The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore by Ron Brown

Author:Ron Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2014-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

The Big Valley, Alberta, station museum displays the typical range of baggage on its platform. Photo by author.

When railways entered the commercial telegraph business, the agent became responsible for sending and receiving messages and money orders. Because the agent was a banker of sorts, the railways provided the stations with safes, bars on the ticket windows, and sturdy locks. The rule books were firm; no one was allowed into the ticket office for any reason.

In addition to all their other duties, many agents were postmasters as well. When the mail train arrived, the agent would sort the letters and the magazines, and then pass them to the small but eager crowd waiting anxiously for the news from the old country, or the latest mail-order catalogue. In Canada, only those communities too small for separate post offices were provided with post offices in the train stations. However, in Newfoundland, during the Depression, the small post offices were given to the agents all along the line, a chore that lasted until Newfoundland’s confederation with Canada in 1949.

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