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Doors Open - Riding the Rails on a Speeder
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Rod Wilson, a Vice-President of Track Motorcars of Ontario, has arranged each year to display at Doors Open one or more of their restored motorcars (also called 'speeders') which were used by railway staff to inspect and maintain trackage until the latter part of the century when road-going trucks with lowerable railway wheels replaced them. His group lovingly restore these motorcars and operate them on rail excursions many times during the year.
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With the installation of our operating turntable, we were able to demonstrate these motorcars on about 300 feet of track using one of spur tracks plus the length of the turntable. Rod used the museum's newly restored trailer car to pull passengers to the end of the turntable where they could disembark and the tour the roundhouse. . To learn more about rail motorcar restoration, click here. . By Russ Milland, TRHA; Pictures by Russ Milland
Doors Open at Union Station - Another Resounding Success!
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. . Doors Open 2008 at Union Station was another resounding success. There were six tours of the station on Saturday that attracted 313 people and six on Sunday with 251 people for a total of 564. In the picture at the left above, TRHA member Stephanie Holowka begins leading one of 12 tours of Union Station that were conducted over the Doors Open weekend. In the middle picture above, a tour group gazes down on the Great Hall from the spectacular vantage point on the third floor. . The displays in the Great Hall seemed to attract more attention than in past years and there were thousands of visitors who spent time looking at them. It's difficult to maintain an accurate count of all visitors since the station is so busy. There are numerous entrance points, and most people who enjoy the displays don't engage in a dialogue with us. Those who stopped were a combination of Doors Open visitors; GO, TTC and VIA travelers; employees of the TTR, GO and VIA as well those on their way to and from ball games that were passing through the Skywalk. We estimate that approximately 2,500 were engaged with Doors Open at Union Station. . There were 72 archival photos displayed on large panels, as well as five panels about the City's plans for the station and four panels illustrating GO's plans for the trainshed. The GO panels attracted much favourable attention, both for their design and the plans for the green roof. There was also much interest in the City's retail level redevelopment. In the picture at the right above, Doors Open visitors enjoy the archival display of photographs from the TRHA collection depicting the history of Union Station. . Our thanks go to the many volunteers who assisted us setting up and then manning the displays and the tours. Much appreciation is extended to those who made this possible. . by Derek Boles, TRHA; Pictures by Derek Boles
Doors Open - Our most successful so far!
   Click on each picture for a closer look! . . . TRHA Doors Open at the Roundhouse and Union Station last weekend was one of the most successful so far in our history of hosting the event in terms of the number of visitors and the quality of the displays.
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The weather was gloriously warm and sunny. Conditions were perfect for a mostly outdoor event. There was a ball game at the Rogers Centre each afternoon guaranteeing a significant number of walk-by visitors in addition to those who specifically came to visit us.
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12 tours were given of Union Station. We had photo displays in the roundhouse. People rode the turntable around. Speeder rides were given. The miniature railway ran at capacity with steam and diesel power all weekend. Newly-restored stalls 18-32 were open, as was the restoration shop in stalls 15-17. Stalls 1-3 were busy with our popular model train show and we had a "steam-up" dinner Saturday evening for members, exhibitors and volunteers for the first time.
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Many, many volunteers helped us run this very successful event. We thank them all on behalf of the TRHA and the many visitors who benefited from the experience.
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Visitor numbers are hard to track as the event space was large and we had multiple events occurring simultaneously. We did count 2,300 riders on the miniature railway over the weekend. More than 600 riders also rode the railway speeders. That sets the turntable count at something close to 4,000 people all of whom visited the roundhouse.
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Watch for further news items to follow here with further details of some of the attractions and activities.
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By Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy & Derek Boles
Sunday, May 18th - Conventioneers tour the Roundhouse and Union Station!
