The Huntsville and Lake of Bays Transportation Company was a company chartered in 1895 to operate steamboats on the Lake of Bays, and a series of lakes connecting to Huntsville in the northern section of the Muskoka Lakes District of Ontario, Canada. The wholly owned Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway ran a short line narrow gauge railway to connect steamboats operating on Lake of Bays and Peninsula Lake outside Huntsville, Ontario. Covering a vertical distance of along the hilly route, it was known as the "smallest commercially operated railway in the world".
The network, which eventually contained eight steamboats, a single locomotive and several hotels and lodges in the area, operated as a unit until 1959. At that time, increasing automobile use led to a rapid decline in laker traffic. The hotels were sold off one by one, but the company remained a legal entity until 1967. The railway was purchased by the town of St. Thomas in southern Ontario, where it was reassembled to become the Pinnifore Park Railway. During the 1980s it was purchased by a group of enthusiasts in Huntsville and returned north, operating today as the Portage Flyer.
History
The lakes and rivers of the Muskoka Lakes region have long been used for transportation by the Algonquian-speaking Anishinaabeg peoples, and they were heavily used by the first Europeans who visited the area. In the latter half of the 19th century, the land north of Barrie was being opened up for colonization via land grants. As roads were in poor condition or non-existent, the only reliable form of transportation was by steamboat. By 1875 a pair of locks and a canal had been built to bypass a series of rapids in the Muskoka River, allowing navigable access between Mary Lake and Huntsville. In 1886 another canal was built to connect from Fairy Lake to Peninsula Lake to the east.
A broken link in the chain of lakes served by the growing network existed between Lake of Bays and Peninsula Lake, which connected in turn to Fairy Lake and the town of Huntsville. The short distance between the two lakes was too steep to justify building a canal. Within a distance of the elevation change was more than . A ridge down the middle adds another . This obstacle was initially overcome by the construction of a gravel road in 1887, but the steep terrain made shipping any heavy loads via buckboard very difficult.
Portage railway
George F. Marsh ran steamers on a number of lakes in the area, and in 1895 he bought out his major competitor, Alfred Denton. This left him in control of most of the commercial shipping on Lake of Bays and the lower Fairy, Mary and Peninsula lakes, which he incorporated as the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Transportation Company. That year, he received a charter to build an electric railway in the gap between Peninsula Lake and Lake of Bays, which would complete his network.
By 1900 no work on the electric railway had been carried out, and he reincorporated as the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Navigation Company with a separate charter for a railway as the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway. This company was allowed to raise up to $50,000 in shares, and would connect not only Peninsula Lake and Lake of Bays, but extend to the west end of Hollow Lake as well. Seeing a big future for the area, the original company reincorporated once again in 1902 as the Huntsville, Lake of Bays and Lake Simcoe Navigation Company, with a charter for shipping, "hotels, house boats, boarding houses, cottages and summer resorts".
Work had not commenced on the portage railway by this time, although its charter stipulated the undertaking was to be started within three years and completed within seven. Originally planned to use electric power and standard gauge, the plans changed to narrow gauge and steam power when two surplus locomotives and rolling stock became available from E.B. Eddy of Hull, Quebec. These had originally been built by H.K. Porter of Pittsburgh in 1888. Two coaches were built from horse-drawn streetcars of the Toronto Street Railway, modified so the seat backs could flip over so the passengers always sat facing the direction of travel. The crew also built two boxcars and three flatcars.
Construction finally began in September 1902, but proved more difficult than expected, and in 1903 the charter was extended another two years to allow time to complete it. In 1904, Marsh failed to get Federal funding to help complete it, but was given $10,000 provincial grant instead. Trains were operating after the close of navigation season in 1904, and the line officially opened as the Portage Railway in 1905. The second section to Hollow Lake was never completed, and the charter was amended to remove it in 1906.