Orton is one of Wellington County’s more interesting hamlets, and has been featured a couple of times in this column.
It owes its existence to the construction of the Credit Valley Railway’s branch through Erin and East Garafraxa Townships in 1879, when the rail laying crews passed through to end at Elora by the end of that year.
The railway’s planners did not anticipate a huge town at Orton. It began as a flag stop for passengers and as a shipping point for agricultural commodities and livestock, serving the area between the already established villages of Hillsburgh and Belwood.
The railway facilities originally constructed at Orton were basic to say the least: a single siding, a water tank to replenish steam locomotives, and a station building that can best be described as a shanty. Cattle pens and a freight shed followed soon after.
A couple of years ago the Wellington County Museum and Archives acquired a very interesting pair of photographs of the Orton station facilities.
The first of the photographs dates back to the early 1890s, or perhaps a little earlier. It shows a group of unidentified railway workers and a couple of curious boys posing for the camera, but what is really fascinating is what is around and behind them.
Most of the men are standing on the main track. The very rudimentary construction of the Credit Valley line is clearly evident. The rails are lightweight, and there is no ballast between the ties, which themselves are irregular in shape.
The station itself might be 100 square feet in size, and is fronted by a very short platform. In the distance is the water tank, to supply locomotives that ran short of water between Elora and Cataract Junction, where other tanks were located. The tank is a wooden one, held tight by a number of cables and turnbuckles, but it is obviously leaking badly.
On the siding, the track at the left, is a boarding car, converted from an old boxcar, and evidently the temporary abode of at least some of the men. It is an old car: there is no evidence of air brake equipment, and there is a pocket for the old style link-and-pin coupler that was superceded by the automatic coupler in the early 1890s on North American railways.
In the foreground is a pit under the track, which appears to have been installed recently, for emptying hopper cars of coal.
When this railway went into service in 1880 wood was still the universal fuel, but over the next generation many people, including farmers, switched to anthracite for their cooking and heating needs. Many people used both coal and wood as fuels.
One of the sheds and warehouses that once lined the siding is at the extreme left. There were a number of such structures at the station over the years. The main street of Orton, with a thin covering of gravel, passes in the foreground.
The second photograph, though of much inferior quality, was taken at virtually the same spot as the earlier one, probably between 1905 and 1910.
During the first decade of the 20th century Canadian Pacific virtually rebuilt the line, and many improvements are evident around the station grounds. Most notable is the station building. The old shanty has been replaced by a structure in the style favoured by Canadian Pacific and other lines, with a covered platform and a two-stage slope to the roof.
The platform has been replaced with a much longer one that can service at least three passenger cars. The municipality has made expenditures as well, with a new concrete sidewalk in the foreground, alongside the main street.
The rails are heavier than in the first photograph, and the main line track has been built up with a layer of ballast, raising it above the other track and providing improved drainage.
The height and porous drainage minimized the heaving of the track due to frost. Beyond the station building is a loading ramp that was not there formerly. Beyond that structure the section men’s shed has been raised, and now has a smoke pipe coming through the roof.
The old wooden water tank has been replaced with a larger steel version and enclosed in an octagonal wooden building. A stove inside would provide some heat, keeping the tank from freezing and allowing water to be readily available at all times. Such structures were used on some American lines, but they were very common on Canadian railways.
These two photographs give ample evidence that railway facilities could change dramatically over time.
They will delight both railway buffs and local historians, and perhaps inspire someone to build a model of the Orton railway facilities.