Hub Staff

Saugeen Shores Hub recently checked in on the progress of artist, Bert De Graaf’s life size mural of steam train #1532, which will be mounted on the side of the Southampton Market building, along Highway 21, as part of the Saugeen Rail Trail Association's "Trains to Ships" 25th Anniversary celebration. An unveiling is planned for the May 24 weekend.

The train depicted was one that visited Southampton in the 1950s and the mural will be mounted next to where the original Canadian National Railway spur lines ran. The effect will be three dimensional and will include free standing life size cutout figures to the side of the train. “On the brick itself, once it’s up, I've got to make it look like there's smoke pouring out of the stack outside of the building, so that's another kind of a 3D effect,” said De Graaf, adding that there will also be a piece of track on the ground which will add to the illusion of the train coming out of a tunnel in the building. “It's going to be a little complicated,” he said.

“It's slowly taking form,” said De Graaf, who started the life size image at the start of the new year. “The research part took a long time,” he explained, saying that one of the biggest challenges has been getting the angle of the train precise to get the correct perspective.

See also: 1950s mural coming to Southampton

One of the characters in the mural will be De Graaf's fellow muralist and friend, Allen Hilgendorf, who passed away in 2013, as the train conductor. “I wanted to have enough of the side of the train so we could get Allan in there,” said De Graaf.

“When I did my first drawing on the panels I stood right in the middle where it would go and it looked like it was going uphill, so the angle had to be less inclined,” he explained.

Another challenge, De Graaf explained, will be the lighting. “I'm taking the concept that the sun is overhead. So it'll be noon hour.”

The train is being painted on eight 4 foot by 8 foot panels that were donated by Port Elgin Home Hardware. De Graaf primed the panels in the fall in preparation for his winter project.

The paint being used was donated by Martin's Home Hardware in Southampton, and is a high quality latex paint. De Graaf estimates it to last 10 to 15 years before any touch ups are needed. Once finished, a couple of coats of varnish will be added for extra durability.

De Graaf is currently working on the mural approximately two to four hours a day and is using a couple of photographs to get the train's exact details but said the problem has been that there are no photographs of the exact train at the exact angle he needed.

Saugeen Rail Trail Association President, Joyce Scammell also came along to check on the progress and said it was the first time she was seeing the life size mural.

“I'm really impressed. I'm thrilled,” said Scammell. “Bert is so respected. He's such a giving person. He’s amazing.”

“This has opened up a whole area with the trains because everything in Southampton and even Port Elgin has all been around ships,” explained Scammell. “There's a whole group of people and ancestors of people that were into trains and that's what built the whole economic world in Southampton and the area was the trains,” she said. “It's just an opportunity to pull this history together and for the generations down the road so they can see. We have to do this because if not it will be lost.”

Scammell said that the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre in Southampton is hoping to dedicate a spot in the museum to the history of trains in the area, including a model village. “That will tie in the whole ships and trains and bring this whole thing together,” she said.

In addition, there are other plans happening around the same time that tie in with the train theme.

The gazebo at Memorial Gardens in Southampton is being replaced with one that looks more like the old Southampton train station, plans for which Saugeen Rail Trail Association had just received from Dan Murawsky of Murawsky Design and Drafting in Port Elgin.

“We're moving the (current gazebo) to another location, probably up near Hi-Berry Farm but we're not sure yet,” said Scammell. The new gazebo will be designed with pictorial history panels written by Historian, Jeff Hemming and with graphics from Bert De Graaf. Scammell said they had spent two years working on the history.

There are also plans to erect a wooden train on the fence at the Port Elgin station on River Street.

De Graaf said he was pleased with his progress on the mural so far. “It’s a process,” he said. “You keep working on it and the more you work on it the more it starts to look real.”