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In preparation for the imminent move of #6213 to the Roundhouse, a volunteer crew recently removed the connecting rod, eccentric crank, radius rod and union link from the right-hand side of our CNR Nothern 4-8-4 locomotive.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Grant Kingsland & Michael Guy

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Further to yesterday's news item on the coaling tower interior, today we are posting pictures of the roundhouse area as viewed from the coaling tower. In the picture at the upper left, we see that Cabin D, the Watchman's Shanty (wrapped in white plastic) and Don Station are now in their final positions. In the remaining pictures, we have a fine view of the work being undertaken by PNR Railworks to grade the area between the turntable and the roundhouse and the start of their track laying.
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Posting by Russ Milland
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As reported in an earlier news posting, the Coaling Tower is being stabilized through an extensive repair and maintenance program. This has allowed for access to document the state of the interior. Here we share some photos of what was found.
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In the picture at left above, we have a view of the coaling tower's east side. In the middle picture, we view the machine house's east side which is now uncovered showing the machinery doors and the hoisting beam. In the picture above at the right, we see the concrete reinforcing rod exposed prior to a new layer of concrete being added underneath the tower.

In the picture at the lower left below, we find the coal-hoist bucket chain. The coal originally moved up on the left and empty buckets came down on the right. In the middle picture below, we see the bucket-chain return sheave showing the coal bin delivery chutes on the right. Finally, in the lower left photo below, we see north side interior of the machine house, showing the bucket chain drive motor, gearbox and drive-chain guard (in the red 'box').
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Posting by Russ Milland
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Jane's Walk is a series of free neighbourhood walking tours that honour the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs. The walks tend to be smaller and more personalized than the more formal Heritage Toronto and ROM Walks. This year the walks are being held on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3.
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Derek Boles is leading a walk called Toronto's Lost Railway Heritage on Saturday May 2 at 11 AM. Everyone will meet at the northwest corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, one block east of Yonge Street.
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Many Torontonians are familiar with Derek's tours of Union Station and Heritage Toronto walks through the Railway Lands. This walk is a little different in that it looks at traces of Toronto's railway heritage that are away from the tracks. Since many of the buildings and facilities that he will describe are long gone, he will have a specially prepared view book showing what these sites looked like during the railway era.
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The walk is described as follows:
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"In the 19th century the railways were the most important commercial industry in Toronto. Many of the city's most significant railway facilities and sites were located north of Front Street. For example, Queen and Yonge Streets, where our walk begins, was the site of the Toronto Locomotive Works, and the first steam locomotive manufactured in Canada was built there in 1853. We'll hear about these sites, as well as some of the banks, hotels and office buildings with a railway connection, as we explore the downtown area looking at traces of Toronto's Lost Railway Heritage."
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Visit the Jane's Walk Website for more information and to register for the walk.
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You can also find a Google Map of the route by clicking here or by entering the name of the walk - Toronto Lost Railway Heritage - into Google Maps.

The TRHA has been often asked if they have a guide for the rail fan who plans to visit Toronto and the surrounding area. Derek Boles, our TRHA historian, has produced just such a guide. .
It is now available to you simply by clicking on the link below and either opening it up for viewing as a PDF (and then printing it or saving it to your computer) or for downloading and saving directly to your computerf or future reference or printing it so that you can take it with you. Right clicking and downloading the document has been tested on the three major browsers - Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firfox and Apple Safari.
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The guide will also be available shortly from a new "Resources" section on our website as well.
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RailfanGuide.pdf
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Posted by Russ Milland, TRHA

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Six volunteers formed this week's Saturday work team today. A number of our volunteers were away enjoying the railway excursion in Guelph which was announced in an earlier news posting. We were able to clean up and get a first coat of paint on the engine space of the Elwell-Parker crane. This is possible because the engine itself has been removed (see picture above) and has been sent away for some long-overdue maintenance work.
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Meanwhile, others worked on our miniature locomotive. The cylinder lubricator is now piped up, the boiler insulation is in place and the boiler jacket installed. In the picture above, we see that the locomotive is looking great as it nears completion.
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Story and Pictures by Michael Guy

