Sask. man saves 114-year-old train station by moving it with truck

A Saskatchewan man saved his hometown’s 114-year-old train station from the wrecking ball this week.

On Tuesday, a team of people moved a historic CN Rail station from the Town of Shellbrook, located about 50 kilometres west of Prince Albert, onto the nearby property of Ken Hamilton.

The town council put the building up for auction in the spring after deciding it could no longer afford the cost of maintaining the heritage building.

Hamilton said he bought it out of “sentimental attachment.”

“My grandfather had come to this part of the country as a railroad contractor, and he had a contract to build railroad grade around Shellbrook. Over the years, all of my family used the rail station.”

The station was instrumental in the development of Shellbrook, according to Parks Canada, with construction beginning the same year the townsite was established.

“Characteristic of stations of this period, the building features broad overhanging eaves supported by large triangular brackets; a projecting track-side bay for better visibility of the track and platform; and large freight doors at the end of the building for the storage area.”

Like many small-town stations, it also served as the living quarters for its station agent, Parks Canada says. 

Starting in January 1910, the building served as a depot for passenger service, mail, freight, ticketing and telegram services. Over the next several decades, the town sprouted up around the station.

Hamilton says it took several months to prepare the building for the move.

“It was a lot of work,” said Hamilton. “It’s been almost two months of working on it; stripping the underneath off of it, getting it up on moving beams and then getting wheels under it and getting it out.”

The move took five or six people operating different pieces of equipment and a SaskPower crew had to come and raise power lines, he says.

They ended up moving the structure out of town along the old tracks that once led to the station. His family says it could be the last load of freight to go down this abandoned line.

Cleaning up afterwards, Hamilton says he picked up a piece of paper blowing across the yard and found a passenger ticket from 1944 — a return trip from Mont Nebo to Shellbrook.

“I think it was $2.50,” he said.

In the coming years, Hamilton said he plans to restore the building and turn it into a museum.