The Orangedale Station Museum is maintained by volunteers who want to keep telling the story of the once vital landmark.
-by Beverley Phillips
For 37 years, the Orangedale Railway Station Museum has been telling the story of a bygone era.
Built in 1886 by the Intercolonial Railway, the Orangedale station was a stopping point for passengers until 1990. In its heyday, from the 1930s to 1950s, up to 20 freight trains and six passenger trains would stop at the train station in the small community on the Bras d’Or Lake.
As passenger train travel declined, CN made plans to demolish the large Victorian-era building in the 1980s. But “Friends of the Station” became a group dedicated to preserving the landmark structure, and in 1986, the Orangedale Station Association (OSA) was incorporated and bought the building for $1.00. From there, community volunteers and railway enthusiasts worked tirelessly to restore the building to its former glory.
On Labour Day weekend in 1989, the museum held its grand opening. On the ground floor, visitors can see where the station master worked, and where the men and women waited for the train in separate rooms. The museum’s summer student guide explained the men did not wait alongside the women because the men smoked. Upstairs is the small two-bedroom apartment where the station master lived with his family. The space has been restored and furnished with antiques and photographs of all the former station masters.
Since then, the museum has added to its historic collection. It has a 1911 caboose, a 1949 snowplow, a locomotive, a boxcar, and a safety inspection car fondly named “Speedy.” In recent years, the station has received donations of a variety of artifacts and memorabilia that can be explored in the outbuilding that houses the gift shop.
Over the years, thousands of visitors from around the world have stopped in to see this former hub of activity. However, Eleanor Blue Morrison, president of the OSA, noted the loss of the visitor information centre in Port Hastings has meant that fewer people are finding them this year.
“We have been self-sustaining for the last ten years,” said Blue Morrison. “Donations, fundraising, and the gift shop have covered our expenses. The only funding we get is for summer students.”
They have three summer students this year to guide visitors through the buildings, explaining this piece of history.
The station itself has been kept up, but time and weather have not been as kind to the rail cars. “We would like to be able to fix them up,” said Blue Morrison. “We had planned to build a roof over them, but the gentleman who was going to do the work got sick, and it was never done.”
To visit the Orangedale Railway Station Museum, whose whistle will always blow, it is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.