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Each year, the TRHA, in partnership with the Toronto Live Steamers and the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers, brings a miniature railway operation to the fabulous Milton Steam Era event over Labour Day weekend at the Milton Fairgounds in the heart of Milton, Ontario.
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Thanks to a grand total of ten volunteers on site from these groups , the portable railway track set up at Milton fairground was executed in record time this morning. After a slightly earlier start than planned at 8:30 we were essentially done with track laying by 10:30. That beats our previous time by two hours!

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If you have never been to see this show, we highly recommend it for anyone interested in steam tractors and antique farm machinery. There are all sorts of interesting exhibits. A highlight are the more than a dozen massive steam tractors and the twice daily parades by the grandstand. Also featured is tractor pulling with everything from massive steam ploughing engines to lawn mowers.

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For more information, visit http://www.steam-era.com/

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By Michael Guy and Russ Milland

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In our final installment of this "tale of five bridges", we visit a bridge which is a road bridge BUT involves the use of rails and once again the innovative folks at Western Mechanical.
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As a young teenager I watched as they built the original four lane Dundas Highway #5 bridge over the deep gorge above 16 Mile Creek just west of what is now Neyagawa Boulevard in Oakville. I recall the thrill riding in a World War II Snorkel equipped bulldozer through the pools in the creek below with the construction company owner's son at the controls.
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The challenge with the new bridge was to minimize the disruption of traffic as the next nearest bridges were a significant distance away. So they built the concrete piers with steel beams sticking out their south side. They then bolted steel beams with rail on top of them to the south end of these piers as shown in the rightmost picture above. On the original bridge, they borrowed a bit of the south side of the roadway for a surface on which to lay the second track as shown in the middle photograph.
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Now they could deliver the concrete beams to the jobsite and simply place them on the ground as shown in the picture at the left above. Then Western Mechanical again used a “linear crane” as shown to lift the beams one at a time and move them into place without any disruption to traffic.
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By Russ Milland, TRHA

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In the last two installments of our "tale of five bridges" we spoke to the turntable bridge at the CPR Roundhouse and the new bridge over the Credit River as part of the expansion of the CPR's mainline to three tracks. This effort required the construction of a further two bridges. One was at the crossing over Southdown Road which was a fairly straightforward bridge development.
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A bit more interesting is the third bridge at 16 Mile Creek just West of Trafalgar Road and the Oakville GO/VIA Station. The original bridge is shown in the picture at the upper left taken from a point south of the bridge which is a great spot for train watching. It shows the original span and the original stone pillars. In the middle picture taken from a point west of the bridge looking east, we see the grading for the third track at the left of the current two tracks and the concrete bridge platform for the third track at the left in the distance. In the picture at the upper right, we see one of the stone towers from the south. The new part of each stone tower was actually built many years ago to support the second track. It allowed for the installation of deck beams to support the third track, allowing for quite an economical track expansion.
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By Russ Milland, TRHA

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Thanks to Jesse Woods for these pictures of the actual move. The caboose and the tender were moved on August 18th while the engine itself was moved on August 20th. Western Mechanical, the company that restored our turntable, were engaged to make the move happen.
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By Russ Milland, TRHA

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As reported in the Barrie Examiner (http://www.barrieadvance.com/barrieadvance/article/114015): "Built in Quebec, this 1910 steam engine was used by CN Railway until the late 1950s; it was stationed in Allandale and served many Simcoe County communities. Donated by CN to the city in 1960, the engine has been on Lakeshore Drive ever since. A high fence was eventually erected to protect the artifact from vandalism and graffiti. The caboose was added in 1995."

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The train set had to be moved to make way for sewer construction which is currently underway at the site. It was decided that the most appropriate move would be to the Simcoe County Museum. Moving the locomotive isn't straightforward, as the engine's boiler jacket and some piping insulation contain asbestos. The cost to remove the asbestos is expected to cost $75,000, while the cost to move the engine is estimated at $89,000.

