TRHA Annual Train Show Report - Part 1

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As announced in an earlier posting, once again this year the Toronto Railway Historical Association held a special event on the occasion of the Doors Open Toronto weekend on May 28th and May 29th. We offered a number of experiences to the visiting public. In this and subsequent TRHA News postings, we will present a number of photographic images of each of these experiences.

Today's posting features the handcar ride and visits to the partially restored TH&B Caboose which was parked just inside the roundhouse doors.

Click here to read Part 2 of our report on the May 28th and May 29th Train Show.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Lance Gleich & Russ Milland

TRHA entertains the cast of the Railway Children!

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On Saturday, May 21st, 2011 a Barbeque was hosted by the Railway Children Production for the over 100 staff involved in its operation. In these photos, we find their staff enjoying both the barbeque and our miniature railway operation as our TRHA volunteers entertained everyone by operating the railway after our normal weekend hours.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Alan Bradshaw, Lance Gleich, Lionel Levitt and Arno Martens

A grand view of the innovative Railway Children set!

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Here we present a great panoramic view of the set of the Railway Children production taken during the recent Open House. It is almost as good as being there! It is quite a tribute to the photographic talents of one of our TRHA volunteers.

Click here to read the next TRHA News post about the Railway Children production

Posting by Russ Milland; Photo by Stephen Gardiner

Inside the Roundhouse Theatre during their Open House!

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In a recent posting we showed images from the miniature railway operation during the Railway Children Productions open house. Here we have some great images from inside the theatre where TRHA volunteers spoke to the history of the heritage trains set being used in the production.

Note that the Open Houses will be repeated this coming weekend - Saturday, June 4th and Sunday, June 5th from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

Click here to read the next TRHA News post about the Railway Children production

Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner

The T3 Steam engine and the GER carriage pose on the turntable

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Thanks to Bob Dickson for this great shot of the T3 steam engine and the GER Director's carriage on the turntable flanked by a pair of relatively modern diesels.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photo by Bob Dickson

Trains, Boats & Meccano event weathers the weekend!

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The "Trains, Boats and Meccano" weekend was quite a success at the Hamilton Museum of Science and Technology despite inclement weather throughout the last weekend. The rain held off for most of Saturday allowing all of us to display and operate our models outdoors. However on Sunday a cold snap plus a foggy misty rain drove the Meccano and boat displays indoors. The miniature railway operations ceased around lunchtime due to the cold, rain and lack of brave souls willing to ride..

However the weekend was a great success as we did see over 500 members of the public visit and many friendships renewed between members of the three clubs.

For more information on each of the three clubs, visit them at:

• Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers
• Confederation Marine Modelers
• Canadian Modeling Association for Meccano and Allied Systems

Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland

Watch the Roundhouse Theatre be built in 1 minute 14 seconds!

Mirvish Productions has released an innovative video using time lapse photography to capture the building of the theatre. They describe it as follows:

"The Roundhouse Theatre is the new custom-built 300,000 square foot venue for the hit show - The Railway Children. It's taken 6 weeks to build the 40 foot high venue, which is 15 feet higher than the one built for the London production at Waterloo Station. The theatre's unique design includes 500 seats on each side of the stage, which provides a great view of the action no matter where you're sitting."

Click here to read the next TRHA News post about the Railway Children production

Click below to watch the video!

Posting by Russ Milland

ShuttleWagon rail car mover now moving the heritage train!

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Due to our need to do some major maintenance on our CLC Whitcomb diesel switcher, the Railway Children Production has leased a ShuttleWagon rail car mover to provide the motive power to move the heritage train set into and out of the Roundhouse Theatre. Wikipedia describes these rail car movers as follows:

“A rail car mover is a road-rail vehicle (usually capable of travelling on both roads and rail tracks) fitted with couplers for moving small numbers of railroad cars around in a rail siding or small yard. They are extensively used by railroad customers because they are cheaper than owning a switcher locomotive, more convenient and cheaper than paying the railroad operator to do the switching, easier and more productive than manual moving of cars, and in addition they are more versatile since they can travel on road wheels to the cars they need to move, instead of needing clear track. …..”

In the video below we find the Shuttlewagon moving the heritage trainset into the theatre.

Click here to read the next TRHA News post about the Railway Children production

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by James Gardiner; Video by Mark Pompeo

Weekend Report: Open House at the Railway Children Production

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This past weekend saw lots of activity in Roundhouse Park as the Railway Children Production held an open house for the public on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. In the photos above, we find those attending the open house riding the trains despite the inclement weather.

Meanwhile, inside the three stalls of the roundhouse, volunteers were busy at work re-organizing and cleaning up the stalls in preparation for restoration work to begin again after the Toronto Doors Open weekend event on May 28th and 29th.

Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy

Miniature Railways, Boats and Meccano this coming weekend in Hamilton!

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Our TRHC miniature railway was built by a band of volunteers, many of whom were drawn from one of three local miniature railway clubs in the Toronto area. One of these clubs, the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers (GHLS) of Hamilton, Ontario held their first operating weekend this past weekend on the occasion of Hamilton’s Doors Open weekend. The event was a great success with a great turnout by the public. In the attached pictures we find a pair of electrically powered diesels and an old amusement park diesel engine on a gas-hydraulic powered chassis (similar to the one he built for the Mini-Whitcomb at the TRHC) built by Michael Guy of the TRHA which hauled over 1500 passengers during the weekend. The brightly coloured passenger cars were out on their first outing after having been rebuilt in a plant owned by two of our members.

