The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore. Ron Brown

      Woodpiles dominate the grounds around Port Perry’s first station. Such piles were an eyesore at stations before coal replaced wood as a fuel. Photo from author’s collection.

      On the unpopulated prairies, the stations preceded the towns. Locations there were determined not by the existing clients but by the anticipated ones. Elevators and stations were therefore located at ten to twelve kilometre intervals, the farthest that a farmer could urge his horses over rutted prairie trails in a single day to bring his wheat to a railside grain elevator.

      Another player in station location was the Board of Railway Commissioners. Created in 1903 under the new Railway Act, the board could dictate not only a station’s location, but also its design.