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At the Simcoe County Museum this equipment will undergo extensive restoration, a process which is expected to last approximately two years. When the restoration work is complete the pieces will be on public display at the Museum. The City of Barrie will maintain ownership of these pieces and has partnered with the Simcoe County Museum to restore and house this important collection. For more details read the Simcoe County Museum's press release at their website: http://www.museum.simcoe.ca/

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By Russ Milland, TRHA

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The TRHA was invited to participate in the 2nd annual Customer Appreciation Day & Charity BBQ at George's Trains Markham store. TRHA president Orin Krivel and Derek Boles decided to attend the event and hoist the TRHA flag. VP Michael Guy and Dave Wetherald also came by to promote the museum and recruit new members. The photograph at the right shows our display that was set up in the back end of the store. In the second picture, I caught another view of El Presidente contemplating more additions to his vast collection of rail books.

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In addition to the plethora of visitors who came by, we were amused by the CN freight traffic that regularly passes by the store. Unfortunately heavy rains began an hour after the event began and I was unable to take more photographs. However, a good time was had by all.

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By Derek Boles, TRHA

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Thanks to Bruce Reynolds, we have an eyewitness account of the installation of the new Credit Rover bridge span described in our last news entry.

"The above photos were taken near the end of the seven hour operation to install the bridge. To minimize impact on rail traffic it was installed during the night. The entire operation took place between 1:00 am and 8:00 am, quite a feat. The budget for this bridge was eleven million dollars.
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The building of this bridge is a unique undertaking as this is the first time a railway bridge has been built using this method. The main span was constructed on the west side of the river and on the north side of the mainline. It is a Deck Truss Span and measures 20 feet wide and 22 feet high, and 143 feet long. The span weighs 330 tons.

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When completed it was moved by equipment rollers and beams onto four heavy equipment flat cars on the mainline. It was then rolled out onto the existing bridge and again using beams and the equipment rollers it was moved between two towers constructed for the installation at each end. Once moved between the towers it was attached to them and lowered into place on the base. Concrete trays will be placed across the top, a total of 24, each weighing 20 thousand pounds. The rails will then be laid across these trays. The expected completion is the end of August with some finishing work to be completed by October 2008.
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One of the CN Engineers told me that this bridge was built to be repairable if required, and could easily last two hundred years."
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Text and Pictures by Bruce Reynolds

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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As you may be aware, Go Transit has been the driving force behind one of the rare expansions of trackage within the Toronto area. To accommodate this expansion, the Canadian National Railways (CN) are adding a third track to the Lakeshore West route from Port Credit to Kerr Street in Oakville. As part of this expansion, bridges need to be added or expanded to accommodate this.
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In the picture at the above left above, we see the 330 ton steel girder bridge which a pair of CN bridge building teams have assembled beside the track to the west of the existing Credit River Bridge. This bridge is assembled using over 35,000 bolts. In order to place it into position, CN will also use "linear cranes" to move the bridge up and over the existing track, pacing the bridge on a train of four flat cars. These flat cars will then be moved into position on the existing bridge where additional "linear cranes" will be used to lift, move and then drop the bridge onto the piers constructed to hold them.
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This will all be accomplished tonight between the passing of the last Go Train in the wee hours (about 1:00 a.m.) of Sunday morning, August 11th and the start of Go Train service through Port Credit about 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.
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More information on this and other expansion projects is available at http://www.gotransit.com/
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By Russ Milland

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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One of the first bridge projects we will highlight here was of course the restoration of our turntable bridge which has been well documented here. This restoration featured the use of an innovative approach by the Western Mechanical firm to move the completed bridge into position. In the pictures above, we again view their use of a "linear crane" to lift and move our 76 ton turntable bridge into position without the use of traditional crane technology.
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This is the tale of the first bridge!
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By Russ Milland, TRHA

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PNR Rail Services has been busy recently, preparing the rail ends at the locomotive stall entrances for connection to new rails to the turntable and new ties are being bolted down in a circle on top of the pit rim concrete.

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by Michael Guy

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It was a great day yesterday at the Roundhouse. We made really good progress moving items to the machine shop and finishing the second lorry. The real bonus was all the help that turned out - Dave, Mark, Wilson, James G, Lance and James R. all showed up.

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While Dave worked on lorry #2, the rest of the crew began to organize and move the items from the TRHA stalls to the machine shop. We had really good traffic going back and forth. Perimeters were cleared and we are pretty well down to big stuff, the work table items, and the South West corner . We even got a garbage run in. Everybody is a little daunted by the remaining hallenge in the South West corner but we gave it a good go today. Wilson re-invented the wheel and James R moved the boxcar.

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by James Rasor