Ever sat in a train in a station when the adjacent train starts to move and you are uncertain whether it is your car or the next moving?
Unsettling, but certainly a lesson in relativity.
If you are of a certain age, travelling by train was an experience often filled with those pleasures as most small towns were serviced by rail. The station was the centre of town life all over the province. Gone now.
Midland's train depot was at the foot of King Street, east towards Midland Avenue. The branch line went out onto the dock to enable passengers to disembark from the train and board the steamers that put into port for tours.
As roads improved and motorized traffic increased, the rail-lines disappeared. The attached Midland photos, circa 1928, show Playfair’s Venetia with a crowded dock and the locomotive at centre.
The arrival of a train or ship was cause for celebration and the curious would be at the dock or station in droves. Same when the Pearl Mist arrives today, albeit with much smaller crowds.
Imagine old Midland in those days with no Internet, no iPhone, no TV, but the sound of a whistle or the hoot of a ships horn, like sirens calling.
Our final photo shows kids at Midland Harbour doing what kids do…hanging out, maybe fishing on the dock, and watching the steamers come in.
René Hackstetter June 30, 2022.
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