The big move

Railway station arrives at new home

“That’s what my grandfather drank!” David Cross said pointing at the dirty Labatt 50 stubby bottle found under the Cascades railway station after it was lifted onto a flatbed last week in preparation for its move to Old Chelsea.

These guys know how to raise, and lower, the roof. A crane lowers the roof onto the historic Cascades railway station at its new, temporary home in Old Chelsea. CDS Building Movers took the building apart, loaded the pieces on flatbeds, drove them down Hwy 105, and put the pieces back together south of Old Chelsea Road across from Dépanneur M&R on April 23. Hunter Cresswell photo

Since the 1960s, the railway station has been at the old Cross farm in Farm Point where David grew up and owned until 2018. It used to store grain when it was an active dairy farm.

On April 23, CDS Building Movers lifted the roof off the station and took the roof and building on separate flatbeds down Hwy 105 to its new home on municipal property south of Old Chelsea Road across from Dépanneur M&R.

To the casual observer, moving the historic building may have seemed a monumental task, but CDS co-owner Mario Lapalme described it as a “small” and “filler” job.

Earlier this year, trail organization Amis de Voie Verte Chelsea fundraised to move the old railway station so it can be used as a part-museum, part-rest area somewhere along the community trail. Organization president Sandy Foote last week said that’s still his hope, but the building is the municipality’s now.