The Internet is a great source of historic railroad information. Featured in this post is a YouTube-resident movie produced by the New York Central to introduce the public (and perhaps new railroad employees) to the technolgoy and concepts behind railroad signalling. Included is a discussion of the use of interlocking signalling and switch control systems such as those used in the signal towers along the rail corridor in downtown Toronto. During the 17 minute movie there are some great video clips of steam train operations in that era. Also of note is the somewhat "heroic" style of making documentaries in that era with stirring martial music to emphasize the message. . Posting by Russ Milland .
In our continuing effort to refine our miniature railway trackage to not only accomodate our trains but those of visiting engines and train sets, we mounted a video camera on a passenger car in order to be able to watch one of the wheelsets as it traversed our trackage. While the video below may not be very exciting to watch, it is a very valuable tool for our "maintenance of way" department. . Posting by Russ Milland; Movie by Michael Guy .
Educating our Volunteers to Better Serve our Visitors!
Click on each image for a closer look! . Last Sunday, while a small crew of volunteers continued to operate the miniature railway, Derek Boles, our TRHA historian, delivered an training sesson for our volunteers in Steam Whistle Brewing's newly developed meeting and reception facility on the second floor of their facility. Realizing that all of our volunteers interact with visitors at one point or another, the goal was to raise our volunteers' knowledge level on all aspects of Roundhouse Park and its history. The session included touring to all corners of Roundhouse Park. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich
Further Development of Roundhouse Park Steadily Continues!
Click on each picture for a closer look! . While our focus has shifted somewhat from museum development to operating the museum on weekends, our TRHA volunteers continue to further refine and develop Roundhouse Park. In the pictures above, the roundhouse's compressor tanks have been repositioned with one being beside Leon's loading dock and the other at the end of the ramp from the back door of stall 15 leading to the road. These tanks were part of the air supply system for the Roundhouse and were connected to two large massive air compressors which remain in the machine shop awaiting restoration. In their new locations, the tanks will be interpreted as artefacts as well as acting as sign posts. . In the pictures below, we find a before (left) and after (middle) picture of one of our miniature railway crossings. The crossing was reworked to deal with the problem of loose bricks obstructing the track and also to realign the sharp curve at that point to a more easliy negotiated radius. At the lower right we find a TRHA volunteer testing the wiring on our crossing gate system after its being replaced after the G20 Summit. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich .
Weekend Report: Another Successful Pair of Days Despite a Little Rain!
Click on each image for a closer look! . As we can see from the pictues above, we had another great operating weekend despite the threat of some serious inclement weather which didn't arive until late Saturday afternoon and cleared up by mid-day Sunday. A somewhat soaked Roundhouse Park is evident in the view from the cab of #6213 in the middle image above. Note in the right hand image above that we have added a table and umbrella at the steps to the 6213 steam engine cab both to provide comfort to our volunteers and to better communicate with visitors. . In the images below, our new donation boxes built by one of our volunteers are now distributed throughout the park to encourage folks to donate since we are only charging for miniature train rides and are not charging admission to the museum itself at the present time. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich and Wilson Lau .
Field Trip: The Washington State Railroads Historical Society Museum in Pasco, Washington
Click on each image for a closer look! . From time to time, our TRHA folks visit other museums to learn more about local railway history as well as look for ideas for our museum. In the report below, Lance Gleich highlights his trip to the The Washington State Railroads Historical Society Museum in Pasco, Washington in June of this year:
"This museum is not especially well-known in the world of railroad museums. Yet, the Tri-Cities (if broadly defined to include the Hanford site) attracted as many class I railroad systems that served Washington state as Seattle, lacking only the Great Northern. (Spokane, the capitol of the "Inland Empire," is the only area to be served by all of them--the Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Great Northern, Spokane, Portland and Seattle, Milwaukee Road, and Spokane International.) As a crossroads of various lines, the area offers a rich history of railroads, so perhaps I should not have been surprised to find that the museum here offered a rich collection of artifacts.Railroading history in Washington territory--it wasn't a state until 1889--started with the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad. When originally constructed in the 1870's, the area was so remote that it couldn't even get rails--one of the metal straps that originally served as temporary rails survived to be displayed in the museum. Amazingly, that line still exists--it was eventually purchased by the Union Pacific, which leased it to the shortline now known as the Palouse River & Coulee City--it is the only remaining rail route to Walla Walla. . One of the locomotives from that line--a 1878 Porter 0-6-0 steam locomotive, delivered via the tip of South America--may be the highlight of the whole museum collection. Gradually being restored to its original configuration, the "Blue Mountain" (shown at right above) is believed to have traveled more miles as freight than in revenue service, having gone to Nome, Alaska after brief stints in Washington state before lines were converted from its narrow gauge to standard gauge ....."
For more information about what he found in the museum, visit Lance's Online log by clicking here. For more about the museum, click here. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich and from the museum website. .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . On May the 18th, 2010, we announced the "Save the LRC" Campaign. We are now in our final push to raise $14,000 in the next two weeks as we must complete the purchase from VIA Rail Canada in August. We have raised $26,000 towards the target of $40,000. . We need your help to complete this purchase and move the LRC to the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. Click here to visit our web page which provides you with all of the details on our fund raising campaign! . The LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) was a uniquely Canadian passenger locomotive developed by Bombardier, Alcan and Dofasco in co-operation with CN and later VIA Rail Canada as a higher speed rail option for the busy Quebec City - Windsor Corridor. The locomotives were capable of travel up to 125 MPH (limited to 100 MPH in service) and powered VIA's Metropolis express train between Toronto and Montreal. These locomotives were a common sight throughout the Corridor from their introduction in 1981 until their retirement in 2001. . The TRHA launched the initiative to acquire one of these locomotives for the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. To this end, the TRHA has placed a deposit with VIA Rail Canada to purchase one of the last remaining LRC locomotives, number 6917 as shown in the pictures above. If we are unable to save this locomotive, it will be scrapped along with all of the other LRC's on VIA property. . Posting by Jason Shron .
