Toronto Railway Museum Artefact: The Train Board
The train board that sometimes hangs on the side of Don Station is actually from the Canadian Pacific Agincourt station, which closed and was demolished in 1978.
Using
public timetables showing the train numbers and the times, it would appear that
the information on the board was in effect from April 1970 until October 1976.
Agincourt was located exactly 10.8 miles east of Don so the train times on the
Agincourt board would have differed 14-20 minutes earlier for eastbound trains
and later for westbound trains. As indicated, these trains operated to and from
Havelock, 100.8 miles east of Toronto Union Station, although the most
important stop along this route was Peterboro (as CPR spelled it), 76.5 miles
from Union Station.
The
route is interesting historically as it was along CPR’s main line from Toronto
to Montreal via West Toronto, which opened in 1884. The Don Branch from Leaside
to Union Station opened in 1892 and Don Station in 1896. When CPR opened the
faster Shore Line via Trenton and Belleville in 1914, the original main line
declined in importance. The first westbound train to operate into the new Union
Station train shed in January 1930 was from Peterboro and hauled by CPR
Northern No. 3100, now on display in Ottawa. From about 1960 on,
Toronto-Havelock trains were exclusively Budd-built Rail Diesel Cars, which CPR
branded as Dayliners. Toronto-Ottawa overnight pool trains with sleeping cars
continued to operate over this route until October 1965. The Montreal-Toronto
line was severed between Glen Tay and Tweed in 1971.
After
CPR turned over their passenger business to VIA Rail in 1978, the Havelock
trains continued to operate (with different numbers) until 1982. They resumed
in June 1985 and disappeared for good during the infamous VIA cuts in January
1990. The track between Agincourt and Havelock is now operated freight only by
the Kawartha Lakes Railway, an internal shortline owned by CP. There were
recently serious proposals to restore passenger service between Toronto and
Peterborough, although the two political champions for this were the late Jim
Flaherty and a Peterborough MP recently expelled from the Conservative caucus
over alleged campaign financing irregularities.
The
Havelock trains also have historical resonance for the Toronto Railway Museum
since they were the last passenger trains to use Don Station until it closed in
December 1967. It continued to operate as a flag stop for another five
months, until April 1968, and was moved to Todmorden in 1969. On September 6,
1982, VIA Train No. 190 to Havelock was the last passenger train to
be serviced at John Street. This is shown as Train 382, the Sunday only
train at the bottom of the board, which operated on Monday, September 6 since
that was the Labour Day holiday.
Posting and photo by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian
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