Book Review: The Ontario Northland Railway

The book “The Ontario Northland Railway” by Patrick C. Dorin is an excellent snapshot of the ONR in the mid 1980s. Written by the prolific Dr. Dorin, this book is an affectionate look at the railway that runs from Toronto to Moosonee.

The book is divided into four major sections:

1. History of the ONR and its predecessor name, the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway
2. A photo gallery of the ONR’s steam and diesel locomotives
3. Passenger trains over the network
4. Freight trains over the network

This book features numerous photographs of the ONR’s equipment and trains, entirely in black and white. There are also numerous tables and excerpts from timetables, including maps of the route and of the major yards like North Bay, Englehart, Cochrane and Moosonee.

I really enjoyed the numerous photos of the ONR’s freight equipment.

This post features affiliate links to Amazon, meaning that if you buy something using these links, I receive a small commission.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. It captures the ONR at a good time, well before the Northlander train was cut in September 2012.

Buy it on Amazon

Just One More Thing

Another book about the ONR I bought recently is the BRMNA book “The Locomotives of the Ontario Northland Railway” by Frank N. Vollhardt. That book is more of a “taste” of the ONR while Dorin’s book goes into considerable detail.

Eric Gagnon wrote a post remembering the Northlander. At the bottom of his post, he linked to a post I wrote about the same thing. I don’t remember writing it but obviously I did!