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loaded for passengers. Produce is unloaded for the merchants. When the passengers and bundles are taken on, the conductor raises his hand and calls a brisk, ‘All Aboard!’ Then he reaches for the step. Brakes are re— leased, the bell rings, side rods slide into action, the train is off. The rear

brakeman sweeps the air carelessly with one leg and swings on the last coach. He never forgets his public.”

The above description of train activity at Mount Stewart station, taken from the Guardian, March 10, 1937, is evocative of an exciting chap- ter from the community’s past which has all but closed. Going to the station to watch the train come in was a favourite pastime of generations of villagers. The railroad was also an important local industry.

Much has beenmade of the “senseless sinuosities” of the Island’s “serpentine” railway which was opened for traffic in the spring of 1875. “So numerous and so short are the curves of this little railway,” remarked an observer of the mid—eighties, “that it frequently happens that a more or less animated conversation is carried on, between stations, by the engineer from his engine and the conductor from the rear platform of the last car of the train.” It is said that Messrs. Schreiber and Burpee, the contractors, took long, round-about routes because they were paid for their efforts by the mile. It must also be said that the desire of politicians to accommodate their constituents by having the line swing through certain localities also influenced the surveyors more than a little. Those from whom the Railway Commissioners appropriated land in the Mount Ste- wart area were Elisha Coffin, John R. Bourke, Jr., David Egan, James Ross, George Scott, James McWade, and Edwin Coffin.

The original line extended from Alberton to Georgetown, and this necessitated construction of a bridge at Mount Stewart. The first struc— ture, of stone and clay on either side, had a wooden span which extended sixty feet above the surface of the water. This was replaced by a steel span in 1893, and, in 1926, when the railway gague was widened, the arch was filled with clay and stone and a sluicebox built at either end. Due to the severity of the weather and difficulties experienced in keeping the track clear of snow drifts and ice, the railroad had to be closed during its first year of operation. An engine was stuck at Mount Stewart in Decem- ber of 1874, and it remained there for the winter. A regular feature of this line every Thursday morning for many years was the famous “boat train.” It was so-called, for at Georgetown it connected with either the “Princess of Wales” or the “St. Lawrence,” steamers of the Prince Edward Island Navigation Co. which operated a service between that port and Pictou. During the winter the freight, passengers and mails were carried to the mainland by the “Northern Light”, once described as “having a shape unlike that of any other vessel or any other thing on the earth or under the waters of the earth.” One reason for its peculiar appearance Was the almost complete absence of windows and doors, features which would have made it more vulnerable to the climatic conditions in which it operated.

On November 28, 1872, tenders were called for the construction of a branch line between Mount Stewart and Souris. This contract also went to Schreiber and Burpee at a rate about $995. per mile higher than their contract for the main line. For some years the Souris train came only as far as Mount Stewart, and passengers and freight were transferred to the Georgetown train for the balance of the trip to Charlottetown. The

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