McAdam Railway Station
Encyclopedia
McAdam, New Brunswick
McAdam is a village located in the southwestern corner of York County, New Brunswick, Canada. The village covers and has a population of 1,404 as of 2006.The area was first settled in the mid-to-late 19th century as a group of small lumber camps...
, New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The station is the largest passenger station in the province but since the December 17, 1994 abandonment of Via Rail
VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
's Atlantic passenger train, it no longer sees rail service and is partially used as a museum.
Railway history
McAdam's railway history is traced to the 1850s-1860s when the St. Andrews and Quebec Railway was built through the area on the way toward WoodstockWoodstock, New Brunswick
Woodstock is a Canadian town in Carleton County, New Brunswick located on the west bank of the Saint John River at the mouth of the Meduxnekeag River, 92 km west of Fredericton and close to the Canada – United States border and Houlton, Maine.- History :Woodstock was settled by Loyalists...
using a survey from the 1840s when the International Boundary north of the St. Croix River was undecided and British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
stood a reasonable chance of acquiring title to the entire Saint John River watershed. The Aroostook War
Aroostook War
The Aroostook War was an undeclared nonviolent confrontation in 1838/1839 between the United States and Great Britain over the international boundary between British North America and Maine. The compromise resolution win a mutually accepted border between the state of Maine and the provinces of...
and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies...
settled the current boundary and eliminated any chance of the SA&Q building across that territory. McAdam was a small community called City Camp and comprised several lumber camps.
During the late 1860s, the European and North American Railway
European and North American Railway
The European and North American Railway is the name for three historic Canadian and American railways which were built in New Brunswick and Maine....
project's "Western Extension" was constructed from Saint John
Saint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...
to the boundary at St. Croix where it linked with another E&NA line from Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
to Vanceboro
Vanceboro, Maine
Vanceboro is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States. The town was named after landowner William Vance. The town is located at the eastern terminus of Maine State Route 6. Vanceboro is across the St. Croix River from St. Croix, New Brunswick, Canada, to which it is connected by the Saint...
.
The junction at City Camp where the E&NA crossed the SA&Q (by then part of the New Brunswick and Canada Railway) was renamed McAdam and in 1883, the New Brunswick Railway
New Brunswick Railway
The New Brunswick Railway was a historic Canadian railway operating in western New Brunswick. Its headquarters were in Woodstock.The original NBR lines were built to the narrow gauge of...
(successor to the NB&C) took over the E&NA line, making McAdam an NBR junction.
In 1889, the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
constructed the International Railway of Maine as the final link in becoming a transcontinental railway and in 1890, the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
leased the NBR for 999 years, making Saint John
Saint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...
its eastern terminus.
Station establishment
In 1900, the CPR began construction of the massive combined railway station/hotel in McAdam to cater to wealthy passengers changing trains to continue to the resort town of St. AndrewsSt. Andrews, New Brunswick
St. Andrews is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick.It is sometimes referred to in tourism marketing by its unofficial nickname "St. Andrews-by-the-sea".-Geography:St...
where they would stay at the CPR's hotel The Algonquin
The Algonquin
The Fairmont Algonquin is a coastal resort hotel in the Tudor style, located in Canada's first seaside resort town, St. Andrews, New Brunswick. It was built in 1889 by the St...
. The station was commissioned by legendary CPR President Sir William Van Horne
William Cornelius Van Horne
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, KCMG was a pioneering Canadian railway executive.-Life and career:Born in 1843 in rural Illinois, he moved with his family to Joliet, Illinois when he was eight years old...
who maintained an exclusive private estate in St. Andrews on Minister's Island
Minister's Island
Ministers Island is an historic Canadian island in New Brunswick's Passamaquoddy Bay near the town of St. Andrews.The island stands several hundred metres offshore immediately northeast of the town and is a geographical novelty in that it is accessible at low tide by a wide gravel bar suitable for...
. On numerous occasions during Van Horne's influential presidency at the CPR during the 1890s, his private car would pass by the McAdam station on the way from Montreal to his summer retreat at St. Andrews and vice versa, sometimes staying in the station hotel.
The station was built in the Chateau style and resembles a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
castle. It was built of local granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and located at the western end of the wye leading to St. Andrews from the Montreal-Saint John main line.
The 20-room hotel occupies the two thirds of the second floor of the station. On the ground floor, the western end of the building's ground floor is occupied by a lunch counter/canteen with a large M shaped circular counter with swivel stools. This was largely where breakfasts would be served for hotel guests waiting for connecting trains and train passengers who were waiting for the Steam engines to be re-fuelled and passengers to clear Customs. It was no unusual to feed 2000 people a day at this lunch counter. The central portion of the ground floor has a more formal dining room and the kitchen area which served both eating establishments. The eastern end of the building's ground floor hosts the passenger waiting rooms and ticketing office and baggage storage rooms. The station also had a jail cell that was operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service
Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service
The Canadian Pacific Police Service is a private police force enforcing safety and policing along Canadian Pacific Railway properties and rail lines in Canada and the United States, including limited sections of the Milton line of GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area.The current head of the CP...
.
In 1955, the CPR initiated an express service from Saint John to Montreal called The Atlantic Limited which was continued by Via Rail as the Atlantic with the eastern terminus shifted from Saint John to Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
. Local connecting trains at McAdam to St. Andrews, St. Stephen
St. Stephen, New Brunswick
St. Stephen is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, situated on the east bank of the St. Croix River at .-Climate:...
, Fredericton
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art...
and Woodstock
Woodstock, New Brunswick
Woodstock is a Canadian town in Carleton County, New Brunswick located on the west bank of the Saint John River at the mouth of the Meduxnekeag River, 92 km west of Fredericton and close to the Canada – United States border and Houlton, Maine.- History :Woodstock was settled by Loyalists...
were all cancelled in the early 1960s leaving McAdam with a single passenger train in each direction (The Atlantic Limited).
Via Rail
The CPR continued to use the station until 1978 when it transferred responsibility for its passenger rail service to federal Crown corporation Via RailVIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
, however the hotel was closed in the early 1960s and used for office space for the railway. CPR maintained ownership of the building throughout Via Rail operations in McAdam from 1978–1981 and 1985-1994.
Via Rail cancelled the Atlantic, in 1981 leaving McAdam with no passenger service. This train was reinstated in 1985 but cut to tri-weekly in 1990 and cancelled completely on December 17, 1994, in light of CPR's Canadian Atlantic Railway
Canadian Atlantic Railway
The Canadian Atlantic Railway is a historic Canadian and U.S. railway that existed from 1988 to 1994.The CAR was created in September 1988 as a business unit of CP Rail System to serve the Maritime Provinces and state of Maine...
subsidiary planning to abandon the entire railway from Saint John to Montreal.
Municipal ownership
The CPR sold its line through McAdam to the New Brunswick Southern RailwayNew Brunswick Southern Railway
The New Brunswick Southern Railway and Eastern Maine Railway form a 189-mile railway system operating a former Canadian Pacific Railway mainline between Saint John, New Brunswick and Brownville Junction, Maine....
but the station has been vacant since Via Rail service was terminated in December 1994. The station was designated a protected heritage railway station by the federal government and the NBSR transferred ownership of the structure to the village of McAdam in the late 1990s. Since then, the village has undertaken fundraising and maintenance repairs to the structure and opened it during the summer months for tours.
The station is currently designated both a National and Provincial Historic Site.