Esplanade Archives
The original wooden train station on the downtown side of the tracks, c1900.
Down by the station, early in the morning…” used to be a hive of activity, with two trains each way plus dayliner to Lethbridge.
My earliest memory of our train station was waiting for the Dominion to pull in and have a visit with my grandfather who was travelling between Winnipeg and Vancouver on business. He invited my brothers and me to climb into the rail car and visit his roomette, which was exciting. We would always put a penny on the track, and retrieve a copper wafer after the train left.
The original train station was a wooden building located on South Railway Street at the foot of Toronto (Third) street, along with several ancillary buildings. One such building was the ice house, which supplied blocks of ice cut from the river to trains passing through. This building is still extant as a neighbour to the McKenzie Sharland Grocery on Dominion St.
In 1906, a one and a half storey brick station in the Chateau style was constructed on the east side of the tracks on North Railway. The original design was for a station combined with some hotel rooms above. However, the hotel was never implemented.
In 1911-12, an addition was built to the south of the original station but in the same style to deal with the local booming economy. A much later addition was built in 1980 and although it is distinguishable by more modern materials and styling, it still replicated some of the stylistic themes of the original station.
Our station has a nearly symmetrical plan, a main hipped roof with gabled wall dormers and polygonal towers near each end. The base is rough-cut sandstone blocks with red pressed brick above. The dormers feature half-timbering and pebble-dash stucco above Palladian windows. Trackside, there is a projecting operator’s bay, and large wooden brackets supporting overhanging eaves.
In the early days, you could get on the train at Walsh, as my grandmother did coming by horse from her school in the Cypress Hills, to catch the train home for a visit. You could take the train from Medicine Hat to Redcliff, an early form of public transit.
In 1977, the federal government allowed the national railways, CPR and CNR, to relinquish their obligation to provide passenger service and this role was transferred to a new crown corporation called Via Rail. In 1990, the federal government pressured VIA to slash costs and half the network was chopped, passenger rail service in Medicine Hat ceased and the waiting room went quiet.
The CPR decision to bridge the South Saskatchewan here initiated the history of Medicine Hat. The train station was designated in 1990 under the federal Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act.
The CPKC Holiday Train will be down by the station at 3:15PM on Sunday, but no “puffer-bellies all in a row”.
Malcolm Sissons is Vice-President of the Historical Society of Medicine Hat and District.