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The Toronto Locomotive Preservation Society (TLPS) have been caring for #6213 since she was donated to the City of Toronto by the CNR. They reported today that locomotive #6213's tender was successfully separated and moved a few inches away from the locomotive. This is significant because today marks the first time this preserved locomotive has turned any wheel in forty-nine years. In May the engine will make the journey from Exhibition Place to the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre at the John St Roundhouse.
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In the photo at the left above, we see a tender wheel showing a rusty unpainted mark after it was rolled a few inches. The next photo shows unpainted marks where the tender (left side) has moved to the left, allowing the spring-loaded chafing plate to extend further towards the loco cab (on the right side). In the final photo at the right, we see a part of the locomotive never seen other than by maintenance crews - the lower universal joint of the (coal) stoker screw drive. Here, the pivot pin has been removed allowing the tender to part it from the locomotive.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Grant Kingsland of the TLPS

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Further to our last news posting here are some photos of the TRHA crew using our Whitcomb switcher to move rolling stock around to make it possible for PNR Railworks to continue to lay the trackwork in Roundhouse Park.
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Below you will find pictures documenting the rapid progress that PNR is making to lay down the radial tracks leading from the turntable to the roundhouse doors.
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Story by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich & Michael Guy
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Last Friday, Wilson and I were the duty crew all day coordinating with the PNR Railworks
crew who are reconstructing the radial tracks connecting the turntable to the roundhouse. All 32 tracks are being replaced using original 100 pound "T" head rail but with new steel ties and pandrol clips.
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The three major pieces of equipment that PNR Railworks are using for track laying are a tamper (see photos above) to tamp down the ballast to provide a firm base for the track, a special dump truck (see
.photos above and below) to place the ballast properly and a truck to unload the steel ties and rails (see photos below).
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The morning got off to a slow start but activity picked up after lunch as we loaded the ballast tamping machine and a "hy-railer" dump truck from temporary track #1 to the turntable bridge. This sounds easy but it meant moving engine #7020 using engine #1 to one end of the turntable bridge first, loading the tamper, spinning the whole thing 180 degrees, then offloading the two locomotives back onto temporary track #1. PNR Railworks foreman Joe Vaz then drove the dump truck "cross-country" over the tracks to get to the truntable bridge. Once there its rail wheels were lowered into place.
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Next week when ballasting starts the turntable bridge will be used to transfer the dump truck loaded with ballast stone back and forth from a loading position to the relevant radial tracks and to also transfer the tamper from track to track as needed.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich
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Click on each picture for a closer look!

