Click on each picture for a closer look!
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On December 23rd, Orin Krivel, Glenn Garwood, John Mellow, Don Loucks and Derek Boles visited Murison Restoration in Oakville. Tom Murison specializes in the restoration of heritage buildings and is responsible for the four wooden structures being restored for the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. These include the Don Station, the Cabin D interlocking tower, the Cabin D tool shed (sometimes known as "Baby D") and the watchman's shanty.
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The latter two structures were moved to Oakville and inside the Murison workshop so that restoration can be carried out over the winter months. As much as possible, original materials are being used but much new wood is required as all four buildings are well over 100 years old and have received minimal maintenance in the last several decades.
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The pictures above provide highlights of what the group experienced:
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1. TRHC heritage consultant Don Loucks and Orin Krivel inspect the watchman's shanty.
2. Tom Murison, Don Loucks and Orin Krivel discuss the restoration of the watchman's shanty. Notice the beautiful new cedar ceiling installed by Murison Restoration.
3. Orin and Tom inspect one of the windows restored for the rounded turret on the Don Station.
4. Some of the window frames restored for the watchman's shanty.
5. Tom uses wood strips to demonstrate how the floor of the Don Station will be restored given the haphazard job that was used to separate the building at its original location south of Queen Street in 1969 to prepare for the move to Todmorden.
6. Tom demonstrates the contraption he built for the painting and staining of the hundreds of shingles that will be attached to the outside of these structures.
7. The side of the Cabin D tool shed originally located west of Bathurst Street. In stripping the building, Tom has determined that the structure caught fire on at least four different occasions over the years.
8. The restored and varnished floor inside the watchman's shanty. The stains on the lower half of the floor are from the TRHA gang tramping through the structure soon after crossing a snowy parking lot.

Photos and story by Derek Boles