Summary

The Credit Valley Railway constructed their first station in Brampton in 1878 while construction was progressing north towards Orangeville. It was located at the corner of Queen Street and Park Street, about half a kilometer west of Brampton’s main intersection. No photos are known to exist of this station and it’s unknown what it would have looked like, other than it followed one of a few other standard designs built elsewhere by the Credit Valley Railway early on. A diamond existed approximately half a kilometer northwest of the station where the Credit Valley crossed the Grand Trunk Railway at grade. In 1883, the Credit Valley Railway fell under the control of the Ontario & Quebec Railway, which was itself a proxy of the much larger Canadian Pacific Railway. Brampton Station saw a total of four trains per day by 1884.

By the turn of the 20th century, the original station was no longer suitable for the community’s needs. Canadian Pacific replaced it in 1902 with a larger structure made predominantly from brick and stone. The hipped roof was flared outward at all sides to provide shelters on the platform below, its only other details being a chimney and a small dormer above the operator’s bay. The south end of the building contained the waiting room and the station agent’s office, while a long baggage or express room was at the north end. Despite this upgrade to the station facilities at Brampton, the line it was situated on could be described as a “branch line” due to its predominantly rural nature with little to no through trains. Train service to Brampton remained relatively consistent into the 1900’s.

As automobiles started to appear during the early 20th century, branch line passenger ridership was one of the first things to feel the effects. Several old stagecoach routes in the area were turned into provincial highways in the 1920’s, allowing for a higher amount of car traffic at faster speeds than before. Canadian Pacific began substituting the conventional passenger consists used between Toronto and Orangeville with self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars in 1956. These units were significantly more economical to operate than their conventional counterparts, and because of their success service to Brampton was doubled to eight departures per day by 1961. This rebound was short lived as ridership continued to decline, and it was reduced back to four by 1968. Service to Brampton ended entirely with the termination of passenger service to Orangeville in 1970, resulting in the closure of Brampton Station. The building was saved from demolition and subsequently moved to another property where it was readapted as part of a garden center. This remained the case until the garden center closed and the property was turned into a golf course in 1988, requiring the station to be saved once more. To do so, it was completely disassembled and the pieces were brought to Mount Pleasant Village Square, the centrepiece of a recent housing development west of Brampton. It was reassembled in the square and subsequently readapted as a community centre.

Condensed Station Info:

Location:	Served By:	Current State:	Date Built:	Date Demolished:
Queen Street West and Park Street	Credit Valley (1879 – 1883) Canadian Pacific (1883 – 1970)	Demolished (First) Moved and repurposed (Second)	1878 (First) 1902 (Second)	1902 (First) N/A (Second)