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More progress on Restoration of the 50 Ton Whitcomb
   . . . . . . . Click on the pictures for a closer view! . Our crews of volunteers have been busy restoring the surfaces of the locomotive and applying the grey primer paint to it. Once this has been completed, we will move on to painting and lettering the locomotive's body as the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre's Locomotive #1. . by Russ Milland, TRHC
TRHC Website: "Collections" pages updated!
The Locomotives and the Freight Car sections in the Collections area of the TRHA website have been updated. Biographies and pictures of the CLC Whitcomb and the CPR Baldwin have been added to the Locomotives area. Click here to read them.The biographies of the TH&B Caboose and the Fowler Box Car in the Freight Car section have been updated based on new information made available to us recently. Click here to read them.
Announcing the acquisition of a new artifact!
   Click on each picture for a closer look! .
The Toronto Railway Historical Association is pleased to announce the acquisition of a significant new artifact for the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre Archives. It is a hand coloured architectural rendering of Toronto's 1890s Union Station expansion and was acquired through the generosity of TRHA President Orin Krivel. . The rendering was originally published in the July 28, 1894 issue of American Architect and Building News. This periodical had a very small circulation at the time and original copies of this rendering are extremely rare. It measures 17.5 by 13.25 inches and has been painstakingly tinted by hand. Although a similar view has been published in various books about Toronto history, TRHA Historian Derek Boles has never seen a rendering of this quality. It appears to surpass the quality of similar renderings belonging to the City of Toronto Archives and the Toronto Public Library. Once the artifact is conserved and properly mounted, we hope to display it publicly, perhaps at the Christmas Train Show or during Doors Open at Union Station in May 2008. . by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian
The ToRyHeritage Group Celebrates its 5th Birthday!
September 12, 2007 marked the fifth anniversary of the ToRyHeritage Yahoo group and, no, it's not about the current leader of the provincial Conservative party. . The Toronto Railway Heritage group was created in 2002 to provide a forum for the discussion of the history of Canadian railways, with a focus on southern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. The group was created and is moderated by TRHA Historian Derek Boles, who posts a daily email describing important historical events in Toronto's transportation history that occurred on that day in the past. . Those who are not specifically railway enthusiasts but curious about Toronto's history will also find the group of interest. Here are a couple of entries from September 10, for example: . September 10, 1860:. His Royal Highness, Edward, the Prince of Wales rides a special Northern Railway of Canada train from Toronto to Collingwood and back. The train departed from the amphitheater at the foot of John St., built for the prince's arrival in Toronto three days earlier. The amphitheater and an elaborately decorated arch were designed by William Storm, architect of the Great Western station at the foot of Yonge St. Storm was an architectural partner of Frederick Cumberland, managing director of the NRC, who assumed responsibility for most of the prince's activities while he was in Toronto. The NRC shops built a special open observation car for the Royal Train, which attained the then unheard of speed of 55 mph on its return trip between King and Davenport.. September 10, 1978:. The Discovery Train arrives in Toronto for a week long visit as part of a cross-Canada tour promoting federal unity. The train was displayed at a siding behind the Shopper's World plaza at Victoria Park and Danforth Avenues. 55,000 visitors passed through the 14 exhibit cars showcasing Canada's history and development over the years. Several of the cars featured moving sidewalks to speed visitors through the train, a feature not appreciated by some. The exhibit cars had been purchased from the U.S., where they had made up the Freedom Train that toured the United States during the 1976 Bicentennial. The cost of the train was shared by the federal and provincial governments, except for Quebec, which was run by Rene Levesque's Parti Quebecois at the time. CP and CN moved the train around the country at no charge to the promoters.. For people concerned about excessive email traffic, ToRyHeritage is a quiet list, with usually only one email a day. In order to reduce spamming, new members are required to indicate why they want to join the group before being approved by the moderator. Note that ToRyHeritage is separate from the TRHA Yahoo group, which is specifically for the discussion of the TRHA organization and the establishment of the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre at the John Street Roundhouse. . Please consider joining ToRyHeritage at: . http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ToRyHeritage/. By Derek Boles, TRHA Historian
Refurbishing of the Whitcomb Begins
  . . . . . Click on the pictures for a closer look! . . This past week a TRHA team got started on repairing and repainting the CLC-Whitcomb locomotive. Over Friday and Saturday we fixed all the broken or missing windows, cleaned the mouse nests out of the cab and repainted the exterior of the frame and trucks below the deck level. .
