Whether you hike, bike, ride the rails, or drive, the shore of Lake Ontario can yield a treasure trove of heritage sites and natural beauty -- if you know where to look.Travel with Ron Brown as he probes the shoreline of the Canadian side of Lake Ontario to discover its hidden heritage. Explore "ghost ports," forgotten coves, historical lighthouses, rumrunning lore, and even the location of a top-secret spy camp. The area also contains some unusual natural features, including a mys...

Brown celebrates the survival of our railway heritage in stations that have been saved or remain in use.Despite the "green" benefits of rail travel, Canada has lost much of its railway heritage. Across the country stations have been bulldozed and rails ripped up. Once the heart of communities large and small, stations and tracks have left little more than a gaping hole in Canada’s landscapes. This book revisits the times when railways were the country’s economic lifelines, and the ...

Rails Across the Prairies traces the evolution of Canada's rail network, including the appearance of the first steam engine on the back of a barge. The book looks at the arrival of European settlers before the railway and examines how they coped by using ferry services on the Assiniboine and North Saskatchewan Rivers. The work then follows the building of the railways, the rivalries of their owners, and the unusual irrigation works of Canadian Pacific Railway. The towns were nearl...

Explore Ontario's forgotten rail lines and experience the legacy and lore of this the vital railway era of Ontario's history. At its peak between 1880 and the 1920s, Ontario was criss-crossed by more than 20,000 kilometres of rail trackage. Today , only a fraction remains. Yet trains once hauled everything from strawberries to grain, cans of milk and even eels. Villagers depended on trains to visit friends, attend weddings, to shop, and to go to school. They gathered on station platforms t...

Explore the vestiges of the hamlets and villages that have been swallowed up by Toronto’s relentless growth.Over the course of more than two centuries, Toronto has ballooned from a muddy collection of huts on a swampy waterfront to Canada’s largest and most diverse city. Amid (and sometimes underneath) this urban agglomeration are the remains of many small communities that once dotted the region now known as Toronto and the GTA. Before European settlers arrived, In...

The Lake Erie shoreline has born witness to some of Ontario's earliest history, yet remains largely unspoiled. Much of the area's natural features - the wetlands, the Carolinian forests - and its built heritage - fishing ports and military ramparts - provide much of interest for vistors to the region.Ron Brown has traversed this most southern coast line in Ontario, fleshing out forgotten stories of the past, from accounts of the world's largest freshwater fishing fleet, War of 1812...

Pictorial books such as this dedicated to the past are not only invaluable to local historians, but also of interest to anyone wishing to know more about the history of the place they live or work in, for old photographs can provide fascinating insight and a tool to compare past and present. The Hampshire town of Lee-on-the-Solent is perfect for such comparisons, for although it has only been in existence under 130 years as a coastal settlement, in that time it has lost so much: a pier, ra...

Explore Ontario's historic roads, each with unexpected side trips and a fascinating story.In his relentless quest for the unusual in a world of the mundane, modern-day explorer Ron Brown has traveled nearly every backroad in Ontario. This guidebook features 22 trips, each illustrated with photographs and accompanied by an easy-to-follow map.These trips range in length from afternoon outings to weekend excursions. And all lead to fascinating out-of-...

A must for any Canadian railroad aficionado, this special bundle gathers six books in one for a can’t-miss retrospective of the nation’s railway history.Rails Over the MountainsExplore western Canada’s rich railway history, travelling from the grand railway hotels and rustic stations to relive a time when trains used to rumble in the West.Rails to the AtlanticExplore eastern Canada’s railway heritage, including stations from the late 1850s, g...

Travel across Ontario and pay a visit to Ontario's nearly 50 heritage jails. Built before the modern era of the OPP, they range in size from single cell lockups to massive monuments such as the Kingston Pen and the Don Jail. Although Spartan inside, many are architectural wonders on the outside and have been declared heritage buildings. A few have been converted to museums and show the harsh conditions that convicts had to endure. Behind Bars also tells of the many hilarious escapes, grues...

Rails Across Ontario will take the reader back to a time when the railway ruled the economy and the landscape.Read about historic stations, railway museums, heritage train rides, and historic bridges. Follow old rail lines along Ontario's most popular rail trails. Find out where steam engines still puff across farm fields and where historic train coaches lead deep into the wilds of Ontario's scenic north country. Discover long forgotten but once vital railway structures, s...

Ron Brown is Canada’s leading literary authority on the history of Canada’s railways, particularly those now-lost branches from the golden age of steam that once ran like veins and arteries throughout the country. This special five-book bundle collects several of his titles, including: In Search of the Grand Trunk, which takes a close look at Ontario’s railway heritage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the poignant The Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, an examinat...