Ristilä station
63.8482N 24.4047E Sievi
The Ristilä station was completed in the early 1920s, and the Kronstadt refugees participated in its construction. Akseli Paavola, the supervisor of this section of the railroad, lived here with his family for over 30 years. Akseli’s wife Selma ran a small shop at the station. The workers’ cabin housed eight men and the cowshed two cows. There was also a sauna and a stable in the yard. Ristilä was an intermediate station with its wood for locomotives, water supply source, railway point and telephone.
Stories
“The Ristilä station is new and not even quite ready. I don’t really know why they call it a station. I think it is an ordinary cabin. For a few days, the men have been busy building the sauna so that Helmi and Kalevi with their children, and of course the lumberjacks like me living here, get to have a sauna. Helmi said that after the sauna, a cowshed for two cows and a stable for twenty horses will be built, too. The cowshed will be used by the permanent residents of Ristilä and the stable by the men working on the logging site.” (Ojakangas: Pölkynvälit 2005)
“When asked about her life at Ristilä, Selma says that she started to run a shop. She says that she sells all kinds of stuff that lumberjacks need.” (Ojakangas: Linnunkantaja 2009)
“‒ So, there is a telephone line here? the reporter asks, looking at the telephone line that hangs on the poles by the railroad and leads to the Ristilä station.
‒ Of course, I say. In many cases it is more efficient and faster to phone than to run back and forth along the railway.
‒ To run?
‒ Well, to go by train… pump trolley, I correct my words.” (Ojakangas: Aurinkomutka 2012)
“I remember when Daddy and I for the first time went on the pump trolley from Ristilä to Särkijärvi, inspecting the railroad. It was a hot midsummer day, and at Tulisaari the sun had warped the rails. We marked it with branches for engine drivers to slow down. I got blisters on my bottom from the pump trolley – little as I was and eager to pump the trolley.” (Email interviews with Seppo Paavola 2015, Eskolan Metsärata)
Photos
Ristilä station
Ristilä station
Residents of Ristilä
