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During my visit yesterday to Roundhouse Park, I took the opportunity to photograph the wooden platforms surrounding the twin tracks passing by Don Station. These will be the passenger loading areas for the visitors taking rides on the miniature railway. I also noticed that the contractors had poured the concrete foundation for the crossing shanty which is position appropriately at the point where the miniature railway crosses itself as it goes on past Cabin D to the right.
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Posting and pictures by Russ Milland

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The pace of construction of the miniature railway track has largely been dictated by the pace at which Pine Valley, the contractors for the development of the roadbed, have completed their work. We have been fortunate that significant numbers of our volunteers have been able to come out during the week to keep track construction progressing as soon as the roadbed is ready. In the picture at the upper left we find Michael, the TRHA VP in charge of the overall project, turning his attention to myself as I visited Roundhouse Park today and away from the development of one of the many unique crossings of the mainline track by the miniature railway. In the middle image, I caught the rest of the TRHA "track gang" at "end of track" and convinced them to pause their work efforts for a group picture. In the final picture, we see that Pine Valley have now excavated the area in the southeast corner of Roundhouse Park where the miniature railway train shed and turntable will be built.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland

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As reported here earlier, the opening of Leon's new store is part of the Roundhouse's history. Here we bring you a few more pictures of the event from a different perspective. In the picture at the upper left, we see the large number of people who attended and who were properly introduced to the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. In the picture at the upper right, we find a golden spike being driven into the railway to commemorate the occasion. In the pictures below, we can see the tasteful development of the store itself with much of the renovated Roundhouse in view throughout the space. While I was unable to actually attend the event, I have visited it subsequently and it is a very warm and inviting space with very attractive displays of Leon's high quality offerings. The store is well worth a visit!
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Deborah Gottesman
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The TRHA Website now has a new front page featuring this image of #6213 on the turntable. Also included on the front page is the logo developed for the John St. Roundhouse. It features a steam engine and also includes the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre at the bottom to recognize that the Roundhouse is an integral part of the Centre.
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Posting by Russ Milland

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Work continued on completing the miniature railway track system in Roundhouse Park last weekend. In the picture at left we find Dan and Michael working out a detail of the crossing for the minature railway and the standard gauge railway track. In the middle image, we find Wilson and Arno working on a fishplate connection. Finally in the right hand photo we find Dan carefully ballasting the track. Ballast is a crucial component of a trackage system as, in addition to providing a great support surface, it ensures that water drains away from the ties and keeps them dry, preventing them from rotting.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by James Rasor

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One of the new additions to Roundhouse Park is a mural on the side of the structure which houses the main stairwell to the underground parking garage of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and opposite the main entrance to Leon's. This mural is based on David A. Oram's painting called "A John St. Morning". In the pictures above, the mural was not as yet complete but the actual mural is now complete and well worth a visit.
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David has produced many wonderful paintings with Canadian railway historical subjects. David has kindly allowed us to use a number of images of his work on our TRHA website. They can be found here, here, and here. To see even more of David's work, visit his excellent website and click on "Railroad Art" to see more such paintings.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich & David Oram

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One of the most important things one must do for either a business or a public facility such as the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre is to brand it well so that the public becomes aware of them. In the picture at the upper left, we see a dramatic photo of the "roundhouse" sign on top of the coaling tower which we have reported on before. In the middle picture, we see that another sign has been added recently at ground level in front of the coaling tower facing Bremner Avenue. Of special interest here is the part of the sign just above "Leon's". This area contains an electronic display where the Heritage Centre and its activities will be communicated to the passing public thourgh a continually changing message. In the upper right we view the main entrance to the Leon's store which anchors the north-west end of the Roundhouse.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Orin Krivel and Lance Gleich

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A TRHA track crew has been hard at work on the miniature track loop past Cabin D. This section has a deck like that at Don Station to provide public access to Cabin D and it's tool shed, the northern part of the railway heritage village. The pictures above show the trackwork being built in htis area. As of today, we estimate the 80% of the trackwork is now in place.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich and Michael Guy

