Preston and Berlin Railway

{{Short description|History of the Preston and Berlin railway, in Ontario, Canada}}

{{for | the interurban electric railway system | Preston and Berlin Street Railway }}

{{Infobox rail

|railroad_name = Preston and Berlin Railway

|logo_filename =

|logo_size =

|system_map = {{maplink-road|from=Preston and Berlin Railway.map}}

|map_caption =

|map_size =

|marks =

|image =

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|locale = Waterloo County, Midwestern Ontario, Canada

|regions = Preston
Berlin (now Kitchener)

|stations = Berlin
German Mills
{{stn|Doon}}
Preston

|parent_company = Galt and Guelph Railway
Great Western Railway

|start_year = 1857

|end_year = 1858

|predecessor_line =

|successor_line = Grand Trunk Railway Galt Branch
CN Waterloo Subdivision
CN Huron Park Spur

|gauge = {{Track gauge|sg|allk=on}}

|electrification =

|length = {{convert|9.7|mi|km}}

|hq_city =

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| map_name = Route map

| map_state = collapsed

}}

The first Preston and Berlin Railway was a steam-operated railway, opened for operation in 1857. Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener, Ontario), and Preston, Ontario (now part of Cambridge, Ontario), were only {{convert|13|km|mi}} apart, but the route required a bridge over the Grand River.

Berlin's city council awarded the line a subsidy.

The line operated for just three months. Ice flowing down the Grand River damaged piers of its bridge at Doon, Ontario.

The bridge never re-opened.

There were recriminations over the line's failure, and the satisfaction of those who inspected the line, and its bridge. Eventually, in 1863, an act in Canada's Parliament exonerated Berlin City Council. Edward Irving Ferguson acquired the line's assets, because he had held a mortgage on some of the line's property. He sold those assets to the Grand Trunk Railway, on November 14, 1865.

The {{convert|6.9|mi|km}} from Berlin, to the Grand River, at Doon, was incorporated into a route the Grand Trunk built from Berlin to Galt, Ontario.