The Ottawa Valley Railway, which continues north to Sudbury and is shown here in dark red, may be ripped up. (RailAmerica.com)

Communities in the Ottawa Valley are facing the loss of a rail line that has connected them for more than 100 years.

The Ottawa Valley Railway, which runs around 400 kilometres from Sudbury to Smiths Falls, is currently out of use and is set to be dismantled by its owner, Canadian Pacific Rail.

This week the company gave interested governments 30 days to buy the rail line before it starts ripping up the tracks to sell the steel — worth an estimated $50 million.

Al Lunney, the outgoing mayor of Almonte, Ont., said losing the tracks will be a huge loss for the area's future, but the municipality can't afford to buy them. He said his community could use the railway for a range of projects from tourism to light rail transit.

"I think there's huge potential," Lunney said.

"It may be 10 years on the road, maybe five years down the road … but as I said, once it's torn up, it's gone."

Lunney and others from the Ottawa Valley-area are planning to rally on Parliament Hill on Dec. 9 in hopes the federal government will block CP Rail's plans. So far, though, neither the provincial nor federal government have paid much attention to the stretch of railway, he said.

Retired military colonel and Mississippi Mills resident Garry Rice has fond memories of the railway, both as a rider and as someone who used it to transport military cargo to his base at CFB Petawawa.

"It's a sad day for Canada when they start ripping up the very links that hold this country together," Rice said.

"The biggest tragedy would be the strategic loss of a vital, strategic asset."