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In the picture at left, team members Lance and Wilson show off TRHA handiwork in the form of a newly-installed but old-and-recycled door hold-open post at the rear of stall 15. The post was previously used to hold a pair of locomotive doors open at the front of the building but was replaced during the renovations. Although the wood is relatively recent, the steel hardware is orignal, forged, 1929 equipment.
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In the picture at the right, Dave gives a coat of paint to the previously very rusty exhaust pipe on CPR diesel switcher #7020.
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Posting and pictures by Michael Guy

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These pictures show the progress in building a pair of miniature railway tracks on a passenger loading platform in front of Don Station. The wooden platofom is being built flush with the top of the rails to ensure safety for visitors to Roundhouse Park.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy and Lance Gleich

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With the large audience coming to the Roundhouse to participate in Leon's grand opening, we had a great opportunity to display locomotives in our collection, uncovering some that had been wrapped in white plastic before being moved out of the roundhouse. In the pictures above, we have some great shots of our CLC Whitcomb, our miniature steam locomotive, CN #4803 and CP Rail #7020 on display for this event.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich and Michael Guy

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As mentioned earlier, the Sweet Creek miniature locomotive had made its first trial runs on the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers track in Hamilton. Once, we had sufficient track installed at Roundhouse Park, it was time to further test our locomotive on our new track at Roundhouse Park. In the picture at the above left, we see the locomotive starting up with the cylinder cocks open accounting for the steam shooting out from the front of the locomotive. When the cylinders are not yet up to temperature you can easily have water instead of steam in the cylinders which can damage them. With the cyliners cocks open, steam is used to force any such water out. In the middle picture, we see the locomotive's whistle being blown. In the final picture, we have a great shot of the Sweet Creek passign in fron of #6213 on the turntable.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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As mentioned in a prior news posting, a feature at this evenmt was the tirple heading of a train pulled by three steam engines. In the pictures above, we find CP 2-6-2 piloting a CP 2-8-0 ahead of a 2-8-2 with TRHA's Michael Guy the engineer on the lead locomotive.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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Recently, Riverdale Historical Society President Gerald Whyte advised me that there was an interesting item in an old magazine in the Baldwin Room at the Toronto Reference Library. It was a 1906 ad in a glossy magazine supplement to the Mail & Empire newspaper, which later merged with the Globe.
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The ad (from "Toronto the Prosperous". 1872-1906, Special number of the Mail & Empire, 1906, pages 176 and 177) is for the Conboy Carriage Company and features an engraving, as shown in the images at the upper left and in the upper middle, depicted a southbound Canadian Pacific passenger train departing from the Don Station for Union Station. The train and station are only foreground detail for the main subject of the ad, which is, of course, the carriage factory. Typical of advertising in that era, the perspective is greatly exaggerated; modest factory buildings were often transformed into vast industrial complexes. The people standing in front of the building are evidently taller than the locomotive in the foreground.
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The Conboy Company made the transition from the horse and carriage era to the automotive era since they built composite bodies on Hudson and Rolls-Royce chassis. In the early years of the automotive industry, the purchasers of upscale automobiles often arranged to have the car bodies custom built for them by local firms. Conboy also built the first production bodies for McLaughlin-Buicks on the introduction of that car in Canada. The company evidently did not survive World War I, which curtailed automotive manufacturing in favour of the production of military materiel and vehicles. By early 1916, the building was described as an "unused factory". By the time the war was over, car companies had become much larger and automotive assembly lines handled the complete manufacturing process for their products.
