​The route of what was the London and Port Stanley Railway is one of the oldest in the province. The northerly portion, now owned by CN, from St. Thomas to London has been in almost constant use since 1856. The southerly portion, from St. Thomas to Port Stanley, was put back into service by the Port Stanley Terminal Rail in 1988.
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The origins of the line lie in the extensive use of lake transportation for freight in the pre-rail era and the need to bring the freight up to London. In the 20th century it gained a new lease on life as the flagship for Ontario Hydro’s planned province-wide electric rail system.  Today, its two functions, as a freight hauler and as a tourist line, reflect the uses to which it was put from earliest times.

A large part of London’s growth came about as the result of being near a lake port. The lakes, as late as the 1850s, were still a key means of shipping goods. London was connected to Port Stanley by a plank road, one of the best in the province by the 1840s as the local MPP was chairman of the colony’s Board of Public Works.  But, like all roads at the time, it was a slow, cumbersome means of shipping with the potential for damage to man, beast and cargo.

The railways were an attractive alternative to ships and roads bringing about a boom in rail line construction at the beginning of the 1850s. The province’s largest railway, the Great Western (GWR), passed through London in 1853 linking it with Hamilton and Windsor. Its key function was the transfer of US goods from the mid west to the Atlantic seaports. With a link to the continental rail system in place London businessmen looked for an alternative way to bring goods to the city partially to provide competition to the GWR and keep freight rates low.

Their link to the lake was chartered as the London and Port Stanley Railway in 1853 and after nearly three years of construction the line opened for traffic on October 16, 1856. A majority of the stock was held by the City of London, the Counties of Elgin and Middlesex, and a lesser amount by St. Thomas then a small village of about 2000 persons.
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The man now at the controls was Adam Beck. Since denying the Walker Family an extension of the L&PS lease in 1903 he had become MPP for London and had also been chairman of Ontario Hydro since its founding in 1906. Beck had been waiting out the lease planning to rebuild the line into a model of what a radial railway should look like. The radials would link cities and towns across the province with efficient, quiet, inexpensive electric passenger trains. Beck’s gruff, acerbic personality didn’t do much to advance his cause and the railways were not inclined to give up the passenger traffic in populous southern Ontario. What finally did the ambitious project in however was the change in government in 1919 which saw the United Farmers of Ontario take over. The party actually asked Beck to be premier but he declined. The conservative minded E. C. Drury became premier and wouldn’t support the project.  While Beck’s province-wide plan was never built, electrification of the L&PS proceeded as soon as the lease expired.

Between January 1, 1914 and July 22, 1915 when it reopened the line was completely transformed. A commission was established to oversee the rebuilding and operation of the line. Beck, knighted in 1914, forecast a total of 450,000 riders following electrification. Stations were either rebuilt or replaced. The St. Thomas station was replaced with a new one opening April 23, 1920. The most extensive redevelopment occurred in Port Stanley where the railway built a huge bathhouse where one could even rent a bathing suit. The baseball fields between the tracks and the hill were improved, walks and lights were provided on picnic hill.
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The ridership increased even beyond Beck’s estimate with over a million rider-trips a year by 1921. Much of the traffic was from cottagers and from large picnics organized by schools, clubs and businesses. Among the largest were the Irish Benevolent Society’s and the Commercial Travellers’. Both would see 10,000 to 12,000 people flood the picnic areas on the bluffs and the flats near the incline. Races, baby contests and band concerts entertained the picnickers. In 1926 the L&PS built a huge dance pavilion right on the lake front. Later known as the Stork Club, the dance floor could accommodate 5,000 dancers. Dozens of well-known bands and orchestras played the Stork Club into the 1960s.
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