Big Chute Marine Railway

I read about this soon after we moved to Ontario a few years ago. Located on the Trent-Severn Waterway, it’s the only marine railway of its kind in North America.

By “Marine Railway”, I mean that it’s a section of railroad the starts in one body of water and goes up a steep hill, ending in another body of water, 60 feet above. The single rail car on this railway is a carriage that is open on both sides, and carts boats up and down that hill, serving the same purpose as a lock.

Now, my husband is what we call a “Train Autistic” who ALSO likes boats... so I knew this would be right up his alley.

Well, Big Chute Marine Railway is located in the Township of Georgian Bay, just a few minutes from Port Severn. That happens to be where Six Mile Lake Provincial Park is located.

So, when we stayed there this past fall, OBVIOUSLY we had to go see it.

Let me tell you - spoilers! - it was so cool, that we ended up going there 3 times that weekend! It being such a short drive from the campground came in handy!

Anyway, lots to talk about, so let’s get to it!

The Basics:

Location Name: Big Chute Marine Railway
Address: 7001 Upper Big Chute Rd, Coldwater, ON L0K 1E0
Website: Parks Canada - Big Chute Marine Railway
Price: Free!
Reservations: Not Applicable
Season: May 16, 2024 - October 13, 2025

Logistics

Here’s some basic information to help you plan your visit to Big Chute Marine Railway:

Registration and Check In

The parking is free and not ticketed, and the “Visitor Centre” is only minimally staffed - the only employees we saw during our stay were the ones operating the railway itself.

As far as actually USING the railway, it doesn’t look like that needed any kind of reservation either. When I called for more info, they said it just operates as needed, when boats float up.

... and that’s what happened. A boat floated up to a dock, a guy on the loudspeaker asked them to wave if they wanted a ride down. They waved, and the whole thing started up!

I’m not sure how they handle the fees - $1/foot for return use, or $2/foot for an all day pass for the waterway - we didn’t see any employee interaction, aside from over the loudspeaker.

Also an interesting note that I learned from the call center employee: Apparently the whole dock system is free to use on Thanksgiving Monday!

Maps and Signage

There was a single map of the large grounds and the associated areas of interest. It’s just off the sidewalk, next to the first marine railway, as you’re walking from the parking lot. It’s got everything laid out and well labeled.

In terms of signage, there’s almost nothing in the way of *directional* signage at the site, but you don’t really need it. You can’t really miss the railway itself, and everything around it is pretty obvious.

There is plenty of *educational* signage, though - you could spend a fair amount of time wandering the site and learning a ton about the engineering and history of the marine railway.

Parking

There’s a relatively large parking lot across from the Big Chute Marina, which has its own parking lot.

There was plenty of space there when we visited on the Friday, but the next day - the Saturday of the Thanksgiving long weekend - it was pretty packed.

I’d imagine the place is an absolute zoo on Canada Day, the May long weekend, Labour Day, etc.

Anyway, the parking lot is a short walk from the old marine railway, then you’ll pass the hydro generating station before getting to the Visitor Center and current marine railway.

One thing to note: You’ll be walking on the road a portion of the way there, unless you take the path from the back of the parking lot..

There is a bit of a shoulder from the parking lot entrance to the area near the old marine rail car, but it definitely could have used some sidewalk!

Picnic Area

Next to the parking lot - you can access it from the road or via a path from the back of the parking area - there’s a cute little picnic area.

There are a few picnic tables scattered on a sprawling grassy area - along with one BIG fire pit - surrounded mostly by trees.

One side of the area opens out onto a view of the original marine railway, as well as a looooong set of stairs to get down to the water level.

As a note: those stairs are incredibly steep, and front-to-back, each step was VERY narrow.

I don’t have particularly big feet, but I went down kind of sideways because I didn’t trust my ankles on that thing.

Anyway, the stairs ultimately take you down to a floating dock on the water below - some nice views of the area there, but you won’t see much of the actual marine railway, if it’s operating.

Between the picnic area and the dock is kind of an intermediate level, with the power generating station. It definitely FEELS like you’re not supposed to go there, but there’s actually a whole interpretive display for visitors back there!

More on that in a bit, though!

Anyway, Big Chute Marina Restaurant is across the road, and it looks like there’s a little store and ice cream shop in there, too.

Washrooms

There are 2 sets of washrooms in the “visitor center” building at the current Marine Railway, but take their availability with a grain of salt.

On our first visit - on a Friday afternoon - the washrooms were closed and locked, despite being well within the posted visitor hours.

On our second visit - the next day, also during the posted hours - they were open.

They were regular public washrooms - not outhouses or vault toilets - but the giant rodent traps in front of the doors were kind of off-putting.

It wasn’t just the washrooms, either - EVERY door had them. How bad of a mouse or rat problem could they have!?

Anyway, I digress. We only have a data set of 2, but that’s enough for me to suggest maybe not hydrating up really well before visiting.

Also, as a heads up to our fellow autistics: The hand dryers are INCREDIBLY loud - probably those awful Xlerators. UGH. We could hear them loudly even well outside of the building.

