On my recent trip to the Maritimes, I made some new photographs of old friends train stations.
Amherst, NS
The lead photo shows the gorgeous Amherst train station. It houses Bambino’s Pizza and has an external staircase to the second floor… not sure why! The waiting area has tables now for the restaurant. VIA still stops here, though!
Sackville, NB
Just a little bit west of Amherst, on the other side of the provincial border, the Sackville train station sits somewhat forlornly by itself.
The Ocean stops here too, but the station is not staffed. I think this is still owned by VIA. There is a faded public notice attached to a window advising that some alterations will be done to the station that won’t affect the heritage nature of the station… roof and stone work, ceiling and drywall work, upgrading plumbing, that sort of thing.
I like the two stations – Amherst and Sackville. They both use sandstone but they have very different looks.
Minto, NB
The train station in Minto, New Brunswick has been well preserved. It seems to have a new roof and siding, and there’s a mining display nearby that I don’t remember seeing before. The caboose, CN 79207, could use a little paint, but otherwise it looks very nice.
The interior of the station looks great, too.
Midland
I’m pretty sure that this used to be a railway building – maybe a speeder shed. It used to have a station sign on the end – MIDLAND – when I last saw it in 2009.
The CPR Minto subdivision used to run from Fredericton north through Minto and Chipman to Norton, where it met the CNR. In the 1950s this was well visited by railfans as one of the last vestiges of steam power on main lines in Canada. Due to light bridges and light rail, a trio of old 4-4-0 steam engines worked Chipman to Norton – with a mixed train!
Amazingly, all three locomotives still exist – 29 in Calgary, 136 at the South Simcoe Railway and 144 at the Canadian Railway Museum.
You can see MIDLAND in between Chipman and Minto in the October 26, 1958 CPR timetable above. Note the mixed trains listed.
Chipman
Believe it or not, this was the CN passenger station in Chipman, New Brunswick. Today it is still used by CN, but as a maintenance depot.
Down the hill, the former CPR train station has been the public library for many years.
It doesn’t look much like a train station now, but have a look at this Art Clowes photograph from 1980:
You can see how heavily it has been modified since the CPR days.
There’s still one rail customer in Chipman, Grand Lake Timber, the J.D. Irving sawmill. There were about eight centerbeam flatcars there when I passed by.
This is located “down the hill” from the CN main line. The track in Chipman was a little complicated when the CPR was still here. CN has a wye extending south from their main line, and that met the CPR track, which had a wye of its own.
The caboose in Chipman, CN 79318, is labeled as an “ART GALLERY” on the end.
I don’t know why they painted the trucks red, but okay… at least it’s still there.
Someday I will make it back to McAdam to see the wonderful train station there. I didn’t have time to get to Fredericton on this trip so I wasn’t able to see my old “stomping ground”. Soon.
Hi Steve,
That Chipman caboose looks really good – albeit with the red trucks. As you noted, it looks to be well-restored; better than most! I was surprised during Rapido’s publicity of the H-S cabooses to find quite a bit on the ends was initially painted red. Thanks for sharing this station tour!
Eric
I just came from Moncton to Halifax on VIA – it’s a great, comfortable trip. AND, Newcastle Bridge was my home for the first dozen years of my life. Lived a five minute walk from the Newcastle Bridge station. Paid 5 cents to go to Minto to see a movie (the theatre was just down the slope from the station). Went to Chipman in the caboose (my friend’s father was a conductor). And remember the first “jitney” to go on past. And would take the train from Minto to Fredericton a number of times. I loved trains then, and do so still.