Weekend Report: Progress Despite the Frigid Weather!
Click on each picture for a closer look! . It was certainly nippy out today but inside the three stalls it was a good working temperature, you could barely see your breath! . The TH&B van is still in 'removals' stage as we continued to remove more tongue and groove siding in search of more wood needign replacement in the walls. The west wall is now down to bare steel for ab out 1/3 its length and nearly ready for a coat of rust paint. . Minor repairs to #7020 are complete and it is parked outside once again. This simple manoeuvre took some time as we needed to park #4803 off the turntable, remove fences, move #7020, shift #4803 back and replace all the fences. All of this outdoor work was lots of fun at -10 C but fortunately there was no wind and lots of sunshine and we even had a small audience. . We also made excellent progress in the F7 diesel cab. The new sub-floor is better than 75% complete needing only fastenings and two small bits of plywood to finish. As usual, many sundry odd jobs got done. The engine fan assembly off the Pyke was degreased and spruced up and the north end of stall 16 got a needed clean-up and floor sweep. This latter was partly in preparation for a contractor beginning pipe work for our heating system next week. . Posting by Michael Guy; Photos by Lance Gleich & Stephen Gardiner .
A Great Video of a Steam Double Header Photo Charter!
Click on the video below to watch it! . When the news front is quiet, we occasionally bring your attention to railway-railway related items of interest beyond our own southern Ontario region. Today, we bring you one the finest steam fan videos that we have seen as yet. This ten minute video seems to have been filmed recently even though it seem to be carefully staged to reflect operations of many decades ago. It is of a railfan trip but without a railfan in sight (remarkable!). The filming is absolutely first rate. . The subject are a pair of magnificent 2-8-4 Berkshire Class steam engines - Pere Marquette #1225 and Nickel Plate Road ## 765 - teaming up to pull a freight train for a historic photographic charter on the Great Lakes Central Railroad, an event organized by Lerro Productions and hosted by the Steam Railroading Institute of Owosso, Michigan. . If your computer is fairly new you may want to watch in High Definition. To do so (once it is playing), click on the "360" button on the bottom and then choose "720" for High Definition. To watch it in full screen, click on the "YouTube" symbol in the lower right of the image below and play it at YouTube with full screen turned on. . Posting by Russ Milland .
Historic Article: The Canadian Northern Railway Eastern Lines Locomotive Shop
Click on each image for a closer look! . In an earlier TRHA News Posting, we spoke very briefly (using one of Derek Bole's historic notes) about the Canadian Northern Shops (photos of which are shown above) which still exist in Leaside, Ontario. Derek, TRHA's Historian, now has published a more expansive article on the history of these shops. . Spacing is an award-winning magazine dedicated to presenting compelling journalism that focuses on the joys, obstacles, and politics of Toronto's urban landscape. The magazine is full of thought-provoking articles presenting an abundance of creative ideas and insightful commentary from the city's brightest young writers and visual artists. . They also have established a web presence including a daily Blog called Spacing Toronto, which is a hub for daily dispatches from the streets of Toronto to cities around the world, offering both analysis and a forum for discussion. Their contributors examine city hall, architecture, urban planning, public transit, transportation infrastructure and just about anything that involves the public realm of our cities. . On this blog, their editor posted yesterday the following announcement: . "Spacing is pleased to again partner with Heritage Toronto on their upcoming Building Storeys exhibit at the Gladstone Hotel that runs from Feb 4 - 27. A collaborative effort by Heritage Toronto and members of the photography groups the Shadow Collective and the DK Photo Group , Building Storeys is a visual documentation and anecdotal exhibit of the citys heritage building and sites. This is the first in a series of posts on Spacing Toronto connected to the exhibit, and is by Derek Boles." . To read Dereks comprehensive article on the Canadian Northern Railway Eastern Lines Locomotive Shops, click here and scroll down the page a bit. . Posting and pictures by Russ Milland
Click on each picture for a closer look! . St. Thomas, Ontario is located just south of London, Ontario. Railways have been a significant part of St. Thomas's history since 1856 with the completion of the London and Port Stanley Railway. Since then a total of 26 railways have passed through the town. With its rich rail history, St. Thomas has designated itself the "Railway Capital of Canada". . TheElgin County Railway Museum was incorporated in 1988 as a registered non-profit charity for the purpose of preserving and restoring the railway heritage of St. Thomas and surrounding area. They are located in the 1913 former Michigan Central Railroad Locomotive Shops next to the Canada Southern Railway which was built in 1872 as a shortcut through Canada from Chicago to New York. They have acquired a fine collection of railway engines and rolling stock as well as other artefacts. They also have restored a signal tower on the site. The site also house a massive Canada Southern Railway Station (see picture at lower right) which is being restored by another organization. . Each year the museum has held two weekend Rail Heritage events which I have attended and thoroughly enjoyed. . Until recently, the facility was owned by the CNR and the museum was only a tenant. The facility was not being maintained and the roof had deteriorated dangerously resulting in the closure of most of it to the public. There was a major rail yard outside their facility. But the CNR was beginning to remove the yard resulting in a further threat to the viability of the museum. . The good news is that the volunteers who run this museum have successfully raised funds for the past few years by holding "Thomas the Tank Engine" events over the past five summers which have been enormously popular with tens of thousands of people turning out. On December 31st, 2009, they had sufficient funds as a result to purchase the building and 15.5 acres of land from Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways. . But challenges remain. They still have to buy the rails from the railways from CN at a cost of $99,500. They also need to raise $1.5 million dollars to replace the museum's roof. The roof is complex and consists of a series of 300-lb. (136-kg) concrete slabs suspended from steel beams. . For more news about the museum, read this article in the St. Thomas Times-Journal by clicking here. For more about the museum, visit their website. The images shown here were taken in August of 2004 at their Iron Horse Festival. . Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland .
