It’s full steam ahead for the Station Keepers in their work to promote The Barry’s Bay Railway Station.
The group is hosting a special event on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. It will allow people to go inside the historic building, located on the Opeongo Line in the heart of town, and see recent improvements.
The event will be recorded for those who can’t make it in person. The recording will appear on the Opeongo Line podcast. Organizers ask that people who want to attend be in the building by 2 p.m. so that new arrivals don’t interfere with the recording.
Station Keepers President Joanne Olsen says those include new biographies of local historical figures and new lighting. Guests can also see the new inside and outside walls
The event will feature the playing of videos from a series called The Way We Were, which profiles businesses connected to the historic rail line. It will also feature music performances by the Yo-Yo Mamas, a group described as Madawaska Valley’s latest fiddling sensation.
Olsen said the event really is a celebration of a return to normal. Both COVID and a fall re-construction of the building have limited people’s ability to visit the well-known tourist spot over the past two years.
The Station Keepers work to preserve and promote the building, which is also a museum. It pays homage to the Opeongo Rail Line, which brought many settlers to the Madawaska Valley to form communities.
The Station Keepers also have a new website, www.therailwaystation.ca
