Meeting the Train in Alma - 1940's

     I was quizzing my father, Wilbert Jeffery, about who was responsible for the Alma Train Station in Alma.  In those days at the small, whistle stop stations, like Alma, had no Station Agents like some of the bigger stations like Alberton - so there was a local person who, "met the train", in the morning and in evening.  Wilbert recalls the person in Alma was Tommy Henderson who lived on the Western Road in the hollow below the Anglican Church, next to the Curries, in the house where in the latter part of the 1900's Keith and Blanche Bowness lived.

     Tommy Henderson met the train to get the mail and would take it over to Wallace and Annie Donalds who had the post office in their home (Desmond & Hazel Gallants today) on the Western Road near Alma Corner.

     Above: Carter's photo of the old Alma Train Station -see upper right where

the Alma sign used to be - most recently owned by James *Jim* MacNeill.

     Wilbert said when he was young, in the mid-1940's, he and other local fellows use to go out to the station mostly on Saturday evenings (there wasn't much else to do) to hang out and wait for the train with Tommy and when he got the mail would go with him to the Donalds.  The train came up from central PEI every evening, ending in Tignish, then leave the next morning to the middle of the Island again.

     Wilbert couldn't recall who met the train after Tommy.

Above image, by Massey F. Jones, cf.

http://yourrailwaypictures.com/OldDiesels/indexCN-Diesels.html

1888 Alma Train (Flag) Station

     On April 24, 2001 my father, Wilbert and brother, Kerras and I went to measure and photograph the old Alma Flag Station located at H.I. Construction on the Western Road in Alma.  The purpose of our visit was to see the old station as it was to be torn down as a result of damage to one corner of the building following a major fire at the construction site on March 6, 2001.  Kerras was able to salvage some boards and a few things which he used to make a few benches for souvenirs.  The station was demolished on May 1, 2001.

     Below are drawings I prepared from our visit - Dad helped us to identify the two areas and what was found in them.

     Alma Station, was originally called Montrose Station which was built around 1875.  In 1884 the schedule notes the departures time to be 7:42am.  The original building would have been very small, more like a shed building.  The Train "Flag" Station was probably built in 1888 when 51 new stations were built on Prince Edward Island to better serve the public.

     Summerside Journal 27-Dec-1877.  Mr. George Hardy, driver of the No. 1 train was much scalded at Montrose in his engine by the displacement of a plug allowing the steam to escape.  His fireman Thomas Trainor was also badly scalded.  Both are at Alberton in good hands though suffering much".  quote from the Patriot.

      Below are three photos I took that day.  The first photo shows the two original doors.

 Below:  the north side of the station.

      Below:  Inside, note the sliding door on the back wall, this was the in the freight shed facing west.

     The old station was used by the railroad up till the mid 1960's.  Dad often took the train to O'Leary to visit his in-laws in Knutsford, mostly in winter, as late as the winter of 1963-64.  The station was sold to Archie Dunbar who then sold it to Hayes Paying where it was used for a storage building until it was partially burned on March 6th, 2001 - see 

http://almalauretta.blogspot.ca/2012/03/hi-construction-in-alma-leveled-in.html

     For more information regarding this station and the A Photo History of Prince Edward Island Railway by Allan Graham.