Cranks and side rods were painted red for visibility and the tires white just because we like that look. Since the engine will be on static display for a couple of months, we made the headlights and cab interior light work on 110V. The engine hoods and cab will be repainted as time allows over the next couple of weeks.
. Photo credits go to Bob Dickson for the picture at the above left and to Michael Guy for the picture at the above right. . By Michael Guy, TRHA
September 30th Open House at Don Station
   . . Click on each picture for a closer look!
On Sunday, September 30, the Toronto Railway Historical Association will be hosting another open house at the Don Station at Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum and Arts Centre from 12 NOON to 5 PM. in Toronto. . The Canadian Pacific Railway opened Don in 1896. The station was originally located on the west bank of the Don River south of Queen Street. In 1906 the Canadian Northern Railway began using Don, as did their successor Canadian National after World War I. Following World War II, Don declined in importance as a passenger station although it continued to issue train orders for both CP and CN trains until the station was closed in 1967. In 1969 the Don Station was moved to the Todmorden Museum. It is the City of Toronto's intention, with TRHA support, to move Don to Roundhouse Park, where it will be incorporated into the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre.
. The TRHA has prepared a display of sixty photographs that will be displayed inside the station. This display depicts the history of railways in the Don Valley, as well as some other facilities so as to give the little station some context.
. TRHA President Orin Krivel and Historian Derek Boles will be in attendance. We are thrilled that former Don Station operator John Mellow will be joining us for the day. John was an operator at the station in its final years at the original Queen St. site. In the middle picture above we see John operating in the station in 1965. In the picture at the right , we see John assuming the same position in the station at our last open house on July 1st, 2007. Click on the Archive entry at the left for "07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007" and then scroll down to the "07/20/2007 - TRHA Celebrates Canada Day at Don Station" news item for more information on the last open house. . Information on the Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum and directions on how to get there can be found at:
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100th Anniversary Celebration in Goderich on September 15th, 2007
Come & celebrate railway history on September 15th, 2007 in Goderich, Ontario .
Share with us the 100th anniversary of the CPR bridge and the railway station (1907-2007) with ceremonies, bands, clowns, operating garden railway, heritage walks, railway artifacts, lantern workshop & procession and the BIA "Health and Harvest Festival" in the square. Prizes for participating and for dressing in period clothing! . For more information call Tourism Goderich at 519-524-6600, email specialevents@goderich.ca or visit http://www.goderich.ca/ and follow the What's Happening link to the September 15th calendar entry for this event. Click on the calendar entry for thsi event for a detailed schedule. . by Andrew Jeanes, TRHA
Destruction of historic GTR bridge abutment
   
Click on any picture for a closer look!
. I'm saddened to report the destruction of what may have been the oldest archeological artifact in the city of Toronto associated with the railway era.
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When the Grand Trunk Railway first began operating between Montreal and Toronto in October 1856, they had not yet completed a bridge over the Don River. The bridge was opened to traffic in early 1857 when the GTR was extended westward to a station at Bay and Front Streets. .
Although the bridge itself was later replaced, the original stone abutments remained in use until the present Canadian National line was relocated about fifty feet south onto a new bridge in the 1920s. .
The 1857 center pier was removed, but the east and west abutments remained in place. Most of the east abutment was removed to permit construction of the Don Valley Parkway in the early 1960s. The surviving abutment on the west bank of the Don River was difficult to see except from a speeding car making the curve from the southbound DVP onto the westbound Gardiner Expressway.
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The only way that one could get close to it was on the Don bicycle trail that was closed in 2005 for reconstruction. The bicycle trail reopened this summer and it appears that the 1857 stone bridge abutment was demolished exactly 150 years after it was built. Some of the individual stones appear to have been redistributed around the site in a clumsy attempt at landscaping.
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In recent years, Torontonians have witnessed several instances where the city's heritage is obliterated, either through lack of interest or simple ignorance. Several hectares on the west bank of the Don River have been closed off and inaccessible in the last couple of years, so it was impossible to monitor what was going on in that area.
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When the city demolished the eastern extension of the Gardiner some years ago, several of the abutments supporting the elevated structure were retained and incorporated into the landscaping along Lakeshore Boulevard. It's sad that this couldn't have been done with the remaining remnants of the 1957 Grand Trunk bridge over the Don River.
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The picture at the left above shows the bridge shortly after it was built in 1857. The view is looking north so the western abutment is on the left. The two pictures above in the middle were taken by me from the bicycle trail in 2003. These show the remains of the east abutment underneath the DVP.
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The picture at the right shows the recently demolished west abutment.
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By Derek Boles, TRHA
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