Memory Junction Railway Museum

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Memory Junction Railway Museum
Brighton GTR post card.jpg
Postcard showing the Brighton station, circa 1910.
Memory Junction Railway Museum
Established1857 (1857) (station)
1995 (1995) (museum)
Location60 Maplewood Avenue, Brighton
Coordinates 44°02′10″N77°44′35″W / 44.036°N 77.743°W / 44.036; -77.743
Typedefunct railway museum
Key holdingsformer railway station, locomotive and cars
Collectionsrail equipment and memorabilia
OwnerRalph and Eugenia Bangay

The Memory Junction Railway Museum preserved a collection of railway memorabilia in southeastern Ontario. It closed in 2017 and its collections were auctioned in 2021. It was located in the former Grand Trunk Railway station of Brighton, Ontario, which opened in 1857 and served intercity rail passengers until the 1960s.

Contents

History

Brighton is on the Toronto-Montréal mainlines of both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway, which run side-by-side through the village. It once had a third railway, the Canadian Northern Railway, whose tracks occupied the Prince Edward County Railway right of way into Trenton, Ontario. At its peak, ten trains daily stopped at one or another of the three local passenger rail stations, all within a few blocks of one another.

Brighton's rail history dates to the October 27, 1856 opening of the Grand Trunk line from Montréal to Toronto. The current-day Maplewood Street was Railroad Street, agriculture was slowly displacing forestry as the primary local industry and communities long reliant on water transport were eagerly awaiting the rails as a means of access to larger markets. [1]

In its heyday, the Brighton GTR station was a group of seven buildings and a stock yard; there was a freight shed, two private coal sheds, a 35 foot (11 m) wooden water tank and large piles of lumber (GTR's steam trains originally burned wood). The station itself is a "Type C" second-class wayside station, much like those still in rail service in Napanee and Port Hope; a single-story building with five door or window arches on the sides and two arches on each end. [1] Most of these were built from limestone to a standard GTR design with a stone chimney on each of four corners; the Brighton station differs from the others in its use of brick. [2] The original chimneys are now gone.

The railway allowed fruit to be canned in Brighton and transported to ocean ports for shipment overseas; it transported Brighton dairy products to market in Toronto and, in summer, brought thousands of passengers to Presqu'ile Provincial Park, which became an Ontario provincial park in 1922. At the time of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, an era when there were only fifty motorcars in the village, a second railway came to town: the Canadian Pacific Railway. A fledgling third national railway, the Canadian Northern (CNoR), completed a line from Quebec to British Columbia in 1915.

CNoR was bankrupt by the end of the war, a third carrier in a saturated market, and was merged by the federal government into what is now Canadian National. CN built a short-lived CNoR Brighton station in 1920, only to abandon it after Grand Trunk's ill-fated attempt to expand westward left it bankrupt in 1922 and part of CNR by 1923. Much of the CNoR infrastructure was duplicative of CN's Grand Trunk line and was abandoned; passenger service moved to the original 1857 Brighton station and the 1920 CNoR station was eventually demolished. [1]

The first efforts to pave the 1817-era stagecoach York Road as a Provincial Highway came near the end of the Great War; by 1964, most of that road, the main street of southeastern Ontario, had been bypassed by construction of a four-lane freeway, Ontario Highway 401. Rail passenger numbers had peaked near the time of World War II and were soon in freefall. Brighton's tiny 1857 passenger rail station was abandoned and boarded up a few years after the freeway came to town, sitting vacant through the 1970s and 1980s.

