By Railfan & Railroad Staff

Canada’s shortest short line is no more. 

The Drive reports that New Brunswick’s Bayside Canadian Railway, a subsidiary of American Seafoods, was ripped up recently. 

The railroad was built around 2012, to exploit a loophole in the ​​Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the Jones Act. According to that law, shipping between American ports must be handled with American-built ships flying American flags, with the exception of goods that were moved by rail in Canada. Since American Seafoods did not own any American-built ships, they built a 200-foot-long railroad in Canada, where they loaded trailers onto a flat car, moved them back and forth, and then loaded the trailers back onto the ship. Then the ship was able to continue to the U.S. port to unload its catch, usually Alaskan pollock. The railroad’s entire fleet consisted of a trackmobile and two flatcars. 

But the U.S. Department of Justice was unimpressed with American Seafoods’ ingenious workaround and sued the company. The judge agreed, forcing the company to rip up the railroad. 

It’s unclear if any efforts will be made to preserve the railroad’s fleet or if a Bayside Canadian Railway Historical & Technical Society will ever be created to preserve its memory.