Belleville and North Hastings Railway

The 1866 discovery of gold on John Richardson's farm by Marcus Herbert Powell led to the creation of Ontario's first gold mine, and the community of Eldorado that formed up around it by 1867. Although the mines were not rich and the Richardson Mine closed shortly thereafter, the area proved to create a gold rush that led to similar mines being opened all around the Central Ontario region.[1] At least six gold mines opened, and later a number of copper and iron mines as well, mostly in Hastings County.

Belleville, due south of the mines, became the hub for prospectors on their way north to the fields. The town became known as the "Gateway to the Golden North".[2] Belleville was also a major stop on the Grand Trunk Railway running from Montreal to Toronto. At first the only access to the mines was via coach,[2] so a railway from Belleville to the mining areas was a natural development.

To serve this burgeoning market a race started between several railway companies, including the Victoria Railway, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway and a Trent River-connected route based on the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway. However, all of these led westward to the Toronto area, less than ideal for access to the major markets and ports to the east.

Business interests in Belleville naturally felt their own city was a better location to service the fields, and chartered the B&NHR in 1874. The company was formed with a total stock purchase of $17,000 that summer, and several thousand dollars of additional money was spent on a survey of the route as far as the Moore iron mine in Madoc. This led to a bonus being raised by the town of Madoc, with $30,000 to be paid to the company on completion of the line.[3]

Construction on the line, under the direction of Francis Shanly, began to Madoc some time in the mid-1870s, likely 1877.[4][lower-alpha 1] At some point the owners of the Belleville-based Grand Junction Railway purchased the B&NHR, using it as their approach to Belleville on their Peterborough-Belleville route.[5][lower-alpha 2] The GJR was branched off the B&NHR near Stirling, at what became known as Madoc Junction.

Further expansion of the original B&NHR route was delayed, with the line ending in Madoc. Progress on the original route did not begin again for a decade, by which time their proposed areas of operation were being served by the Central Ontario Railway. A connection to the COR outside Eldorado was completed in 1887.[6]

The GJR reached Peterborough in June 1880, by which point several other railways were operating the Peterborough to Toronto route and their "loop" plans no longer made sense. Instead, the company started looking in other directions, and settled on a route to Lindsay, where they hoped to capture some of the lucrative grain trade from the Georgian Bay area. This represented a serious threat to the Midland Railway, whose line was one of the few that offered access to the Great Lakes without routing through an increasingly congested Toronto.[7]

By the 1880s there were a number of short-line railways east of Toronto that all served regional markets and competed for business. Chronically under-capitalized, all of these lines became takeover targets. The Midland had long been on friendly terms with the Toronto and Nipissing (T&N) and had been considering a merger with them for some time. In 1881 the companies arranged a massive merger that included the Midland, the Toronto & Nipissing, the Victoria, the Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay Railway, the aborted Toronto and Ottawa Railway and the Lake Simcoe Junction Railway, a subsidiary of the T&N. The new Midland now included almost all of the railways serving the areas east of Toronto, and itself became a prime takeover target. In 1884 the Grand Trunk leased the entire network.[8]

This amalgamation led to several redundant routes, and over the next few years the GTR began a consolidation effort. With the completion of the Central Ontario Railway through the B&NHR's route, which was better constructed and offered service further north as well, the northern section of the B&NHR was one such redundancy, closing in 1913.[9][lower-alpha 3] This left only the southern section open, effectively a Belleville to Madoc spur.

The Grand Trunk suffered an infamous bankruptcy in 1919 and led to its assets being taken over by CNR in 1923. The B&NHR operated as the Madoc Subdivision under CN,[10] while the GJR became the Campbellford Subdivision.[11]

Both subdivisions operated profitably for many years, forming CN's eastern mainline into Peterborough as well as continuing to serve various industries and passenger routes around Madoc. Use fell after the 1960s, and the Madoc Sub was abandoned in 1984. This was followed shortly by the abandonment of the main section of the GJR between Belleville and Peterborough in 1987, leaving only industrial spurs in Belleville.[9]

Like many recently abandoned lines, the B&NHR has seen continued use as the Trail of Two Lakes (or "Two Lakes Trail").[9] The rail trail currently ends at Ontario Highway 7 in Madoc, the section north to Eldorado having long ago returned to farmland and bush. This northern section is navigable, but only with some difficulty.[12]