 The railway was incorporated on 4 April 1910 to build a high-speed route from Toronto east to Pickering, Whitby, and Oshawa.The company acquired by Canadian Northern Railway interests in 1911, who extended the proposal east of Oshawa to Bowmanville and Cobourg.They also applied for additional rights of way, north from Cobourg or Port Hope to Peterborough, north from Oshawa to Linsday, north from Scarborough to Markham, Stouffville or Uxbridge, and south from Oshawa to the shore of Lake Ontario.