Weekend Report: Continued Progress on the Miniature Railway

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Last weekend, the TRHA team of volunteers once again adressed numerous tasks remaining in the development of the miniature railway. Highlighted above is the equipping of the crossing signal with what are called "crossbucks" which are lettered to warn of the "railway crossing". Below we have pictures of TRHA volunteers tracing the lettering on the side of the caboose to capture its design accurately. Also shown below is ongoing testing of the track using the miniature F7 diesel.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Bob Dickson and Lance Gleich
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The CPR Holiday Train Visits Southern Ontario Once Again!

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Continuing their tradition of operating Holiday Trains which visit communities throughout the CP railway system, the CP announces the following at their webiste:
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"The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train hits the rails again this November, visiting over 130 communities in eight states and six provinces. In the last decade, the Holiday Train has helped raise $4 million and 2 million pounds of food for local food banks.
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In these tough economic times, 20% more Canadians are turning to food banks for support this year and 30% more Americans are at risk of hunger. Hunger continues to be a problem and food banks need our help now more than ever. Bring a cash or food donation to the Holiday Train event in your community and help feed the need. Click here to donate online to the CP Holiday Train through Food Banks Canada."
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There are two trains visiting our area. Here are the scheduled stops in our area:

Monday, November 30th

• Bowmanville: 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Scugog Road railway crossing

• Oshawa: 8:45 p.m. to 9:15 p.m., CP level railway crossing at Thornton Road

Tuesday, December 1

• Toronto: 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., 87 Ethel Avenue, adjacent to RONA

• Hamilton: 8:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. (U.S. Holiday Train), western area of Kinnear Yard, opposite Gage Park

• Vaughan: 9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Northwest corner of CP Vaughan Intermodal Yard and Nashville Road, near grain elevator

For more information on the other 100 stops, schedule changes and more pictures, visit the Canadian Pacific Railways website by clicking here:

by Russ Milland, TRHA
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Elwell the Crane Gets a Big Brother! - Part 2

Some of you have asked whether our Pyke crane is operational. It is in fact operational except for one problem with the slew motion drive that we intend to fix. Below you will find a video of the TRHA and the Toronto Terminal Railways staff testing the crane last winter to determine if it is truly still operational.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Video by Dave Wetherald
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Elwell the Crane Gets a Big Brother! - Part 1

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In the picture series shown here, we find a typical small railway crane. This one belongs to the Toronto Terminal Railways (TTR) who are responsible for the maintenance of the rail corridor in downtown Toronto. It is now surplus to their needs and is in the process of being donated to the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. The TRHA are currently working with the TTR and others to work out the logistics of how to move it to the museum.
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The smaller railway cranes such as this one were typically used for track maintenance while larger cranes were used for wreck removal. For more information on railway cranes, click here.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich
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Weekend Report - Xmas Train Show: A Tour of Other Exhibits

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In this final chapter of our report on the Christmas Train Show, we will highlight a number of exhibits which may be of interest to our readers as follows:

#1: At this booth, Jon Hull, Tom Landers and Russ Milland of the Railway Simulations Group of the TRHA demonstrated railway simulations systems and especially the Toronto Railway Lands simulation which was developed by a team of 10 of us for future use in an interactive exhibit at our museum. For more information about our plans in this area, click here.

#2: Track Motorcars of Ontario, a group of enthusiasts who restore motorcars (also known as speeders) exhibited two of their motorcars as well as videos of the periodic trips that they take with these motorcars on various railway lines throughout North America. They have and will participate in our annual Doors Open event at Roundhouse Park.

#3: This retired gentleman has built a very interactive small layout in an effort to provide youngsters with an interactive experience in running it. This is always a popular attraction at the show. It provides an excellent seed idea for what might be developed for our museum as well in due course.

#4: This is partially completed example of one several small "micro-layouts" on display built by members of a local group called "Narrow Gauge Madness"" They specialize in building these very small very portable layouts and then super-detailing them. They too participate in our annual Doors Open event as well as hosting an annual Train Show of their own in the spring. Watch for an announcement of their show here in 2010.

#5: This is an example of just how small a layout one can build if you use what is know as Z-Scale model trains which are built to 1:220 scale. Using this scale, layouts have been built in spaces as small as pizza boxes.

#6: There is an active group of modellers using Lego's model train systems to build extensive layouts. Here we show a small portion of their layout.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland
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Weekend Report - Xmas Train Show: Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers

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Our Sweet Creek locomotive was appropriately displayed in the display area hosted by the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers (GHLS), one of the three miniature railway clubs in the Toronto area. Our locomotive was assembled and tested by a team of miniature railway enthusiasts, most of whom were drawn from all three local miniature railway clubs. In the pictures shown here, we see some of the other fine engines owned by members of the GHLS club. Next summer, we we likely see some of the larger of these engines (the ones shown below) visiting Roundhouse Park's miniature railway and operating on our tracks.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland
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Weekend Report - Christmas Train Show: The Sweet Creek on Parade!

