In 1988, the Canadian Pacific Railway filed to abandon the Guelph & Goderich Railway, but local investors stepped in to purchase the line and keep trains running. This was only the first part of a shortline acquistion spree; when the Canadian National started purging southern ontario branches after the end of the At & East grain subsidies, the G&G picked up not only the CN line from Strafford to Goderich, but their lines from Exeter to Blythe and Guelph to Owen Sound.
These lines managed to produce a tidy (small, but tidy) profit, and in the late 1990s the line was in financial shape to propose a merger with the Brantford-based Ontario Radial Railway Company and the Canada Southern Railway, forming the new Ontario Southwestern Railway.
The G&G still exists as a mailing slot on the OSW’s Guelph HQ, but there is no longer any rolling stock painted or lettered for the Guelph & Goderich.