The Old Prince Edward Island Railway: Pen and Ink Sketches

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

What seems at first glance to be a small album of a few humble sketches
is deceiving. Beyond the luxuriously padded cover is a considerable
volume of material in the form of full-color pen-and-ink drawings by
Stanley LeClair. There are 65 drawings of trains or individual
locomotives/cars, 50 portraits of railway staff, 12 of car interiors and
seats, plus 24 handwritten text plates.

The sketches are of Prince Edward Island trains from the pre-1900 era.
LeClair, a railway section hand and self-taught artist, drew these steam
trains in careful detail so that the collection is a factual record as
well as one that captures the presence, speed, and massiveness of the
iron monsters that thundered the length of the island.

Local historians and genealogists will revel in the text plates, which
give the name and rank of the employees assigned to the various
stations. Head-and-shoulders portraits of the employees, most wearing
their official railway cap, are priceless additions to local history.

While LeClair was not a great artist, he was a skilled draftsman who
brought complete devotion and meticulous care to his subject. As the
introduction states, his work is “a national treasure.”