Roundhouse Park becomes a Heliport for the G20 Summit! - Part 2 of 3

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Continuing our coverage of the helicopter activity at Roundhouse Park just before the G20 Summit, these photos by Ryan De Laplante from his nearby condominium show test flights being made just prior to the event. The Marine helicopter with a white top is "Marine 1", President Obama's official helicopter. The helicopter-less picture at the upper left shows our equipment tucked in close to the roundhouse and out of the way of the action.
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Posting by Russ Milland, Pictures by Ryan de Laplante.
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Rededication of the Chinese Railway Workers Memorial Happening on July 1st!

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On the opposite side of the Rogers Centre from the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre is the Chinese Railway Workers Memorial, located in a parkette where Blue Jays Way curves off to the west towards Spadina Avenue. In the 1880's, contractors building the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia imported 17,000 workers from Kwantung Province in China.
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This aspect of our railway history was virtually unknown to most Canadians until the 1970's when Pierre Berton described it in his best selling books The National Dream and The Last Spike. Subsequently this story has been dramatized in a CBC television series and a recent movie called Iron Road.
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The TV Historica Minute about the Chinese workers has been seen so often in the last several years that many Canadians believe that virtually the entire Canadian Pacific Railway from Montreal to Vancouver was built by Chinese labourers. "They say there is one dead Chinese man for every mile of track," intones the old man to his grandsons. In fact, the Chinese workers were mostly concentrated on a 250-mile section in British Columbia contracted out to Andrew Onderdonk and it would appear that approximately 700 of them were killed in industrial accidents largely due to unsafe working conditions.
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The memorial in Toronto was dedicated in 1989 and was built due to the efforts of Toronto businessman James Pon. The sculpture designed by Eldon Garnet depicts two life-sized workers precariously moving a beam into place to complete the construction of a railway trestle. The huge rocks at the base of the monument were transported to Toronto from Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies.
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It has become an important and moving rail landmark in the city and an impressive annual rededication ceremony is held every Canada Day and attracts hundreds of people, most of them of Chinese origin. Every July 1, Heritage Toronto participates in this rededication ceremony at the memorial, along with local politicians and a CPR official. In his capacity as an Heritage Toronto Board member, TRHA historian Derek Boles will be saying a few words about the importance of the memorial as part of Toronto's railway heritage.
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The rededication is at 10:30 AM on July 1 and everyone is invited to attend.
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Posting by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian

Niagara Railway Museum - Open House in Fort Erie - July 2nd through 4th

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In an earlier TRHA News posting, we visited the Fort Erie Railway Museum which houses a preserved railway station as well as CNR Northern #6218, a sister locomotive to our #6213.
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Today, we are bringing to your attention a new railway museum which is also being developed in Fort Erie. The Niagara Railway Museum (NRM) has been the dream of a dedicated group of volunteers. NRM volunteers have been acquiring locomotives and other railway artefacts associated with the Niagara region for many years. The NRM has stored them at various locations around Ontario.
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Recently, they have leased former railway servicing facilities in the heart of Fort Erie, Ontario as a new home in which to consolidate their collection and build a museum. As can be seen in the aerial photo above (from Google Maps), the NRM building is of a substantial size and will be able to accommodate in due course quite a large collection of railway artefacts. Note the signs in the aerial image of the turntable and roundhouse that once existed there as well.
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In the past few months, their volunteers have been engaged in a massive cleanup of the facility and have made remarkable progress. They have also begun to lay track as well to accommodate their rolling stock. This has also allowed them to begin the process of relocating equipment to the site as shown in the other pictures. Their 0-4-0 steam locomotive and their Plymouth “Critter” diesel are now on site. The two-truck electric locomotive shown is the sole surviving locomotive of those used in the construction of the massive hydro-electric facilities in the Niagara region. Its return awaits successful fund-raising to cover the costs of moving it from Sudbury where it was last used by the Inco mining facility.
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The Niagara Railway Museum will be holding their first public open house each day from July 2nd through to July 4th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission will be by donation to help them with the massive costs of developing the museum. They advise that:
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“At this time however, the majority of the shop will be off limits, although our equipment will be out for display. Visitors will be able to see what we have to work with, and what the future plans are, and may be able to take a short ride on a track car. We will also have some of our artefacts on display.”
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To find the museum in Fort Erie, find them on Google (Their address is 21 Warren Street, Fort Erie) or enter it into your GPS. That will get you close to the museum site. Follow the signs once you are on Warren Street which leads into the site. Here also are some specific driving instructions from the “rest of Canada”:
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“From points west of Fort Erie take the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) to the Gilmore Road exit in Fort Erie. Turn left onto Gilmore Road and go all the way past the race track. Then after you cross a set of tracks, take the first left which is Lewis St. Go through the stop sign and take the next left which is Warren Street. Turn right at the gravel road and follow the signs."
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For more information in the NRM, visit their website by clicking here.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures courtesy of the Niagara Railway Museum
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Roundhouse Park becomes a Heliport for the G20 Summit! - Part 1 of Several

