From a sign posted on the property that reads in part: [link]

The Locomotive Repair Shop

The Grand Trunk railways shops in Stratford, later part of The Canadian National Railways, were for most of their existence the largest employer in Stratford, for years employing over forty percent of the workers in the city. The period from 1870 to 1964 coincided with the hey-day of the steam locomotive.
The Grand Trunk Railway and its competitor, The Buffalo and Lake Huron Railways, both arrived in Stratford in the fall of 1856, ushering in a new era of development for the new village. The well financed GTR soon took over its competitor here, as well as other lines.
The growth meant that by 1870 the GTR had to build new shop facilities for its locomotives here in southwestern Ontario.
Th e company sent out one of its superintendents, T.H. Roberts, to investigate various sites for the location of a locomotive repair shop. Stratford was one of these locations, perfectly located at the cross roads of the main trunk lines from Quebec to Chicago and the East-west line from Buffalo to Goderich on Lake Huron.
The original shops were built and opened in 1871, causing about 300 families to move into the village overnight. With a shortage of housing to accommodate so many newcomers, many had to live in tents on railway land, until enough houses could be built.
During the 1880s and 1890s the GTR continued to acquire other railways, including its chief rival, The Great Western Railway running from Hamilton to Detroit. The take-over led to the first major expansion of the Stratford shops in 1889, when the GWR's Hamilton shops were closed. Another major expansion followed in 1907 when the present structure was built. In each of these cases many more families settled in the city. At the same time the size of the locomotives had increased substantially, so that these expansions coincided with the need for more space to work on the engines. The final addition to the shops in the lat 1940s (Along the St. David St. side) was to accommodate the even larger locomotives.
However the writing was soon on the wall as new diesel engines were taking over.
Between 1958 and 1964, the CNR (which had absorbed the GTR in 1923) phased out the locomotive shops and more of the building (and some of the staff) were transferred to boiler makers Cooper-Bessemer Ltd., or to shops elsewhere.
The shops employed many skilled tradesmen who first belonged to various British unions. Seemingly unhappy with the distant British links, the machinists initiated a shift to North American unions. The first Canadian local of The International Association of Machinists was organized in the Stratford shops in 1890. The other trades followed. The negotiating strength meant that employees had better wages and fringe benefits than other workers, and the shops were seen as the best place to work.
The CNR building has been vacant since since 1989.

A fire destroyed the wing at the west end in 2002.


By L Riedstra Stratford Perth Archives