The Portage Flyer approaches Fairy Lake Station on its second day of operations in 3 years. The coaches were both built in 1894 as horse-drawn trolleys before being acquired by the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway which opened in 1904 as the final link in a steamboat operation linking the North Muskoka Lakes - Vernon, Mary, Fairy, Peninsula and Lake of Bays. The first 4 lakes could be navigated by water with the Muskoka River joining Vernon and Fairy Lakes, locks between Fairy and Mary Lakes and a canal between Fairy and Peninsula, but a high ridge of rocks between Peninsula and Lake of Bays necessitated the building of this short 1 & 1/8th mile line. It included a switchback and an average gradient of 3% with one section of a whopping 7%! Before this 21-ton MLW 0-4-0 and it's 17-ton sister (both built in 1926) were obtained in 1948 the grueling job was handled by 2 little wood-burning Porters that could barely make the grades, and it wasn't unheard of for passengers to have to detrain and help push the train over the hill! To my knowledge this (#2) is the only steam locomotive operating in Ontario at this point in time.
