on the shoulders of the Finland's State Railways, as the municipality refused to do anything. A fear of the village center fading away and the station village developing into the new business center was behind the municipality's decision. Furthermore, the majority of Haapamäki's inhabitants were not originally from Keuruu, which perhaps also caused the original residents to be jealous and resentful. Becoming a junction station In spite of everything, the area around the station grew faster than downtown Keuruu did. State Railways continually built new housing for its growing staff. As Haapamäki became a junction station, the yard was expanded and a locomotive depot and water tower were built. The track connecting the Ostrobothnian line with the Savo line had already been planned for a long time, but quarrelling about the line pushed back construction. Russia's Ministry of War felt that this line was strategically important and demanded action to be quickly taken to get it built. Haapamäki became a junction station in 1897 when the line to Jyväskylä was established. Downtown Keuruu was along the new line and a station was built there because of it. The new station was christened Keuruu railway station and so the station in Haapamäki, which had been called Keuruu railway station until that point in time, was renamed Haapamäki railway station. Haapamäki railway station's transformation into a junction station was a major turning point in the development of the station. The number of the State Railways staff at Haapamäki rose to 200. An enormous staff was required to deal with traffic, rolling stock, and the tracks themselves around the clock. Traffic was run from the station, which had several clerks and other workers working there. In addition to the engineer and conductor, trains had a lot of other staff on them, as well. The central storehouse for wood used as fuel for the steam locomotives was located in Haapamäki; this provided work for many locals. The wood was hauled to the station's wood yard by sledge from the surrounding forests and some were even shipped from nearby stations by train. Chopping the wood and loading it into the tender required a large workforce. One load of wood was enough for a train to reach the next loading point after Haapamäki, which were Seinäjoki, Jyväskylä, or Tampere in this case. The water tower supplied water for the engines to use to create steam and