Talk about a line from Toronto to the upper Great Lakes has been recorded to as early as 1834, but no serious effort was taken until 1848 when Frederick Chase Capreol announced he was going to build a line to the Collingwood area under the name Toronto, Simcoe and Huron Railroad Union Company. He suggested a novel method to raise the funds for construction, using a $2 million lottery. The proposition was considered so scandalous it was put to a referendum and defeated. With the passage of the Guarantee Act in 1849, Capreol joined forces with Charles Albert Berczy and chartered the company in July 1849, now having to raise conventional bonds for the first , from which point government funding would be available.