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TRHA Historian Derek Boles spends much time on eBay monitoring items for auction related to Toronto railway history. It's not often that items come up related to the John St. Roundhouse but this postcard appeared a couple of weeks ago and Derek was able to purchase it for the archives.

The postcard is based on a photograph that was apparently taken from the top of the Toronto Terminal grain elevator that was located at the foot of Peter Street from 1928 to 1983. The photograph itself became a postcard that many have seen, but this is the first time that Derek has found one in colour. There's a date penciled in at the back of 1945, perhaps by the person who bought it, but that's meaningless because postcards were sometimes sold for decades after they were published.

One clue for researchers is the Toronto skyline. One can just make out the Canadian Bank of Commerce building peeking out from behind (and peaking up above) the Royal York Hotel, which it supplanted as the tallest building in the city. What is now Commerce Court North opened in January 1931. A further clue is provided by the number of stalls in the Roundhouse. When John St. opened in October 1929, it had 28 stalls. By June 1931, that had been increased to 32 stalls, the present configuration of the Roundhouse. The postcard shows the earlier configuration. Also, the Passenger Car Repair Shop (now the north side of Bremner Blvd.) immediately north of the Roundhouse, appears to be still under construction since scaffolding can be made out on the side of the building. Therefore, one can conclude that the photograph upon which the postcard is based was probably taken in late 1930 or early 1931.

One mystery remains and that's the longitudinal structure with the red roof at the bottom of this view just to the east of John St. The building is on the north side of the Canadian National High Line, used by the railway so their freight trains could bypass Union Station and avoid paying a wheelage fee to the Toronto Terminals railway. Perhaps it's a CN structure and not related to the Roundhouse.

by Derek Boles, TRHA

Most of you are aware that Toronto Union Station has long been a popular venue for the filming of movies, television shows, commercials and music videos. Partly this is due to the monumental scale of the photogenic Great Hall, used to great effect in the 1976 comedy/thriller "Silver Streak," starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.

In recent years, many movies have been filmed in the mostly unoccupied west wing of Union Station. Since this space is not familiar to the general public, it's often not easy to identify the location when viewing these films. In the 2006 crime drama "16 Blocks," starring Bruce Willis, the third floor of the west wing was used to represent a New York City police station. Evidence of the filming still exists with NYPD decals attached to various doors and others labeled in black letters indicating NARCOTICS and COMMUNITY AFFAIRS.

Part of the attraction of this venue for Hollywood producers has to do with the fact that the third floor still retains its basic 1920 configuration with a long hallway and long abandoned architectural features such as transoms over the doorways. The most popular attraction for Hollywood, however, is the fact that the third floor of the west wing is an otherwise publicly inaccessible huge space where the filmmakers can work undisturbed.

The most recent movie to be filmed there is "Talk To Me," which has already been released in selected American cities and will be opening in Toronto on July 27. The movie stars Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as a 1960s ex-convict who becomes a popular disk jockey at a Washington R&B radio station at the time of the U.S. race riots that followed the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. The film has received positive reviews and is based on a true story.

Cheadle's character Petey Greene is generally regarded as one of the first talk radio "shock jocks" that have become so popular in recent years. The movie also stars Martin Sheen (U.S. President Josiah Bartlet in the ironically titled West Wing television series) as the beleaguered manager of radio station WOL. Sheen's office in the movie was filmed inside a former Canadian Pacific Railway vice president's office that still has the initials WOL prominently displayed on the doorway.

All of these venues, by the way, can be seen on our monthly public tours of Union Station, the next of which will be held on July 28, 2007.

by Derek Boles, TRHA

Michael Guy and Russ Milland visited the premises of Western Mechanical to check out progress on restoration of the turntable bridge on July 3rd and again on July 10th. In the centre picture above, Michael admires the sandbalsting job that has been completed as of July 10th on all surfaces of the turntable bridge. As seen in the picture at left, the bridge is now wrapped to protect the bridge from the elements. The next step is a formal technical inspection of the bridge to determine exactly what must done to it to restore it.

In the picture at the right, we see one of the air motor assemblies used to rotate the turntable. They have all been thoroughly cleaned by Western Mechanical. Close inspection by Russ and Michael revealed that they were in excellent condition with only minor issues with corrosion. This was very welcome news.

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by Russ Milland, Director - TRHA

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Most Tuesdays during July and August, TRHA Board members Michael Guy and Russ Milland volunteer as engineer and fireman respectively to operate the passenger train on a railway which once claimed to be the world's smallest commercial passenger hauling railway. This was the Huntsville and Lake of Bays railway and it was all of 1 and 1/8 miles long connecting the steamboats on Lake of Bays to those on Peninsula Lake. It operated from 1905 to 1959. The current operation runs from the Muskoka Heritage Place in Huntsville to Fairy Lake with railway stations at either end. As can be seen in the pictures above, the restored steam engine and original passenger cars provide a wonderful open air ride. Also pictured above is Michael Guy, the engineer, showing the steam engine cab to young visitors and offering them pennies which have been squashed by the steam engine. Click on the pictures for a closer view.

For more information re location and operating hours, click here.

For more about the Society who brought the railway back to life and the story of the railway click here.