Click on each picture for a closer look! . The pictures above were taken on Doors Open weekend. They show restoration underway on the tool shed that orginally sat beside Cabin D when it resided just west of the Bathurst Street bridge. As you can see this was a substantial structure in its own right with doorways at both ends. There is a partition inside the tool shed which divides it into two rooms with the room farthest from Cabin D being about four feet deep. In the right hand picture we find Tom Murison, the restoration leader, working with his assistant to complete the roof of the structure. . Posting and pictures by Russ Milland
Click on each picture for a closer look! . As reported earlier, the Diaspora Dialogues presented some fiction and poetry readings as well as several dramatic presentations in the east end of the Great Hall. The Diaspora presentations were thematically linked with Union Station or people in transit. . In the picture at the left above, we first see the Diaspora Dialogues set up on the floor of the Great Hall where literary readings and other performances occurred. In the middle picture above, we see that the dramatic presentations were typically staged out on the floor, including this World War 2 vignette, "Cheek to Cheek." Guided tours began here right after the dancers departed. In the picture at the upper right, several students from Humber College's theatre program staged "The Bridge We Walk," a performance inspired by the city names carved high above the floor of the Great Hall. . One of the most intriguing numbers was "Suite Case," where a soprano sings while dragging out a large suitcase. In the picture at the left below we see here making her entry from the waiting room at the west end of the great Hall. After she pauses, a hand emerges from the suitcase ......and tries to crawl away. In the final picture, a Red Cap (actually Laird Macdonald, the DD coordinator at Union Station) is summoned to carry the suitcase away for loading onto a baggage car. . Posting and pictures by Derek Boles .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . Last Tuesday (May 26, 2009) at 10:15 in the morning, our CNR Northern 4-8-4 steam locomotive #6213 moved for the first time since 1960. I conspired to be in the cab at the time and can say that there was not a single squeak or groan from the machinery. It was as smooth as glass. The winch operator said the engine was so easy to move it was difficult to keep any tension on the cable. Congratulations to Grant Kingland and the TLPS (Toronto Locomotive Preservation Society) for their decades of dedicated work and care in maintaining the engine. . In the pictures above, we find the engine and the tender resting on the platforms which will be used to move them to Roundhouse Park likely later next week. In the picture at the upper right, we see a new picture of the buildings in Roundhouse Park from an interesting perspective high up in the roundhouse. In the movie below, you can watch #6213 very slowly being moved for the first time since 1960. . Posting, pictures and movie by Michael Guy .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . The longest radial track in Roundhouse Park will stretch from the turntable to the north-east corner of Roundhouse Park. In the picture at the upper left, we find an excavator working on the excavation of the roadbed for this radial track. In the middle photo, we find workers manually excavating the roadbed beside Cabin D. Manual labour works well here as the surface layer of earth in the park sits on large styrofoam blocks in order to control the weight on the parking garage which lies below much of the park. In the final picture, we see the view from the south-east corner of the park which shows the track alignment passing just south of Cabin D. . Restoration work on Cabin D has been deferred due to concerns about the roadbed work adversely affecting a partially disassembled building. Once the roadbed is complete, work will begin on restoration of Cabin D. . The pictures below capture the rapid progress as the track laying began today. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . Last weekend's Doors Open 2009 event at Union Station was another tremendous success, made even more successful this year by the participation of GO Transit and the added dimension of the Diaspora Dialogues. . The information table in the Great Hall was staffed by volunteers from the Toronto Railway Historical Association and the Union Station Revitalization Public Advisory Group. There was an archival display of 50 photographs, mostly from the City of Toronto Archives. There were also seven display panels showing the city's plans for the station and four panels depicting the plans for the new TTC subway platform. GO Transit maintained their own information table and display panels in front of the GO ticket counter in the Great Hall that nicely complemented our display area. . Six guided tours were help hourly each day from 10:15 to 3:15 and were led by Stephanie Holowka, Andrew Jeanes, David Jeanes and Steve Munro. USRPAG members Tony Turrittin and Colin Rainsbury helped at the information table. TRHA members Richard White, Dan Garcia, Jason Pelton, Michael Farago and Lance Gleich helped with the heavy lifting involved with setting up and dismantling the displays each day as well as shepherding the tour groups. . Diaspora Dialogues presented some fiction and poetry readings as well as several dramatic presentations in the east end of the Great Hall while most of what we were doing was in the west end of the hall. The Diaspora presentations were thematically linked with Union Station or people in transit. The presentations were scheduled for the most part to minimize any conflict with our activities and the whole package of tours, displays and presentations very effectively complemented one other. . Watch for more information in postings later this week! . Posting by Derek Boles; Pictures by Russ Milland
Doors Open: 1200 Take a Trip through Roundhouse Park!
