Dear Editor:
The year was 1967. The centennial year of our country. There were many projects done around town in celebration of this special year. One was our new Centennial Park on the south bank of the Grand river but the most spectacular event for me was my trip to the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto in November.
I was in Grade 7 at James McQueen Public School in Fergus and our Grade 7 and 8 classes took part in this very special trip. A train trip to the fair. It was a joint participation by public schools in Arthur, Fergus and Elora.
We had to be at the train station in Fergus by 6am. There we waited for the train that was coming from Arthur where it had picked up its first passengers. After the Fergus students and teachers were aboard we then proceeded to Elora where the last of our passengers boarded.
I remember passing through Guelph and we arrived at the fair around 9:30 or 10am. The train had us disembark on the north side of the Canadian National Exhibition grounds under the Gardiner Expressway.
After admission to the fair we were in small groups and visited the many exhibits and displays. I recall stopping to have lunch. I bought a POGO (hotdog on a stick). I will never forget the flavour. The ones they have now just are not the same.
The day visit was near an end and we all met outside at the tracks and waited for the train that would bring us home. The train was almost an hour late and we stood there in the cold.
The train finally came and it was a very long and quiet ride home. I’m not sure but I think a lot of children went to sleep.
It was quite late when the train pulled into Fergus after dropping the Elora students off first. Anxious parents were at the station to greet us and take us home. I can’t imagine how the parents of the Arthur students felt as they were the last ones to be dropped off.
I’m not sure but I think this was the very last passenger train to run through Fergus.
There were still cargo trains that came to pick up products from Canada Wire (Nexans), GSW, Moore’s Business Forms and Wilkie’s mill (now a condo on the river) and they also delivered coal to McFadden Fuels and feed and seed to the Co-op on St. Patrick Street.
The tracks are all gone now and most have been made into trails including the trail out past the Shand Dam. In these times, it is sad that the tracks are all gone as we see so many cars and trucks on the highways. It is an era gone forever.
Barb (Bristow) Brookes,
Fergus