The Rural Voice, 2003-12, Page 34The last train rolls past the
farm of Adrian and Toni Vos
on December 16, 1988.
Recording the end
It's 15 bears since the last trains rolled down mang of the railwag branchlines
of midwestern Ontario. Their passing was largelg ignored, but for John R.
Hardg, wlio grew up to the sound of trains rumbling through his
Goderich-area far/n, capturing the last train on film became a mission.
(Excerpted from his book
Once Midwestern Ontario was
criss-crossed by a spider's web of
railway tracks, cutting through farms
and hauling the region's crops to
market. About 15 years ago all the
railway lines north of the Stratford-
to-Goderich line were abandoned
and the rails torn up.
Few people took notice when the
last train ran on each line but John
Hardy was there to chronicle the last
trip along the Goderich-to-Guelph
CPR railway line. It has special
meaning for him because the tracks
had passed through the farm of his
parents, Wilmer and Evelyn Hardy,
east of Goderich. It also passed
through the farm of his wife
Johanna's parents, former Rural
Voice columnist Adrian Vos and his
wife Toni. Both sets of parents played
a part in the story of the last trip 15
years ago this month.
While he was still a teenager John
30 THE RURAL VOICE
By John R. Hardy
Rusty Rails: A photographic record
Midwestern Ontario 1961-1996)
Hardy began taking photos of the
region's railways and he kept up
until the bitter end. Those photos and
his memories make up his book Rusty
Rails: A photographic record of
branchline railways in Midwestern
Ontario 1961-1996 published by The
Brucedale Press.
...
Ibooked off work at noon on
December 15, 1988, and headed
toward Blyth, to take some
pictures of the last CP Rail train into
Goderich. Two weeks earlier, the
National Transportation Agency of
Canada had ordered the abandonment
of the Goderich Subdivision as
requested by Canadian Pacific
Limited. There was now only one
last train to photograph running
along the line I had grown up beside.
The traffic co-ordinator out of
London Division Office had been
kind enough to return my call and
of branchline railways in
confirm the last run between Guelph
Junction and Goderich for the
afternoon of December 15, 1988.
Perhaps he knew a bit of the feeling I
had for a railway that had been a
regular part of my daily life while I
was growing up on a farm in
Colborne Township during the 1950s
and 1960s. The line had existed all of
my life and that of my father but,
after 81 years, it was running out of
time.
I arrived at my in-laws' farm, one
mile west of Blyth about 1:00 p.m.
The weather was blustery that winter
day with a fine snow blowing across
the tracks. At times there were near
white-out conditions. The last CP Rail
train to Goderich had to come from
London on a special run and would
likely not leave Guelph Junction until
after lunch, which would bring it
through Blyth any time after 3:00. 1
got my cameras ready, my mother-in-