When Any Time Was Train Time

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Long before there were rock-star groupies, there were people standing on
railroad bridges hoping to get a face full of cinder smoke. Long before
there were bubblegum cards, there were people trading railroad
timetables and locomotive photographs, and swapping stories about
engineers, stationmasters, and famous passengers. These were the
railroad buffs. At one time theirs was a living hobby, the objects of
their affection only as far away as the nearest set of steel rails. Now
steam trains are museum displays, and many of the train stations have
fallen to the wrecker’s ball or termite’s tooth.

This could technically be called a picture book, except that there is
no abundance of pictures. Also notably absent are train wrecks, novelty
shots, and publicity stunts. The photos, whether authorial or archival
in source, seem to strain for the ordinary, which gives the reader an
almost haunting sense of being there.

Equally accomplished is the written text. The 20 stations featured have
similar if not identical origins. To keep the book from stalling,
Willmot digs deep into the local histories and, in contrast to the
ordinariness of the photos, produces a text that chirps with anecdotes
and fascinating facts. There are engines with names like John the
Baptist and Jack the Ripper, and stories like Brucefield’s
“disappearing station agent.”

Not all train stations were objects of beauty. The finely photographed
Apple Hill Station has all the architectural charm of a tomato crate
wrapped in tarpaper. The Listowel Station looks very much like a turkey
coop. And a certain unnamed Toronto alderman might be forgiven for
calling Cabin D of the Toronto terminal an “outhouse.” (If one goes
by mere appearance, he was being kind.) These are buildings only the
truly smitten could love. Willmot admits to having “a lifelong love
affair with trains and train stations.” Her affection shines through
until even the most indifferent reader aches at the realization that
many of these buildings are gone forever.