A History of Elmsdale, Elmsdale West, and Brockton, Prince Edward Island

In 1889 the PEI Railway decided that these open—door sheds were unsatisfactory as noted in the January 3, 1889 Summerside Journal: “Several new flag stations have been erected along the Prince Edward Island Railway. They are neat and are closed in with doors and windows. They are thus a great improvement over the old style of open-to-all-weather flag stations which they replace.”

Two newspaper articles are the only proof that by 1902 the original open-door Elmsdale station had been replaced, either by the modern flag station as described above, or by a keeper station. The timetables list Elmsdale as a flag station until at least 1908. Beginning in 1910 trains stopped at a “way” or keeper station at Elmsdale so we assume that Elmsdale had one of the modern flag stations 1889 to 1910, then got the much larger “keeper” station. It existed until it was sold September 6, 1964 to Wilfred Griffin who converted it into a potato warehouse. It was recently torn down. The Agriculturist of December 27, 1902 published this grievance:

An esteemed Elmsdale correspondent complains strongly concerning the management of the railway station at that place, which he says is opened for such a short time each day that it is of little use. He says, “I am told by the station agent that it has only to be opened fifteen minutes before train time. Now this is absurd, and the station is consequently of little use, because if a man has to come any distance to ship freight, he would have to get here just at train time or leave his freight on the platform to be destroyed, if perishable, as the station is locked up except at train time”. As soon as possible after the train passes, our correspondent says, the station is locked and kept locked until fifteen

Sectionmen at Elmsdale: Jack Wells and William Matthews. George Adams’s house and blacksmith shop are in the background

Dorothy Smallman Coll.

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