A Visit to Exporail, Canada's National Railway Museum

Click on each picture for a closer look! .

On August 19th, I was fortunate enough to visit the Canadian Railway Museum - Exporail. The museum grounds sit on two municipalities, Saint-Constant and Delson, Quebec, that are on the south shore of the St. Lawrence and only a short drive from Montreal. It is operated by the Canadian Railroad Historical Association (CRHA). If travelling by transit, the local transit authority- CIT Roussillon- provides bus service from downtown Montreal. On the day in question, I boarded a convenient Museum Express train from Lucien-L'Allier station that took me from downtown Montreal right onto the museum grounds. The train returned in the afternoon. These special excursions are offered by the AMT commuter train service on select days during the summer.
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Exporail has the largest museum collection of railway equipment in Canada. The main building (seen above left) was constructed in the 1990's and is fully air conditioned. I found that it resembled a terminus train station with six platforms accessing twelve tracks. Each of the tracks held several pieces of equipment that revolved around a particular theme. Out of concern for safety and the preservation of historical artifacts, most of the equipment could only be appreciated from the exterior. In some instances, special raised platforms allowed visitors inside the trains. In the above centre, we see an old train car that has been cleverly transformed into a theatre.
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Another piece I found interesting was an open-aired streetcar with tiered seating that was used in Montreal. Nowadays people enjoy sightseeing in open-aired double-decker buses. One passenger car of note was outfitted as a classroom. A teacher and his family use to live in the car and would travel to remote Ontario communities to provide lessons to school children once a week. A unique feature of the building is a below-ground pit that lets visitors see the underside of trains and how axles are replaced (see above right).
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The main building also contains restrooms, a small cafeteria, a gift shop, and exhibit space for special events. During the weekend in question, model railway enthusiasts had gathered to show off some wonderful displays. There were at least two model trains that paid tribute to the former CN Turbotrain.
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Likely the most popular of the exhibitors was the Quebec Lego Users Group. QueLUG's setup featured trains, a monorail, buses, and -if you looked very carefully- a subway below ground in the livery of Montreal's STM (see below left).
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Outside of the main building, more stock is displayed outdoors and in a smaller exhibit building. One of the highlights of the second building is a unique plow car that could be coupled in front of a locomotive. To get around the museum grounds, Exporail offers an operating streetcar track that travels the perimeter of the grounds in heritage equipment (see below centre).
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For the young ones (or the young at heart,) the museum also has a miniature railway track. Having been working on the construction of Roundhouse Park's track for the past several weeks, I took a good look at its construction and was surprised to see no visible fasteners connecting the rail to the ties. I have since been advised that the ties feature special slots that hold the rail bar in place. Also similar to Roundhouse Park, Exporail has an operating
turntable (see below right). It is quite a bit shorter than our own, and I was unfortunately unable to see it in action.
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Another special event taking place that weekend was the operation of the heritage John Molson steam engine. I believe the plan was to have the train take passengers on a short journey on a closed-circuit track, but there was announcement regarding technical difficulties while I was in the main building. Nevertheless, visitors were able to see the engine move back and forth on
short lines of rail.
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By the time the Museum Express was ready to make its return trip, I found I had seen almost everything but not spent nearly enough time there (true of both Exporail and Montreal). After arriving at Lucien-L'Allier, it was a five and a half hour VIA train back to Toronto's Union Station, and only a 30 minute ride on the subway home.
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Posting and pictures by Wilson Lau
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