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The picture at the lower left shows the Conboy building in 1931 just before renovations began. The front of the Conboy building was gutted in 1931 and a new faintly Chicago Style facade was built facing the river. The picture in the middle below shows the Conboy building in 1931 while renovations were underway and after the new facade had been built. In the 1950s, the Don Valley Parkway was built between the factory and the river.
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Anyway, back to railways! The perspective in the ad is looking northeast with Queen Street on the left crossing over the Don River. In 1911 a new higher level bridge was built to eliminate the level crossing and carry Queen over the river. There was a railway track running along the east side of the Don River although I can find no evidence that there was a siding for the Conboy Company on the south side of the building. The CPR passenger train is being hauled by a 4-6-0, a typical express passenger engine in 1906 that would in a few years be supplanted by the 4-6-2 Pacific as trains became longer and heavier. Behind the tender is an express car, a combine, a coach and a first class car of some kind, possibly a coach or parlor car.
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The Don Station was actually closer to Queen Street than depicted here. It was moved to about where it's located in the ad in 1910 when the new bridge was built. The picture in the lower middle shows the Conboy Co. and the Don Station after the station was moved 100 feet to the south to permit construction of the new Queen Street bridge. Trundling along Queen Street can be seen a streetcar of the Toronto Railway Company, although the route names were not emblazoned on the sides. The King and Queen carlines merged just west of the Don River, as they still do today.
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In the picture at the lower right, we see the former site of Don Station in 2009 from the Queen Street bridge. The station occupied centre view. The Conboy building is left of centre across the Don River.
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Posting by Derek Boles, TRHA Hiostorian
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Six of us from the TRHA went up to Richmond Hill Live Steamers (RHLS) today to
participate in the 1st GTA International Miniature Railway Meet for miniature locomotive
owners. As it turned out a variety of issues prevented any of our American friends from driving up but we had a great time anyway with guests from Montreal and Kingston and one miniature railway enthusiast from England. RHLS has a lovely track location with 4,000 feet of railway running through a pine forest. A ravine across the middle required the construction of a lengthy trestle bridge carrying two tracks some fifteen feet up in the air. Running there is like driving your locomotive through the tree tops!
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One of the highlights was running a 'triple-header' of three locomotives, a CP 2-6-2 piloting a CP 2-8-0 ahead of a 2-8-2. Running continued after dark with only loco headlights and cab lights for illumination. Driving a large coal-fired locomotive at mainline speeds in the dark is a special and somewhat exciting activity not to be missed if you are offered the chance. This event (which continued on Sunday) will occur again next year but will be hosted by the Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers in Hamilton at the Museum of Steam and Technology.
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Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Russ Milland
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As reported here there has been tremendous progress ove the past year or two in transforming Roundhouse Park into the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. These two panoramic photos highlight the progress very well. The picture above was taken in 2006 by Michael Guy. The picture below was taken in June of 2009 (just last month) by Stephen Gardiner.
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Posting by Russ Milland
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The grand opening of Leon's new store in the Roundhouse happened on Tuesday, July 8th. In the picture above, Orin Krivel, our TRHA president, spoke to the audience at the opening along with other dignitaries. The event as well as the story of the Roundhouse development was well covered in the media. Here are a few links to these stories:

