Proof that the Bruce area is snow country! This scene is at Laurel, just north of Orangeville where 4-4-0 woodburner 145
and men pose in a deep cut of snow in March 1896. Original photograph mounted on cardboard donated by Ernie Jones.

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100 YEARS AGO

Thursday, February 6, 1908
The storm of Saturday and Sunday gave the railways a little taste of the conditions of four years ago, and, incidentally, a taste of what the West had to contend with last winter. Saturday night the passenger train from Owen Sound due at Shelburne at 5:14 did not reach the town until about 6:30. It started out bravely for the south and got along not so badly until the neighbourhood of Laurel was reached, when a big snow bank proved too difficult for the engine to navigate and she stuck good and solid. A weakness of the line between Shelburne and Orangeville is that there is neither telegraphic nor telephonic communications with Crombies or Laurel, so that the 12-mile stretch between Shelburne and Orangeville Junction is a pretty good puzzle when a train leaves either point and turns up at neither. However, one snow plow worked its way up from Orangeville during the night and another one down from Shelburne until they located the stalled train. In the meantime the evening train from Toronto had reached Orangeville and the passengers had the pleasure of remaining in the county metropolis at the expense of the CPR. The stalled southbound train was dug out of its difficulties Sunday night and made its way to Orangeville, reaching Toronto about 6 a.m. Monday. The line to Shelburne was clear Monday afternoon and at about 3 p.m. the first train from Toronto since Saturday pulled in. By Tuesday, the line was clear and everything running in good order again.

All the railways had their little time of it. The Teeswater train met with a mishap at Teeswater Saturday, the engine and snow plow leaving the rails at an open switch.

Mr. and Mrs. Gardner, of Niagara Falls, were blocked at Orangeville on their way to attend the funeral of their son in Grand Valley. When they found they could get no farther by train they started to drive from Orangeville, but had to turn back after going about three miles, they and their driver suffering from frost bite.

Thursday, February 13, 1908

• Last Wednesday the morning train from Toronto, due at Shelburne at
11:02 a.m. did not reach the town until 2 p.m., with the engine and
car steps covered with snow. The train, with over 40 passengers
aboard, did not get away from Shelburne until 2:10 p.m. Sunday,
Shelburne not getting another train from Toronto until Monday noon.
An attempt was made Wednesday afternoon to run an engine from
Orangeville to help to stalled train, but that brave engine stuck
fast at the north semaphore at Orangeville Junction. It took a snow
plow and three engines until Friday night to release this engine.
Then the plow got within a mile of Laurel when it had to go back to
Orangeville for the night. By Saturday night it had only got into
Crow's Cut above Laurel, about seven miles south of Shelburne.

Finally, at 10 0'clock Sunday morning, the plow pushed into Shelburne
yard and by 6 p.m. both plow and stalled train had reached Owen
Sound. Passengers on the stalled train were guests of the CPR at the
town hotels.

Shelburne had mail from the south via Orangeville by stage Friday and
Saturday and stage mail was sent to Orangeville for points south on
Saturday.

The Victoria Literary Society put on an impromptu program at the
school Friday night for the benefit of the passengers on the stalled
train and the Public Library reading room was thrown open for their
benefit Saturday afternoon. A couple of sleighloads of passengers
from the stalled train made their way to Orangeville on Saturday to
catch a southbound train.

• Train service into and out of Toronto was reduced by about 60% in
consequence of the various railroad lines being tied up by the snow
storm. The CPR main line east was badly blocked, there being 18 miles
of track near Locust Hill filled up with snow. A carload of shovelers
who left Guelph on Thursday morning, after fighting their way through
drifts all day, reached Toronto at 6:30 p.m. They reported that the
whole country was covered with immense waves of snow, varying in
depth to eight and 25 feet.

• The remains of the late Rev. Geo. Keyes, who died in Orangeville,
February 1, left there on the train on Wednesday, Feb. 5, for
interment in Chatsworth, but were detained in Shelburne until Monday,
Feb. 10, on account of the train getting snowed in. The placing of
his remains in the station is a reminder of other days, when the
deceased, then known as Rural Dean Keyes, of Chatsworth, and the late
Bishop Cronyn, held their first Confirmation service in connection
with is what is now known as St. Paul's Shelburne. This was in 1873
and the railway station had just been completed. It being the most
pretentious building in town, the church service was held there on
that occasion and for some time afterwards.

Thursday, February 20, 1908
Weather got at its tricks again last weekend. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it was snow. Saturday the inevitable freeze and snow storm came along. Trees suffered. So did telegraph and telephone wires, Shelburne being shut off from the outside world Saturday. Saturday morning's passenger train came from Toronto three hours late with two engines. South of Melancthon Station as a snowbank took the outfit to its chilling embrace and kept it there until a snowplow came to the rescue Sunday forenoon. An attempt was made to run a train from Owen Sound Saturday afternoon but a drift welcomed it three miles from the Sound and a yard engine and shovellers had a circus getting it out and back to its starting point. Saturday night's train from Toronto reached Shelburne Sunday forenoon and was taken on through after the plow.
The train that had been stalled near Melancthon was taken back to Toronto. There was no telegraph communication with the south until Sunday morning, the wires being down. This in itself made the running of trains a ticklish business. Many of the passengers on the stalled train walked back to Shelburne Saturday night.