Click on each picture for a closer look! . As reported earlier, the heavy construction underway in Roundhouse seriously restricted visitor access to the facilities. So we had to be significantly innovative and decided to set up a passenger loading area on Bremner Avenue, where we loaded passengers onto our poassenger car and flatbed trailer cars and drove them along the new radial track #34 beside the coaling tower to the turntable. Then we spun the turntable to align it with radial track #17 and took them for a ride into the roundhouse itself. Our TRHA volunteer tour leaders interpreted the facility and the project to the visitors as they rode. . The visitor count was almost exactly 1200, not a lot compared to other years but every one of those twelve hundred rode in and out again on our train which was a first for us at the TRHC. . Watch for further pictures to be posted here later this week! . Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland
Click on each picture for a closer look! . It has been 42 years since Go Transit was launched after years of study and planning. The pictures above capture one of the trains on the first day of service. In today's Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group posting Derek Boles, TRHA Historian, writes:
"May 23, 1967: . GO Transit begins operations between Oakville and Pickering, with Toronto Union Station as a hub of operations. The Government of Ontario (GO) spent $8 million on 8 diesel locomotives, 40 coaches and 9 self-propelled cars. Another $16 million was spent upgrading track, signals, stations and other facilities. GO owned the trains but operating crews were supplied by CN under contract with GO. The new GO Willowbrook maintenance facility was established in an old CN freight car maintenance depot at Mimico, five miles west of Union Station. The first GO Transit train left Oakville at 5:50 am with Ontario Premier John Robarts on board to welcome passengers. Two rush hour GO trains a day also operated as far as the CN James St. station in Hamilton to replace the two cancelled CN commuter trains. Within three months, GO was carrying 15,000 passengers a day, 50% higher than projected. . May 23, 1967: . The new GO commuter service also resulted in several significant alterations to Union Station. Tracks 2 and 3 were reserved exclusively for GO trains and the old intercity arrivals area under the Great Hall was converted to a commuter concourse. The circular marble information counter with the clock at the center of the Great Hall was torn out to accommodate a four-sided bulletin board showing train arrivals and departures. The baths on the south side of the waiting room were removed to permit construction of a corridor leading to Track One and the waiting room itself was converted to a departure lounge for CN's Rapido trains to Montreal." . I have a soft spot in my heart for this service. In 1962, as a young engineering student, I worked on preparing detailed analysis of the freight traffic on the Lakeshore line in order to provide the engineering firm I worked for as a summer student with the information needed to convince the railways that a commuter service could be scheduled in between their "high priority" freight trains! It took five years to complete the planning and development of the service for 1967 startup! . Tp get daily postings of items of historic interest from Derek, join the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group by clicking here. . In the pictures below taken in March of 1967, we see a closeup of one of the coaches and the coach's interior. . Posting by Russ Miland; Pictures by John Vincent with permission .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . This week, 6213's tender was rolled out of the fenced compound it has occupied at Exhibition Place since 1960 and onto a special rail equipped float for transport to the roundhouse. The locomotive itself will be loaded next week and will ride to the roundhouse atop a float custom-built for the purpose by Laurie McCulloch Movers. . Delays are always possible - even likely - for a heavy move and we have just been handed one. The trip for both engine and tender was to happen overnight Thursday/Friday next week but is now on hold for a few days as the City transportation engineering department reviews the permit application with reference to the loading on the Spadina Lakeshore bridge. The route is to be east on Lakeshore Boulevard westbound, which entails crossing the bridge, to avoid passing below the Gardiner with its restricted maximum height and difficult turn at Rees st. . We will post updates here as they become available. . Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Grant Kingsland
Click on each picture for a closer look! . In the above left picture, we find the patio paving contractors hard at work organizing the complex task of laying the patio stones between the radial tracks. . This past week, PNR Railworks has also been continuing to lay the tracks radiating out from the turntable into Roundhouse Park. In the other pictures above, we see the current state of the tracklaying effort. . At this weekend's Doors Open event on Saturday and Sunday, visitors will have the opportunity to ride our new passengar car for a trip from Bremner Avenue down one of these radial tracks to the turntable and then experience the operation of the turntable as we rotate the speeder and the passenger car for a return trip to Bremner Avenue. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures and Video by Dave Wetherald . Click on the video below to see how the ballast is distributed down the tracks! .
