Comments on: Rather nice looking old station. it was a pity it was neglected, as this building, near the corner of Guelph Ave and Sheffield St in town; fell victim to vandals on the 31st of October, 2003. It was destroyed by fire, obviously arson; after being on that location since the early 1900s.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 17:20:59 +0000

Galt CN station was on Concession St. I would imagine it is gone. Nice solid brick building.

By: dhaisell

dhaisell — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:42:37 +0000

Where was the Galt CN station? It was long gone before I moved here.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 11:45:50 +0000

Jacob, many thanks for this. The ’1959′ Galt CNR is the building I remember in the city. I wondered what had happened to it; as it would have made a beautiful private residence. I did get a photo of it back around 1977 or so. These glimpses back into the simple days are so intriguing, and I appreciate you taking the time to write.

By: Jacob Patterson

Jacob Patterson — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 03:35:36 +0000

@Arnold, in regards to Galt I came across this while looking for some other stuff this evening. It appears this was the original GWR Galt station (or a second one?) prior to the familiar GTR brick structures built circa 1900-1915.

Cambridge archives, GWR/GTR circa 1895: https://archive.cambridge.ca/webcat/watermarkImage/webcat/systems/cambridge/resource/archives_photos/ph6575.jpg

CNR Galt, 1959: http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/stations/CNR_Galt_Royal_Visit_1959.jpg

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 14:27:29 +0000

I could have most definately made this work… a late GEXR 582 would have been perfect here, and I woudl have ignored the bridge shot.. or a cloudy day

I was standing here in 2003 shooting the GEXR F unit leading the St THomas Central excursion trains… when i didnt’ know what I was doing and there was about 50 people here to watch/photograph…

did I shoot the station? nope. Took it for granted. Gone a couple months later.

Thanks for sharing Arnold. It was still very much like this with the old station signs too…

By: awmooney

awmooney — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 13:59:10 +0000

Thanks, Jason. When I first got worked up about going around shooting photos of as many stations as I could before demolition day arrived; I found it annoying how many of them seemed to face the North, resulting in bad shadow. In the end it turned out cloudy days were best for going out.

By: Noe

Noe — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 13:55:43 +0000

Nice shot Arnold of the station. If I remember correctly this station was hard to shoot because of lighting usually an issue.

Steve is correct, the Hespeler “Save our Station” group was not organized and lacked any additional resources to begin even remotely preserving the building unfortunately.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 03:38:15 +0000

Jacob, re: Guelph CPR station, the location is in a GHRA newsletter, we tracked it down.

As for the ‘save our station’ in Hespeler the people involved in saving Hespeler station were not in a position to actually save it. They lacked the organizational capabilities nor any charitable status. The group fizzled out.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 02:54:03 +0000

I heard the same story. But I did wonder what happened to the old brick CN station in Galt. It was a nice looking place………

By: Jacob Patterson

Jacob Patterson — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 02:51:52 +0000

…the old CPR Guelph one…that ended with embezzlement from the guy in charge…I remember hearing someone salvaged some of the bricks before they went to the dump to add an addition to their house. Down near Chatham area I believe.