Stations

Stations

Here are a few examples of the stations, train order offices and section houses along the ACR.

Would you like prints of most any of these slides? Go to Desert-Rails.com for details!

	This is the Bruce Street Station at Sault Ste Marie, which is the head office of the company. When this photo was taken, tickets were sold here, but now a new station and gift shop has been built just to the west. June 13, 1973.
	The station at Searchmont, which is now closed, but last I knew still standing. Shown May 9, 1981.
	Mekatina, Mile 64.6, in August of 1970. After I hired on, I worked the Steelton-Mekatina operator relief job for about a year, and I was here the night the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the big storm on Lake Superior.
	The office desk at Mekatina. Note the gas fired lights - this station was back in the bush so far that there was no electricity, other than 12 volts DC from a small generator, used just for the train radio. Nov. 24, 1976.
	The sectionhouse at Batchewana (Mile 80). Taken from the tail end coach on the Agawa Canyon Tour Train in August of 1970. Note the sectionmen staring at the train...some moron kids from Detroit actually climbed up onto the roof of the coach for a "thrill"! Needless to say, that didn't last too long, as they were reported to the train and as soon as the train stopped, they climbed back into the coach. Wish I had gotten a photo of that!
	Frater Station (Mile 102.6) back in the days when there were 2 house tracks and the old engineman's bunk house (on the right). Little did I know when I took this shot in August of 1964 that 13 years later I would be working there!
	Canyon station, Mile 114, also in August of 1964. This was when the Agawa Canyon Tour was not too well known, and the entire consist for Canyon was one coach and the cafe car.
	This is the Franz station early in the morning of April 2, 1983. Franz is where the ACR crosses the CPR. This photo was taken from the front porch of Reggie's house (the Franz operator's home). This station was later moved to Dubreuilville, Ontario for use as a town civic centre. Check out this web site - The Franz Swing, by a former CPR operator. Well worth looking at!
	The night of August 26, 1983 I got this time exposure of the station at Franz. The red streaks are from the markers on a van from a westbound train. This photo was also taken from Reggie's front porch. See the daytime photo of the station above.
	Here is the station at Oba in July of 1976. Oba is the point where the ACR and the CNR have a crossing at grade. Like the Franz station, these building were not owned by the ACR, but the Franz and Oba operators worked for both railways. The Franz opr was an ACR employee, while the Oba opr was a CNR employee. This station has been closed for some time now, and has been torn down. Even the diamond has been removed, and ACR trains have to shunt back and forth into the siding to get across the CNR main.
	Another one of the standard design section houses, this one is at Coppell, just south of Hearst. Photo taken July 31, 1973.
	This old van was used as a car cleaner's shack at Steelton yard. Shown here on June 29, 1980, it burned down a couple of years later.
	This is the dispatching office at Steelton, back in the days of train sheets and manual switchboxes to call the various train order offices. Aug. 5, 1979.
	The ACR had one of the few indoor turntables, but it sure was appreciated on those cold nights with the wind and snow flying. At Steelton July 4, 1988.
	Another view of the Steelton roundhouse, taken with a 24mm lens on June 20, 1994.
	This was a little display I set up for the model railroad convention "At the Soo in '82" while I was working at Frater. The fleet of HO "bogus boxcars" (in the ACR 2900 series) is still in service on my layout. Sept. of 1982.

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Last updated March 10, 2005 with minor corrections and additions to photo captions.