Comments on: While coming home from work I ran across the BCRY as they were heading into Barrie, pushing one hopper for TAG Environmental and pulling a couple of old flatcars. After dropping off the hopper they travelled down the Molson Spur and deposited the two flatcars at the location of the old brewery. I grabbed a shot of 1001 as she ran light back to the Beeton Spur.

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 10:22:26 +0000

Great map @Eric May. Thanks for sharing.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 23:15:48 +0000

Wow Eric! Awesome! that was perfect!

Of course redevelopment doesn’t stand a chance to use rail in this world hungry for residential and commercial.

Of course that’s up to city planners but they are in the pockets of the developers anyway..

By: Eric May

Eric May — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 01:07:56 +0000

After crossing Big Bay Point Road, the spur entered the site from the north and turned west, ending just short of Highway 400. The drive thru store was further south where all of the development is occurring.
The Simcoe county mapping site has an imagery option and you can view previous years. 2002 shows the full plant and 2008 shows the plant half demolished. https://maps.simcoe.ca/Public/

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 22:46:37 +0000

Curious, can anyone help me understand where the Molsons spur was? I remember the brewery, I remember it had a drive thru (and we’d stop there for beer on the way to cottage parties)

but I can’t for the life of me figure it out on today’s satellite images – re-development is heavy down there!

By: Eric May

Eric May — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 20:28:25 +0000

This movement was to recover the rails in the former Molson’s plant before Big Bay Point Road was rebuilt and the crossing removed.

By: Railfan99

Railfan99 — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:15:34 +0000

Craig, just thought of something out of curiosity, would you or anyone else here happen to know the exact reason for why BCRY still occasionally made the very rare move to Molson Brewery even long after the place was closed? I believe that they usually would only do so when they had a couple flatcars to spot there which would then be loaded with rail and shipped back out again a couple weeks later from BCRY, was there a different buisness near the area which made the rail, did the rail still come from Molson Brewery and just get shipped out when needed, nevertheless was just a little curious for the reason to that move.
I remember seeing on multiple sites quite well that the closure of that place very early in BCRYs era costed them about 25 percent of their rail traffic, wonder what time of rail traffic they took before then as well (tank cars, flat beds etc).
Anyhow great luck on this day and thanks for sharing the photo!

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 04:13:02 +0000

awesome seeing those switches loaded into a gondola or almost out package (being a model railroader) ready to be put into place. Great catch indeed! Nice one Craig.

By: craigandru

craigandru — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 03:26:33 +0000

I walked the tracks the other day and yes, the switch was replaced with a single track.

By: Eric May

Eric May — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 16:35:30 +0000

The switch or at least a single track was replaced a couple of years ago when they were storing the tank cars. Why the switch was taken out is a bit of a mystery.

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 10:18:43 +0000

Did they replace the switch next to Purolator? In Satellite view it seems to be missing.