It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
C.N.R. Railway Station, Huntsville, Ont. A water tower can be seen in the background, in the foreground is a 1920s Model T Ford and a 1927 Plymouth. You can see the Paget House in the background to the right of the water tower. Date, 1927-1930.
The railway came to Huntsville in 1885 and the station opened in 1886. In 1892 it was known as the Grand Trunk railway. In 1923 it became the Canadian National Railway. The present station as shown in the postcard was built in 1924. It was designated a heritage railway station by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1993.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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Interesting this photo ran Dec.15, 2022, the same day the provincial government announced the $139,500,000 purchase order for three trainsets from Siemens to be delivered in 2026. Contact me if you’d like to ride the first train!
Lucille
The rail station was where the world came to Huntsville; everything from ski trains and revelers to produce and hard goods. The photo shows cars from a time when it was unlikely too many people had driven from Toronto to Huntsville, and God forbid a round trip!!
Out in Brunel, it was common for people who had freight to pick up at the station, to flag down any of the truckers hauling into town. I know the new stove that my Grandmother was so proud of, and that I sampled many a tart or pie from, came home on the back of Bert Slatter’s gravel truck. Bert and Ruben were my Grandmothers cousin, and hauled from the pit on N. Mary Lake Rd.
Another commodity passing through the Huntsville station was the mail. Mr. Gord Middleton Sr. had the contract to carry the mail bags to and from the station.
In Mr. Sid Davis notes, he comments that trains #44 and#46 ran from the south and #41 and #47 from the north. Four trains or more, through that station, back in the day.
On the other side of the tracks, was Hunter’s Bay, the wharf for the lake boats, and a mass of logs that supplied three ravenous lumber companies. I can remember lumber being stacked all along that waterfront.
That old station watched it all in its’ heyday.
Historically people have paid for and used transport services that were either fast, cheap or convenient. Sadly the train was none of these things, especially toward the end of its passenger service.
I used to use it to go to Kingston for university but it took most of a day to do so and when I got hold of a car I could drive that trip in a little over 4 hours for less direct gas cost than a train ticket.
Some of us used to use the train to go to Toronto for events. One had to catch it at 4 AM going down and I think it left Toronto for the return at about 6 PM. No matter the direction the trip took about 4 hours. It was nice in that you could rest, read, eat etc. (at least on the old full service trains) but the timing home was not the best. Also, you needed a car to get to the train station and then your car was left lonely and unprotected until your return. Not always a good situation.
When you think about it, for the cost of a single train fare, or maybe two bus fares if you can find a bus these days, you can drive a car with 4 friends to and from Toronto and pay for a day of parking and you can drive to exactly where you want to be, when you want to be there. With the train you must remember that everywhere you go from Union Station is two TTC fares per person at a very minimum and you can only bring home with you what you can easily carry with one arm as you walk.
Unless you can change these facts, trains and buses will never compete with auto travel in our current society.
If I could climb on a train that would drop me off in Toronto in say 2 hours, or Barrie in 1 and if it ran every two hours each way and if it cost maybe $50 to $100 round trip, then I think you’d have customers lined up but running an hour late for a 4 hour trip at 4 AM with one trip every 24 hours…. Orville, it won’t fly.
All this said it is still sort of neat to ride a train no matter everything else and one advantage they have over any road transport is that they are very seldom stopped by bad weather.
I appreciate what John Earl has said regarding train service. I believe there will probably always be a need for subsidization of some sort. However, i am one who would use the train often if the options were better. That is, dependable scheduling and a few more stations. For that to happen, a second line may be required to allow freight and passenger rail to operate. Once arriving in the GTA, more stations provide options to get on or off. I don’t mean a gazillion, just a few so people could connect to public transit in major areas, like Vaughan or North York. Frustrating to have to idle at the 401 area, actually at a GO station, waiting for a freight to pass and watch inaccessible TTC buses pass by. Especially when you actually want to go somewhere in the northern part of the city. Wasting people’s time unnecessarily won’t encourage return customers. Improve the schedules and access points and it will thrive. Much of the world is WAY ahead of Canada, keeping their rail service viable. Glad to have my taxes contribute to a viable railway system.
Another wonderful photo and interesting piece of Huntsville’s by-gone days.
When we think rail business sometimes passenger rail is first to come to mind. Those sheds in the picture to the west were freight sheds , mostly for receiving , but also for shipping. At our shop we received shipments from Canada Bolt & Hook , H.Paulin and others from the GTA, also received shipments from Princess Auto from Winnepeg. Princess Auto only had one store back in day. The sheds were renovated and added on to from what I remember. Hoar Transport leased part of the sheds for a Huntsville depot during the 60’s. When picking up freight for our shop it was always a pleasure to have Mr. Ron Austin and Mr. Lloyd Stevens accommodate the transactions. To this day rail traffic plays a significant part in rail freight originating from Huntsville. The larger users recently have been Kimberly Clarke and Panolam , former Tembec ( now ?), and former KWH pipe( now ?).
Since passenger rail was stopped there has been lobbying to get it restored, and recently I noticed where the Ford government authorized a trial run from the GTA to North Bay. It always amazed me to when ever I had a chance to notice the” use to be” Ontario Northland passenger train pass through Huntsville how very few were actually making use of the service. I thought Wow, if a private enterprise was offering this service they would most likely be declaring bankruptcy . I realize public transit can only exist when taxpayer money subsidizes the program, Huntsville Transit has benefitted in taxpayer funding, locally and provincially. However when one sees the passenger rail service thats used in such small amounts you have to wonder if tax payers are getting poor results of spending. More isolated communities to the north its a different story, as for Huntsville we already have Ontario Northland bus, Air Port limousine , Volunteer Canadian Cancer Society transportation, Muskoka Seniors, The Red Cross, some Branches of the Legion and Taxi cab. Some of these are free, some are reasonable , and some are expensive, but there seems to be no shortage of getting to the GTA from Huntsville. The intensive lobbying that has been done to restore the train service seems to have caught the ear of the Ford government. I only hope that all these involved in lobbying make a concerted effort to help fill the seats and show us taxpayers that its a worthwhile expenditure to be subsidizing. I will probably get push back on this, however I am one of those taxpayers that likes to see good value for money spent, not subsidizing for only a very few, maybe for the needy , maybe not.