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Last Saturday, we had an excellent turnout with all the usual suspects present. Mike S., Arno and Jon continued with pipe work on the miniature loco which is nearing completion. The TSSA inspection and hydrostatic boiler test is expected to take place this coming week and we are looking forward to being able to do a steam test and some de-bugging work soon. There are always things we missed and leaks to fix on a first steam up of a new locomotive.
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As shown in the pictures above, James headed up a crew of Dave, Wilson, Jim, and Jason P. working on a preliminary survey and marking of the miniature track alignment on the east side of the park. The place is currently dotted with orange markers for both the key measurement points and the crossover location.
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Lance and Bob did a variety of unglamorous but necessary work which included nailing plywood sheets down to protect the turntable deck from oil drips and leaks emanating from equipment brought in by PNR Railworks this week to proceed with the laying of the tracks.
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Richard M. briefly assisted by Jason P. went off to help Grant on CNR 4-8-4 Northern #6213 at the CNE. Work there has progressed to the point where one stubborn bolt inside the stoker screw drive is all that prevents the tender from being separated from the locomotive.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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Last Thursday at the roundhouse PNR Railworks began to lay track starting at stall 1 while continuing to grade and fill under the coaling tower making it ready as well for track.
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Dave and I planned to be there only for the the morning to move Engines #7020 and #1 from the temporary track they have been trapped on all winter on to the turntable. As it turned out his exercise took all day! With help from the PNR Railworks crew we pieced together track to connect the temporary track to the turntable bridge which required going over the new concrete pit fence foundation. We then drove loco #1, pushing #7020, over this temporary arrangement. This took quite a while carefully moving one axle at a time onto the bridge. We didn't get done until after three p.m.
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However, by day's end, as you can see in the pictures above, there were rails to stall #1 for the first time in a decade.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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During the past week, work has been proceeding on numerous fronts at the roundhouse.
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Western Mechanical has almost completed the job of lowering the turntable two inches. In the process we hope that the noise from the centre bearing will be eliminated.
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As can be seen in the above pictures, an electrician's nightmare of conduit now runs below the "patio" surface to stall 17 to connect lighting fixtures to controls in the museum. The two pipes seen being buried in the pictures above are (on the left side) the compressed air feed to the museum and the conduit feeding the locomotive display floodlights located on the turntable.
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The roofers are replacing skin planks above stall 27 while Leon's electricians and dry wallers are all over the place. To add to the hustle and bustle, Steam Whistle started adding three new beer tanks at the rear of stalls 12-14 so we had trucks and cranes, bulldozers and backhoes, forklifts and coffee trucks everywhere.
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As you can witness by clicking on the video below, PNR Railworks have also begun dumping crushed granite under-fill in preparation for track laying which will begin later this week.
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Story and pictures by Michael Guy
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At left is an image of a painting, "Northern Light" of CNR Northern 4-8-4 #6213 by David Oram; Reproduced with permission.
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Click on the picture for a closer look!
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As noted briefly in our "weekend report", last Saturday, Grant Kingsland and crew started work on preparing #6213 the move to Roundhouse Park. Grant sent us the following report.
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"Yes! We made excellent progress yesterday. While there are still some journal boxes on the tender frozen to the pedestals, we were able to lift all boxes and/or truck frame high enough to allow removal of each wedge and brass for inspection. All journal tops are in A-1 condition, completely clean and with a healthy film of oil. The bottoms of the journals may need some attention but are not bad, they are good enough for the limited amount of use they will see for the move but I still hope to get some w ork done on them anyway.
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All of the flexible Barco air and steam lines between tender and loco were removed. After many futile attempts at budging the drawbar pin on the tender - we actually lifted the entire front of the tender at one point - it became obvious that this was not going to work, so I resorted to Plan B, let's try the drawbar pin on the engine. Although this is the one I honestly suspected would be the problem one, with the jack under it, the pin bumped up quite freely then floated down (a little) on its own when the jack pressure was released. We determined that there were likely some high spots from wear on the pin that were catching on the bushings on the way down, but with lots of effort, and determination, we finally got it out.
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For separating the tender, the only job remaining now is the the stoker. This should not be a major challenge but there is a good chance that the bolt in the universal joint coupling in the rear bowl will have to be cut with a torch. Among the big jobs done yesterday was the dis-assembly of the radial buffer. It actually came apart more easily than I thought it would and even the wedges are loose"
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Bob was also there to witness and capture on video the event and a lot of close-in detail shots of much of the engine. Click on the link below to watch these videos.
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Posted by Russ Milland; Story by Grant Kingsland; Video by Bob Dickson
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Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of the launch of the Toronto Railway Heritage Group (ToRyHeritage) on the Yahoo Groups system by Derek Boles, our TRHA historian (pictured at left). In this list, Derek posts each day significant Canadian railway events that occurred on that day in the past. This often leads to some lively exchange with list members and certainly adds to our collective knowledge of Canadian railway history.
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Currently 175 subscribers to this list enjoy the postings and the dialogue. One can also find a great set of links to other websites as well as a gallery of relevant photographs and other files.
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Below is today's posting to give you a sense of what is shared by Derek on this list.
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April 13, 1912:
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"The Canadian Northern Railway sends its new gas-electric car No. 500 from Toronto to Trenton, 115 miles to the east, for testing on the Central Ontario Railway. A few days later it was put into revenue service on the 32-mile line between Trenton and Picton. This was an early attempt by the railways to save operating expenses by utilizing a self-propelled combination baggage/coach that required a smaller operating crew than a conventional steam-hauled passenger train. As well, fuelling an internal combustion gasoline engine was cheaper and less complicated than coal. Both successor Canadian National and the Canadian Pacific Railway would operate a number of gas-electric units. However, self-propelled cars would enjoy limited success on lightly traveled branch lines until the 1950s when Budd-built Rail Diesel Cars gradually took over virtually all short- and medium-distance non-commuter passenger trains outside the heavily traveled corridors."
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April 13, 1912:
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"By noon, R.M.S. Titanic is approximately 1,000 miles across the Atlantic from the Irish coast. Another First Class passenger with railway connections was H. Markland (Harry) Molson of Montreal, a banker and heir to the Canadian beer dynasty. His great-grandfather, John Molson, had initiated steamboat service on the St. Lawrence River in 1809 and was the principal proprietor of the Champlain & St. Lawrence Rail Road, Canada's first railway, that began operations near Montreal in 1836. Also on board was French sculptor Paul Chevre, who had been commissioned to create a bust of former Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, to be displayed in the lobby of the Grand Trunk's new Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, scheduled to open on May 1.Contrary to popular legend, the bust was not on board the Titanic but had been sent over on another ship."
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"Postings by Derek Boles, Toronto Railway Heritage Moderator" .