Next TRHA Union Station Tour on Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Click on each picture for a closer look! . 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.
Weekend Report: A Team of 12 Tackles Many Tasks - Part 2 of 2
Click on each picture for a closer look! . Turning to the miniature railway Train Depot area, Saturday's work crew addressed the challenge of fitting the turntable bridge. As shown in the pictures, it was all hands on deck in order to carry the miniature railway turntable from stall 16 of the Roundhouse to the turntable pit where we found that it was a wee bit too long to fit! So we quickly re-surveyed the pit concrete to check the centre point and determine the proper length. In these pictures, note also that doors have been fitted to the miniature railway Train Depot thereby protecting it from the elements. We also took the opportunity to work on the addition of a new siding against the north wall of the Train depot as shown in the photographs below. . On Sunday, a smaller crew continued work on the F7 Cab, the TH&B caboose and the Pyke Crane. . We designed the miniature railway to support both 7 1/2" and 7 1/4" gauge equipment. So, on Sunday, we also undertook a test trip around the miniature railway with a borrowed 7 1/4" gauge 1 1/2" scale gondola car looking for issues we might have with this slightly smaller gauge of equipment. A few minor issues here and there with track gauge will be easily remedied. . Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner, Lance Gleich, Michael Guy & Mike Salisbury .
Weekend Report: A Team of 12 Tackles Many Tasks - Part 1 of 2
Click on each picture for a closer look! . Things couldn't have gone better this Saturday. We had twelve of us working six separate projects at the same time. The task list included:
Continued work on the TH&B caboose
Continued work on the CPR #7020 diesel switcher
Finishing off the Sweet Creek instructor's seat
Adding wheels to the miniature railway's turntable
Building a new siding at the Train Depot
Test installing the miniature railway's turntable.
Everything on our list for today was crossed off as complete or with good progress made. In Part 2 of this posting, we will share more about the turntable installation and the new siding. . Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner, Lance Gleich & Michael Guy .
Historic Note: 15th Anniversary of the Moving of the Coaling Tower
Click on each image for a closer look! . 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: . "January 24, 1995: . The massive 75-foot high coal and sanding tower at the former Canadian Pacific John Street Roundhouse is moved 600 feet from what is now the corner of Lower Simcoe Street and Bremner Boulevard to the northwest corner of the roundhouse. The silos of the tower were underpinned with steel bracing, and the entire structure was moved on three huge rubber tired trailers. The moving company, ETARCO, claimed this was the heaviest single object ever moved in Canada. The move was necessitated by the southern expansion of the Toronto Convention Centre, which was carried out from 1994 to 1997. Bays 1-11 of the roundhouse were disassembled and later re-erected and occupied by Steam Whistle Brewing. Unfortunately the 360-foot long brick stores building was demolished, losing a potentially valuable asset for the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. The John Street facility was built between 1928 and 1931 and once comprised 43 structures, of which only three survive: the roundhouse and machine shop, the coaling tower and the water tower." . The company that moved the tower is now part of Mammoet. They provided us with the images seen here of the actual move. For more information on the move, read our earlier News Post.
. If you wish to read these daily postings from Derek, simply join the Yahoo Group by clicking here. .
Posting by Russ Milland with photos provided courtesy of Ken Musselman of Mammoet.
Field Trip Report: O. Winston Link Museum - Part 2 of 2
Click on each picture for a closer look! . In an earlier News Posting we introduced you to the O. Winston Link museum in Roanoke, Virginia. In this posting we focus on O. Winston Link's work and how he produced these spectacular images. . The museum displays at any given time several hundred of his images and also wonderfully tells the story of his life and his work. Touring the museum is like walking through a book. It truly takes a few hours to explore despite its modest size. There is also an excellent movie about his life which plays hourly in a several hundred person theatre. . In this posting we see pictures of a number of his prints. These are "pictures of the prints" that I took so the actual images have even higher quality. Most of his photography was done at night and very carefully planned and staged. He took this approach to allow him total control of the lighting of an image. He developed his own control system to control the simultaneous use of hundreds of flash bulbs to capture a given image. The results were very powerful and dramatic images for which he became quite famous but only decades after he took them. . As one leaves the museum, the image of O. Winston Link shown at the lower left thanks you for coming. For anyone interested at all in railways and railway history, this beautifully executed museum must be visited. It is so well done that it would appeal to anyone with an interest in great photography and a good biographical story. . For more information about the museum, visit their website here. The entire collection of images is accessible online. Also note that the museum sells books of his photographs at a very reasonable price. I have two of them and they are excellent. . Click here to return to Part 1 of this series.
