Description of Historic Place

Melville Railway Museum is a Municipal Heritage Property located within the City of Melville on the grounds of the Melville Regional Park. The Property features a small one-storey station built in 1913 and a railway track with a steam engine, coal tender, flat car and caboose.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Melville Railway Museum lies in its commemoration of the railway industry, which was so critical to the establishment and development of Melville. The community was founded by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad (GTPR) in the early 1900s and became a divisional point along the main line of the GTPR, later the Canadian National Railway. Throughout much of its history these railroad companies were the city’s largest industry and main source of employment.

The property’s commemorative value is enhanced by structures representative of railroad history in Saskatchewan. The property features a station once located in the nearby Village of Duff. The station is a Third Class station designed following GTPR’s Plan “A.” This plan was commonly used throughout Saskatchewan in communities likely to generate small traffic volumes. The station features a hip roof and central projecting bay and dormer. The property also features four examples of historic rolling stock, including a steam engine, coal tender, flat car and caboose. All three of the train cars were once used along the Melville line, and represent early train travel in Saskatchewan.

Heritage value also lies in the spatial arrangement of the property, which recreates the historical arrangement of the train cars to each other and to the station. The engine and rolling stock are all situated on a railway track running parallel to the reconstructed wood platform that sits in front of the station. The orientation of the cars also speaks to the traditional composition of trains, with the engine leading, followed by the other cars and concluding with the caboose.

Source:

City of Melville Bylaw 19/86.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Melville Railway Museum resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those built elements that commemorate the railway industry in Melville, including the station building’s rectangular form, wood construction, stucco cladding, hip roof with dormer, projecting bay and crossing arm;
-those moveable elements that commemorate the railway industry in Melville, including the form and metal and wood composition of the rolling stock, the metal construction of the engine, coal tender and flat car and the wood construction of the caboose;
-those elements that relate to the spatial relation of the property’s components, including the train featuring the steam engine followed by the flatbed car and caboose, and the placement of the train along a wooden platform parallel to the station.