As we have announced earlier, Roundhouse Park became a heliport for the G20 Summit event in downtown Toronto with helicopters landing and leaving last week for practice pruposes. In this series of postings, we capture for posterity this highly unusual activity which will be yet another milestone in the museum's history. We begin by posting a video capturing the action.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Video by Michael Guy

Historic Note: Opening of TH&B Hunter St. Station in Hamilton, Ontario

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Derek Boles, TRHA's historian, publishes a daily posting on the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group List. These postings document major railway oriented events that happened on that day of the year. One of today's items is as follows:
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"June 26, 1933:
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The Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway opens its new station on Hunter St. in Hamilton. The station was designed by architects Fellheimer & Wagner, who also designed the 1929 Buffalo Central Terminal and their 1933 Art Deco masterpiece, Cincinnati Union Terminal, which had opened a month earlier. The International Style Art Moderne station is a streamlined variant of the Art Deco style and the only railway station of this design ever built in Canada, featuring rounded corners and polished metal decoration. Due to Depression-era austerity measures, several cost-cutting alterations were made to the original design, including a smaller office tower and the elimination of both a platform and a pedestrian subway under the tracks. These scaled down changes resulted in a building that appears deceptively larger in photographs than it is up close. The station underwent a $25.5 million restoration that was completed in 1996 and is now known as the Hamilton GO Centre. An interesting historical display about the TH&B can be seen on the 2nd floor overlooking the concourse. Although the staircases are roped off, permission to visit can be readily obtained from one of the GO ticket agents on duty."
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If you wish to read these daily postings from Derek, simply join the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group List by clicking here.
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More history and pictures of the Hunter St. Station can be found at the Hamilton Transit History website by clicking here.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures from Wikipedia

Congratulations to Mike Robin on 10th Anniversary of the "ONR Gallery"!

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10 years ago, Mike Robin, an avid railroad photographer who lives and works in northern Ontario began sharing his "Picture of the Day" with those of us who are entranced by the Ontario Northland Railway, owned by we, the citizens of Ontario, and which provides transportation infrastructure to the far north of our province. Their Polar Bear Express which runs to Moosonee on James Bay is a world famous trip. I consider the paint schemes on their current locomotives to be "as good as it gets". They are very dramatic and were designed by a gifted graphic artist. The railway also was and is a daily visitor to the Toronto Rail Lands and Union Station providing daily passenger service between Toronto and the far north.
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I visited their shops in North Bay several years ago and was blown away by the complex repair and overhaul operations that they undertook within their shops to keep their engines going long after they became extinct elsewhere. Until only a few years ago, they still ran F7 Diesels in normal operation. In order to do this, they even rebuilt and rewound the traction motors!
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Mike has over the past 10 years developed the ONR Gallery where the best of these pictures can be viewed. The pictures are vividly beautiful and capture the railways operations. Mike has not only focused on the majesty of the trains but he also celebrates the great people who are the backbone of the railway and tells their story as well. The pictures are all annotated so you can know what each picture is about! In this posting we show six examples of his work (without annotation .. go to the website for that!). Below we present their ONR Gallery video made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ONR Gallery. It truly celebrates the people who make the railway great!
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures and Video by Mike Robin
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Sweet Creek in Action!

