Great Western of Canada Railway
The Great Western Railway was a historic Canadian railway that operated in Canada West and later the province of Ontario, following Confederation.
Entrepreneur Samuel Zimmerman was instrumental in promoting its construction and Roswell Gardinier Benedict, a friend of Zimmerman's was the assistant chief engineer and later the chief engineer.
This system stretched 852 miles, running from Niagara Falls to Toronto and connecting lines to London, Windsor and communities in the Bruce Peninsula.
Having begun operations in 1853, the company was purchased in August 1882 by the Grand Trunk Railway system and fully merged by 1884.
The main Niagara Falls-Windsor line is now the Canadian National Railway's Grimsby Subdivision, Dundas Subdivision, Chatham Subdivision, and CASO Subdivision. The Toronto branch is the Oakville Subdivision, and the Sarnia branch is the Strathroy Subdivision (which also includes a short piece of the main line, from London to Komoka).