Summary

The first station in Sutton was built in 1877 by the Lake Simcoe Junction Railway, a subsidiary of the narrow gauge Toronto & Nipissing Railway, while construction of its branch line was progressing north towards Jackson’s Point on Lake Simcoe. The station was a simple board-and-batten structure with a pitched roof containing only the essentials: a waiting room, freight room, and the station agent’s office. The first revenue passenger train arrived in Sutton on October 1st, 1877, with four trains stopping there each day upon its opening.

After the LSJR was changed from narrow to standard gauge in 1881, the station changed hands on a few separate occasions. In 1882 the LSJR and its parent company merged with several other struggling railways into the Midland Railway of Canada. Just two years later, the Midland was itself acquired by the much larger Grand Trunk Railway. A replacement station was built by the Grand Trunk for Sutton in 1887 utilizing a relatively unique design. While bearing a close resemblance to other Grand Trunk stations built around the time, this iteration did not feature the bay window commonly located at the station agent’s office for visibility. It’s unknown why this design choice was made. In any case, the station was replaced again in 1906 with a slightly larger structure employing a more simplistic design. The number of trains stopping in Sutton increased to six per day by 1912 in spite of the rural nature of the line it was situated on.

A major contributor to a decline in ridership for the former LSJR was the opening of the Toronto & York Radial Railway to Jackson’s Point in 1907, then Sutton in 1909. The T&YRR service was considered faster than the ones offered by the Grand Trunk, and only a single train in each direction stopped at Sutton by 1922. After facing worsening financial issues, the Grand Trunk was nationalized and merged into Canadian National in 1923. The section between Stouffville and Zephyr was abandoned in 1928, after which the section north of Zephyr was connected to Canadian National’s Bala Subdivision. A year later in 1929 the section from Sutton to Jackson’s Point was also abandoned, leaving Sutton as the farthest north station on the line. The T&YRR line to Sutton was abandoned in 1930 due to increased competition from automobiles, a circumstance that the CN line would have to contend with in the following decades. Passenger service had ended by 1943 and Sutton station was used only for local freight service. This lasted for a few decades until the station was closed entirely in 1979, and it was subsequently saved by the Georgina Pioneer Village & Museum who have turned it into a display piece. The rails in Sutton were torn up in 1981 and much of the right-of-way has been converted into a recreational trail.

Condensed Station Info:

Location:	Served By:	Current State:	Date Built:	Date Demolished:
McDonough Avenue	T&N (1877 – 1882 MRC (1882 – 1884) GTR (1884 – 1923) CNR (1923 – 1930’s)	Demolished (First and Second) Moved and Restored(Third)	1877 (First) 1887 (Second) 1906 (Third)	1887 (First) 1920 (Second) N/A (Third)