A visit to Maynooth

Looking north towards Maynooth station along the right-of-way. To the right of the shelter through the trees, is the roadbed of the south leg of the wye.

My wife and I had a drive around the Kawarthas yesterday. On my list of places to visit was Maynooth’s station site to get some “boots on the ground” information to fill in some mental blanks to assist me in recreating this location in HO scale. There were a few questions in my mind as to the location of the wye tail track, its relationship to the station, etc.

There is a gravelled road next to the right-of-way of the line at Maynooth station. I parked the car, put on my workboots, and had a walk around the station. The station remains boarded up, with a chain-link fence around it. This fence appears to have been erected about a decade ago to deter people from entering the building. Having stood for four decades or more unoccupied and uncared for, this station has had severe structural deterioration occur to it. Its concrete walls resist the elements, but the roof is suffering from perforation, shingles having failed and roof boards rotted away. Without remedial work soon, the walls will be next to fail.

Looking south along the station platform. While the severity of the station’s deterioration is evident, nonetheless details are presented for modelling. The roof brackets date to the station’s circa 1908 building.

The agent-operator’s bay window of the station. The wide board on the fascia was the CN station name sign.

There had been a local movement to preserve this station, but it seems to have stalled, leaving the building to the elements.

I’m a believer in visiting the site to get a feel for the area to aid in modelling. Nothing beats being there to both get missing information, and to stoke one’s ambition to get to work on the build. Many questions were answered, and I’ll be glad to get back to building my HO scale rendition of Maynooth.

Pardon the low-tech licence plate obscuring. The vehicle is sitting on the site of what I calculate is the wye’s tail track. The roadbed is faintly discernable either side of this farm lane. I’ll model the farm lane crossing on my rendition of Maynooth.