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. Each year, the Canadian Association of Railway Modellers (CARM http://www.caorm.org/) and the Canadian Railway Historical Association (CRHA http://www.exporail.org/ ) host a Canadian National Railway Convention. This year it was held at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. A feature of the event was a bus tour on Sunday, May 18th to the CPR Roundhouse and Union Station led by TRHA historian, Derek Boles. . In the pictures at the left, we see the conventioneers riding the newly restored turntable. A the right, they are touring the interior of the roundhouse which has now been cleaned up and prepared for restoration to be completed. . By Michael Guy, TRHA
Preparing for the National Railway Conventioneers!
   Click on each picture for a closer look!. . . . As the Victoria Day weekend approached we were busy preparing for a bus tour from the convention to the Roundhouse and Union Station. In the picture at the above left, we see our CLC 50 ton Whitcomb handsomely dsplayed on the turntable bridge with its new handrail system in place. In the middle picture, the Whitcomb is being used to move equipment around for better viewing of the roundhouse. At the right, finishing touches are being applied to the restoration of one of our lorries while another stands unrestored in the foreground. . by Russ Milland, TRHA; Photos by Michael Guy and James Rasor
This Weekend the Doors are Open at the CPR Roundhouse!
TRHA Doors Open Train Show at the CPR Roundhouse As you may be aware, things are finally proceeding at a greatly accelerated pace to develop Roundhouse Park and the CPR Roundhouse facility into the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, a new museum at the foot of the CN Tower. Again this year, the Toronto Railway Historical Society (the driving force behind the museum) will participating in the Toronto-wide Doors Open weekend by throwing the facility open to the public and holding our annual Train Show. This will happen on Saturday, May 24th and Sunday, May 25th. Public visiting hours are from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Saturday and 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. The public will be invited to tour the newly renovated roundhouse from stall 32 around to stall 18, visit (and possibly ride) the turntable, ride a miniature steam railway in the park and visit our model railway show in Steam Whistles party room in stalls 1-3. Visit both these websites for more information on the Roundhouse event: http://tinyurl.com/5b2wqshttp://www.trha.ca/doorsopen2008.html
Update on Roundhouse and Turntable Renovations!
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.Renovation work on the roundhouse has been proceeding apace recently. In photo one to the left we see the stall 23 side of the western-most brick firewall in it's original but newly cleaned state. Photo two in the middle shows work in progress (from the opposite side of the same wall) to create three new openings. The openings will be finished to match the original mill-door portals with concrete lintels. Many of the bricks are being salvaged and cleaned for re-use elsewhere in the roundhouse. Photo three shows a contractor working on the glass installation for the turntable safety railing. Visible through the glass pane is one of the floodlights for night display of a locomotive.
. On May 24th and 25th, TRHA will host Doors Open Toronto at the roundhouse. Visitors are welcome to tour the interior from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Saturday and until 3:45 p.m. Sunday. . . Visit our Doors Open listing: http://tinyurl.com/5b2wqs for more information . by Michael Guy, TRHA
A quiet weekend but progress was made!
 Click on each picture for a closer look! . . . Things were a bit quiet this last weekend with it being the weekend of Mother's Day and of Derek Boles Annual Railway Lands walk. Bob D. dropped by with a muffin for Dave W. as Bob went on to join the walk and took the picture at the left of Dave W. painting the new lorry body. Dave W. took the picture at the right of his handiwork. by Russ Millnd, TRHA
Weekly work progress report for Saturday, May 4th
   Click on each picture for a closer look! . . . . Yesterday, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre equipment restoration workshop was in action with crews working on two projects, completion of the new paint scheme on locomotive #1 and the construction of a new track maintenance cargo lorry. Photo #1 at the left shows the new look at the front of the CLC-Whitcomb locomotive, and photo #3 at the right is a view of the partially completed wooden lorry frame. Photo #2 in the middle shows a bonus item left behind by the CPR, a Rigid-brand pipe vice salvaged from the floor of a storage room, now cleaned up, painted and ready for use on the end of a workbench. . New volunteers are always welcome, whether you consider yourself skilled or not, we have an interesting project for you. Click on the button at the upper left to sign up to our TRHA discussion group where we organize our work parties. . By Michael Guy with photo credits to James Rasor
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