who feared the decline of the town's commercial core due to competition with Sudbury, which had over six times as many businesses.

[14] Similarly, the West End neighbourhood grew extensively around this time along the Copper Cliff Road and Regent Street corridors.

Shortly after, it was purchased for a symbolic $1 by the financier Paul Desmarais, who used it as a platform for buying up a number of bus lines throughout Ontario, allowing him to launch his business empire.

The westerly (and busiest) route ran a short distance from the Elm/Durham intersection to Lorne Street, where it turned south and entered dedicated trackage along the east side of the road.

After about 100 metres (330 ft), the streetcar line and the road angled southwest, running parallel to the Canadian Pacific Railway's Webbwood Subdivision.

At Gatchell, the streetcar line split into two tracks opposite Tuddenham Street to facilitate the passing of cars in rush hour.

This line was entirely single-track and operated for a short distance in the middle of Notre Dame Avenue before entering its own right-of-way on the east side of the road parallel to the CP Stobie Spur.

This odd arrangement was rumoured to have existed to ensure the carline's passage by a liquor store owned by a controlling interest in the SCCSER, but was more likely done to avoid crossing the CP Stobie Spur twice.

Coming to the end of the trackage on Durham, the line entered a private right of way on the south side of Elgin Street and angled southeast parallel to the CP mainline through downtown.

Traces of the right-of-way near Copper Cliff, including the INCO railway underpass are purported to exist, however they could not be found on any satellite photographs of the area.

A fare box used on the railway has survived and is preserved as an artifact at the Flour Mill Museum in the same neighbourhood where the original car barns were located.