Toronto Doors Open is This Weekend - May 23rd and 24th!
Click on each picture for a closer look. .
The Annual Toronto "Doors Open" Event will be held this weekend across the city. The Toronto "Doors Open" website offers the following information: . "The City of Toronto's Cultural Services is proud to present the annual Doors Open Toronto - one weekend, once a year - when 175 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and social significance open their doors to the public for a city-wide celebration. The program allows visitors free access to properties that are either not usually open to the public, or would normally charge an entrance fee. Many locations have organized guided tours, displays and activities to enrich the visitor experience. See Toronto like you've never seen it before!"
Visit here on their website to view all 175 sites open this weekend!
Here are four venues of interest to those of us fascinated by the technologies and stories around our local transportation systems. Do follow the links below to check for hours and days of operation. Some sites are open only for one of the weekend days.
TTC - Greenwood Maintenance Shop
"Greenwood Shop is one of two heavy repair and overhaul facilities for the TTC. It is part of the 31 acre Greenwood Complex which opened in March 1960.The shop covers approx. 190,000 square feet and is the workplace of almost 200 employees. Major vehicle overhaul work and component rebuilds to support the fleet of subway vehicles is done here." ... Read More
TTC Eglinton Garage/Division
"Eglinton Garage/Division opened on March 31, 2002 and consists of 121,000 square feet situated on a 15.7 acre site. The garage services a fleet of 250 buses. The facility also features two bus wash racks, 12 indoor repair spaces and an outdoor bus storage area with a unique heating system which allows parked buses to be connected so that their engines are warm and ready to drive during the winter season." .... Read more
John St Roundhouse
"The Roundhouse and Roundhouse Park are being renovated, in part, as the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, come visit us and see the progress! Walk aboard our fully restored 1929 locomotive turntable, the largest in the country! Take a speeder ride to visit our railway heritage village featuring Don station. Visit the roundhouse and be amazed!" ... Read More
Union Station
Union Station was built as a joint construction project by the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Railways to replace an older facility west of York St. Officially opened by the Prince of Wales on Aug.6, 1927, the station was designed in the grand manner of the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris. The station is massive and takes up an entire city block along Front Street between York and Bay Streets. The Great Hall in the Centre Block is 250 ft. long and 84 ft. wide. The ceiling is a true arch of vitrified Gustavino tile with its centre rising to 88 ft. above the floor. Adding further majesty to this magnificent room are arched thermal windows at either end, each four stories high. Below the cornice surrounding the room are carved the names of cities and towns served at the time by passenger trains of the two major Canadian railways. Union Station is a National Historic Site and was designated under the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act in 1989. Originally owned and operated by The Toronto Terminals Railway Company Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of CN and Canadian Pacific), the station was sold to the City of Toronto in 2000. It is the busiest transportation hub in Canada. ... Read More . Guided tours of Union Station will be offered by members of the Toronto Railway Historical Association and the Union Station Revitalization Public Advisory Group hourly from 10:15 to 3:15pm. . And best of all, all of these offer free admission! . Posting by Russ Milland . Click on each picture for a closer look! .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . For the past two weeks, TRHA volunteers have been playing a game of "spin the table and shuffle the cars". They have been engaged in a complicated game of "keep the contractors happy" by switching vehicles from track to track and using the turntable to provide a clear path for the PNR Railworks' construction equipment seen in earlier postings to lay and ballast the remaining radial tracks. We thank all of the volunteers for their generous commitment of their time to make all of this happen. . Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Wilson Lau
Click on each picture for closer look! . In the picture at the above left, we see Cabin D and to its right the toolshed in their original location to the west of the Bathurst Street bridge. Next, we see a pair of pictures of the tool shed as we found it stored in the roundhouse. In the picture at the upper right we see that the recently restored tool shed has now been returned to Roundhouse Park and is now resting near Cabin D waiting for the return of its roof. . In the pictures below, we see the crossing shanty as we found it in the roundhouse. As reported earlier, it too has now been restored and as of last week is now "unwrapped" and can be viewed in Roundhouse Park. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Russ Milland and Bob Dickson .
