Summary

Brooklin Station was built by the Port Whitby & Port Perry Railway in 1871 while construction of the railway was pushing north towards Port Perry. It was located on the south side of Winchester Road on the west side of St. Thomas Street. While no photos are known to exist of this station, it was likely a basic wooden structure with a lean-to roof which the PW&PP had built in multiple smaller communities on its route. North of the station, the tracks would have run down the middle of Queen Street as far as James Street before curving off to the northeast. The first train to Port Perry arrived in Brooklin on November 23rd, 1871. The PW&PP was renamed the Whitby, Port Perry & Lindsay Railway in 1874 and began offering service to Lindsay in 1877.

The railway was never very profitable, and on April 1st, 1882 it was merged into the Midland Railway of Canada alongside numerous other branch lines nearby. The much larger Grand Trunk Railway then opportunistically gained control of the Midland Railway less than two years later on January 1st, 1884. Just two passenger trains would depart Brooklin Station per day in 1886, in accordance with the railway line’s status as a secondary branch line. A new grain elevator was built just south of the station in 1892, and the Grand Trunk proceeded to replace Brooklin Station altogether around 1900. The new station was a rectangular board-and-batten structure with a waiting room and baggage room bisected by the station agent’s office. The primary feature of its pitched roof was a gable above the hexagonal operator’s bay, as well as ornate finials which protruded upwards from each end of the roofline. While its predecessor was located on the east side of the tracks, the new station was positioned on the opposite side. By this point in time service to Brooklin Station had increased to four trains per day.

The Grand Trunk encountered financial difficulties through the early 20th century, culminating in its nationalization and subsequent absorption into the newly-formed Canadian National Railway in 1923. By the following year service to Brooklin Station had reached its peak of six trains per day, though the gradual popularization of automobiles and construction of Ontario’s first public highways would begin to take their toll on branch lines like this one. Service would be reduced back to four trains per day by 1929, mere months before the beginning of the Great Depression. Only two trains would stop there by the middle of the depression in 1934. Before it could be closed due to disuse, Brooklin Station was completely destroyed by fire on April 19th, 1937. No permanent replacement was ever built as passenger service on the line ended altogether later the same year. After sitting unused for two years, the final train to use the line brought passengers to Toronto to see the royal family in 1939. The rails were torn up shortly after the start of World War Two a few months later and melted down for the war effort. The railway grain elevator survived until 1950, and the station property is now occupied by a couple of local businesses.

Condensed Station Info:

Location:	Served By:	Current State:	Date Built:	Date Destroyed:
South side of Winchester Rd., opposite Queen St.	PW&PP (1871 – 1882) MRC (1882 – 1884) GTR (1884 – 1923) CNR (1923 – 1937)	Demolished (First) Burned Down (Second)	1871 (First) 1900 (Second)	1900 (First) 1937 (Second)