Click on each picture for a closer look! . While News postings here have been absent for the past two weeks as your "news blogmaster" has been on vacation deep in the wilderness of the interior of British Columbia, operations have continued for the past few weekends much to the delight of visitors to the museum. In the pictures above we find our TRHA volunteers manning our information booth and ticket sales centre at Don Station and our Sweet Creek steam locomotive in action. . In the photos below, we see that just prior to the July 18th weekend the musem attracted contestants to the Miss Chinese NY Beauty Pageant contestants to the park for a photo shoot! . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Leich and Wilson Lau .
Field Trip: A Visit to the Smith Falls Railway Museum!
Click on each image for a closer look! . It is a Saturday and the roundhouse is closed as the G20 Summit is in full flight. What to do? A road tripwas in order! . I had never checked out the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls, Ontario. We got the TH&B caboose and they got the Dental Car. And what a beauty the Dental Car is. The color is a little faded outside. But inside it is in almost pristine condition. The wood walls and the dentist chair are impressive. All just like it was yesterday. . There are other artefacts on site that are worth the trip. These include:
The 1947 CP Cadillac inspection car
CP’s 1957 Diesel 6591
CNR’s 1912 Steam Locomotive #1112
Wickham Track Cars
A string of cabooses, some in poor condition, one in excellent condition
Automobile box cars.
The Smiths Falls Canadian Northern Railway's is the main display area and is beautifully restored." . Posting and pictures by Bob Dickson .
Rededication of the Chinese Railway Workers Memorial as it Happened on July 1st!
Click on each image for a closer look! . As Derek Boles, our TRHA historian, has posted earlier, the rededication of the memorial to the Chinese workers who worked on the building of the CPR was held on Canada Day. In his capacity as a Heritage Toronto Board member, TRHA historian Derek Boles (seen in the photos at the above left and middle by Lance Gleich) placed a wreath and said a few words about the importance of the memorial as part of Toronto's railway heritage. Here is the text of his speech: . "For several years Heritage Toronto has been proud to participate in this annual rededication and for many of those years I have been privileged to bring you greetings from our hundreds of Heritage Toronto members as well as our board of directors. This memorial is an important part of Toronto’s history. . The site that we’re now standing on is also significant in railway history. In 1860, the Grand Trunk Railway built a roundhouse on this site. That roundhouse was unusual because it was fully roofed over with a large dome, so the Rogers Centre was not the first domed structure in this location. . A month ago, another organization I’m involved with, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, opened in Roundhouse Park on the other side of the Rogers Centre. The crown jewel of our collection is our Canadian National steam locomotive No. 6213, but that engine didn’t live at our roundhouse before it was retired in 1960. It lived here, in the Spadina roundhouse, that occupied this site from 1927 until 1986. . The TRHC is in the process of preparing printed material, guided tours and downloadable podcasts that will help people visit and appreciate sites around the city that are significant in Toronto’s railway heritage and we will be highlighting the Chinese Railway Workers Memorial because there are far too few Torontonians that know about this site and its significance." . The images at the right above and those below are a number of dramatic pictures of the memorial by Shaun Merritt whose work can be found online by clicking here. Then click on Flicker's "Please click here" message. His Toronto Public Art "set" is worth perusing. . There is an interesting chronological history of the Chinese community in Toronto available at the City of Toronto online archives by clicking here. For an interesting spin on the event and more pictures click here. Our original TRHA News posting about the memorial which describes the inscription on it can be found here. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich & Shaun Merritt .
Click on each image for a closer look! . In today's posting, we offer more images from Canada Day at the museum. . As can be seen above, both the Sweet Creek and the Whitcomb were pressed into service on the miniature railway that day to handle the crowds. Below, we see our volunteers welcoming visitors to visit the cab of #6213 which is proving to be a popular attraction. . Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich .
July 1st to 4th: Work Continued on Several Fronts!
Click on each image for a closer look! . Despite the recent diversion of many of our volunteers to the operational needs of the museum, we also got some work done on our museum “assets” between July 1st and 4th. . The crossing gates are back in place as is the miniature railway water tower. We actually used the tower to fill Sweet Creek's tender a couple of times in this period. Water comes out of that hose at a substantial flow rate cutting watering time down to a fraction of that needed to fill it with the hose alone. We also checked out the gate control electronics and sensors which work fine. Finally we did some more track levelling on the miniature railway. . On Friday, July 2nd, two of our volunteers spent the day repainting the steps to the cab of the F7 Diesel Cab Simulator and painting the frame of the U33C Cab. We were only able to paint the F7 steps white primer prior to the Doors Open event. As can be seen in the “before, during and after” pictures above of the F7 Cab, the bright white steps no longer distract a visitor attention from the F7 cab itself now that the steps are painted black. We also took the opportunity to prime the surfaces on the steel underframe which we had constructed to support the U33C Cab. It was built of unpainted steel and was starting to show signs of rust. . Posting and pictures by Russ Milland
