The railway was built by John Rudolphus Booth, a 19th-century Canadian lumber baron and entrepreneur, who owned considerable timber rights in the Algonquin area as well as a major sawmill in downtown Ottawa. To open markets for the mill's products he purchased Donald Macdonald's lines and formed the Canada Atlantic Railway (CAR) from Ottawa to Vermont. To supply the mills, the OA&PS shipped timber in from across central Ontario. Together, the OA&PS and CAR allowed through shipment from the Canadian west to the US eastern seaboard areas. The lines were amalgamated under the CAR marque in 1899, and sold to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1905.