By Trevor Greenway

Former Wakefield Trails president Ken Bouchard feels that the turntable installed in the heart of Wakefield “has no place” in the village. 

Speaking at an Aug. 14 consultation on Parc Roquebrune, better known by locals as turntable park, Bouchard told the Low Down that the turntable has no history connecting it to Wakefield and should be removed as the municipality gets set to give the park a major makeover. 

“I personally think, and I’m persuading some of the others, that the turntable has no place,” said Bouchard during a breakout session at the Wakefield community centre with several other residents. It never was part of railroading in the Gatineau Valley. It was introduced by the National Capital Commission (NCC) to promote the tourism train in conjunction with the Museum of Science and Technology. And it never had a role.”

The NCC acquired the old turntable from Kingston in 1974 and installed it in Wakefield that same year so that the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield tourist train could turn around in the village and make its return trip back to Hull. The NCC, in partnership with the Canada Science and Technology Museum, ran the excursions, which became a popular tourist attraction. 

Whether you feel the turntable should remain in the village or not, it does come with some storied Wakefield history, notably the 1977 trip that saw Queen Elizabeth II ride the train from Hull to Wakefield on her royal visit. 

Wakefield resident Stanley Britton and his Wakefield’s Rail Heritage Advocacy Group told the Low Down in the spring that they believed the Wakefield turntable to be among the last remaining working turntables in Canada. 

Engine House in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., contains an enclosed turntable at its National Historic Site of Canada. The former Canadian Northern Railway turntable in Dauphin, one of the last ones in Manitoba, will also be dismantled this summer. 

Others at the consultation disagreed with Bouchard’s take and said they felt the turntable should be preserved and incorporated into any new design the municipality comes up with. 

“I think the name should be changed from Parc Roquebrune to Turntable Park, because nobody in Wakefield knows what Parc Roquebrune represents,” said resident David Pritchard. “We should maintain our railway, because it is historic, and we should keep that infrastructure.” 

The municipality is considering several options for the Wakefield turntable and the railway along the village’s main drag. These include: removing the turntable and commemorating it with a plaque and other educational installations, partially incorporating the turntable into the design, or completely preserving the turntable. The municipality is also considering whether to remove the train tracks throughout the village or incorporate them into a new multi-use pathway for pedestrians and cyclists. 

La Pêche has been seeking input from residents on what to do with turntable park since it launched an online survey on July 1 this summer. The survey asks residents what amenities they would want to see at the park, and many of the responses have included shaded picnic areas, a community stage, chess tables, a children’s playground, an expanded swimming area, improved washrooms and changerooms and a rethink on the parking that bookends the park on Chemin de la Rivière. 

“We bake in the sun there during Art in the Park,” said Paul Brown, who works with the 100-Mile Arts Network in Wakefield. The network has been hosting weekend art shows, but Brown said without any infrastructure, it’s been tough during heat wave weekends. 

“It’s really hard to work in that park. There is shade and trees on the other side, but we can’t get to it because of the rails,” he added. “We’ve had funding to do this Art in the Park, but it would be a lot better if we had some infrastructure.”

Other ideas brought up during the consultations included building a tourist information kiosk that would have information for visitors on where to go and what to see, but that idea was met with strong criticism from Wakefielder Shoshana Stein, who says info kiosks are “outdated, tacky” and bad for the environment.

“When we used to come to Wakefield before we moved here, the pleasure was actually just talking to people and learning about Wakefield through those conversations,” she said. 

“It happens organically, we don’t need somebody to point it out, and we have to preserve that,” added Wakefield resident Denise Giroux. 

About 20 people attended the in-person consultation Aug. 14. The survey is available online at https://lapecheconsulte.ca until Sept. 5.