Early on, the railway company was run by Noël Desmarais, a local Franco-Ontarian businessman and grandfather of the financier Paul Desmarais, who later owned and managed the company. It began operations in 1912 with a single car that was borrowed from the Toronto Suburban Railway. The car was never returned and operated on the SCCSER until the early 1930s when it was sold for scrap. Service was only provided to Copper Cliff initially, with the lines on Notre Dame and Elgin opening shortly afterwards. The railway received electric power through the Wahnapitae Power Company, which was privately owned until it was acquired by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario in 1930.