While much infrastructure had been removed, the original Brighton station building survived, serving as a museum until 2017. [3] and was provincially designated on August 16, 2000 under Part 4 of the Ontario Heritage Act . [2]

Museum

In 1995, Ralph and Eugenia Bangay purchased the long-abandoned Brighton Station [4] from CN for $400 as a place to store a growing collection of Brighton rail memorabilia. [5] They restored the gentlemen's waiting room, express office and agent's room in the old brick station to house hundreds of artefacts, using the ladies' passenger waiting room as a souvenir shop. [6]

A 1906 Grand Trunk 2-8-0 steam locomotive (#2534), [7] relocated from Zwick's Park in nearby Belleville, [8] occupies pride of place alongside two box cars (one from 1913), a flat car, three cabooses [5] (including one from 1929) and an 1898 velocipede (a handcar used by repair workers to travel along the tracks). The Murrow Building, which served before 1920 as a distribution point for Ford motorcars destined for dealers from Bowmanville to Gananoque, houses additional memorabilia. The site also includes an 1880s Hops Barn and artefacts ranging from Coca-Cola once bottled in Brighton to Morse code equipment. [4]

The busy CN and CP mainlines still run side-by-side beside the museum, but the countless Via Rail trains carrying passengers from Montreal and Ottawa to Toronto do not stop.

In 2017 the museum closed and in 2021 the contents were put up for auction. [9]

See also

Stations

Of an estimated 32-34 Grand Trunk wayside stations built when the line opened, a half-dozen originals remain on the Montréal-Toronto 1856 Grand Trunk mainline:

Little remains of the Kingston, Ontario outer station ruins but the exterior limestone shell. Two original stations on the Toronto-Sarnia line still stand, of which one (the Georgetown GO station) remains in passenger use.

Museums

One museum remains on the former CNoR line from Toronto-Brighton-Napanee-Smiths Falls; the abandoned Smiths Falls station is now the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. The rail line through Sydenham was removed in the 1980s.

Related Research Articles

Grand Trunk Railway British-owned railway in Canada and New England

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It cost an estimated $160 million to build. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway.

Canadian Northern Railway

The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway, the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.

The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg and Moncton in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway.

Grand Trunk Western Railroad American railroad

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.

Mount Royal Tunnel Railway tunnel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The Mount Royal Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The tunnel is the third longest in Canada, after the Mount Macdonald Tunnel and the Connaught Tunnel, and connects the city's Central Station, in Downtown Montreal, with the north side of Montreal Island and Laval and passes through Mount Royal.

Gananoque station

Gananoque railway station in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. The station is an unstaffed but heated shelter.

Kingston station (Ontario) Railway station for Kingston, Ontario, Canada

The Kingston railway station is an inter-city passenger rail station in Cataraqui, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa or Montreal, along the Corridor route. It is located on John Counter Boulevard, northeast of Princess Street and north-west of downtown Kingston.

Napanee station

Napanee railway station in Napanee, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. The 1856 limestone railway station is an unstaffed but heated shelter with telephones and washrooms, which opens at least half an hour before a train arrives. The shelter and platform are wheelchair-accessible.

Belleville station (Ontario)

The Belleville railway station in Belleville, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. The station is staffed, with ticket sales, vending machines, telephones, washrooms, and wheelchair access to the station and trains.

Port Hope station

Port Hope railway station in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, is one of the oldest Canadian passenger rail stations still in active use. Served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Kingston and Ottawa, it was also a stop for trains to and from Montreal until January 24, 2012. The station is unstaffed, but has a heated waiting room, pay telephone, washrooms, free outdoor parking, and wheelchair access.

The Canada Atlantic Railway Company (CAR) was a historic North American railway located in Ontario, southwestern Quebec and northern Vermont. It connected Georgian Bay on Lake Huron with the northern end of Lake Champlain via Ottawa. It was formed in 1897 through a merger of three separate railway companies that John Rudolphus Booth had either purchased or created, beginning in 1879. The CAR was owned by Booth for eight years after its formation until he sold it to the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) in 1904.

Thousand Islands Railway

The Thousand Islands Railway was an 8 km (5.0 mi) long railway running from the town of Gananoque north to the Grand Trunk Railway Toronto-Montreal mainline, just south of present-day Cheeseborough. The service ran for 111 years between 1884 and 1995. The rails were removed in October 1997.