Next weekend will be our traditional opening weekend at the GHLS when we will be joined on Saturday, May 14th and Sunday, May 15th (from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) by the Confederation of Marine Modellers who will demonstrating their exquisite scale ship and boat models and operating them on a man-made pond. Also joinign us will a group dedicated to building impressive models of almost anything from Meccano construction sets which were immensely popular in the past century.

The event will be held on the grounds of the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology which is also well worth a visit as they have one of the last two preserved massive walking beam water-pumping engines in North America. It is a magnificent machine to watch in operation and is housed in the impressive structure shown in the attached photo.

And the best news of all is that the event is free although we do encourage donations to help us further develop our operations. It is only an hour’s drive from Toronto to the museum. Just go across the Burlington Skyway bridge on the QEW towards Niagara Falls, turn left at the end of Woodward Avenue exit ramp and the museum is on your left.

For more information, visit GHLS by clicking here and the Steam and Technology museum by clicking here.

Posting and pictures by Russ Milland

Weekend Report: The F7 gains sight and sound!

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Our TRHA volunteers turned out in sufficient force this weekend to be able to address projects beyond the need to man our miniature railway and operate it for the benefit of our museum visitors.

Here is a list that Stephen Gardiner has offered us of some of the many tasks undertaken by this enthusiastic crew:

• Work on the cylinder drain cocks and injectors on the Sweet Creek locomotive
• Repairing the starter cord on Mini-Whitcomb
• Test running of 3 of the 4 new passenger cars
• Installing foot board rubber on all four new cars and finishing the steel trim
• Installing seating on the 4th passenger car
• Fine tuning the track in some key spots
  
• Installing fireman's side interior cab panels on the F7 cab
  
• Cleaning newly acquired air horns for the F7 Cab
• Installing the newly acquired headlight assembly for the F7 Cab
• Adjusting the new fences around 6213
• Installing a prominent sign above the First Aid Station

Barry Silverthorn donated the F7 Cab to the museum several years ago. Last week he generously offered us the F7 air horns and the F7 headlight assembly on a long term loan thereby giving us the opportunity to add sight and sound to our F7 Cab. These are shown in the photos above along with the newly re-panelled side of the F7 Cab.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Stephen Gardiner

Improving accessibility and safety around Don Station

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One of the issues resulting from the positioning of the theatre tent in Roundhouse Park was that accessiblity at the east end of the tent from Bremner Boulevard was difficult for folks with disabilities such as my 88 year old mother who thoroughly enjoyed the Railway Children production. This has now been remedied as Tom Murison and this crew (who restored Don Station and other structures for us) have now built a proper ramp connecting Cabin D and the Don Station platforms as shown in the photo above.

One of our TRHA volunteers also installed exterior lighting under the eaves of Don Station so that the lighting was in keeping with that of Cabin D. This also of course provided the public with safer access to Don Station, especially for evening theatrical productions.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Stephen Gardiner and Michael Guy

The CBC Captures TRHA support for the Railway Children Production

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CBC Canada recently produced a brief video about the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre and our support of the Railway Children production. Watch it by clicking on:

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Arts_and_Entertainment/1244504193/ID=1912531125

Click here to read the next TRHA News posting about the Railway Children Production!

Posting by Russ Milland

Weekend Report: TRHA Volunteers attend The Railway Children dress rehearsal! - Pt 2 of 2

Mirvish Productions has posted a video with excerpts from the dress rehearsal on Sunday, May 1st.

Click on the video below to watch them!

Click here to read the next TRHA News posting about the Railway Children Production!

Posting by Russ Milland

Weekend Report: TRHA Volunteers attend The Railway Children dress rehearsal! - Pt 1 of 2

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On Sunday, May 1st, TRHA volunteers and their guests attended the final dress rehearsal for the Railway Children production. Everyone we spoke to really enjoyed the show. We were most impressed with its innovative use of a really interesting stage setup.

Elsewhere this weekend, TRHA volunteers were busy on a number of other tasks:

• Rebuilding on of the Sweet Creek steam engine's injectors with new custom made springs which worked out very well. A second injector will also be so modified.
• Maintenance on the miniature Whitcomb diesel engine was completed with the engine oil changed and the drive chains, horn blocks and moving parts lubricated.
• One of the new Blue Passenger Cars was completed and the other two are in various states of completion
  

In the photos above, we find images of the T3 Steam locomotive and the GER carriage inside the theatre before and after the show. Picture taking is not allowed during the show of course.

In the pictures below, we watch the safety stops being tested with the Whitcomb #1. These are designed to automatically apply the train brakes should the engine proceed too far into the stage area. We also see the white picket fence which is erected during the show to allow the train unimpeded access during its several excursions into the theatre during the show. In the final picture at the lower right, a bicycle rental service system has been installed on the north edge of Roundhouse Park.

Click here to read part 2 of this TRHA News posting!

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Stephen Gardiner