Memories of taking the train on P.E.I., 50 years later

It's been 50 years since the last passenger train left P.E.I. in 1969.  

That marked the end of almost 100 years of train travel on P.E.I. — before that, Islanders relied on boats on P.E.I.'s waterways, as well as horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. Train travel, which began on P.E.I. in the 1870s, dwindled in the 1950s and '60s as P.E.I.'s roads improved, people got their own cars and trucking boomed. 

Some goods still travelled by freight on P.E.I. until 1989, but the end of that year marked the complete and total end of the railway for the Island. The rails were soon ripped up, and most of what was the train route is now the Confederation Trail, used for walking and cycling. 

What was it like taking the train back then? A few Islanders still remember, and shared their views with CBC on Facebook.

(Please note that usernames are not necessarily the names of commenters. Some comments have been altered to correct spelling and to conform to CBC style.)

'Hearing the whistle was an everyday thing'

"Mom and I took the train from Charlottetown to N.B.," said Carrie Dobson of Charlottetown. "I remember having a toasted western in the dining car." She also recalled she had "a fresh Jack and Jill magazine to read."

"I remember the train at the station in Kensington, and hearing the whistle was an everyday thing! Ivan Gill from Kensington was the engineer I believe," wrote Jolee Patkai.

Rail travel might have been much faster than horse and wagon — most of the time, but not always. Charlie Hansen of Cornwall wrote that one winter, he thinks it was 1961, in which it took a week to get from Georgetown to Charlottetown — there was just too much snow. 

"We didn't get out of the rail yard the first day. We got to Cardigan the second day and turned back. I think the third day we got Montague and the fourth day we got as far as Mount Stewart. We may have gotten to Charlottetown on the fifth day," Hansen said.

They slept on the train the last couple of nights, and his mother had packed him a lunch to eat, he said. 

'Such a grand place back then'

One of the last remaining signs of the railroad on Prince Edward Island is what's been known the last few decades as Founders Hall. The brick structure was built in 1906 by CN, and was where they repaired trains.

Another remnant is the stately sandstone former train station on Water Street, now home to P.E.I.'s Workers Compensation Board. 

Lynn Thompson grew up in Toronto, but both her parents were from P.E.I., and her father worked for CN. 

"We took the train home every year to P.E.I. The train cars apparently were loaded onto the ferry, but I don't remember that," she said. 

She remembers arriving at the train station in Charlottetown.

"It was such a grand place back then," she commented. 

"Love my memories of the train, it always brought me here, and in 1975 we moved here to stay," Thompson said.

After passenger trains to P.E.I. ceased, riders like Thompson would get off in Amherst, N.S., and continue by bus to Charlottetown. You can still take a bus from P.E.I. to Moncton or Halifax and get on a train to continue rail travel across Canada.

'Like taking a bus'

Trains were also available to rent by groups for transportation to and from events like funerals and weddings, and even hockey tournaments. 

There were also special harvest excursion trains that would take young men — and a few women — to the Canadian Prairies every year to help harvest the huge wheat crop. 

Sylvia Knox said taking the train was common when she was young. 

"I lived next to the train lines and heard the whistles every day growing up! Taking the train was like taking a bus," she said.

John Barrett said he was amazed by the capability of his mother-in-law, Jennie Rogerson, and her sister Marion, who "could name every railway station stop on P.E.I. from west to east, and there were a lot! Apparently that was something they were taught in school in the 1930s."

Glenda Landry lived on Water Street in Charlottetown next to the railway tracks growing up, and said they heard the train whistles many times every day. 

"A wonderful memory I have is travelling on one of those trains to visit my grandparents over the Christmas holidays. They lived in Mont Carmel," she commented.

"I went with my sister. I was probably 12 years old, my mother packed us a box lunch to eat on the way. When we were ready to come home, my grandmother packed us a box lunch. I only went by train once, so that is why it is such a wonderful memory."

'They were intriguing'

Catherine O'Bryan remembers in the early 1950s listening to the trains crossing the end of Longworth Avenue where she lived as a young girl. 

"They were intriguing but I never got to ride on P.E.I.! Went to Kingston, Ont., on the train at 12 or 13," she said. 

John Getson says he grew up with trains running across the bottom of his yard in Summerside.

"It was the highlight of my day as a toddler to waddle down to the fence and have the engineers waiting to wave back," he wrote. "It is likely what started my lifelong interest in trains of all sorts."

Karen Beauregard lived on Kensington Road in Charlottetown, and said her "favourite memory was watching the train with the rides arrive for Old Home Week."

'Evolved into a different era'

Myron Matheson worked for CN, or Canadian National, for 40 years beginning in 1948. 

Matheson grew up in Breadalbane and started as the station agent there — there were 32 agents in stations across P.E.I.

"It was just terrific, it was the best job I ever had — wish it had lasted forever," said Matheson, who will turn 88 in a couple of weeks. The pay was good and CN treated its employees well, he said. 

He recalls times in the 1940s when the roads on P.E.I. would close in winter, so trains were the only way to get around. All the mail and parcels came by train, as well as many goods.

"Parcels from  Sears and Simpsons, mail order," he said with a chuckle. 

But the need for passenger and freight trains tapered off as road infrastructure improved and people got their own cars. 

"A lot of people think CN left people behind, but really it was people that left CN," Matheson said. "It wasn't really looked upon as a negative thing, except for people who worked for the railway." 

Matheson wasn't affected by the changes, he said — he left P.E.I. in 1959 for managerial roles with CN, working in five different provinces and seeing the country. He returned to P.E.I. to retire, and lives in Stanley Bridge.  

He said he's not nostalgic for the time trains ran on the Island, although he enjoys keeping the memories of the railway alive by talking about it. 

"It just evolved into a different era."

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