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Welcome to Meteghan Station
A turn, left if travelling toward Yarmouth and right if pointed toward Digby, onto Placide Comeau Road which is more commonly known to locals as the High School Road) will lead to the village of Meteghan Station.

Given that the road is a dead end it is very difficult to get lost, a left at the end will take you to the village of Bangor home of the Bangor Sawmill, and a right will take you past the famous engineering marvel “La Grange ronde” “The Round Barn”. This impressive structure is the last barn of this type to exist in Clare.

The other round barns built in Clare have fallen into disrepair and been torn down. Remember, the barn is still private property but photos of it are permitted. Now, back to Meteghan Station which has many stories to tell because of its connection to the train.

Meteghan Station as you may already have guessed was a stop along the train’s course. As mentionned, Placide Comeau Road is a dead end, and once at the end of the road, if one looks ahead, a little to the left, one can see the old train track that is now a popular atv and walking trail.

After an interview with a local gentleman, it was discovered that this train stop was once graced with a rather large station-house. In fact most all station-houses in Clare were quite impressive buildings for the time. Exact dimensions are not recalled but the fact that it was a very tall and large building remains in the man’s memory.

After many years the large station-house was torn down due to its poor condition. A small but newer building from a village called Norwood was transported to Meteghan Station to serve as the station-house. It is assured that this building still exists although around the late 80’s it was moved to a wooded in-land spot near some summer cabins.

The gentleman recalls that small buildings or sheds all along the track were used to store freight which was pulled to Meteghan Station regularly by teams of horses. Farmers would travel to Meteghan Station from as far away as St.-Alphonse with their horse and ox teams carting behind them their potato harvests.

The carts of potatoes were driven to a warehouse next to the station in order to be loaded onto the train and exported to many different places. Being that harvest is in the fall, the risk of frost was high therefore the teams of horses or oxen were made to circle the warehouse yard in order to gently tumble the crop in the cart so to reduce the risk of it freezing.

Various wood products like firewood and planks were also transported by train and were for the most part brought to Yarmouth.

The train schedule was reliable and we are told that the train used to pass at 9:00 a.m. in Meteghan Station on the way to Halifax. It would return from Halifax at approximately 4:00 p.m., could be heard passing by again at 9:00 p.m. for another trip to the big city and again at 6:30 a.m.

A number of residents would board at this earlier time what they affectionately called the “Morning Train” to Halifax. The gentleman interviewed still remembers boarding the morning train during his time working in the city.

The train stops helped the local economy with opportunities for revenues. Whether it was through working for the railway, operating a store near the station-house or just giving people the means to reach other businesses in the area. One such opportunity was seized by a family in Meteghan Station who would receive a flour shipment from large city companies on the train and then make their living at selling it.

There were many different types of flour available and the merchants who sold it were known as none other than “flour vendors”. The flour business changed hands over the years and of course now the local flour vendors have gone, but memories of a simpler time still linger in Meteghan Station.

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