Building bridges between the NRM, Exporail and the TRHC!

Click on each image for a closer look!

Steve Davies, the Director of the magnificent National Railway Museum at York, England and Stephen Middleton, the President of Stately Trains in England visited Canada last week. One of their first stops was at Exporail in Delson, Quebec which is our National Railway Museum operated by the Canadian Railway Historical Association. Their working steam engine, the John Molson and their ex-LBSCR Terrier Class no. 54, the WADDON were brought out for the occasion and looked especially great as can be seen in the photos above. In the image at the lower left below, we find our guests riding the miniature railway at Exporail.

In Friday, April 30th, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre was host to a visit from these visitors from the U.K. No doubt they were eager to visit their T3 steam locomotive and the GER coach in its new summer home! In the two photos at the lower right we find them enjoying a ride on our miniature railway behind the Sweet Creek.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Bob Dickson and Stephen Cheasley, the President of Exporail

TRHA Miniature Railway Video released by Mirvish Productions

Mirvish Production has produced this excellent video about the TRHA Miniature Railway. To view all of the videos that they have produced to date around the Railway Children production, visit their "gallery" at their website.

Click on the video to enjoy our new rerouted miniature railway!

Posting by Russ Milland

Quebec City Miniature Railway still fighting snowdrifts!

Click on each image for a closer look!

On April 2nd, 2011 Ron Pelletier of the Quebec Model Railroad Society wrote:

"A beautiful day here in Quebec City but not so just south of us in Maine where they received anywhere from 10 to 14 inches of new snow last night, So Claude came in early at our club to repair the carburetor on our track snow blower, and Reynald came up to my home to pick up my snowblower and we started to clear track. We decide to clear the west end loop where snow was anywhere from 12 inches to about 4 feet deep."

These pictures taken by Ron show the formidable snow drifts that they had to tackle to be able to pursue their being able to operate their miniature railway once again. We are posting this news item on April 20th, 18 days after these photos were taken.

Are conditions any better? Well today, Ron writes:

"Crazy weather up here! On Sunday we had 5 inches of more snow and today 10 to 12 more inches. I got my locomotive up and running this week but needed track repairs haven't been done and the cool weather is suggesting that we should stay inside. Maybe this late Easter is preventing the winter season from leaving us. I sure hope it will warm up soon."

Visit their multilingual website to learn more. Click on the U.K. flag at the upper right to peruse it in English.

Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Ron Pelletier

The Railway Children production launches a new website!

Click on each image for a closer look!
.
Last week, the Toronto production of the Railway Children launched a new website with much information of interest to the potential theatre patron. The website features:

• Stories about the book, show and the train
• Show schedules
  
• Online purchasing of tickets
• A gallery of videos and pictures about the show
• 3D printouts for kids to build their own engines
• Drawings of the engine, tender and carriage for kids to colour
• Answers to frequently asked questions

Visit their website to explore the above information!

Click here to read our next posting on the Railway Children production!

Posting by Russ Milland; Images from www.railwaychildren.ca

Testing the Railway Children Train Set!

Click on each image for a closer look!
.
Here we see the LSWR T3 steam engine and the GER Director's carriage coupled to the TRHA flat car and our CLC Whitcomb #1. This is the complete train set to be used in the Railway Children production. After coupling up, it was pushed into and bought out of the main tent just as it will be during the show.

Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner

Weekend Report: Riding the Rails

Click on each image for a closer look!

Testing of our miniature railway engines and the passenger cars on our new reconfigured railway continued last weekend as is evident in these photos. In one of the photos we can see the fixture built to be mounted on the train to carry the video camera used to produce the movies featured in an earlier TRHA News posting.

There were many families visiting Roundhouse Park so we took the opportunity to offer rides to the public and made a lot of folks very happy.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Stephen Gardiner & James Rasor

Weekend report: Multiple efforts on multiple fronts!

Click on each image for a closer look!
.
Last Saturday, work crews continued to work on a number of projects this past weekend. Charlie Bird of the National Railway Museum in the U.K. worked with a number of our volunteers to fit buffers on one end of the flat car to allow it to connect appropriately to the NER Director's Carriage.
Other volunteers continued to paint our riding cars and pursue other chores around the three stalls.

