Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario

Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario

Established	1985 (1985)
Location	Russell & William Sts, Smiths Falls, Ontario
Type	railway museum
Owner	Smiths Falls Railway Museum Association
Website	rmeo.org

The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, a rail museum in a former CNoR station, stands on the abandoned right-of-way of a Canadian Northern Railway line which once led southwest toward Napanee. Established 1985 as the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, the RMEO works to preserve the 1913 Canadian Northern (CNoR) station, rolling stock and equipment.

History

The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR, 1899–1923) struggled to build a third transcontinental railway west from Québec City to Vancouver but ultimately met with financial ruin. Its assets were acquired by Canadian National Railway, which gradually abandoned much of the network as unprofitable or duplicative of its existing lines. Westward from Ottawa, CNoR operated a line through Pembroke and Algonquin Park (now removed) and a line through Smiths Falls toward Napanee-Deseronto. The lines split just west of the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Federal Bridge across the Rideau River. While a portion of CNoR line between Smiths Falls and Ottawa remains in Via Rail passenger service, the line beyond Smiths Falls was embargoed in 1979 and abandoned, along with CN's Smiths Falls station. (The CPR operated its own, separate Smiths Falls railway station, a divisional point on CP's Montréal-Toronto mainline; VIA used that station until 2010.)

Efforts to save the station date to 1981, with the building first recognised as a National Historic Site of Canada on November 18, 1983.