The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was a railway based in Hamilton that ran in Southern Ontario from 1892 to 1987.[1] It never reached the other two cities in its name, though it had branch lines extending to Dunnville and Port Maitland.
History
The railway was originally chartered in 1884[2] by the Ontario Legislative Assembly to run from Toronto to the International Railway Bridge, connecting with local lines to Buffalo. The original charter forbade the company any attempt to merge with, lease from, sell to, or pool with any other railway. Given the business conditions at the time, that turned out to be an impossible condition. The original corporation was unable to complete the line before the original charter expired and so the government revived the act by requiring the line to be completed by 1894 with a new group of promoters.
The line began operations in 1892, when it took over the incomplete line of the Brantford, Waterloo & Lake Erie Railway between Brantford and Waterford. The line reached Hamilton in October, 1894 and Welland on December 30, 1895.