T&NO 'Temagami' Visits Kingston

If you ever stumble across a photo of a train car with the label Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway [T&NO] sitting in front of City Hall, I would love to see it. My mother’s paternal grandfather was the Chairman of the T&NO and apparently when she was a young girl, her grandparents from North Bay would come down in the T&NO train car to visit her and her widowed mother. According to my mother, the train car would be parked in front of City Hall while they were here." I received this message from Anne/Martin Blaser recently.

Business car Ontario was built for Ontario Northland Railway predecessor Temiskaming & Northern Ontario in 1914. Actually, the frame was built by Pullman and the remainder of the car was built at the T&NO's North Bay shops. Renamed Ontario in 1917, then numbered 200 in 1946, later acquiring the name Temagami in 1951. Sold to the Ontario Rail Association in 1972 - a group of Toronto rail enthusiasts who had purchased 1057 for operation - Temagami was parked at Toronto's Harbourfront until 1990. Today she resides at Ontario Rail's successor South Simcoe Railway as car 200, renamed Nottawasaga.

Gordon Lee was T&NO Chairman as of 1920, visiting Kingston 1937-early 1940s. "George and his wife visiting my mother and grandmother at their cottage in what is now Reddendale. They would have come from North Bay via Toronto by the company’s private train car." Both photos courtesy Anne/Martin Blaser.

Another data point - the rehearsal for Jack and Gertrude Mahood's wedding was held in the car parked at the 'Kingston Yacht Basin'. This wedding took place October 26, 1929. So the Holy Grail of the business cars at the CP station would be a photo of this car so far from its northern stomping grounds!

Thanks to Paul Hunter for additional information in this post.