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In today's posting we feature pictures of our Sweet Creek steam locomotive in action pulling passengers this weekend. This oil-fired locomotive operates just like full size steam locomotives burning diesel fuel to generate steam. Operating such a locomotive requires much training and skill which our volunteers have developed after many years of experience with miniature steam locomotives.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stepehen Gardiner
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Weekend Report - Hundreds Turn Out to Ride!

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As advertised, we again hosted the public on Saturday and Sunday with hundreds of visitors turning out on a fine Father's Day weekend. The images above here show the TRHA booth set up to welcome visitors and sell tickets, the turntable being operated to demonstrate its purpose and the Sweet Creek in operation pulling a train of passengers into the station.
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In the images below, we see that fine tuning of the track also continues as well as the growing presence of Toronto's finest as the G20 Summit approaches.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy & Wilson Lau
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Moving the Shanty Out of Harm's Way!

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In order to provide a safe area for large helicopters to land in the middle of Roundhouse Park, it was necessary to move the crossing shanty out of harm's way. Tom Murison reports on the undertaking as follows:

"McCulloch brought a crew, a large hydraulic crane and a custom lifting jig made specially for our little shanty. The electrical feed was disconnected on Wednesday, so we broke the connection between the building and foundation then jacked the structure skywards with 20 ton jacks.
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While one crew began setting the lifting frame in place and placed the crane on outriggers and mudsills, the other crew began cutting the wooden cover for the foundation and the temporary hoarding for the shanty windows.
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The shanty was lifted with the crane barely over idling speed. The building is not heavy for a crane of that size, but the crane allowed a good radius of swing for placing it on the trailer. The shanty was placed in a relatively safe and isolated spot.
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After placing the shanty on cribbing, and leaving the lifting frame in place for the return journey, we fitted the new plywood and 2 x 4 batten covers between the window sills and undersides of the rafters. the corners of this crate are screwed to itself so that nothing had to be nailed or screwed into the finished wood trim."
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Tom Murison & Wilson Lau
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Roundhouse Park: Contrasting Aerial Views!

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In the photograph at the upper left taken by Dave Wetherald in the early 1970's from the TD Tower, we see the rail lands at their zenith. In the middle picture above, we see the Roundhouse Park site as it appeared on November 3rd, 1992. This photograph was taken by Joel Finkelhouse from the CN Tower. In the final photograph at the right, taken by Wayne Shaw on June 8th, 2010 a week after our official opening, we see the dramatic difference in the site.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures with permission as attributed.

Field Trip: GHLS Celebrates Their 35th Anniversary!

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The Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers of Hamilton, Ontario were first formed by a small group of live steam enthusiasts on June 15th, 1975. So today was our 35th Birthday! To celebrate the occasion, we hosted a birthday party at our track at the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology. Over 35 people attended the event and many of those attending are familiar faces at Roundhouse Park as a number of the GHLS members are active in the TRHA and especially in our miniature railway development. Members of the other miniature railway clubs in the Toronto area were also invited and many of them turned out for the party as well. A number of them are also active in the miniature railway in Roundhouse Park.
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There were probably more than a dozen engines running at the event. We spent the afternoon operating the trains catching up with each other. We then feasted on hot dogs and hamburgers and salads at the supper time barbeque. After a brief bit of club business, we resumed railway operations and operated until almost sundown.
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The weather was perfect - neither too hot nor too cold. A great time was had by all and ideas formed among those of us who are involved in the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre about the possibilities for similar events in Roundhouse Park.
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Posting and pictures by Russ Milland, President, GHLS
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