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

st weekffiereeemberi il93l p3 special report yorkdurham railway officially on right track john thompson correspondent its official the stouffville area now has a new railway late last month the provincial government granted a charter to the yorkdurham heritage railway which plans to run trains between stouffville and uxbridge were absolutely thrilled to get the charter declares railway president rob pare its a major step forward in our goal of bringing his toric passenger train ser vice to this area pare adds that 1995 is the goal for getting the trains run ning between uxbridge and goodwood at first much remains to be done including negotiating an operating agreement with the province which now owns the tracks obtaining and repairing more pas senger cars and training staff to run the trains when the yorkdurham railway starts running it will be the third her itage railway in ontario the others are the port stanley terminal railway south of london and the south simcoe railway running between tottenham and beeton south of barrie while the port stanley line uses mostly 1950svintage diesel locomo tives and cars south simcoe passen gers ride in cars from the 1920s pulled by a steam engine built in 1883 in fact the engine built for the canadian pacific railway starred in the cbctv miniseries the national dream about the building of canadas first transcontinental railway it was bought from the railway by a toronto lawyer in 1960 and stored in a shed at bolton until its debut before the tv cameras in 1973 every sunday and on holiday mon days between victoria day and when the railway starts running it will be the third heritage railway in ontario leave from the tottenham station and head north four miles towards the vil lage of beeton the route is similar to the uxbridgestouffville line past peaceful woods and rolling farmland the south simcoe uses a former canadian national line that originally linked port dover on lake erie with barrie on lake simcoe and colling- wood on georgian bay over the years much of it was abandoned as highway competition eroded business about eight years ago the tottenham and district chamber of commerce looking for a way to bring visitors to the area decid ed to establish a heritage railway they bought the track from cn which was about to tear it up and contracted with the ontario rail association to provide and run the train the ora a group of rail way historians had thanksgiving south simcoe trains acquired a collection of vintage locomo tives and cars and was seeking a place to run them before operations could begin the longneglected track had to be repaired along with a loco motive and passenger coach a charter and oper ating authority secured from the province insur ance arranged crews trained and a multitude of other details cleared up securing approval to run trains was a lengthy pro cess due to the provinces relative inexperience con cerning short line railways finally on june 20 1992 the first passengercarrying train left tbttenham behind a rare ex- cpr diesel engine operation of the steam locomotive had to wait for a few months while approval to run it was before operations could begin the long- neglected track had to be repaired secured on labour day weekend passengers were greeted by the sight of steam engine number 136 resplendent in gleaming black paint smoke drifting lazily from its tall stack coupled to the passenger train for many passen gers especially the youngsters it was a thrill to see a steam locomotive for the first time for the older set the sight brought back fond memories of going down to the station with dad to watch the great black engines thunder past with bell ringing and steam erupting from cylin der cocks engine 136 proudly pulled out of the station with its load of delighted passengers moments later the still country air carried the mournful wail of its whistle as the engineer blew a warning for the road cross ings during 1993 south simcoe carried about 25000 passengers as a result sunday business has boomed for local restaurants to the delight of owners its hoped to increase patronage for the railway in 1994 through senior citi zens bus tours school trips and other promo tions the south simcoe rail way like yorkdurham is a volunteer organization comprised of people dedi cated to preserving part of the areas history mem bers come from many walks of life they include a public school principal a sales manager a televi sion technician several stationary engineers an auto mechanic a real estate salesman and an insurance broker two are retired cpr locomotive engineers who have passed on their skills to fellow adeisel locomotive is expected to arrive soon members locomotives and cars and track are maintained to professional standards while train crews observe operating rules based on those of the major railways as labour and funds permit south simcoe is gradually expanding the scope of its operations beyond sun days and holidays as well trains will soon roll right into beeton over a recentlypurchased track extension the town of new tecumseth incorpo rating beeton tottenham and alliston and the cookstown chamber of commerce have also been negotiating with cn to buy additional trackage into alliston and cook stown for south simcoe the south simcoe peo ple have been quite help ful in sharing their exper tise with us says york- durhams pare he adds that initially his railway will use a diesel locomo tive which is expected to arrive soon wed like to acquire a steam locomo tive though heritage railways originated in eng land in the 1950s perhaps they were inspired by the delightful 1953 british movie the titfield thunderbolt about villagers who start up their own rail way when british rail britains cnr pulls out the idea caught on in the states about 1960 one of the first her itage railways was the strasburg rail road in the pennsylvania dutch coun try ironically its first steam engine came from the cn operations like south simcoe and yorkdurham give the public a ride back in time to the lesshurried leisurely lifestyle of 40 years ago repre sented by the friendly branchhne pas senger train all going well area resi dents will soon be boarding trains at the historic uxbridge depot council residents proclaim displeasure with ninth line report from page 1 criminately as a speed control device will only serve as a nui sance stop for motorists and an unnecessary delay for emer gency vehicles whitehouse said bangay argued stop signs installed anywhere are a nui sance and criticized the direc tors lack of research into speed problems or the nearby school whitehouse said plac ing a crosswalk at sunset blvd is unwarranted because there are sufficient gaps in the traffic in the morning and afternoon peak periods that will permit a safe crossing for pedestrians bangay argued the ninth line becomes a mayhem of school buses when children are walking to school which blocks motorists vision a stop sign and a crosswalk would force the school bus drivers to check for children crossing the streets bangay said whitehouse then said a no heavy truck sign on the ninth line would redirect heavy traffic along main street or the tenth line there is no sufficient data available to determine the vol ume of heavy trucks on the ninth line and their trip ori gin and destination but bangay said trucks would likely use hwy 48 or ballantrae sideroad instead ward 6 councillor ken pren tice asked that the town con sult further with the residents in light of bangays displea sure with the report officials agreed to defer the matter until whitehouse has an opportunity to meet with the residents mmrmmmmirrmmmmrmmr y vv kids earn extra money become a carrier today pbbwwisphmhbpsffsfrhh getting to know you whitchurch stouffville christmas party was equipment which helped some of the children held at stouffville united church sunday allan get to know each other the club is open to all rees andrds brother colin enjoy the play new residents of the area call 6402100 stouffville attention flyer advertisers we can deliver your flyers tor as little as at a piece so far this i year we have delivered 29661305 flyers doortodoor in i markham unionville milliken sloufiviue uxbridge i claremont dickson hill locust hill gormley goodwood victoria square brougham hagcrman corners box grove i cedar grove buttonville sandford goodwood leaskdale greenback udora sunderland zephyr ashbum cannington i and all adjacent rural route areas we can deliver your flyers on the day you want to the area you want any quantity from 5000 to 46000 for advertising and distribution inquiries call retail advertising at 6402100 classified advertising at 6402100 distribution inquiries at 6402100 or fax your inquiries to 6405477 inserts for sat dec 11 1993 loblaws consumers distributing ap dominion stouffville iga selected areonty j