FOCUS - DECEMBER 2018 23 Give the gift of Handcrafted items by local artists and artisans. Everything from photography, jewellery, handcrafted soaps, pottery, paintings, prints and much, much more! Scugog Memorial Library 231 Water Street, Port Perry 905-985-7686 • www.scugoglibrary.ca ANNUAL November 16th - December 15th 237 Queen St.,Port Perry 905-985-0910 Peter Perry suggested in 1849 that a railway be built from Whitby and travel north through Port Perry to Lake Huron. These plans were put on hold after Perry’s death in 1851 and it wasn’t until 1868 that work actually began on its construction. This line began its life as the Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway (PW&PPR) and its first train ran from Whitby to Port Perry in 1871. Fraud, corruption and incompe- tence was involved in every stage of its planning and construction. The result was an economically unsus- tainable railway line that was badly constructed and built too late to take advantage of an earlier economic potential. In 1873, the directors of the com- pany even obtained the grandiose rights to extend the railway all the way to the Pacific! Those ambitions were quashed and the line was merely extended northward to Lindsay. It was then renamed the Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay Railway (WPP&LR). In 1882 the company merged with the Midland Railway, which was ab- sorbed by the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) in 1893. The GTR became part of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) in 1923. The last official train ran from Port Perry to Whitby in May 1939 taking local school children to Toronto to see King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their state visit to Canada. Several local citizens who rode on that train have been interviewed and their reminiscences are recorded in the book. In 1941 the rails were torn up and the steel used in the War effort. There are people alive today who can recount details of the railway in accurate detail. But their recollections are of a railway already in its death throes at the end of its inexorable decline, a railway that had reached its unstable peak half a century ear- lier. Their stories are included in this work. Nip ‘n Tuck holds a notable place in the history of the communities that it served:Whitby,Brooklin,Myrtle,High Point, Manchester, Prince Albert and Port Perry and later: Seagrave, Sonya, Manilla, Crestwood and Lindsay. The railway shaped the growth of these communities and provided a liveli- hood for many of their inhabitants and it either propelled them to suc- cess or failure. The story of Nip ‘n Tuck as doc- umented in the book, is a com- plex blend of bribery, corruption, in- trigueandtragedy,andevenincludes an unsolved murder and a guns-a- blazing shootout! Nip ‘n Tuck is a 140-page book that includes more than 60 photos, maps and diagrams and will be on sale for $35. This is Paul’s tenth book on local history. For two of them he joined Peter Hvidsten to co-author books on local heritage architecture. Peter produced the layout and the cover of Nip ‘n Tuck. On Saturday December 8 at the Memorial Library at the Port Perry waterfront, the book launch takes place in the Rotary Room, beginning at noon when the public will see an operating model railway layout showing the Port of Whitby portion of the Nip ‘n Tuck. This display is the work of the Pine Ridge Railroaders. At 2 p.m. the author will give a talk on the history of the railway. The doors will remain open until 4 p.m. for the public to see the model railway display and meet the author. The Lake Scugog Historical Society will have other local history books for sale at the event, including Samuel Farmer’s Shores of Scugog, and some of Paul’s earlier books, including Steamboats on Scugog. Local author Lucy Black will also be on hand to sign copies of her latest novel, Eleanor Courtown. The following Saturday, December 15, Paul will be at Books Galore, 175 Perry St., for a book signing from 1 until 3 p.m. Nip ‘n Tuck (continued from page 21)