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Caption: This image is "pre-VIA" as we know it. In 1977, VIA was but an extension of CN, formed in 1976. The passenger business spun off; separate identity under the CN banner, hence the CN leader 9509 and the trailing steam generator car already in that familiar VIA paint scheme. The national passenger system as we know it did not materialize until 1978. The old Paris station stood for a few more years, not sure when it was demolished, but it served as amaintenance storage building for quite a long while.
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I always thought the Paris station was very picturesque, and that it is a shame it was demolished. Thanks for sharing another great Mooney Memory.
I’m sorry I didn’t get tp see this station. Nice shot as usual.
What you have in the photo is not the actual station for Paris. This did become the ‘station’ when it’s predecessor was torn down I think in the 60′s or early 70′s.
Anyways, what this building used to be was the Express building for the station. Both the Paris and Brantford stations were built in similar fashion – Paris obviously being on the smaller scale. But it too had two things in common with the Brantford station – a tower, which at Paris dominated the front of the station trackside, and an express building that was set apart from the main station building and covered with a long roofline where passengers could keep wait while expecting their train to arrive. The Paris station would have stood to the right of where you took this photo Arnold.
This building was eventually boarded up and used by CN for their maintenance crews and storage. If memory serves me correctly, it was torn down approx. 1998-1999…and now there is only a fenced in area that keeps maintenance equipment/supplies safe and secure.
Thanks, Todd. I have a couple of postcards of the old Paris station, and I made the assumption that upon the demise of that building this structure pictured ‘took over’ as the station for Paris so I guess you could say I was half right. In 1977 the building was used by CN Signals Dept and that was the last I knew of it. Looked fancy for an Express building, but then so did the corresponding structure at CP Woodstock. In that case, demolition was reversed. The Ex building was demolished, leaving the station.