CN Kingston Subdivision

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Central Ontario Railway Former railway in Ontario, Canada

The Central Ontario Railway (COR) was a former railway that ran north from Trenton, Ontario to service a number of towns, mines, and sawmills. Originally formed as the Prince Edward County Railway in 1879, it ran between Picton and Trenton, where it connected with the Grand Trunk Railway that ran between Montreal and Toronto. After being purchased by a group of investors and receiving a new charter to build northward, the company was renamed the Central Ontario Railway in 1882, and it started building towards the gold fields at Eldorado and newly discovered iron fields in Coe Hill.

The Belleville and North Hastings Railway (B&NHR) was a short-line railway in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada. It branched off the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) north of Belleville and ended on the Central Ontario Railway (COR) outside Eldorado for a total distance of 33 kilometres (21 mi). In spite of its name, the line did not reach either Belleville or the northern part of Hastings County.

Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario Railway museum in Smiths Falls, Ontario

The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, a rail museum in a former CNoR station, stands on the abandoned right-of-way of a Canadian Northern Railway line which once led southwest toward Napanee. Established 1985 as the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, the RMEO works to preserve the 1913 Canadian Northern (CNoR) station and a collection of historic rolling stock, equipment and railway memorabilia.

Bay of Quinte Railway

The Bay of Quinte Railway is a former short line railway in eastern Ontario, Canada. It was formed as the Napanee, Tamworth and Quebec Railway (NT&QR), chartered in 1878 by Edward Rathbun and Alexander Campbell, with plans to run from Napanee through Renfrew County and on to the Ottawa Valley. Lacking funding from the governments, development never began.

Lake Simcoe Junction Railway

The Lake Simcoe Junction Railway (LSJR) was a short-line narrow gauge railway in Ontario just north of Toronto. It branched off the Toronto and Nipissing Railway at Stouffville and ran 42 kilometres (26 mi) north to the town of Sutton and then beyond to the shore of Lake Simcoe where a large wharf was built. The presence of the railway helped the town of Jackson's Point form on the lakeside. The line serviced timber and agricultural shipping, but was more widely used for shipping ice cut from the lake in the winter, and allowing weekend day trips to the lake in the summer.

CN Bala Subdivision

The Canadian National Railway Bala Subdivision is a major railway service line in Ontario running between the provincial capital of Toronto in Southern Ontario and Capreol in Northern Ontario, where the line continues as the Ruel Subdivision. It forms part of CN's transcontinental mainline between Southern Ontario and Western Canada.

Waterloo Junction Railway

The Waterloo Junction Railway (WJR) is a short line railway in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It runs northward from the former Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) North Main Line in downtown Kitchener, through Waterloo and St. Jacobs before terminating in Elmira. It is currently owned by the City of Waterloo and operated by CN as the Waterloo Spur. The Waterloo Central Railway runs tourist trains on the line, and the Ion rapid transit runs on the route for a short distance.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "RSR-91—CNR—Brighton, Ontario". Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. 1991-11-28. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  2. 1 2 "Property Information". Ontario Heritage Properties Database. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  3. ↑ Ron Brown (2 May 2011). In Search of the Grand Trunk: Ghost Rail Lines in Ontario. ISBN   9781554888825 . Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  4. 1 2 "Looking back in Brighton: Memory Junction railway station". Northumberland News. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  5. 1 2 Ron Brown (7 October 2013). Rails Across Ontario: Exploring Ontario's Railway Heritage. ISBN   9781459707542 . Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  6. ↑ Barbara Ramsay Orr (2011-06-01). Day TripsŽ from Toronto: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveller . Rowman & Littlefield. p.  93. ISBN   9780762769070 . Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  7. ↑ "Doors open Saturday in Cramahe, Brighton". Northumberland Today. 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  8. ↑ Gerry Boyce (2009-02-15). Belleville: A Popular History. ISBN   9781770703667 . Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  9. ↑ "Contents of Memory Junction Go on the Auction Block | Brighton Now - News Magazine".
Preceding station Canadian National Railway Following station
Colborne
toward Sarnia
Grand Trunk Railway Main Line Smithfield
toward Montreal
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