Kick and Push
Railway Heritage Park Sharbot Lake, ON, Canada

Exploring at Murvale on the K&P.

This post will get you started on the railway journey through history in Harrowsmith, Ontario. It also contains links to all five blog posts in the series!

Now available on the "Rails to Trails" page of our website, the full set of maps of the K&P Trail from Kingston to Clarendon Station. Downloadable as a PDF file (6MB). #inFrontenac https://kickandpushca.wordpress.com/rails-to-trails-in-sha/

Flower Station on the K&P was up in Lanark Highlands Township. It was named for Col. G.W. Flower of Watertown NY, who was Vice-President of the K&P and in charge of building this section of the line. He died not long after, in 1881. This photo courtesy of Arlene Stafford-Wilson has been added to our website, at https://kickandpushca.wordpress.com/the-kingston-and-pembr/

Anyone heading up north on the K&P will see improvements to the landmark Clyde River bridge, south of Flower Station, thanks to the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority. We need to support the Conservation Authority system, which the Ontario government is trying to dismantle. https://mvc.on.ca/changes-to-kp-bridge-over-the-clyde-river/

It takes volunteers and donations to maintain these reminders of our history!

K&P railway was built to support mining investments in the Canadian Shield north of Kingston in the 1880s. A great walk with Steve Manders (historian friend & ...author of 'The First Spike') along a portion just north of the CPR mainline at Tichborne on what is now a great rail trail. Like all of the railways built through the Canadian Shield, a big part of the construction effort involved blasting moving massive amounts of rock for the trackbed that had to be almost flat. Dynamite sticks were dropped down holes bored into the rock that had been hammered in by hand ! This was followed by a lot of grunt to move the debris and put it into low spots and the many wetlands. We observed evidence of this on todays walk, along with telegraph and signal plant. The rails had been lifted in the 1960s on this portion of the line, as virtually all of the revenue activity had long ceased - the iron mines that had inspired initial development of the K&P had mostly been closed before 1900. CP kept the southern portion from Tichborne down into Kingston alive into the 1980s See more

Weather and technology didn't cooperate with the township tree lighting and the candle luminaries in downtown Sharbot Lake tonight, but the caboose was lit up on schedule!

Remember the Sharbot Lake Hotel, now a small park across Cannon Street from the site of the old K&P station? See some reminiscences on our website, at https://kickandpushca.wordpress.com//reminiscences-of-the/

Support the Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society while you do some gift shopping. We have Stephen Manders' book "The FIrst Spike" for sale for $40. E-mail to arrange pickup.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Annual General Meeting of the Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society, held online on 3 November 2020. Here is the text of the Annual Report From the Chair: Early this year, we were very sorry to lose Shirley Peruniak, longtime member of our Board and unofficial historian of Central Frontenac, who passed away in January. In addition to serving on our Board for many years, Shirley collected material and wrote extensive notes on local ...Continue reading

Annual General Meeting online on 3 November! The AGM of the Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society, postponed from 13 October, will be held online via Zoom on Tuesday 3 November at 2:00 PM. All are welcome to join the Zoom session, and the necessary app will download to your computer or other device automatically when you click the link. To obtain the link, send an e-mail to

New page on our Kick & Push website, about the former Bathurst CPR station, located where Wemyss is now on Highway 7 towards Perth. It was a "Van Horne" style station, similar to the one in Sharbot Lake. https://kickandpushca.wordpress.com/bathurst-station-2/

New books on local history and waterways from Steven Manders. Order at http://www.thefirstspikebook.com

CPR Sharbot Lake, ON circa 1910

Reposting this for anybody who was unable to tour the inside of the caboose due to Covid restrictions this summer.