Congratulations to Derek on the ongoing success of this venture.
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If you are interested in receiving these postings, click here to join the list!
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Story by Russ Milland

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We had an early start on last weekend's work effort thanks to Jason P., Wilson and Bob who came out on Friday. Since it was quiet elsewhere in the roundhouse, we took the opportunity to restore one last large heritage electrical fixture in stall 32. The heavy cast-iron fixture is complete again and bolted back onto its post ready for some black paint to match the rest of the pipe work. We then spent a few minutes silver-soldering a fitting for the miniature locomotive before calling it a day about one p.m.
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On Saturday, we had another large crew out for the day. Jim and Lance repainted the yellow railings on the turntable which had faded rather badly in the short time they have been there. The black railings were also touched up as were the control levers. Their handiwork is evident in the picture above. James left early to carry on with further Computer-Aided Design (CAD) work on the park plan for the miniature railway tracks while Wilson assisted me in re-tying the cover on the Jackman passenger car which has been threatening to fly away lately.
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While we were doing that, Mike S. and Dave bolted the new builder's plates on to the locomotive #1 the CLC-Whitcomb. These plates were pictured in an earlier news item here. They proudly announce that our #1 was built in 1950 as works #2637 by the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston, Ontario. In the picture above, we see the Whitcomb, Cabin D and Don Station all in one photo.
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Mike S., Arno, Dave and I worked on the copper pipe work on the miniature locomotive. By the time Dan and I left after 5 p.m., the cylinder lubricator and all four automatic drains were assembled and fitted, the steam water pump was complete and the fireman's side boiler water injector was fully piped up. In the picture above, we find Arno working on the engine.
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Dan continued all day with turnout construction assisted by Lance, Jason P., Wilson and Bob. Turnouts built in eight pound rail are one of those projects where a vast amount of skilled labour can be happening with very little visible result but I can assure everyone that the three under construction are now much further along than they were eight hours earlier. In the picture above we see Bob grinding away as our team continue to work on the miniature railway switches.
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Richard and his son Andrew also arrived as we began work on Saturday, but promptly decamped for the CNE where they spent the day assisting Grant and his crew on readying locomotive #6213 for transport to the Roundhouse. But that is a story for anther news posting.
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All in all, a very productive work day at the roundhouse from a group of very dedicated volunteers!
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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Today, we offer a few photos of even more progress around the roundhouse. In the picture at the upper left, we see an airline being installed to connect our compressor to the roundhouse itself. In the next photo, we see frames being installed in the doorways to the roundhouse to hold glass windows to bring light to the space to be occupied by Leon's. In the final picture, we see the temporary signage that will announce that "Leon's Home Furnishings for Urban Spaces" is coming soon.
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Story by Russ Milland; Photos by Lance Gleich and Michael Guy

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In the left most picture, we find workers building forming for the repair of the concrete on the Coaling Tower. In the next picture we look upwards within the Roundhouse to see the finish which has been applied to pipes and conduits to contrast with the restored wood structure. Finally we have a view southward across the area where the large wheel drop pit exists under the floor looking south. This is where CPR #136's wheels were dropped in our previous news item.
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Story and Pictures by Michael Guy

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In past news items, we have spoken to the "wheel drop pits" in our roundhouse. Major repair work on steam locomotives were normally carried out in the original assembly shops where massive overhead cranes were available to disassemble locomotives. Lesser maintenance was performed in the roundhouses. In order to maintain the driving wheels and axles and the bearing systems which held them, it was necessary to drop the wheel sets and then take them to the roundhouse's shop for maintenance. The wheel drop pits were used for this purpose. In the rare pictures above, we find ubiquitous CPR #136 in our Roundhouse on April 2nd, 1977 with its wheel sets being dropped into the wheel pit.
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Story by Russ Milland; Pictures by Grant Kingsland

