Summary

The Toronto & Nipissing Railway was built through Goodwood in 1871, but there was no immediate need for a passenger station there. Goodwood Station was built by the Toronto & Nipissing five years later in 1876 near the modern-day intersection of Highway 47 and Old Mill Lane. It was a rectangular building with wooden board-and-batten exterior walls, though it lacked the lean-to roof seen on earlier Toronto & Nipissing station designs. A grain elevator was constructed across from the station to serve the local agricultural industry at some point following the station’s construction.

The Toronto & Nipissing was converted from its original 3′ 6” narrow gauge to 4′ 8.5” standard gauge during the early 1880’s. It was merged along with numerous other branch lines into the Midland Railway of Canada on April 1st, 1882. Goodwood Station was only served by the Midland Railway until it was leased by the larger Grand Trunk Railway on January 1st, 1884. By 1885 service to Goodwood had reached its peak of six trains per day. This would be reduced to five by 1899 but otherwise remain fairly consistent. The station was modified with a bay window in the early 1900’s to allow increased visibility from the station agent’s office. In 1923, the financially-ailing Grand Trunk was nationalized and merged into Canadian National. The gradual popularization of automobiles as well as the conversion of several nearby stagecoach routes into paved highways over the next few decades would begin to chip away at passenger ridership on branch lines like this one. This process would accelerate with the resumption of car production after World War Two. Service to Goodwood Station was reduced to three trains per day by 1958, with service ending entirely just four years later in 1962. The original T&N station was swiftly demolished only for a commuter service to resume later the same year. A small shelter was built in Goodwood to allow trains to continue stopping there. This would remain the case until the commuter train’s route was shortened to Stouffville in 1970, after which the shelter was also dismantled.

Canadian National continued to use the line for freight trains until 1992, after which they had intended to abandon the line north of Stouffville. A tourist rail organization called the York-Durham Heritage Railway began operating trains between Uxbridge and Stouffville in 1996, though its route was gradually scaled back closer to Uxbridge in subsequent decades. The YDHR ceased operations in December 2023.

Goodwood Station around the 1900’s with a train at the platform. Grand Trunk No. 401 is in the lead, a 4-6-0 built in 1906 by the Montreal Locomotive Works. The grain elevator can be seen behind the train at left. Courtesy of the Ross Gray collection.

Condensed Station Info:

Location:Served By:Current State:Date Built:Date Demolished:
Old Mill LaneT&N (1876 – 1882)
MRC (1882 – 1884)
GTR (1884 – 1923)
CNR (1923 – 1970)
Demolished (Both)1876 (First)
1962 (Second)
1962 (First)
1970 (Second)