It operated for 99 years before suddenly ending in March 1990. The picturesque spur line connecting Toronto with the main northern line at Fassifern operated using steam trains and later, at the end, small red diesel railcars.

In between, in 1898, a draught horse was once used to pull a 14-passenger trolley on weekdays to save costs.

Toronto had a tourism boom in the 1890s when the area was promoted as the “Riviera of Australia”. But times change, and more families buying cars cut into rail patronage. Then, in 1984, a steam train service right through to Newcastle was discontinued.

In its final days, Toronto station railway staff used to call it the ‘Yoyo’ line, because it only went up and down, up and down all day along a short but scenic bush route. The historic rail line finally ended 29 years ago on March 10, 1990, the anniversary of which is just around the corner.

A passenger bus service immediately replaced the rail route. The controversial closure drew howls of protest from Lake Macquarie residents, but the NSW government was unmoved, citing rising costs for axing the railway.

The omens for the survival of the popular rail shuttle had never been good. While electrification of the Sydney to Newcastle rail line came in June 1984, it was never extended to Toronto.

Rail closure was a case of history repeating. The 1990 closure was actually the second time the line had ceased. The rail link first closed in early 1909, before it was rescued by a government injection of cash.    

One good outcome of the whole sorry rail saga, however, was the decision in 1978 to sell the former Toronto railway goods yard land to Lake Macquarie Council for $2500. Most of the lake railway terminus was then slowly transformed into a wonderfully scenic waterfront park at a cost (estimated in 1979) of $100,000.

Today, the heritage-listed old Toronto railway station, off Victory Parade just below the Toronto Hotel, is a heritage centre and home to the Lake Macquarie and District Historical Society (LM&DHS). Surprisingly, the old rail lines are still there, in situ, untouched, outside the lone, but well maintained, railway station building and platform.

After the line’s March 1990 closure, a cycleway/walkway was created in June 1996 called Greenway 1. It’s mostly alongside the old, now overgrown, rail tracks, left in the forlorn hope the railway may one day reopen.

The Excelsior Land Company originally wanted to attract more people to the area from 1885, and so had the Toronto to Fassifern tramway built in 1891. It was aimed at enhancing the value of its new residential subdivision of Toronto, named after the Canadian city on Lake Ontario. 

The private gamble paid off. The 4.4-kilometre private tramway from Toronto to the main northern line at Fassifern began in March 1891 with the help of a second-hand saddle tank engine bought from the NSW Government Railways.     

The opening of the Toronto Hotel and “pleasure grounds” in 1887 provided the impetus for many company and church organisations to visit Toronto for their annual picnics by steam tram. It was also an easy journey for day trippers, creating the region’s tourism boom throughout the 1890s.

Many newlyweds soon spent their honeymoons at Toronto. They arrived by tram dressed in their finest clothes. From the Toronto station terminus, it was only a short walk up the hill to the ‘new’, prestigious hotel.

Later, the Excelsior tramway was leased for 10 years to the new Toronto Hotel and Tramway Company.

In March 1899, the new company bought a vertical boiler engine mounted on a tram bogey. It came second-hand from the Rockdale tramway in Sydney. Modified, but retaining its vertical boiler now enclosed in a wooden box cabin, it became the lake’s famous ‘Coffee Pot’ locomotive.

Travellers had a roofed trolley with hard wooden seats, but sometimes they rode in the open goods truck, braving cold wind and rain plus greasy soot and smoke from the wheezing steam engine.

It was also under-powered, and on slight slopes the passengers often had to get out and push. Some patrons sat on smelly fish boxes (seats) for the long, slow journey after being asked not to shoot rabbits or pick wild flowers while the train was in motion.

Around 1900, Toronto residents raised 3155 names on a petition complaining about the poor service and high freight charges. By then, about 300,000 people had visited Toronto by rail over 10 years.

According to lake historian Dulcie Hartley, the line eventually became so bad that all steam services were withdrawn in January 1909. In order to complete its 10-year route lease, a horse-drawn trolley was again introduced until the private line closed in March 1909.

 A reluctant NSW government then took over the line in 1910, launching the regular Newcastle to Toronto rail service in May 1911. The line was rebuilt, including four new bridges. This was despite a predicted future annual operating loss.

A variety of locomotive power was used on the Toronto to Fassifern rail link over the years, but the Coffee Pot was the best remembered.

The 'Pot’ was retired in 1910 and went to work instead on the Glenrock coastal railway between Merewether and The Junction, at Glebe. The loco was later scrapped in Newcastle, possibly in 1949.

Today motorists who travel through Toronto spare no thought to what was once a busy rail crossing at the Cary Street traffic lights (pictured).

Back at the old Toronto station, amid rail memorabilia, Jan Bendeich, the president of the Lake Macquarie and District Historical Society, had some interesting insights into the whole rail story.

“State Rail still owns the land. The Toronto to Fassifern line has never been decommissioned,” she says

“The society has been trying to get the local politician to finalise the issue. As far as I know, all the old railway lines are all still in place, except over roads.

“As to whether the line will ever re-open, I’d say it won’t,” she says.

“There’s no car parking here for any future rail commuters. And parking at the nearby Coles supermarket is restricted to only three hours. People are also now used to catching the bus.

“I caught the train from here for years and years, at first to get to school in Newcastle. I caught it until I was 23 years old and bought a car,” she says.