CPR Yards

CPR Yards. . , The extensive Canadian Pacific Railroad yards and repair shops dominated the North Bay waterfront for better than three quarters of a century. , CPR steel reached what was to become North Bay in 1882 and it soon became evident that this particular site would become a crucial juncture point between east and west, especially after the Grand Trunk line from Toronto arrived in 1889. North Bay became the Canadian Pacific District Divisional headquarters in 1901, and maintained that status until 1959, when CPR moved their General Office and staff to Toronto. , Being a District HQ led to a considerable expansion of the CPR footprint with the building of the current station (now the site of the North Bay Area Museum, Discovery North Bay) in 1903. All told CPR stations here have been rebuilt twice, and expanded twice more. The present iteration was the centerpiece of the yard, with a convergence of municipal roads in front and the railyards on the lake side. , Railyard construction continued for the next decade, and when all was completed, the complex contained a spectacular stone roundhouse (designed to match the station itself), as well as a turntable, an 18 stall engine house, freight and flour sheds, carpenters and car repairers shops, as well as ice houses, a yard office, railway stores and the engineer booking office. There was also a vast locomotive shop, where extensive repairs to the steam engines could be undertaken which couldn't be handled in the roundhouse. Extensive stockyards were located at the far eastern edge of the site. , At its peak, the yard would hold 2000 railroad cars, contained nearly 25 miles of trackage and extended two miles east and west of the station itself. Through the 1940's, four transcontinental trains a day came through, as well as various locals and steam freights. , There was a frame building to the west of the current station , the railroad depot in its day , which was turned into a restaurant and an express office. The current parking lot to the west was once a grassy park, with well tended flower gardens, and elm and maple trees for shade. The Prince of Wales once took tea with his subjects on that lawn. , The development of the diesel engine, among other things, spelt the beginning of the end for the sprawling repair yards. The two storey wooden ice houses were knocked down in the early 1980's; the express sheds were demolished in 1986 and the turntable and maintenance shops were taken down two years later. Various citizens' groups expressed dismay at the extermination of much history and tradition, to no avail. It's all gone now, save for the magnificent station itself, and the pictures and memories of when the CPR yards were the cause and the centre of activity for the city of North Bay. There is still a working railyard on the property, but much diminished from the glory days of steam., [photo captions] , . CPR Roundhouse and Railyard. Photo circa 1930. , . CPR Station, looking north, circa 1930.