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As mentioned in our last posting, our Sweet Creek locomotive was displayed at the Christmas Train Show just across the aisle from our TRHA booth. Michael Guy, Arno Martens and Mike Salisbury of the TRHA participated in numerous discussions with visitors who were blown away by the massive size of this "miniature" engine. It was a real treat to be able to show the movies of the engine operating at the TRHA booth and then point visitors to the "real thing" across the aisle.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland
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Weekend Report - Christmas Train Show: TRHA & Tatamagouche!

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Many of us TRHA folk were busy this past weekend manning the TRHA booth and otherwise participating in the Christmas Train Show as described in an earlier posting. Saturday was quite a busy day with a good number of visitors while Sunday was somewhat quieter. In the pictures above we see the TRHA booth with our panels of pictures, both historic and more current. Orin Krivel, Derek Boles, Dave Wetherald, Jason Pelton and Bob Dickson primarily manned the booth. On Sunday, Jason and Bob brought in equipment that allowed us to show videos of the steaming of our Sweet Creek locomotive. The locomotive was also brought to the event and will be the subject of tomorrow's news posting.
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Meanwhile "back at the ranch" (i.e. Roundhouse) on Saturday, Bob Dickson and Jim Gardiner probed our CNR GP7 #4803's engine to discover that the sump had no oil in it so we will have to acquire 200 U.S. gallons or 757 litres of oil in due course before trying to fire it up. They also engaged in dialogue with visitors which often happens on Saturday mornings. Two of these visitors were from Belgium and were up in the CN Tower when they spotted Roundhouse Park and rushed down to find out more about us before heading home.
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We were also pleased to have two members of our TRHA online group visit us on Saturday from Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. One of them, James LeFresne, is the owner of the Train Station Inn in Tatamagouche. In 1974, James purchased the station (originally built in 1881 for the Intercolonial Railway) when he was only 18 years old to save it from being demolished. He has since added 7 cabooses and a dining car to their bed and breakfast (and more) operation. They now offer what has been voted one of the top 10 unique places to stay in Canada. Do visit their website by clicking here and especially check out their rich history and their photo album. Below are some images from their website.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland & The Train Station Inn
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Next TRHA Union Station Tour on Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Next TRHA Union Station Tour on Saturday, November 28th, 2009
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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The TRHA offers tours of Union Station on the last Saturday of each month at 11 a.m. Cost is $10 each payable on arrival for the tour. Reservations are not necessary and those interested should meet by the Traveler's Aid counter in the centre of the Great Hall at 10:50 a.m. For more about these tours, click here.

A look back to the HCEA's October 17th Last Blast!

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In a news posting earlier this fall, we announced that on Saturday, October 17th, the Simcoe County Museum (just North of Barrie, Ontario) and the Historical Construction Equipment Association of Canada (HCEA) were presenting their last event of the year - The Last Blast. The HCEA is "dedicated to the preservation and restoration of heavy construction equipment and the history of the people in the construction industry that helped to build Canada.
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While I reluctantly couldn't make it as I was away on vacation in the USA, a number of our TRHA team members attended the event and we see above pictures of the old construction equipment being demonstrated at the event. Below we also have two brief YouTube videos which show two pieces of steam-powered equipment in action.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures and Video by Dave Wetherald
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More Progress on the Depot and the Roundhouse Clerestory Windows!

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Earlier this week, the electricians working on the miniature railway depot building installed the mains transformer and the fume extractor fan (see image at upper left). In the spirit of reuse and recycle, we are using an older floor-model type transformer that was last used to power the roundhouse fire and security system prior to the current renovations. To save floor space in the depot, a TRHA crew fabricated new wall brackets to raise it above head height.
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This week, the roundhouse clerestory windows (see middle and right images above) are also being fitted with new exterior glazing to reduce heat loss. They are single pane sealed storm windows intended to still show the original multi-pane windows on the inside.
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Posting & Pictures by Michael Guy

Traditionally Venting our Museum Bays!

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The roundhouse has been fitted for many years with powered fan-type "Robertson" ventilators. Most of these are no longer used and are blanked off. But the museum stalls 15 and 17 will retain working units of this type. The ventilator above stall 15 was missing so TRHA took on the task of reconditioning a spare for use there. This weekend, a new wooden base was fabricated by Tom Murison and then waterproofed by the roofing contractor. The last photo (lower right) shows the "new" vent finally in place.
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Posting and Pictures by Michael Guy
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