Rob Shave, mounting the new steam train mural to its home on the side of the Southampton Market building.

Hub Staff

Anyone driving past the Southampton Market this past week may have noticed what appears to be a train pulling out onto Highway 21. The life-size three dimensional mural of steam train #1532, the work of artist Bert De Graaf, was mounted on June 23 next to where the original Canadian National Railway spur lines ran, as part of the Saugeen Rail Trail Association's "Trains to Ships" 25th Anniversary celebration.

Rob Shave (left) and Bert De Graaf, mounting the steam train mural to the side of the Southampton Market, June 23.

The train depicted is one that would have visited Southampton in the 1950s, which De Graaf has been working on since last year.

See: 1950s mural coming to Southampton

See: Mural of steam train #1532 is coming together

Rob Shave, with the help of Ross Reid, the Southampton Market, as well as donations from Rona, CRS and Home Building Centre, mounted the eight 4 foot by 8 foot panels onto the side of the building and said that despite the size of the mural it had been a straightforward process. “Behind [the mural] there's a wood frame structure and then there's plywood over that and then there's a little rain cap up top,” he said. “It took us about four days to get that up,” said Shave.

The installation had been planned out ahead of time, as Shave said they were trying to minimize the number of holes they drilled into the wall. He made the decision to volunteer to help mount the mural as he used to work in the rail industry and had always been interested in the local rail. “It's really nice to see this go up. It's been a fun project,” said Shave.

De Graaf, who lives in Kincardine, said he had at least a couple of week's worth of work ahead of him with touch-ups, including painting the brick work around the mural so that the colours blend. “I'm also going to put smoke onto the brick. A little bit more smoke and it will actually look like it's just barely pulling out of the station,” he said. “There's a few little things I'm going to do to make it look as realistic as possible.”

There will also be gravel on the ground with a short piece of track as a continuation of the mural, and two stand alone three dimensional figures. “There's two figures coming, one's going to be a train man with a stop sign and the other is Karen Hilgendorf,” said De Graaf. Hilgendorf is the wife of De Graaf's former fellow muralist and friend, Allen Hilgendorf, who passed away in 2013. As a tribute, De Graaf included a depiction of Allen in the mural as the train conductor.

Saugeen Rail Trail President, Joyce Scammel said there was no date yet for the official unveiling of the mural but hoped it would be within the next few weeks.