Posting by Russ Milland; Images used with permission of the O. Winston Link Museum .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . As part of TRHA's efforts to properly equip the Roundhouse workshops we were able to take advantage this week of an offer to acquire a used but very serviceable Anayak vertical milling machine. These photos show its being loaded onto a trailer and its delivery and unloading into the Roundhouse. Thanks to Dave Powell and Eric Motton for bringing the machine to our attention and to Steam Whistle Brewing for the use of a forklift. . Posting by Michael Guy; Images by Lance Gleich & Arno Martens
Upcoming Event: Haiti Earthquake Relief Train - February 6th
Destiny Tours of Guelph, Ontario have, since September of 2008, been operating the "Guelph Junction Express" dinner trains from Guelph to Campbellville, Ontario on the Guelph Junction Railway which is owned by the City of Guelph. Our earlier report on this railway and the dinner train operation can be found here. . In response to the catastrophe that has befallen Haiti, Destiny Tours has scheduled a special dinner-train excursion to raise money for Haiti Earthquake Relief. This 2.5 hours excursion will include the train ride, dinner onboard and live entertainment provided by local pianist, John Zadro. Due to the generosity of their suppliers, they will be able to donate 100% of the ticket price to this crucial relief effort. This means if they sell all 140 seats on the train they can raise up to $14,000 for Haiti Relief. All funds raised will be forwarded to Doctors Without Borders who are currently on the ground in Haiti. Each purchaser of a ticket will receive a tax receipt for 50% of the price of this excursion from Doctors Without Borders Canada.Tickets are $100 per person. . The Train will be departing at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 6th, 2010. For more information, click here. . Posting by Russ Milland; Images from Destiny Tours
TRHA Artefacts: The Victorian Internet, Sounders & Keys
Click on each image for a closer look! . One of my favourite books is called the "Victorian Internet" which was written by Tom Standage. Here is an excerpt from the author's website about this book:
"In the nineteenth century there were no televisions, aeroplanes, computers, or spacecraft; neither were there antibiotics, credit cards, microwave ovens, compact discs, or mobile phones. . There was, however, an Internet. . During Queen Victoria's reign, a new communications technology was developed that allowed people to communicate almost instantly across great distances, in effect shrinking the world faster and further than ever before. A world-wide communications network whose cables spanned continents and oceans, it revolutionised business practice, gave rise to new forms of crime, and inundated its users with a deluge of information. Romances blossomed over the wires. Secret codes were devised by some users, and cracked by others. The benefits of the network were relentlessly hyped by its advocates, and dismissed by the sceptics. Governments and regulators tried and failed to control the new medium. Attitudes to everything from news gathering to diplomacy had to be completely rethought. Meanwhile, out on the wires, a technological subculture with its own customs and vocabulary was establishing itself.The telegraph unleashed the greatest revolution in communications since the development of the printing press. Modern Internet users are in many ways the heirs of the telegraphic tradition, which means that today we are in a unique position to understand the telegraph - and the telegraph, in turn, can give us a fascinating perspective on the challenges, opportunities and pitfalls of the Internet." . The telegraphs systems developed at about the same time as development of the railways exploded in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. The natural land route for the poles and wires that carried the telegraph signals was along the railway right of ways. The telegraph provided railways the means of communicating between stations to control traffic. The railways also provided the public with telegraph services. . For more information about the history of telegraphy, visit this Wikipedia entry. . The TRHA has begun to acquire telegraphy artefacts. Pictured above are two "sounders" and a "straight" telegraph key recently donated by Dave Best of Kingston, Ontario. Telegraph keys were used to produce the "dots" and "dashes" used in Morse Code to send the characters in a message to others on the network. The Sounder turned the electrical signals into an audible sound to allow the telegraph operator to hear the dots and dashes and write down the message. . The final picture above shows a third artifact donated by Dave Best to the TRHA. This an indicator head for a switch stand. . Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland
Click on each picture for a closer look! . For a January day, Saturday turned out bright and sunny and felt like it was at least 18 degrees C. We had a great turnout of volunteers and much was accomplished. Now that we have finished our track construction, we undertook a major cleanup and reorganization of the machine shop area and now have a large clear area to work in. Progress was also made on the ongoing renovation of the TH&B caboose and inside the F7 diesel cab. . The driving instructor's seat for the Sweet Creek tender was completed and painted black so it almost disappears from view. It quite comfortable with a properly padded seat. The whole assembly has been built as a lift-off unit to allow fast access to the fuel filler cap below. We also painted the miniature railway turntable and the F7 cab doors. . Earlier in the day we had a visit from Gary, the last operator of the Pyke crane for the Toronto Terminal railways (TTR). We had a great chat and took extensive notes on the controls and idiosyncrasies of the crane. . Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich .
Click on each picture for a closer look!
