The Newmarket Train Station has been designated for its historical and architectural significance by the Town of Newmarket, By-law number The train station was later acquired by the Canadian National Railway and was used as a GO Transit station until when they relocated to a small depot in a commercial complex to the north.
For a period the building was leased to a local Member of Parliament as a constituency office. In Newmarket's Chamber of Commerce arranged to lease the building and has been located there since.
The Newmarket station represents the crucial role played by the railway in small town development in Ontario. Newmarket was a shipping centre for local agricultural produce, and the arrival of the railway consolidated Newmarket's role. Other industries that grew up in the town were dependent upon the railway for their existence.
Courtesy of the Ross Gray collection. Another circa postcard of Newmarket station almost brand new. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library. New steel freight doors and a standard set of order boards have been added by the time this photo was taken in Courtesy of the Al Paterson Collection.
This was demolished in to make room for a new 60ft turntable required for the larger locomotives in use at that time. When the line from Newmarket to Ely opened on 1 September , bringing additional through traffic, the awkward reversal was avoided by opening a new island platform at a slightly lower level to the east of the original terminus. The new platform was usually referred to as the Lower station. For some years Newmarket was, in effect, two separate stations although they did share a restaurant.
The original single upper platform was used by trains from Cambridge terminating at Newmarket while the lower island was used by through trains to Bury and Ely. The two platforms were joined by a footbridge at the north end. The through platform was sheltered by a canopy. Added horse traffic came from the annual sales at Tattersalls in December and the bloodstock sales which took place at the spring, summer and autumn race meetings.
Around the turn of the twentieth century around 12, horses were being dealt with annually. Newmarket station was replaced with a much larger facility half-a-mile south on 7 April The new station had limited goods facilities and the old terminus was retained as the town's goods station.
After closure to passengers the old station continued to deal with increasing horse and general parcel traffic, but the passenger platform was retained for race specials and was also occasionally used by grooms accompanying horses until at least 26 July The adjacent goods and shunting yard grew over the next decades; heavy horses were used for shunting individual goods wagons and were stabled adjacent to the turntable.
During the early part of World War 1, large numbers of troops were present in Newmarket, with tented camps set up on Warren Hill and other parts of the Heath. The railway and goods yard were busy moving troops and armaments and the old station building was used as a temporary hospital for wounded soldiers.
After a decline in traffic in the inter-war years the goods yard was once again busy during World War 2 handling armaments including tanks and armoured vehicles. In addition thousands of tons of road-making and building materials for the many airfields being constructed in East Anglia were dealt with.
Race meetings continued throughout the war years and many race specials had to be dealt with, in addition to the military traffic. The goods yard remained busy through the s and into the s. The trainshed had been demolished by the early s. In 17, parcels were handled. Goods leaving the station included caravans, agricultural implements, fertilizers and barley; incoming traffic included coal and paper imported from the USA.
Horse traffic remained heavy with 1, horses being despatched from the yard and 1, received. Newmarket was the last British Railways depot to withdraw horses for shunting. They were retained there until to move special vehicles used for transporting racehorses. Horses had been used to haul vehicles from the earliest days of the railways. Although locomotives could move heavier loads, horses were cheaper and more flexible, so for many years were kept to shunt at small depots.
The yard closed on 3 April and the track was lifted the following year. The buildings survived until There was an outcry when they were demolished as the colonnaded front of the building was supposed to be listed.
Permission to demolish was approved as the building had become too costly to maintain and sufficient funds for preservation could not be raised.
The site has now been lost under Armstong Close which was built on a raised platform that once supported the station. A retaining wall remains behind five cottages, presumably ex-railway cottages on the lower edge of the site, on All Saints Road.
This latter road curves round and runs alongside the old station site to its junction with Old Station Road. In a narrow gauge railway was laid from Cheveley Park to Newmarket station. The narrow gauge railway was laid during the construction of the new Cheveley Hall. The railway was used to haul building materials from the station to the construction site. There are two photos here. The proposed line would provide a fast commuter route between Newmarket and the Capital.
The promoters were lucky to obtain the services of engineers Robert Stephenson, who already had an extensive portfolio of new lines, and John Braithwaite, who had been Engineer-in-Chief to the Eastern Counties Railway until May The proposed new line quickly received much social and political support including that of John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland, who owned the Cheveley Park Estate.
The Act contained a number of unusual clauses including one that forbade the company from taking on board or setting down passengers at Cambridge station or within three miles of the station between 10am and 3pm on Sundays. In June the Company obtained Acts to extend its line to Bury with a branch to Ely and to Thetford, which would have provided a new through route to Norwich with a connection to the Norfolk Railway which ran from Brandon to Norwich and Yarmouth.
Further unsuccessful negotiations with the Eastern Counties Railway to lease or amalgamate with Newmarket Railway took place in February Following this failure to reach an agreement, the Newmarket Company approached the Norfolk Railway who agreed to transfer the proposed Thetford — Newmarket route to them. An agreement was reached on 27 March allowing the ECR to take over the management of the line.
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