Hugh Robertson, shown in the photo, worked for R.W. Butler for seventeen years, and took the store over briefly after his retirement. I visited Mr. Robertson last summer at the Algonquin Nursing Home, where he proudly displayed the same photograph on the wall of his room. He died on February 1st, 2001 and Bernard Gallagher, the other man in the photo, died in 1999 after a long career as a Chisholm dairy farmer.

P.R. Owens, Chisholm's first Reeve, started a post office he called "Alderdale" at his house north of Alderdale in 1905. When the post office was relocated to the Butler's store the Alderdale name went with it and the whole area became known as Alderdale. When mail delivery arrived in the late 1940s, RR# 1 Powassan operated from the store for several years. When the road through the area was named in the mid-90s as a part of a civic addressing initiative, it officially became Alderdale Road.

Looking back to the early days of the coming of the railroad, there was an excitement about Alderdale's future, built around rumors that it might become a CNR Divisional Point with staff houses, sidings, repair shops, etc.

The railway actually bought three farms in a row immediately north of Alderdale, and removed the buildings. There was talk of a hotel, with no alcoholic restrictions, to be built by the well-known local Barney Bogue.

Alderdale became the centre of activity in the township for decades, but the division point and other activity did not materialize.

Trains stopped regularly for coal, and water pumped from the nearby Graham Creek. A section crew worked out of Alderdale, and a station agent and his family lived there. Farmers shipped cream and farm produce on a regular basis. The Alderdale area was lower than the CNR wanted so a long log trestle with an underpass was built through the area. The timbers were filled in with earth and remain today, as do other sections of the railbed, like a fortification snaking its way through the township.

In 1937 the peaceful community of Alderdale was rocked with one of the worst train wrecks of the era. Thirty-eight cars went off the track and one filled with oil burst into flame.

Cleave Way of Callander, who knew the engineer, told me recently that the train was using a new coal feed system in error, which made the train go too fast for the conditions.
 

Taken by a passing motorist, this 1937 photo shows one of the worst wrecks of the era.

One of the many men riding the rails that day ran screaming onto the road. Several residents took care of him and he survived. A passing motorist took the photo of the smoke spiraling into the air and it appeared in the Nugget story of the event.

Many of the boxcars were loaded with various goods, including one loaded with beer. Certain astute citizens kept the CNR workers distracted while various people "helped" with the clean up.

By mid-century, the local train was curtailed and the station was dismantled and purchased by a local farmer where it can still be seen today. Nothing remains today except the railbed, the future of which is still in question.

Wasing station, 6 km to the east of Alderdale, was only a section depot and stop where a crew maintained that section of the track. The foreman had a house and there were outbuildings, including a storage shed that was used when the train was flagged to a stop to pick up cream or passengers, or to deliver goods. Local farmers sold thousands of cords of pulp wood from their farms through the Wasing stop. A Wasing post office, small store and school were established for the people nearby.
 

The Wasing "Station" with Doreen (Smith) Litkee waiting to deliver cream to the local train.

The road parallel to the track was recently named Wasing Road as a part of civic addressing and currently has a dozen families living on it.

Stories in the Chisholm history books and the memories of the residents are all that remain of that era of local history.

Next week we will look at how the community of Fossmill faired in the relentless passing of time.