Visitor Centre

There’s a small visitor centre with hours posted, but it was ... odd.

Most of the main level windows were papered up, making it look abandoned. The call centre employee said that it’s supposed to be a visitor information centre, but there was no evidence of anything like that during either of our visits.

You’ll have to walk up 4 sets of stairs - about 10 steps each - to get up there, and it looks RIGHT into the marine railway car.

Hydro Interpretive Centre

This is a weird one - there’s a whole AMAZING display about the history of the hydro generating station.

The thing is, it’s really hidden, and there’s almost no signage at all to let you know that it’s down there. It’s labeled on the main map, and that’s it. No directional or welcome signage anywhere, no mention on the website, etc.

We only found out about it because Porter went off to see how to get to a bench that we’d noticed, from a distance.

He came back HALF AN HOUR LATER, absolutely glowing. He barely managed to get out the words “Big autistic playground!”, before just a jumble of excited info came spewing out.

LOL. I love autistic joy!

He took me down to see it, and yeah - at no point did I see any signage or anything foreshadowing the wonders I was about to behold.

Porter led me to a little park area and through some trees - it honestly felt like we were trespassing. Then, we came upon what was OBVIOUSLY something meant for the public, with displays and signage.

There are two 100+ year old turbine generators, one with the exterior casings removed. You can reach up and actually touch it, and there’s even part of a penstock - a riveted steel pipe that carried water from above - that you can walk right into.

All throughout this area, there are a BUNCH of educational signs teaching about the engineering and history of the power station.

Just a really cool area - such a shame that most people who go to the Marine Railway won’t even know it’s there!

Getting There

There are two ways to get to the interpretive center:

1. Go all the way down the stairs from the picnic area, turn left at the bottom and walk across the little metal bridge. That takes you to the back of the generator building. Walk around it on the left side - the display is on the other side of the building.

2. If you’re at the visitor centre, walk away from the direction of the current marine railway, passing the visitor centre lawn. As you come to the water - before the old marine railway car - turn left just before the water channel thing, and follow the side of it down.

Ahead of you - down a hill - you’ll see an area with educational signage, a bench, and a large metal tube section.

That’s part of the centre. Straight ahead - to the left - you can find a fairly hidden walkway, back in the trees. That will take you to stairs that go down to the displays.

Accessibility

So, overall it’s not a SUPER wheelchair accessible attraction, and it’s a bit hit-and-miss in terms of other mobility issues:

The picnic area isn’t specifically wheelchair accessible, but if you can wheel over grass, you can more or less use it.

You can wheel alongside the old marine railway and get a bit of a view from on top of the stairs, but there’s no safe alternate path down. Further, I wouldn’t recommend attempting those steps with any kind of mobility aid.

If you take the path from the visitor centre - rather than the stairs - you can access the Hydro Interpretive Centre if you’re in a walking boot, brace, crutches, etc - you’re just going up and down a hill. There was no wheelchair accessible access to it, so far as we could see, nor was there any accessible parking nearby.

Getting from the parking lot to the visitor centre and marine railway is paved, but you are going along the side of a road - there’s no sidewalk. You might be able to get dropped off at the visitor centre, but there’s no pull over spot or parking to do so.

The washrooms were labeled as being accessible.

The observation deck involve a fair amount of stairs, and we didn’t see any kind of elevator alternative.

Beyond that, the ground-level observation areas are accessible, to a point. You can see where the rail car rests when it’s stationary, and you can watch it being loaded up on the upper waterway... but once it starts going down the hill, you need to go down stairs to follow the rest of its path.

The view down the spillway doesn’t require any stairs - it’s from the road.

Connectivity

On Rogers Wireless, we had good upload and download speeds through the whole park area.

This was a good thing, as we had a ton of photos to share from it, AND we spent a lot of time waiting for something to happen. So, it was nice to be able to access social media and games, once we’d walked through and seen everything!

Pets

We saw quite a few dogs over the course of both visits.

There was no signage banning dogs from the premises, so I’m assuming it’s the general “as long as they’re on a leash and picked up after” thing.

We did not see any poop bag dispensers in the area, so bring your own.

Miscellaneous

Trent Severn Waterway offers overnight mooring and camping spots - for boaters only - at some of its locks.

Apparently this IS available at the Big Chute Marine Railway, but I couldn’t find any detailed information on it beyond “check in with staff when you get there”.

History of the Marine Railway

It was interesting reading about the history of the marine railway in the area.

It was part of a big plan to connect the Severn River to Georgian Bay, which would require a set of 3 locks: Port Severn, Big Chute, and Swift Rapids.

The initial building contracts were awarded in 1914. World War I broke out around the same time, limiting the resources - material and labour - for actually building the locks.

The Port Severn lock was finished and intended to be temporary, but is still in use today. The other two locks weren’t completed before the war, so temporary marine railways were built as a stopgap measure.

That first version of the Big Chute Marine Railway was built in 1917, but it was too small to be useful for the larger boats used for commercial shipping. It was replaced with a new marine railway in 1923. This replacement railway was able to carry boats almost twice the length of the first, and was used - in varying degrees of capacity - until 2003.