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As you will be aware from earlier news postings, Jon has spent many days painting the loco frames, wheels, cylinders and everything else which is not being powder coated. It all looks very good and reassembly of the painted components has begun. In the pictures above, we see Arno and Jon carefully reassembling the boiler to the chassis. In the picture at left, we also see the newly painted tender chassis ready for reattachment to the tender body. The cab, tender body and pilot plus a number of smaller parts are due back from the coating shop this week and we are well on the way to final pipe work and completion of the locomotive.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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We had a great turn out on Saturday with lots of work being done on the locomotive reassembly after painting. Much progress was also made on switch building. Thanks to Dan, Dave, Arno, Jim G., Bob, Jason P., Lance, Jon and Richard for forming this weekend's team who delivered yeoman service on furthering our projects. In the pictures above we find our volunteers hard at work on the construction of our miniature railway switches.
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This past weekend, we also ran a class for new turntable operators in anticipation of the need to man the table during track laying in the "patio circle" between the pit and the roundhouse. When PNR, the track installation contractor, begins work, their ballast tamping machine will be transferred from track to track via the turntable. We now have six duly instructed and qualified volunteers available to operate the turntable for PNR over the ten-day period when the 32 tracks are built.
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Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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Recently, we published a series of excerpts here from an article by Derek Boles, TRHA's historian, on Pierre Berton's National Dream books about the development of the CPR. Featured in the TV series associated with the book was CPR steam engine #136. While doing research for an upcoming article on railfan organizations, Derek Boles came across this image of ex-CPR No. 136 at John Street in December 1973. The train was apparently being prepared for shooting the winter troop transport sequences in the National Dream television series. This view is looking northeast and the first of the bank towers can just be made out through the snow. The Stores Building behind the train was demolished around 1996.
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The image is credited to John D. Thompson and is from the January-February 1975 issue of the UCRS periodical 'Rail and Transit.'
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Rod Wilson hs written us providing us with even more information about the above photo:
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"The train was heading out to Havelock Ont. then north on CPR's Nephton subdivision where the filming took place. It was so cold during the filming that the diesel locomotive that was provided by CPR as a backup for #136 froze up and had to be towed back to Havelock by #136. If I remember correctly the filming lasted 3-4 days and all of the winter scenes needed for the north shore of Lake Superior in the winter were done at this time for the movie."

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Traditionally, builders plates have been attached to locomotives which serve to provide key information about the locomotive, its builder and when it was built. In the pictures above we find first the original builder's plate for our 120 foot turntable which was removed and repainted by Western Mechanical during the restoration of the turntable bridge. Western Mechanical also produced a matching builder's plate to document the rebuilding as shown in the second picture above. The third picture shows the two builders plates attached to the turntable today.
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As shown in the right hand picture, TRHA has commissioned the production of a pair of Builder's Plates in aluminum for our CLC Whitcomb switcher which was a product of the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston in 1950.
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Story by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy

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Drumheads, as seen in the pictures above were usually found on the back of crack passenger trains in the past and featured colorful (often illuminated) logos. Railways were proud of their intercity passenger trains and worked hard to brand them as the fastest and most luxurious way to travel.
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In the pictures above we see examples of such drumheads on the rear of passenger cars. From left ot right, we first see a photo by Michael Guy in 2007 showing the drumhead on a regularly scheduled VIA passenger departing Kingston with a chartered dome car on the back of the train. In the next picture, we see a drumhead commemorating the last run of the Eastbound CPR Canadian. This picture was taken at its station stop at Winnipeg, Manitoba on the morning of January 16, 1990. This memorial drumhead was attached to the Strathcona Park dome observation lounge sleeper car at Vancouver before the train's last trip began on January 14, 1990. In the next picture, we find a photo of a drumhead on a Disneyland train.
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Finally, in the picture at the far right above, note that we are assembling a drumhead for our new passenger car to complement our restored speeder. This drumhead will be lighted as many were in the past. Work is underway to design an appropriate drumhead graphic.
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Click on Each Picture for a Closer Look!
In these four pictures we see a number of classic Canadian passenger train drumheads on display at the Revelstoke Railway Museum in Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada.
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
In these five pictures, you will find a series of pictures of different drumheads for a number of American railroads.
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By Russ Milland

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One of the most complex tasks in building a miniature railway track is the design and construction of the switches. James has been doing some CAD work on the park plan to sort out the precise details of the miniature track plan and confirm my preliminary work to set the turnout angles. We have settled on three of 75' radius, one of 60' and one at only 36' radius (but this tight radius is not on the main line). In the picture at the above left, we find our crew checking out the designs on a laptop computer in our "executive board room".
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Last Saturday, we continued to actually construct the switches. In the pictures above, we find our crew cutting and grinding rail. Our target date for completion of the miniature railway track is July 1st, 2009 subject to the roadbed being ready on time.
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In the pictures at left we find the track and the switches beginning to take shape.

Click on each picture for a closer look!

Story by Michael Guy; Pictures by Lance Gleich