Hon. George E. Foster
Photo: Libraries and Archives Canada
New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia

This Canadian Northern Railway station was named in the 1920s for senator Sir George Eulas Foster [1847–1931], then Minister of Trade and Commerce. On the eve of the general election in 1917, Foster was struck by a railway engine at Union Station in Toronto and left with a broken shoulder blade, a broken collar bone, and four broken ribs. His determination even as an injured 70-year-old was in evidence as he resumed his duties from his sickbed and returned to the House within months.

Mt. Robson-CNoR
1st location 1915 Renamed Foster
2nd location 1922

Even at an obscure station such as Mt. Robson, BC, train time could be a major event. A trio of adventurers awaits the arrival of the eastbound passenger train; Mt. Robson was a world-famous centre for packing and hiking and for mountaineers seeking to conquer the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The others, lacking baggage of any kind, could be the family members of a local section crew going into Redpass to shop, or they could be from the Robson Ranch — a resort just down the valley — waiting to exchange mail. Mt. Robson station was originally located about three mile east of here, where the CNoR erected a Type C depot in 1915. A disastrous snow slide on 26 February 1921 covered the tracks just beyond the tram in this photograph, killing three people. As a result, in conjunction with the construction of a snow shed, in 1922 the CNR established a new station at this location, naming it Mt. Robson and re-naming the former point Foster. A Standard Portable Station and a Standard Freight and Passenger Shelter were installed at the new station in 1922. The local operator and a watchman who patrolled the tracks on either side of the new snow shed ensured that the tragic results of the 1921 snowslide would not recur. Still prominent on the Mt. Robson station here is the cantilever bracket for the train-order signal, which has been removed. The Portable Station was removed in the 1940s, leaving only the shelter. Until October 1963, employee operating timetables instructed passenger trains to stop for five minutes to let on-board patrons catch a glimpse of the station’s namesake mountain, to the right and behind the photographer.

— Bohi 2002

Eddy Station, 1947.
Robert Frear

Site of a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station (Mile 83) between Raush Valley and McBride.

In 1918 Eddy had three settlers, according to Wrigley’s Directory,  dwindling to only a section crew by 1928.  In the late 1930s it blossomed into a sawmill community until the late 1960s.

The Eddy Post Office was open from 1945 to 1947.

I remember this station was still standing in about ’63, but the CNR burned it down shortly thereafter.

— Robert Frear, Memories of Eddy, British Columbia.

Grand Trunk Pacific railway station at Dunster (Mile 70) was named by a railway inspector after Dunster, his home village in Somerset, England. The Dunster post office opened in 1915.

Croydon (flag station) adopted 23 May 1963, as labelled on BC map 3H, 1919, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Form of name changed to Croydon (locality) 31 May 1983 on 83E/4.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Croydon (Mile 63) was named after the town of Croydon, England.

The name appears on the 1915 land pre-emptor’s map of the McBride area. Etter and McDougal Lumber operated an 80-man sawmill at Croydon until 1919, when a brush fire spread to the yard. Sandy McDougal allowed the Croydon school board to use an old bunk house for the school. Contributions from Croydon, England, made possible the construction of an Anglican Church and burial grounds in 1935.

The Croydon post office was open from 1917 to 1968.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Mile 126 west of the Yellowhead Pass appears as “Crescent Island” on a 1914 timetable, but by 1918 it was known as “Loos” after the site of a battle in the First World War.

Cariboo was the name of a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Mile 94, four miles west of McBride.

Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory, 1918:

CARIBOO: station and shingle mill on the G. T. P., 5 miles from McBride. No residents except shingle mill hands, numbering about 25. Local resources: Cariboo Lumber Co shingle mfrs, W N Jack managing owner.
Lawson C mixed farming
Lawson J mixed farming

Adopted in 1951 on Jasper Park (North) sheet (file J.1.34), as identified on Canadian National Railway timetables; name cancelled in 1989.

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station Mount Robson (railway point) had originally been located here, but the station by that name was relocated southward and the Canadian National Railway renamed the facility at this location “Alpland” in 1924.