Dunster Station

Materials to build the station were shipped in, presumably from back east on the GTP line.  This became quite clear when recent renovation crews looked at the quality and types of wood used for the basic construction (walls and floors).  The local area had neither the quality, nor volume of clear Douglas Fir to build the station at Dunster.  A lack of wood is also quite apparent in the images of railway construction at the time, with the area being largely burnt.  Planed wood and trim were shipped in, then the crews were able to construct Dunster’s station.  From all accounts, the construction took less than a year before the crews moved on to building the next station in their roster.  Given the number of nearly identical stations that were along the GTP line, the time taken to build each station was likely stream-lined by the time the station at Dunster was built.




1999.06.15
Valley Museum and Archives Society, Cole Fonds
The Station at Mile 72 was completed in 1913 and within a year, the steel was linked, allowing for through traffic.  Named for the hometown of a railroad official (Dunster, England), the Dunster station lent its name to the rising settlement.  This same official also named the two previous stations/camps on the line, Croydon and Shere.  The same day that Britain declared war on Germany (August 4th, 1914), Dunster residents had a different milestone as they saw the first train steam through their little town, opening up a world of possibilities.





1999.07.14
Valley Museum and Archives Society, Runnalls Fonds

Like in the early days of many frontier towns, the train station in Dunster was the center of everything.  New residents and visitors were met, loved ones said goodbye, mail was received, most early meetings were held in the building, groceries were delivered and almost everything that was shipped out, went out on the train.  The station was almost always manned and those in trouble knew that they could get help.  Visitors and residents stranded in the area were often hosted by the station master’s family until travel became possible again.

Photo from Dunster Women's Institute, scanned by Valley Museum and Archives Society

Several similar stations were also built along this section of the line, including matching stations at Croydon (mile 66), Raush River (mile 76), and Eddy (mile 83).  Shere (mile 59), which housed the Etter and McDougall sawmill was only referred to as a flag stop station.  Further down the line, McBride (mile 90) received a larger station, which despite burning down in 1918, was quickly replaced in 1919.

1999.07.13
Valley Museum and Archives Society, Runnalls Fonds

 “Type E” (Plan 100-152) Stations and the GTP

Between 1905 and 1914, over 350 GTP Plan 100-152 stations were built in Western Canada.  Commonly referred to as “E type”, over 2/3 of the stations that GTP built used this same blueprint.  With only slight variations in the design, “almost all were placed on the North side of the track with the waiting room end towards the east” (History of Canadian Architecture, Vol 2, pg 483). 



1999.07.11
Valley Museum and Archives Society, Runnalls Fonds

From the beginning, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway did not see the traffic potential that the company had hoped for and it became quickly apparent that the line would not be able to pay for itself.  March 1919, GTPR defaulted on its loan for the construction of the line to the federal government and was taken over by a Board of Management under the Department of Railways and Canals.  Within a year, GTPR was placed under the management of the Crown Corporation Canadian National Railways.  Although there were originally competing lines that ran through the Robson Valley, GTP’s lines were used because they were built to a higher standard. Shortly after CN took over GTPR, slight alterations were made to the stations along the line, including changes in the colours of the buildings.

1999.07.16
Valley Museum and Archives Society, Runnalls Fonds

Unfortunately few of these 350+ Type E stations remain today.  The 12 built in Manitoba are long gone. Only 15 remain in Alberta (including Parks Gate’s which is the only one still on site, but in very poor condition and Delburne, which was moved a few blocks, but restored in 1978 and now hosts the Anothony Henday Museum).  In BC there are believed to be only three remaining: Penny station which was moved to Prince George and is now part of the Railway and Forestry Museum, Kwinitsa Station which was moved to Prince Rupert and serves a museum, and Dunster Station which was moved slightly off of the tracks.