Summary

The first railway to be built through what is now the small community of Melville was the narrow-gauge Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway in 1871. However, a station was not built here until eight years later when the standard-gauge Credit Valley Railway was built through town, crossing the Toronto, Grey & Bruce at grade in an X shape. This area became known as Melville Junction, and a station was built here for the purpose of allowing passengers to transfer from one line to the other. The Toronto, Grey & Bruce line was converted to standard gauge in 1881, and a couple of years later the Canadian Pacific Railway simultaneously gained control of both. The Credit Valley line north of Melville was then abandoned, and a connecting track was built between the former Credit Valley and Toronto, Grey & Bruce lines at the junction. The station saw a total of nine passenger train departures per day by 1899, five of which ran exclusively on the former Toronto, Grey & Bruce line.

After a rail connection to the Canadian Pacific transcontinental line at Sudbury was completed between there and Bolton in 1908, the former Toronto, Grey & Bruce line would see less traffic bound for the steamships in Owen Sound. As automobiles started to appear during the early 20th century, branch line passenger ridership was one of the first things to feel the effects. Several old stagecoach routes in the area were turned into provincial highways in the 1920’s, allowing for a higher amount of car traffic at faster speeds than before. The former Toronto, Grey & Bruce line was one of the first to go, and it was abandoned and torn up south of Melville Junction in 1932. As a result, the original station was abandoned and a tiny flag stop shelter was built approximately 280 metres north on the north side of Highpoint Side Road. Flag stops required trains to be flagged down in order to stop, a common practice designed to prevent unnecessary stops in areas with low ridership. Service had been reduced to just four passenger train departures per day by 1940. This briefly rebounded following the introduction of self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars in 1954 to a total of seven trains per day by 1961. However, ridership continued to drop in spite of these efforts and passenger service was reduced significantly towards the end of the 1960’s. Service to Melville ended altogether in 1970, and the shelter was dismantled shortly thereafter.

Canadian Pacific continued to use the line for freight until 2000, when the segment from Orangeville to Streetsville was bought by the Town of Orangeville to ensure service would remain to the town’s industries. It was contracted out to Cando Rail, a shortline operator based out of Manitoba. A tourist passenger excursion was established shortly after called the Credit Valley Explorer, bringing visitors from Orangeville to Snelgrove and back. Trillium Railway took over the contract in 2018, and the Credit Valley Explorer ceased to operate in February of that year. Freight service was terminated in December 2021 and the line was subsequently torn up with plans to turn it into a recreational trail.

Condensed Station Info:

Location:	Served By:	Current State:	Date Built:	Date Demolished:
South of Highpoint Side Road	CVR (1879 – 1883) TG&B (1879 – 1883) CPR (1883 – 1970)	Demolished (Both)	1879 (First) 1932 (Second)	1932 (First) 1970 (Second)