ST. THOMAS – The City of St. Thomas introduced its latest public artwork on Thursday, adding a splash of colour to the growing Yarmouth Yards industrial park.
Soaring over seven metres high, Imagination Station showcases a wooden toy train arranged in a circular design at the corner of Dennis Road and Highbury Avenue South. This marks the first permanent public art piece created by artist Briony Douglas, who hails from Woodstock.
“A lot of my artwork is made with the intention to make people happy, also dipping into nostalgic feelings,” Douglas said. “For this, I knew the city was train-centric and decided that it would be cool to bring back an item that was important to me as a child. The circle itself is supposed to represent the past and the future connecting in a cyclical kind of motion.”
The sculpture sits at what St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston referred to as the gateway to Yarmouth Yards, a 1,500-acre industrial area where facilities for electric vehicle battery producer Power Co and synthetic graphite manufacturer Vianode are being built.
“We’ve got millions of dollars for the factories being built over here and thousands of jobs being created, but we wanted to also make it the entrance to the community. This is the industrial entrance into our community and where all the great big financial things happen in St. Thomas,” Preston said.
Imagination Station stands at Yarmouth Yards Industrial Park in St. Thomas on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (Geoff Robins/The )
Douglas didn’t dictate where Imagination Station would be placed but was pleased to see it installed at Yarmouth Yards’ entrance.
“Coming from a family household that had a father that worked in a factory, and when that factory shut down, I knew how devastating it was for us,” Douglas said.
“The fact this new space is going to bring so many jobs for people in the community is really important to me and to my history and to what affected my family hugely as well.”
Preston mentioned how the city aimed to “regather its industrial growth” by preparing land now used for Yarmouth Yards.
He referenced an old saying: “If you build it, they will come,” adding that Yarmouth Yards has certainly lived up to that promise.
“It’s more regional than it is just St. Thomas because anything done here helps London and the whole region. We’re just saying, ‘way to go guys, come look,’ and now we’ve got a great big sign saying the same thing,” Preston said.
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