People in Old Town may soon get the chance to learn a little more about the history of the Canadian railroad in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Paul Chapman, treasurer for the Niagara chapter of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, received approval from town council to erect an interpretive board in the dock area next to the old railway tracks. 

“Our mission is to document and to bring forward indications of the railroad history in Niagara and its impacts,” said Chapman.

He shared a rough layout of the board which shows the dock area used to be home to a small, bustling train station.

The board has four photos, including one of the old bridge the trains used to cross into the dock area on their way to the station.

Another shows the old Michigan Central Train Station where passengers could catch trains all the way to Toronto.

The draft also has a photo of what Chapman described as a “10-wheeler steam locomotive.”

About three times a day, “these trains ran between Niagara-on-the-Lake all the way to Fort Eerie,” Chapman said. 

The fourth image in the draft shows the railway route as mapped in 1876.

Chapman said the last photo was a “work in progress” and that they might choose to highlight the train route on the photo for the final version. 

“Pictures say a thousand words,” Chapman said. “People get a better feel for history when they can see a picture of what it looked like.”

In 1854, the Erie and Ontario railroad was the third one of its kind in Ontario. It ran from Chippawa to Niagara-on-the-Lake. In 1863, it was extended to Fort Erie.

The trains brought produce as much as passengers to the dockside junction, the  interpretive board says.

Workers would load much of the produce onto Toronto-bound ships, which would unload them to vendors across the lake.

Chapman thinks the eight by nine metre board should be placed on Delater Street at the start of the beach side foot path, where there used to be a bridge for the trains to cross into the dock area.

The location of the sign has already been identified in the town’s dock area master plan, he told council.

“Railroads and railway history have been a lifelong interest of mine,” he said in an interview afterward.

He still remembers the bridge used by the trains to get to the station.

The line was last used in 1959 and the tracks were taken out in 1962, he said.