"Elizabeth Willmot is a lover of old railway stations. For the past 10 years she has been travelling around the province collecting historical information and taking photographs of railway stations for her recently published book "Meet Me At The Station." "The book is a nostalgic approach to the old stations. It's not intended in any way to be a textbook," Mrs. Willmot explained in an interview. Recently, the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinburg featured an exhibit of photographs of Ontario railway stations from her book."
Photograph of the Holland River Bridge in 1920. The boat in the centre of the photograph are the hay-cutters of the Holland Marsh on the boat they would use to transport their daily work. This was prior to the marsh's drainage. Horses were transported up-river to work on the Marsh wearing wooden shoes. In the photograph, there are men fishing off the bridge, and on the right side (west of the bridge) you can see the water tower which trains used to fill up their water supply.
The Gilford Station was a popular stop along the railway bringing mail to the surrounding area and vacationers to the beach. It is now in the Simcoe County Museum.
The first temporary train station was built in 1853 with the coming of the new train service up to Barrie. A permanent station was built in 1870.
