Toronto Railway Historical Association

The CLC Whitcomb regains its voice!!

On a recent trip to Poland to take advantage of the opportunity to drive some of the few remaining steam engines still in daily service, Michael Guy of the TRHA acquired a diesel air horn which he recently installed on our CLC Whitcomb which had been missing its horn. Click on button in the centre of the picture above at the right to listen to its distinct tone.

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by Russ Milland, TRHA

Laying Track in Roundhouse Park .....

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Last Friday, PNR Rail Services continued to lay track albeit with a couple of hitches in the program. First the big loader blew a tire necessitating a visit by a large crane-equipped tire repair vehicle after which everything was fine until the loader ran out of fuel! With these delays we only managed a panel and a half of track laid instead of the three planned. Track work continued today. During the delay periods, TRHA volunteers put in some turntable maintenance time. We removed an air motor steam-chest cover to free one stuck slide-valve that was blowing to exhaust, preventing motor #1 from running and connected the foot-brake rigging. This last item makes it much easier to stop the table in the right spot as we can now stand on the pedal (it takes that much force!) to engage a drum brake to prevent the motor from moving the table that last inch or two as the air pressure runs out.

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by Michael Guy, TRHA

Shrinkwrapping is the answer ........

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The TRHA need to move some of our collection of engines and rolling stock to new tracks being installed by PNR Rail Services in Roundhouse Park using the turntable. This will allow restoration of the interior of the roundhouse to proceed without impediment. Last week, contractors began the process of shrink wrapping this equipment as you can see in the pictures above. Thanks to David Wetherald for allowing us to use his pictures to share this story with you.

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by Russ Milland

The Turntable is Put to Work! - Part 2

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Click on the button in the centre of the picture above to watch our CLC Whitcomb in action moving the Baldwin switcher to its new location as we begin the process mentioned in our last news post of moving the rolling stock collection to temporary locations to allow the restoration of the roundhouse interior to proceed unhindered. Our thanks go to Dave Wetherald for making his video of the action available online.
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by Russ Milland, TRHA

The turntable is put to work! - Part 1

Click on each picture for a closer look!

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Today, on a sunny and balmy -10C Toronto day, a TRHA crew, assisted by a PNR Rail Services track crew, moved the Baldwin 7069 to a new temporary home in front of Steam Whistle Brewing. The 1951-built CLC-Whitcomb locomotive worked hard to tow a reluctant 1948-built 7069 which had not moved more than its own length in a good many years.

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by Michael Guy, TRHA

Where did those GO Transit FP7's go?

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On May 27, 1967, GO Transit began its first day of service on the lakeshore corridor serving Toronto and its environs. In the picture at the upper left, provided by John Vincent, we see GP40TC #607 pulling one of that day's trains. GO also employed FP7's in that era. On a recent visit to the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish Florida, I found a refugee hidden in the back of the yard, ex GO Transit FP7 locomotive #904.

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The same museum also has two Alco RS3 locomotives, one of which is used regularly on their excursion train. On display at the Parrish end of thirteen miles of track is ex CNR sleeper-lounge car CAPE TORMENTINE. Built in 1954 by Pullman-Standard (Chicago) for the Canadian National Railways, Cape Tormentine ran between Chicago and Toronto and is now available for sale or trade. Visit http://www.fgcrrm.org/ for more information on this railway museum."

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by Michael Guy, TRHA

The Wheel Pit Archeological Project- Part 2

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In the picture at the left, (from left to right) Knox, Arno and Michael try to figure out "what next" when the cover wouldn't come out. In the middle photo above, Knox (left) and Arno (right) work at prying up a wooden pit cover that lacked a pull ring. In the photo at right, (from left ot right) Bob, Arno (in blue hat), Dave and Michael successfully raise the first bridge rail. These are made from two rails placed base-flange to base-flange then rivetted together and have a special cast shoe at each end to form a sliding support. One rail was marked "Lackawanna 1921" another was dated 1929 - the year the roundhouse was built.

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Pictures by Jason Pelton; Text by Michael Guy

The Wheel Pit Archeological Project- Part 1!

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Yesterday, a TRHA crew took on a little industrial archaeological project in the roundhouse. The two remaining wheel drop pits will eventually be filled in so in anticipation of this we decided to document what we could while also salvaging those parts we need for a new wheel pit in the museum space. The rails over the pits were arranged to slide sideways to allow wheel and axle assemblies to be dropped from steam locomotives. We found out today that these bridge rails are retained by wedges and cotter pins not apparently disturbed in a great many years. Removing just four of these to free up two bridge rails took the better part of three hours of cleaning, hammering and tweaking with pry-bars. Thanks to Dave W., Arno M., Jason P., Bob D., and Knox H., for a great effort. Further work to complete the documentation process will continue in the next weeks.

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by Michael Guy, TRHA