process was repeated in reverse on the return journey. Over the years there was considerable agitation for other branch lines in the area. Thus, in 1906, a line from Douglas Station Via Head of Hillsborough and Byrnes Road, with a loop to Donnelly’s Road and Peake’s Station was described as “much needed.” Again, on December 2, 1919, a large meeting at Fort Augustus hall urged the necessity of a branch railway between Birt’s Crossing, Pisquid, and Mount Herbert. Both lines failed to materialize; however, a branch line was constructed between Pisquid and Lake Verde during the period 1929-30. It was built for the purpose of moving freight in carloads to stations on the Murray Harbour branch, the Hillsborough Bridge at Charlottetown being too weak to sustain such heavy traffic. On October 2, 1929, the contract for constructing the ten-mile route was awarded to Harold N. Price of Moncton. An occasion for great excitement in the area was the arrival of a shipment of western horses for use on the project. Before being set to work hauling clay, they were shod by Mr. Peter Dwyer. The opening of the new branch was delayed somewhat by the destruction by fire of the wooden trestle over the Pisquid River on July 21, 1930.

During the winter months the progress of the trains was always bedevilled to a greater or lesser extent by the action of snow storms. At no time were these storms more severe than during the months of Jan- uary and February of 1905. The Examiner for February 25th reported that, in order to save his livestock, Mr. John P. Morris of Donaldston had been forced to dig a tunnel some 70 feet long between his house and barn. The orchard of Mr. William King of the same locality was covered by about 15 feet of snow. An earlier issue of the same paper predicted that “years hence, the oldest inhabitant, now a mere stripling, will rise from his herring barrel in the corner grocery, reach for a cracker and tell of the big storm of January 1905 and few will believe the man.” The effect of all of this on train schedules was chaotic. According to February 14’s Examiner, the train which had left Souris at 8 o’clock that morning had, up to 3 o’clock, been only able to make about five miles. Another which had left Mount Stewart on the previous afternoon was hopelessly stuck at Dundee. While crews of snowfighters attempted to extricate stalled trains, the mails were being carried by horse and sleigh. Two weeks went by before rail traffic was proceeding normally. At one point during the win- ter of 1926, also noted for its storms, people drove their horses and sleighs to and from Mount Stewart on the railroads, the highways being utterly impassable. On March 2nd of that year those engaged in shovelling snow in the area intended holding a snow-shovellers ball to celebrate “the wind- ing up of their wor .” The celebration was postponed due to a sudden snow-storm.

On May 20, 1911, the railway station at Mount Stewart was en- tirely consumed by fire. Station Master E. J. McTague, who lived in the building, lost most of his personal effects in the conflagration. By Sep- tember 16th, the Examiner was hinting that political patronage was caus- ing construction of a replacement to be dragged on for an undue length of time, and, in the meantime, Mr. McTague was “holding forth” in a dilapidated car which had been fitted up for an office at the time of the fire. The new station, wedged into the “Y” between the Georgetown and Souris tracks on the site of the old, was opened on November 23, 1911. A large two-storied gable-roofed structure with dormer Windows on each side, the building, now far gone in decay, was a most imposing structure

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