On Sunday, there were a number of rolling stock moves to be made. The Pyke Crane ended up outside the roundhouse doors. One of the Railway Children banners was fitted with battens and hung high off the crane hook to provide additional advertising for the production and our museum. We also took the rear doors and engine hood off of our Whitcomb diesel in preparation for a visit by a technician who will service the injectors on its diesel engines.
.
Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner, Michael Guy and James Rasor
.

Unloading of the LSWR T3 steam engine and the GER #3 carriage

Click on each image for a closer look!
.
Today we catch up with news from last week. Here, we are posting photos of the unloading of the LSWR T3 steam engine and the GER Director's Carriage. The train set is of course now comfortably stored in the Roundhouse where they are being prepared for their starring roles in the Railway Children production beginning on May 4th, 2011.
.
Click here for the next TRHA News Posting on this topic.
.
Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy
.

Railway Children Production: GER Carriage #3 arrives at Roundhouse Park!

Click on the image for a closer look!

In the image above (from the Furness Railway trust website), we see a sister carriage to the #3. This is Great Eastern Railway Royal Saloon #5, which was recently restored by the Furness Railway Trust which is based in the northwest part of England. It was built in 1898 and will be the subject of our next TRHA News posting on this topic.

Click on the video below to watch Great Eastern Railway #3 arrive at Roundhouse Park.

Click here to read the next TRHA News Posting on this topic.

Posting by Russ Milland; Video by Michael Guy

Railway Children Press Event - Part 3!

Click on each video to watch it!

These two videos by Stephen Gardiner nicely capture the unveiling of "Victoria", the London & South Western Railway No. 563, a T3 Class 4-4-0 built in 1893, at the April 7th press event for the Railway Children production at Roundhouse Park. As well as showing off its dramatic entrance at stage left, they also provide a nice 360 degree view of the engine as it is spun on our historic turntable built in 1929.

Click here for the next TRHA News Posting on this topic

Posting by Russ Milland

Railway Children Press Event - Part 2!

Click on each image for a closer look!
.
Yesterday's press event was a great success thanks to a mix of TRHA volunteers and theatre crews working together. The theatre crew rigged up smoke generators inside the doors of stall 15 and in the smokebox of #563. They also had a sound presentation/introduction all set up to present the locomotive as she was rolled out.
.
The plan was simple once everything was rigged up and coupled up using the temporary system of a strong load strap between the hook on the tender of #563 and the location of the buckeye coupler on TRHA No.1.
.
After the introduction of the #563 on the public address system, the two "secret service" agents opened the door and allowed #563 to run out onto the turntable (pushed out by TRHC No.1). After #563 reached the centre of the turntable, No.1 returned to the inside of the stalls for the duration of the event. #563 then went for a spin on the turntable, with the turntable being opened up to allow assembled media to hold interviews from the footplate with the show's director and producer.
.
TRHA attendance at the event was: Michael G, Bob D (who gets a Gold Star for sleeping overnight at the Roundhouse after finishing cleaning #563 at 4:00 in the morning), Daniel, Peter, Rodney, Dave W, Sandy W, Richard W, Alan B, Arno M, Derek B, Lionel, President Orin Krivel, Photographer Supreme Norm Betts, and myself. If I missed anyone, my apologies!
.
Click here for our next TRHA News post on this topic!
.
Posting and photos by Stephen Gardiner
.

Railway Children Press Event - Part 1!

Click on each image for a closer look!

Today, Thursday April 7, 2011 at 10:30am, London & South Western Railway T3 4-4-0 No.563 will be unveiled to the press as the star of the Toronto production of The Railway Children which opens on May 3rd at Roundhouse Theatre. The public is welcome to attend!

LSWR No. 563 has safely arrived from the UK and was bedded down last night in Stall 15 at the John Street Roundhouse for unpacking and cleaning after her trans-Atlantic voyage. The protective materials and Vaseline have been cleaned off, and a bit of the old CPR "John Street Polish" applied by members of the Toronto Railway Historical Association.

In the group photo above, we find (from left to right) Michael Guy, Charlie Bird (of the National Railway Museum in the U.K.), Dave Fleming, Mark Pompeo, and Bob Dickson preparing to work all night to clean up and polish the T3 steam engine. Also helping out, but missing from this group photo is Matthew Erwood.

To read about the press event, click here!

Posting and pictures by Stephen Gardiner