con't... DEPOT RAILWAY
The very neat CNR survey plan illustrated is date 1923 and shows a large irregular block of land between the Murray Harbour Road and the South River. A 174’-wide corridor with the narrow-gauge main line up the middle is shown approaching the freight shed and station from the left. There are business sidings where freight cars were parked off the
main line and loaded by local businesses, a loading platform across the tracks from the station and a long public platform linking the station and freight shed where baggage and passengers embarked. Beyond the station are three short spur lines, two leading to the long coal shed and the third to the 55’ diameter turntable in front of the roadhouse. The turntable permitted the use of three tracks into the flat-roofed structure. The roundhouse, although called thus, was not round and simply provided shelter for three engines.
A hoist is shown in front of the coal shed. It lifted small coal cars and emptied them into the coal tenders behind the engines. The engine crew had a bunk car located near the roadhouse and the train crew slept in the baggage car. The conductor had a cottage across the track from the station. Note the little tool house halfway back to the station. A pump car and sometimes a small motorized rail inspection car were stored there for use by the section maintenance crew.

Changes occurred to the site over the years while the trains were running. The narrow-gauge track (42”) was changed to standard gauge (56 ½” wide) on this entire line one Sunday in 1930. Also the turntable disappeared and just two tracks subsequently entered the roundhouse. A wye was added about a mile west of the station for turning the engines. In 1947 steam was replaced by diesel power and the coal shed, being suddenly obsolete, became and engine shed. The foundations of that structure are still in place, supporting the roof overhead.

THE STATION AND THE TRAINS

The railway station in Murray Harbour was opened in 1905. It was classed as a “booking station” under the care of a station master responsible for passengers and freight. The structure, typical of the time, was 55’-5” wide and 22’-5” deep and contained his accommodations, an office with windows facing both ways along the track, and a waiting room for passengers. Mail and all manner of freight from parcels to local produce was delivered to his care during the day, carefully recorded and stowed for transfer to the morning train. The freight shed was just west of the station, connected by the train platform.

The train schedule indicated an early morning train leaving for Charlottetown and returning in the early evening, traveling approximately 3 ½ hours each way. That allowed for about 4 ½ hours in the city for a passenger if a return was contemplated the same day. Tuesdays and Saturdays were passenger days when no freight was transported. There were 21 intervening stops on the route of which 7 were “flag” stops  

(the train stopped only if a flag was hung at the station. Reality however was different! Trains stopped anywhere there was any reason to stop. They dropped off berry-pickers and picked up farmers with a pail of fresh milk. Station and water stops took a long time. Lots of good-humoured stories were told about the service but it was a true community railway


Then as now there were heavy winters with lots of snow. Trains got stuck, especially in “cuttings” where tracks were lower than surrounding land. Train crews were away from home for days or weeks and work trains with 40 or 50 snow shovelers were dispatched to dig them out. The early wooden plows were relative light and had difficult time. These were the days before Employment Insurance and the railway paid well. The years 1905, 1909, and 1923 were particularly bad, predating the use of rotary plows which became available after 1930 when the branch was converted to standard gauge track (56 ½ “ between the rails).
Despite long waits for normally late trains, people in Murray Harbour depended upon the services they delivered. The train was an important daily event that was eagerly anticipated at the end of the line.