Narrow Gauge for Us: The Story of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway

Maurice J. Scarlett is a geography professor at the Memorial University
of Newfoundland.

Narrow Gauge for Us is a contribution to a growing literature of Canadian nostalgia — for the artifacts, organizations, and landscapes of bygone ages. This one concerns a rural Ontario branchline railway, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway. The author is a lifelong railway enthusiast and has previously published a study of the Hamilton and Northwestern Railway.

Railway nostalgia can easily lapse into sentimental regret for the vanished past. It may equally create studies which, combining scholarly interpretation with attention to detail, satisfy the railway buff, the historian, and the general reader — and this the present volume does well. It is handsomely produced by the Boston Mills Press, lavishly illustrated with reproductions of numerous old photographs and some printed material, and embellished with numerous citations of the dialogue of the times.

Historically, the text concerns three periods: an early expansionary phase; a relatively brief period of operation throughout the system; and a phase of withdrawal of service, which began as early as 1927. The last phase is, naturally, the best illustrated but, to this reviewer, the least interesting, though no doubt railway buffs will disagree.

In general, this volume deserves a welcome: written with enthusiasm and loving care, it fills a minor gap in an unpretentious but attractive way.