Toronto Railway Historical Association

Bird's Eye View of the Turntable

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Here is a view of roundhouse park that we haven't seen for quite a while. You can see the "shrink-wrapped" rolling stock clearly and the prepared areas between the turntable pit and the roundhouse.
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By Russ Milland with photos from Michael Guy

The New Spacious Machine Shop!

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This last weekend's work team had a really successful work bash yesterday thanks to Arno, Bob, Mike S. and Ron. In stall 17 we used Elwell to shift the yellow platform north just enough to clear the space needed for installation of our future caboose water and sanitary lines. After that, operations shifted to the machine shop where we successfully dismantled the old green dividing wall, swept the floor and moved *everything* in the room (just about) to re-organize it all and make as much space as we could. This process was assisted earlier in the week by the bricklayers removing the remaining dozen skids of "heritage" brick that were cluttering up the place.
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Photographer Norm Betts (whose exciting photos have been seen here before and graced the roundhouse during the 2008 Doors Open) dropped by and spent a good few hours recording the festivities. We have included a collection of his great pictures above and below. In the first picture at the left above we find myself, Ron, Mike S. and Arno. Missing in hte picture but present also was Bob D. The remaining pictures provide us with a feeling for the spaciousness that has been created by our work teams.
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By Michael Guy, TRHA with pictures by Norm Betts
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Online Donations to the TRHA Now Possible!

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The Toronto Railway Historical Association (TRHA) is primarily focused on the development of the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre in downtown Toronto as a means of capturing the rich railway history of Toronto and its surrounding communities.
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To make this happen, the TRHA is committed to raising funds in addition to current sources of funding in order to develop a truly world class museum operation with both a physical presence in downtown Toronto and a powerful virtual presence around the world through the Internet.
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We have now added a "Click to Donate" button at the upper left hand corner of every page on our website as shown above in the image of our website's home page. Clicking on this button will lead you to a donations page which will advise you on how to donate either through PAYPAL online or by sending us a cheque through the mail. We are a federally registered charitable organization and therefore will provide tax receipts for all donations of $25.00 or more.
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By Russ Milland, TRHA

Safely Storing Our 10 Ton Overhead Crane!

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The roundhouse included a 10 ton overhead crane originally installed in stall 12. It is shown in the picture at the upper left. Last weekend, a TRHA crew moved the crane carriage and hoist into the machine shop for safe storage during the construction phase of the roundhouse redevelopment. This was accomplished using the museum's original CPR Elwell-Parker mobile crane and a forklift loaned by our friends Cam and Greg at Steam Whistle Brewing. The other two pictures show the crane in its new location.
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Text and pictures by Michael Guy, TRHA

Laying Down Foundations for our Historic Structures!

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The project to restore three of our historic Toronto railway structures - the John Street Crossing Keepers House, Cabin D and the Cabin D Tool Shed (now stored in and behind the roundhouse) - has now begun. In preparation for their being moved to new locations in Roundhouse Park, construction of new foundations for them has now started.
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In the picture at left, we can see a backhoe working on the excavation of the foundation pit for Cabin D. In the foreground of this picture is the foundation for the John Street Crossing Keepers House. In the middle picture we see the foundation for the Cabin D Tool Shed. In the picture at the right, we have closer look at the excavation underway for the Cabin D foundation showing the construction of the original park earthworks on top of the roof of the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) underground parking lot. The white styrofoam blocks seen in this picture were used to reduce the soil weight on this roof when the parking lot was built.
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News by Russ Milland; Photos by Michael Guy

Continuing Restoration of the Roundhouse - Part 2

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Last week, work also began on the concrete supports for the wooden posts that hold the roundhouse locomotive doors open.
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By Michael Guy, TRHA

Continuing Restoration of the Roundhouse - Part 1

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Contractors continue to work on the restoration of the interior of the roundhouse. Here are some pictures of work being undertaken last week.
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In the picture at left, scaffolding was erected on Thursday to allow remedial work on the end wall of stall 32. The brick will be re-pointed, the windows repaired and the roof edge flashing replaced.
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In the picture to the left of the middle, we see that inside the roundhouse, on Wednesday and Thursday a contracting team vacuumed, washed and generally cleaned out all the old water passages, drains and sumps. The large driving-wheel drop pit was drained and now has been cleaned out. This pit will be closed with a steel lid and concrete cap, everything within will be left in place.

In the picture at the right of middle, the floor between stalls 18 and 26 has been opened up to allow installation of new storm and sanitary drains. In addition to this, in the picture to the right, the original 1929 clay tile drains between the service pits are deteriorated and are to be replaced.
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By Michael Guy, TRHA

Cutting Ties for the Miniature Railway!

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The miniature railway planned for Roundhouse Park will require many wooden ties once we assemble the track. On Saturday, a nine-man TRHA team set up two workstations and in three hours cut over 1,700 new ties.
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The picture at the left shows the work area at the halfway point. In the middle picture, we find Ron, Wilson and Lance (left to right) operate a cutting station. Eight foot long landscaping "mini ties" were cut down to nineteen inch long "even more mini" ties for the railway. In the picture at right, Arno, Michael G. and Mike S. take a short break and discuss what is next.
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By Michael Guy; Photos by James Rasor

Cleaning Up the Machine Shop!

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On Wednesday this week, a team of TRHA volunteers undertook to clear a big chunk of the roundhouse machine shop floor space. Mostly this consisted of using a forklift to move skid loads of "Heritage Bricks", saved from the demolished CPR stores building, into a less useful room.
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In the picture at left, Dave W. drives the fork truck directed by Arno. In the other pictures, Wilson and Michael celebrate after sweeping the floor of debris. TRHA thanks our friends at Steam Whistle Brewing for the loan of the forklift.
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By Michael Guy; Photos by Lance Gleitch