The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

In 1836, Railways came into being in Canada, and a short line was completed between LaPrairie near Montreal and St. John's, Quebec. In 1846 another short line connected Montreal and Lachine. In l851, the Western limit of Grand Trunk in Upper Canada and Lower Canada was Quebec City with branch to Portland, Maine. In 1856 the main line along St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario westward to Sarnia was fully laid and operations of trains began. The latter line has to do with our immediate vicinity, and along this route the first through passenger train, the International Limited, made its initial run. Crowds lined the tracks before the whistle sounded and a thin white smoke could be seen. The locomotive (a wood burner) hove into view. The crowd on the platform and the passengers on the train waved handerchiefs as the train passed and was lost in the distance. In 1846, the elapsed time on the run of this train from Toronto to Montreal was, if on time, about 16 hours. As the years rolled on, engines were converted to the use of coal for steam, automatic couplings, air brakes with ever increasing improved equipment were instituted. The main line of the Grand Trunk was finally double-tracked from Montreal to Chicago. The International Limited was the fastest train in operation at that time and continued so for some time. The Inter-City Ltd., now makes the run from Toronto to Montreal in 6 hours and 15 minutes. At one time the run was made in 6 hours and was known as the fastest train in the world for that distance. The Canadian Pacific around 1912, constructed the Lakeshore Line which traversed our Township through Cherry-wood to Whitby, and served all Lakeshore towns to Belleville, thence to Glen Tay near Perth. In 1915, the Canadian Northern completed their line across Canada and this line also traversed our township but was discontinued in 1922 when the Government took over the G.T.R., Can. Nor. G.T.P., and I.C.R., Transcontinental Railway and formed what is now known as the Canadian National Railways. In Railway matters, our Township of Pickering came into prominence when the Village of Ajax was born in 1941, and Defence Industries operated a shell filling plant until the close of the war. During that time, carloads of shells were shipped to various eastern theatres of war from China to Italy and Africa. During the war years, forty thousand carloads were moved in and out of Ajax (two miles east of Pickering Village) and Pickering station. At one time nearly ten thousand lived or worked at Ajax. The railway particularly played a very important part in the movement of war materials. As high as 58 carloads were loaded at Ajax in one day, more than one trainload. Gross revenues increased at Pickering station where Ajax traffic was handled from a normal of twenty five thousand dollars per year to slightly over five million dollars in the peak years. After the cessation of war, enormous stocks of war materials had to be moved out from Ajax by War Assets Corporation and in fact, some of this is still in storage there now, but taken over by private interests. Ajax is still of importance to the Railway with the advent of so many firms having located there. Twenty some miles of track for service to these industries of the 38 miles that were used by Defence Industries, still remain. Previous to the motor car and highway busses, the local passenger traffic to and from Toronto and other points was quite a factor. Motor busses with half hour schedules for a portion of the day now handle mostly all of this traffic other than what private cars accommodate. Highway trucks, a necessity especially where railways do not serve certain sections, are ever on the increase. They are under provincial control and have succeeded in taking a great amount of traffic from the Railways, and as I should say, the cream of the traffic. The Railways are common carriers and have to take whatever is offered them, whereas the Transports pick and choose, having little desire to handle light bulky goods. This will continue until such time as the Board of Transport can make some arrangement between the Federal and Provincial governments in regard to control of traffic offered. I have tried to give an account of transportation during the last l20 years inthis section from material obtainable as to the early years, and from my own observation of late. W. A. Goudy, Station Master, Pickering, 1941-1952.