STSeguin Trail
Railway operations

Mud Lake Siding

A small operating point that helps explain how the railway worked between Sprucedale and Scotia.

Mud Lake Siding is one of those names that makes sense only when the railway is treated as an operating system. It appears in station-distance summaries and railway profile material between Walls and Sprucedale.

Station sequence diagram from Depot Harbour to Scotia Junction
Western station sequence. Mileage shown is a historical distance reference converted to distance east of Depot Harbour from a compiled station-distance list. The diagram is meant to show order and spacing, not exact track geometry.
Original map of the Sprucedale, Walls and Mud Lake corridor
Original Seguin Trail map of the eastern portion of the site’s western corridor. Mud Lake Siding is being reconstructed from railway records rather than from a surviving station building.
Historic roleSiding
Working mileageabout 45.3 mi east of Depot Harbour
Map statusApproximate until a track chart fixes the site

What a siding tells us

A siding could allow trains to meet or pass, serve a local shipper, hold cars, or support railway maintenance. Even without a passenger station, it mattered to daily operations. Preserving names such as Mud Lake helps reconstruct the practical railway rather than only its famous stations.

The surviving documentary record also shows how names drifted. A 1908 Canadian almanac notes Fern Glen with the railway name Mud Lake on one route, evidence that civil, postal and railway names did not always match.

Exact location still open

The present map marker is based on station sequence and mileage and is explicitly approximate. The next useful primary sources would be Canadian National track charts, Grand Trunk employee timetables, right-of-way plans or valuation maps.

Do you have a photograph of Mud Lake Siding?

We have useful maps and documentary material for this location, but additional historic or present-day photographs would make this page and its map hotspot much stronger. Contributions are moderated before publication.

Contribute a photograph

Sources & research trail

  1. Compiled historical station-distance list.
  2. Historical railway elevation/profile material listing Mud Lake siding.
  3. Canadian Almanac & Directory (1908), Fern Glen / Mud Lake railway-name note.