Canadian Northern did make an unsuccessful attempt to preserve the locomotives and cars. From the end of operations in 1910, the locomotives and rolling stock lay derelict. At about the outbreak of World War I, a Montreal scrap dealer by the name of Diamond purchased the rolling stock. Most of the equipment was barged down the Ottawa River to Montreal where it was scrapped.
Two combination car bodies were sold for use as farm storage sheds. Eugene St. Denis, a farmer whose land faced the Ottawa River at Chute à Blondeau, bought the body of one passenger car. It is possible that Mr. St. Denis bought the second body as well. The cars were taken across the river during the 1914-15 winter. There is photographic evidence that both cars were in existence until the 1920s or 1930s. One of the cars, an arch-roofed one, has disappeared but the other one, with a clerestory roof survived. About 1963, the St. Denis farm was expropriated as the waters of the Ottawa River were being raised by the construction of Hydro-Quebec's Carillon dam. The family moved to a new farm about five miles from St. Eugene, Ontario and brought the car body with them. The body was purchased by the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa (now called the Canada Science and Technology Museum) where it is now stored out of public view. It is the oldest known piece of passenger equipment in Canada. What contributed to its survival was Mr. St. Denis' perhaps accidental foresight in covering the entire roof with sheet metal and boarding-in the clerestory.
There has been some controversy over the age of the combine. Normally a car of 1854 vintage would not have a clerestory roof. The car was inspected in 1973 by Omer Lavallée and Jim Shields, both of whom are respected technical historians. They concluded that, based on the construction methods and the style that is typical of the 1850 to 1860 period, the car body was part of the original equipment. It is possible that the C&G staff added the clerestory in the 1870s.
Other artifacts of the Carillon & Grenville survive at the Argenteuil Museum. An important item is the balloon stack from the locomotive Grenville. Until 1969 it had been used as a planter in the garden of a Mr. Field of Brownsburg, Quebec. Mr. Field had worked for the C&G and the stack was a gift from his son P.E. Field of Montreal. The museum also has a piece of the original C&G track. The Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa has a short section of “U” rail from the C&G. It dates from about 1852 and its manufacturer in unknown.
The builder's plate for locomotive No. 2 Grenville went up for auction on eBay in December 2000 but the reserve bid apparently was not met. Its final disposition is unknown.
