Page 46 - ESCARPMENT MAGAZINE | Winter 2013

46 Escarpment Magazine Winter 2013
In September 2011, Jim Brack turned 90 and although he has lost the use of his eyes,
his cheerful demeanour reflects a different, even more profound sense of vision.
He remembers that the railroad reduced train service during the Great Depression and
in the 1930s there were only two trains a day. “When the full-time agent was taken
away, I got the job as caretaker of the station. I was to meet the noon and three o’clock
trains every day.” This was a good job for Jim because he only lived five minutes away
from the station.
“I got a monthly cheque of twenty dollars and in the 30s that was a lot of money.”
Jim Brack spent most of his youth and young adult years meeting the trains that passed
through Duntroon going back and forth from Beeton to Collingwood. When asked if he
ever rode on them he laughed and said, “No, I never did.” Referring to his Scottish an-
cestry he chuckled, “And I could have ridden them for free. One day, the conductor,
Mr. Pawley said to me, ‘Anytime you want to come to Collingwood, just ride with us.’ I
laughed at him politely and said, ‘Now what would I want to go to Collingwood for?’ ”
George Fleming, great nephew of the inventor of standard time, Sir Sanford Fleming, re-
calls that when he was about six or seven years of age, the engine crews let him up into
the cab of the snorting locomotive heading up one of the special ski trains and he shov-
elled a few scoops of coal into the hellish firebox. He even got to sound the whistle.
“The train didn’t wait long and when the whistle blew, announcing that it would soon be
leaving, the skiers would sometimes race right through our backyard as our house was
near the tracks.”
Rails ran through Collingwood for more than a century and a half. Joy and sadness met
every train that arrived and departed from stations as they were as much community cen-
tres as transportation hubs. In July 2011, the final train pulled out of east-end Colling-
wood yards at the sad speed of 10 mph. Most of the tracks of the former
Barrie-Collingwood Railway have not yet been extracted from the ground like an im-
pacted tooth and perhaps there is someone, somewhere who will save the last existing
line and return it to productive use.|E|
ESCARPMENT HISTORY | Rails to Hen and Chickens Harbour...
If not for the construction
of the Ontario, Huron &
Simcoe Railway in the mid
1850's, it is likely that
Collingwood would have
remained a tiny hamlet
known as Hens & Chickens
Harbour.
The rail line from Toronto
was built by visionaries
who often lined their own
pockets before those of
their investors and the
train, dubbed, "The Hog
Special" eventually brought
prosperity to the residents
who expanded outward
from the rails.
The trains sputtered along
and a second line was built
from Hamilton remaining
in service to the 1960's.
A brief resurrection of the
railroads happened
recently with the
organization of the Barrie
& Collingwood Railroad.
It only lasted for a few
years and ingloriously
ceased operation on
15 July 2011.