Named Trains: #26 – Little Bear

#26 – Little Bear

Railroad(s): Ontario Northland

Operated: ? – 2007

Route(s): Cochrane – Moosonee, Ontario

In the 29th selection on this list – Fast Mail – we discussed the relative rarity of mixed passenger and freight trains. And while the not-long-since-departed Little Bear no longer shuttles people and goods on its remote route from Moosonee on the shores of the Hudson Bay to the plains outpost at Cochrane, this mixed train's designation playfully captured its unique dual-use nature and the rugged terrain through which it traveled. Operated by the quasi-public, provincially-owned Ontario Northland, the Little Bear hauled both freight and passengers three times a week during the winter months on the railroad's spur line from Moosonee to its mainline route at Cochrane, where passengers could connect to Northlander trains to points south, including North Bay and Toronto. In 2007, the Little Bear reached adulthood, when it became the Polar Bear Express, operating five days per week in the winter and six times each week during the summer, but no longer carrying freight on the same trips as passengers. Sadly, all passenger rail service on the railroad ended in the fall of 2012, but the Little Bear's legacy remains as perhaps the most ideally-named mixed train of all time.

#27 – Land O'Corn
#28 – Minute Man
#29 – Fast Mail
#30 – Lake Shore Limited
#31 – Comet