Recently updated: Marmora station posts

Last night I happily stumbled across some photos of Marmora station and an excellent model of it here and here by George Dutka at his White River Division blog. A few years back I had posted a couple of photos of the station I had shot in the 1970s, and some of those photos I had misidentified. I took the opportunity to go and fix up those posts (here and here and here) as best I could given what little information I have on hand. I need to go back through my photos and finish scanning, identifying, and posting them.

Ironmasters of Upper Canada

I was surprised to find this documentary on the history of the Marmora ironworks featured at the Marmora Heritage Foundation's website in honour of Marmora's 200th anniversary this year. It's a little on the long side, but there's lots of interesting information in there. 

If you're a regular here you may recall that last year I searched around for the location of some old speeder sheds in Marmora and Havelock. I decided to send my location question to Anne Philpot at the MHF. She generously responded and sent my question off to some local experts. She also sent me these interesting links to photos of old Marmora railway structures: The Central Ontario Railway and the Marmora Station and News from the Train Station. In amongst the photos is one of a rather intriguing water tank, and another of one of the boxiest freight warehouses I've ever seen.

Negatives

I was rooting around in old boxes of junk from days gone by looking for the Maserati's front bumper, but no such luck*. However, I did find some rather abused negatives of the Marmora station environs. I was surprised by the image on the right of some sort of freight car that's been converted to a shed. I'd completely forgotten about that. Also, the centre image is a side of the speeder shed that I hadn't seen in my photo files. I need to find a way to properly scan these negatives as they appear to be in better shape - except for the folds of course - than the grainy images suggest.

*It looks like I tore the front bumper and grill off the chassis, and it's no doubt lost for good. I guess at the time I thought that was some sort of cool customization scheme :-(

[3 January 2025: I reformatted this post so it was a bit easier to read.]

Speeder Shed; Location Unknown

Stuffed away in a corner of a photo album, with nothing in common with the surrounding photos, I found these two of some speeder shed. I have no idea where it was located. And there's no date stamp on the back, but my guess is that it was taken during the summer of 1975.

You can see there're buildings in the background of both pictures. They might provide clues as to location.

Back in '75 I can only assume that I thought I would never forget where I took these, and it didn't cross my mind that 45 years in the future I might not remember - I could barely look beyond when my next math test would occur :-) My usual train haunts were Hastings, Havelock, and Marmora, so I assume it was located somewhere in that rather large area.

Hawkeye

If you've been following the posts about the railway stations in Hastings, Havelock, and Marmora you'll know that I keep saying that I shot the black-and-whites with a Kodak Brownie that used 120 roll film.

Wrong.

I went and looked for the camera in the momentos stash, and found to my embarrassment that the camera used was a Hawkeye that shot 127 size rolls of film.

But, there's an old Brownie somewhere in the momento boxes, although given my track record it'll likely be some other brand :-)

Marmora Station: Yesterday & Today

I've been doing some work to organize my old photos and get them properly identified. 

This is a photo of the train station in Marmora, Ontario that I took back in the early '70s. For some reason I thought this station might have been located in Hastings, but I was wrong. I've updated the posts and tags appropriately.

It turns out the old station has been moved to a community park and sports area in Marmora, and has been refurbished and preserved. I took these photos on another trip out west. I swung by the site in Marmora where Mr. Google told me the station was now located.

Although, the ratty, ad hoc garage that was there in the '70s has been removed.

The current station even has a plaque, which informs us that the Station was named for a man murdered near its original site. And they say Canada is dull....

Tool & car shed in Marmora ?

My old photos are in need of serious organization. I found this one stuffed in the corner of an album where it had no logical place being. I think this shed was located in Marmora, near the Marmora station.

I likely shot this in '72 or '73 - maybe '74, these pictures aren't date stamped, arrgh - as I didn't have my little 110 camera then, and was still using an old Brownie that shot 120 rolls of film. I don't know if you could buy those rolls in colour, but black-and-white was all I used.

[16 June 2020 Update: After reviewing several old photos I think this structure was actually located near the Marmora station. I'm in the process of that long overdue photo reorg and I hope to fix identification problems I've made with some of my old pictures.]

[18 June 2020 Update: Yes, this building was located in Marmora, Ontario.]

[3 January 2025 Update: I revised the text so that it referred to Marmora and not Havelock. I'm still not 100% sure this tool shed was located in Marmora, but I plan dig into the question again.]

The Ghost of Frosted Foods

My ghost sign on the back wall of A&A's may not be much of a ghost sign, but this one is. 

I drove by this sign many times last summer, but it was only after 50 or so passes, that I twigged about its rarity and took a photo. It's still in relatively readable condition, but one determined coat of paint could change that forever.

Marmora station?

I was going through some old files and came across these two drawings I did sometime in the '70s. I recall there was a small train station in Marmora, Ontario; however, I don't have any photos and I can't remember visiting, let alone measuring. I was a kid then. An internet search shows there was a small station, but it's a little larger than my drawing suggests. I suspect I selectively compressed whatever I did or didn't see in order to fit it on a single piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Crude drawing skills aside, with a little adjustment it might make for a small, utilitarian depot.

Update, 23 March 2016: Looking back through some old photos and posts, I think this drawing might actually be based on the station in Hastings, Ontario. 

[18 June 2020 Update]: No, it's the station at Marmora.

Marmora Ontario station, 1975

I was scanning some items and figured I'd scan this photo from the blog pile while I was at it. I shot this picture in the summer of 1975 - the processor had stamped July 1975 on the back of the photo, and I had a habit of having pictures developed soon after I'd taken them, so it was likely taken sometime early in the summer of '75. It's the station in Marmora, Ontario.

[18 June 2020 Update: This station wasn't located in Hastings, Ontario, it was in Marmora, Ontario]

[3 January 2025 Update: When I first posted I incorrectly identified this station as being in Hastings. Ontario, when it was actually in Marmora, Ontario. On 18 June 2020 I added a comment to note the mistake I made, but didn't update the post's text. That was confusing, so I've updated the text too.]