A station with a story: Petrolia's GTR station

The Grand Trunk's legacy lives on in a few scattered communities around Canada, but nowhere is the grandeur of the railway better reflected than in Petrolia, Ontario, a beautiful Victorian oil town in southwestern Ontario, east of Sarnia. The town's central square faces the wonderfully preserved Grand Trunk Railway station, which has long served as the town's central library. I passed by this station a number of times when I was younger but never really knew much about it until I dug into its history last year. The results were surprising.

Above: Petrolia's central library, formerly a Grand Trunk terminal, is a town centrepiece. This shot was taken Dec. 22, 2013.

The most remarkable feature of this building today is that it is virtually unchanged from its railway heyday, as you can see in this undated photo below. Note the muddy streets and the alternate town spelling. The town has long since changed its official spelling from Petrolea to Petrolia.

 

 

For those unfamiliar with its history, Petrolia's claim to fame is that is was the site of the first major commercial oil discovery in North America, although many in Pennsylvania have long since debated this fact. With the influx of oil riches, the town grew quickly. Its main street, the Petrolia Line, is lined with enormous Victorian mansions, which housed a number of oil company executives.

 

The rail station was built in 1903, although rail service to Petrolia predated this station. The rail lines hosted oil trains and passenger service, since roads between the town and Sarnia were often unreliable "plank" roads (corduroy road) as they were called locally. It's interesting that passenger rail was seen as such a vital service, since Petrolia is not more than a 15-minute drive from Sarnia, but in the late 1890s, when a town was built in a middle of a marshy swamp, roads were at the mercy of the elements.

 

The town had one small problem. The station was built on the east-west main street, but there was no room for an east-west track due to the development along the street. The solution was a strange one. The railway built a track that ran north-south from the GTR main line between London and Sarnia. That meant that trains would reach a dead end at the station, meaning the station was actually a terminal (see image below from the Lambton County Archives).

 

 

Here's another shot below of the back of the station in 1909 during the Old Boys Reunion (Lambton County Archives). As was the case in many small towns at the time, the train station was a focal point for town gatherings, since it was such an important gathering place for travellers. The tower behind the station is Victoria Hall, home of the town's civic offices and the famous Victoria Playhouse arts centre. The building still houses town offices and the theatre.

 

 

But, the usefulness of a terminal in a town so close to a major centre like Sarnia diminished. The Grand Trunk was purchased by the Canadian National and the station was closed in 1927, meaning the station's railway use lasted only 24 years. Luckily, Petrolia has always been conscious of its heritage, which led to the station being preserved, thanks to efforts of people like Robert Nicol (see below).

 

 

I made sure to get some shots of this building late last year. The shot below is the rear of the station where the trains reached the end of the line.

 

 

Even an old baggage cart has been preserved by local officials, although the CN noodle logo is a little out of place in this context, but that's nitpicking.

 

 

It's interesting to note that, at one time, Petrolia had another railway station, which belonged to the Michigan Central Railway's St. Clair Branch. That station was not preserved, as far as I know. Information about the MCR station is hard to come by, but I know that the Petrolia trackage was a spur off the St. Clair Branch, much like the Grand Trunk line was a spur off what is now known as the Strathroy Subdivision. Today, there are no tracks in Petrolia, although the only reminder of its railway past remains faithfully preserved.





Catching up with Grand Trunk, 1992

Here is another example of my exploits in the summer of 1992. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was a good time to shoot railway action. There were a number of things to see in the busy Sarnia Yard for a variety of reasons. But my encounter with a parked Grand Trunk ballast train was one of the better catches.

This train was parked at the east end of the yard, likely waiting clearance to proceed through the old St. Clair Tunnel, which was in its last months as a link below the St. Clair River to Michigan. In the 1990s, the Grand Trunk operated as its own operation across the river, although it was owned by CN. GT was one of the major rail carriers in Michigan, from Port Huron all the way down the Detroit and to points west. Today, the GT colours have largely disappeared, replaced by CN colours.

In the 1990s, it was rare for me to see GT motive power in Sarnia Yard, so these shots were a real coup for me. This train, pulled by SD40-2s 5936 and 6416, was silent. The two new units had not been started. The first unit was obviously recently repainted while its mate was recently cleaned. Compare the shot of 5936 below to a more recent shot. It's held up pretty well over the years.

As was my custom in the 1990s, I liked to get shots of the front of parked trains. I have to mention that this was an incredibly stupid idea, not to mention trespassing. I strongly advise that you not do this ever. All I can say in my defence was I was young and stupid. You can tell how much things have changed since the 1990s. This train had no crew in site and yet, the lead cab was left with doors open. Notice the string of hoppers to the right, with some of the old blue GT ribbed hoppers in the mix. Also, you will notice the absence of ditch lights.

And here's a shot of trailing unit 641. Check out a shot of 6416 from 1986, when it was clad in Detroit, Toledo and Ironton colours. The DT&I has an interesting history, including being part of the spectacular Penn Central collapse. The road was purchased by the GT in 1980, although the road's orange and black colours outlasted the DT&I for years. Here's a shot of 6416 in a transitional scheme before it took on full blue and red GT colours. Not long after I took my shot, the unit took on CN colours. It definitely had a colourful run in the 1980s and 1990s.

Here's a final shot of the train, complete with a long string of orange ballast cars in tow. I should mention one final story about my wanderings in Sarnia Yard around this time.

My run-in with CN personnel occurred right around this time. It may have happened on the day I caught up with this train. But I remember being in between tracks, taking photos when an engineer called out to me. He told me to walk to a switch and throw it for him, since he didn't want to get out of the cab. I remember doing what he said and being thanked for my effort. At the time, my brother was in a car, off to the side of the yard, waiting for me. He said he was pretty sure that I was getting in trouble for trespassing. It wasn't until that moment that I started to realize that what I was doing was not only wrong, but dangerous. I am lucky that the engineer that day was obviously being kind to a misguided railfan.

I can say that I no longer venture onto private property. I am happy that I wasn't arrested or hurt. It was a lesson learned without the consequences.

Update on Via Rail's work in Barrhaven

Over the course of June, all has been relatively quiet along Via Rail's stretch of track through Barrhaven, which is a good thing. The issues the railway has been dealing with have proven to be quite difficult but it's encouraging that there have been no reported issues at any of the level crossings in Barrhaven since late May.

As readers of this blog know, former Via Rail COO John Marginson has been in contact with me and has provided some clarity on the issues. John has informed me that Via plans to update the public on the situation in Ottawa soon. I am looking forward to hearing about what has been done. John has also committed to contacting me again when the railway next updates the public on the status of the work being done.

On an unrelated note, I recently paid a visit to the central station on Tremblay Road on a lunch break since work was incredibly slow. I took some photos with my old camera, which I keep with me at work just in case I feel the need to take photos on my walks around town. I noticed the old camera has a video function, so I decided to try it out. Here is my first attempt at video. It's nothing special and I had some definite issues. I don't know that I will be shooting much video with my old camera since its capabilities are limited. But this little clip is something on a slow summer day. It's nice to see the old silver and blue in corridor service in the summer.