Summary

Snelgrove Station, originally called Edmonton, was built by the Credit Valley Railway in 1879 whilst its line to Orangeville was under construction. The building was rectangular with board-and-batten exterior walls. Its roofline and canopy were characteristic of other stations built by the Credit Valley Railway during the same period. The Canadian Pacific Railway gained control of the Credit Valley through one of its proxies, the Ontario & Quebec Railway, in 1883. Edmonton Station saw a total of four passenger trains per day that year, remaining relatively consistent into the early 20th century. The station and the community it served were renamed to Snelgrove in the early 1900’s to avoid confusion with Edmonton, Alberta.

As automobiles started to appear during the early 1900’s, 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. At some point the station’s original wooden platform was removed entirely to cut maintenance costs, providing the dwindling passengers with a rather undignified experience. The economic effects of the Great Depression dealt a serious blow to ridership at this station in particular, after which it was treated solely as a flag stop. This means trains would have to be flagged down to stop there, a common practice to reduce unnecessary stops in areas with few passengers. Service to Snelgrove was halved to just two departures per day by 1955, and one year later Canadian Pacific began to introduce Budd Rail Diesel Cars on the line to supplant conventional passenger consists and reduce operating costs. These self-propelled passenger cars were a huge success on unprofitable branch lines, and this resulted in a brief rebound in passenger service in Snelgrove to seven trains per day by 1961.

For an unknown reason, service to Snelgrove seemed to disappear almost overnight in 1961. It had dropped to two departures per day according to a public timetable effective April 30th, 1961. Service had ended altogether by the following year, but the station continued to receive some form of upkeep and was likely used in some capacity by Canadian Pacific for non-passenger purposes. In any case, it was dismantled along with most other stations on the line when passenger service ended between Toronto and Owen Sound ended in 1970. Canadian Pacific continued to use the line for freight service until 2000, when it was bought by the Town of Orangeville to ensure freight rail service to the town’s industries would continue. Operations were contracted out to Manitoba-based shortline operator Cando Rail. 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:
Mayfield Road	Credit Valley (1879 – 1883) Canadian Pacific (1883 – 1961)	Demolished	1879	1970