Now, that carriage rests on display, about halfway between the parking lot, and the current day Marine Railway.

(The Swift Rapids Marine Railway was completed two years after the first Big Chute Marine Railway, and used the same plans for its construction.)

Eventually - in the 1960s - the Swift Rapids Marine Railway made way for a conventional lock - the Swift Rapids Lock - and they started working on a lock for Big Chute.

By this time, sea lamprey were found locally, in Gloucester Pool - the waterway at the bottom of the Big Chute Railway.

These sea monsters (seriously, they look like something out of Sci Fi) were devastating the fishing industry on the Great Lakes, so their presence put a halt to the development of the Big Chute lock.

He waited there for a few days, examining each boat the passed, until he finally came across a hitchhiking lamprey.

That lamprey fell off the boat after just a few metres, and - from what I can tell - that SINGLE DATA POINT was used to determine that it would be best to use the marine railway setup, rather than a lock.

So, the built the current Marine Railway, which was significantly larger and better able to handle the traffic demands. It opened in 1978, is still in use today, and apparently actually worked to stop the spread of Sea Lamprey!

How the Big Chute Marine Railway Works

The Big Chute Marine Railway is a SLICK setup. Let’s let Porter tell you all about it:

“The carriage runs on two sets of rails, an inner set and an outer set. As the machine heads down the steep hill - an inclined plane in engineering-speak - the outer rail set is kept higher, and the inner rail set drops down.

The machine is an open carriage - a big "U" shape basically - that drives into the water, submerging the deck completely. This allows boats to drive right into position. It's approximately 80 feet long and 26 feet wide (24m x 8m), allowing multiple boats.”

The process was really fun to watch, you can get a clear view of every step of the process from the stairs that follow along the hill. It's also pretty quick, just a few minutes from driving into the carriage to driving out.”

Entertainment and Activity

Beyond the educational experiences and the railway itself, there are other ways you can enjoy the area:

Hiking

While you can walk around the area a fair amount - we did about 2 km each time we were there - there really aren’t hiking trails on the site.

There are a fair amount of stairs, though, if you want to see the whole thing. As mentioned earlier, the steps alongside the old railway are VERY steep - with very narrow steps - but the stairs alongside the new railway are a lot more reasonable.

Biking

It’s not really a suitable venue for biking.

Swimming

While there’s swimming in nearby lakes, you definitely don’t want to swim anywhere near any of the locks. That’s just asking for a bad time.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

We saw and heard quite a few birds in the area, across all of our trips.

All told, we either saw or heard:

American Robin, American Crow, Black-Capped Chickadee, Black Scoter, Blue Jay, Canada Goose, Chipping Sparrow, Common Starling, Dark-Eyed Junco, Great Blue Heron, Northern Cardinal, Ring-Billed Gull, White-Crowned Sparrow.

Boating

I feel silly including our standard “boating” section in here, on a post that’s fully about a really cool lock.

Yes, there is boating available on site. To be quite honest, if we had our boat with us, we’d probably annoy the crap out of the Big Chute Marine Railway employees.

You’d best believe we’d be abusing the hell out of one of those day passes, LOL!

Fishing

The section of Trent-Severn that’s right above the railway is a popular spot for fishing

Black Crappie, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Pickerel, Pumpkinseed, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Trout, Walleye, Yellow Perch have all been reported.

Niantic Games

There are quite a few Pokestops / Dynamax Power centers / Ingress Portals / Pokegyms / etc all around the Marine Railway area.

We also had really great cell phone reception, so accessing the game was no problem at all.

Final Thoughts

Obviously this field trip was a HUGE hit with my husband, who very much lives up to the “train autistic” stereotypes.

He found it to be “surprise after surprise of really cool things to see”. You’re combining history, trains, marine, and power generation, all in one little area... so he was absolutely in his element.

As someone whose special interests lay outside of those, even I found it to be exceptionally cool. The history, the visuals, just watching this unique rail car do its job - just a really fantastic trip.

We ended up going 3 times in as many days!

So, definitely we’re going to recommend this stop to anyone who happens to be in the area during its operating season. Even outside of the lock season, the generating station interpretive center was fantastic.

We’ll absolutely be going back anytime we’re in the area.

More Places to See

Looking for some nice sights to see and great places to visit while you're out on your camping adventures? Here are a few of our favourite day use parks, attractions, etc.

Aguasabon Falls & Gorge
Amethyst Mine Panorama
Batchawana Bay
Big Bay, Ontario
Bruce Peninsula National Park
Canada's Dinosaur Park
Chippewa Falls
Falls Reserve Conservation Area
Fielding Bird Sanctuary
Flowerpot Island
French River Provincial Park
Gariepy Creek Falls
Hardy Lake Provincial Park
Healey Falls
Inglis Falls Conservation Area
Menesetung Bridge
Mink Creek Falls
Old Woman Bay
Onaping Falls
Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park
Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Point Pelee National Park
Provoking Falls
Sand River Falls
Scenic Caves Nature Adventures
Scenic High Falls
Screaming Heads
Spirit Rock Conservation Area
Temagami Fire Tower
Terrace Bay Beach