Reflections Of Burnt River Station

Burnt River’s first railway station was a small flag stop, located where the railway intersected the road to Coboconk (now #43), called Rettie’s Station after the family who owned the adjacent farm. Rettie’s Station included a large wood yard, which often stored storing posts, rail ties and pulp wood. The section foreman lived on the west side of the tracks, about a mile north of the village, with freight sheds at that site. In that era, as farms were being cleared, it was common practice to burn all the felled vegetation that was not either readily saleable or usable on the farm. Dave Nichols set a fire on Lot 13, Concession 7, which a westerly wind fanned into a blaze that consumed the foreman’s house, office and freight sheds. Then in 1888, Rettie’s Station, with 600 cords of pulp wood was also destroyed by fire.

As the railway rebuilt, they decided to combine the station and freight yard at a central location half way in between. Alexander Rettie Sr. protested, but to no avail. The station continued to be called Rettie’s Station until 1896—when the hamlet became known as Burnt River (Kinmount had previously used the name, until it received its current name as a post office town in 1859). In the years that followed, the community grew around this new, consolidated transportation hub.

The Victoria Railway merged into the Midland Railway, then the Grand Trunk Railway, before being absorbed into the Canadian National Railway in 1923. Up to the mid twentieth century, it remained the primary means of long-distance travel to and from the community, and of shipping freight. Many of the visitors who came to stay at Holliday’s Hideaway or a cottage took the train—there was a special train on Friday evening in summer, with a Sunday evening return to the city. Drivers would meet travellers at the station to take them to their destination.

Bob Hanthorn served as section foreman from 1926 until 1942, when he was transferred to Fenelon Falls—and would later retire to a farm just south of the village. The Canadian National Railway transferred station agent Stanley Dancey from Campbellcroft to Burnt River in 1932. He would also operate a sawmill in the village—the Bow Lake Lumber Company, largely producing material for the railway. Charles Hodgson was a conductor for many years, while his sons Reg, Tom and Bonnar, as well as grandson Roger worked on the railway too. Fred Godwin and Hughie Sheehey were section hands, while Jack Rettie was a maintenance mechanic in the Lindsay Round House.

Automobiles were becoming common in the 1920s and 1930s. After the Second World War, roads and vehicles improved, as snowplowing became the norm—allowing cars and trucks to become practically universal as a mode of transportation. As traffic declined on the railway, its demise became inevitable. The last scheduled passenger train rolled through Burnt River in September 1960. To mark the occasion, Miss Kellar took her class from Burnt River’s School to Haliburton—as is shown in the original image. Volumes of freight also declined, and when the line washed out north of Howland Junction in 1978, the northern end of the line closed. When the McLaren’s Creek bridge burned in 1980, it was not worth rebuilding, and the tracks were lifted. When the station closed, Carmen Wood purchased the building, dismantled it and used the material for buildings on his farm. Doug Godwin purchased the lot to add to his adjacent property. In the 1990s, the old railway line was reincarnated as the Victoria Rail Trail.

This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum and was written by Glenn Walker.

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