• CTV Video
• Toronto Sun Article & Video
  
• Christopher Hume's Toronto Daily Star Article
• News blog item on BlogTO with lots of pictures and a slideshow
  
• A Podcast of Orin being interviewed on CBC's Metro Morning show by Andy Barrie
  

Andrew Jeanes, a member of the TRHA Board of Directors writes: "The CBC Metro Morning interview was ostensibly about the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, but was pretty wide ranging and even included a plug for traveling on VIA between Toronto and Montreal as a more civilized alternative to flying!"
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Posting by Russ Milland; Picture by Steve Munro

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As preparations continue for the opening of the new Leon's store in the Roundhouse, we see in the photo at the upper left that a new sidewalk area is being poured. Also of interest is the railway themed mural being painted on the side of the entrance ot the Convention Centre's underground parking garage as seen in the middle photo. Not to be outdone, we find Michael Guy working on finishing the lettering on the tender of our Sweet Creek locomotive in the right hand picture.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich, Michael Guy & James Rasor.

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This Saturday, July 11, I will be leading a Heritage Toronto walk, Union Station and the Railway Lands. Here is the description from the Heritage Toronto website:
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"Union Station and the Railway Lands - NEW!
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Start: Jul 11 2009 - 11:00 am
End: Jul 11 2009 - 1:00 pm
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The Railway Lands around Union Station have undergone several dramatic transformations since 1853, when the first passenger train steamed out of Toronto. Explore Toronto's railway heritage, culminating with a ride on the John Street Roundhouse turntable at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre.
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Leader: Derek Boles, Toronto Railway Historical Association
Start Point: East side of Union Station GO Bus Terminal, Yonge St and The Esplanade
Finish Point: The Roundhouse, Rees St and Bremner Blvd
Length: Approx. 2 hours
Walk Difficulty: Some stairs and long walks on sidewalks"
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Unfortunately when I wrote this description a couple of months ago, a ride on the turntable seemed plausible. Now, it seems less likely although we probably won't know for sure until Saturday. As you're undoubtedly aware from our daily updates on this website, the Roundhouse area is still an active construction zone.
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For those who've been on my Union Station tour and are wondering if this walk is different, indeed it is! We spend some time in Union Station, but most of the walk focuses on the Railway Lands, with an emphasis on the area surrounding the Roundhouse.
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Heritage Toronto walks are free and no reservations are necessary.
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Posting by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian

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In today's posting , we have couple of pictures of #6213 on the turntable. The first picture at the upper left shows the miniature railway lead track to the turntable as well as #6213. The second picture dramtically shows off #6213 against the Toronto Skyline.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich

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In a recent news item, we documented the placing of Leon's new sign. Today we feature the placing of the "Roundhouse" sign on top of the coaling tower to definitively mark the Roundhouse.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich, Michael Guy and Wilson Lau

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This photo shows the rail carts that we built over the last winters under the teams guided by Dave Wetherald. Each of these were built on an original speeder trailer chassis. All three carts are being used to move our equipment around as we build the miniature railway, carrying everything from rail ties, pry bars and shovels to generator, power cords and buckets of bolts. Start-up and clean-up are much easier and faster with the three carts, each cart allowing us to move tools to where we need them as well as allowing us to quickly store them away safely at night when we are done. They have eliminated a lot of wasted time that would have been needed to carry items by hand all day. This leaves us more time to work on the tasks at hand.
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Posting and picture by James Rasor

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On Monday June 29, a meeting was held at Roundhouse Park to deal with some issues that have come up regarding the restoration of the Don Station. Tom Murison and his crew have been hard at work restoring the station and Cabin D, as reported earlier in these news postings.
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One of the first jobs was to pry off the metal siding on the station that was added in the 1930s as shown in the picture at the upper left. As far as we can determine, a brush fire partially burned the station and, rather than replacing the wood siding, the CPR nailed metal siding all around the outside of the building. At first we were considering restoring the station to its appearance with the later siding but since this has been removed the station will be restored to another time period yet to be determined.
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In the middle picture above, we see a piece of wood siding which illustrates some of the stages that the station has undergone. On the far left is the burnt wood. The green colour indicates a period when Canadian National operated the station. Although Canadian Pacific built the station in 1896, in its latter years after the number of passenger trains had dwindled and the operators were mostly involved in servicing CN freight trains. In its final years, CP once again operated the station.
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Three key individuals involved in the restoration of the Don Station are caught on camera in the picture at the upper right. On the left is John Mellow who is consulting on the project and providing valuable expertise. As a young man in the mid-1960s, John was an operator at Don when it was still in railway service. In the middle is TRHA president Orin Krivel. On the right (and apparently the only one of the three who was amused at having his picture taken) is Glenn Garwood, who is the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre project manager for our owners, the City of Toronto.
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In the picture at the lower left, we find the miniature railway track crew hard at work on July 1, Canada Day. From left to right: Richard White, Jason Pelton, Lance Gleich, Jim Gardiner and Dave Fleming. Meanwhile TRHA VP of Operations, Michael Guy, was busy (with his welder's helmet) building some complicated miniature railway trackwork required in order to cross over some standard gauge track as shown in the picture at the lower right.
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Posting and pictures by Derek Boles
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In the picture at the left above, we find excavation starting about a month ago on Leon's loading dock at the rear of the Roundhouse. In the next picture, we see the same area today with the finished loading dock in place. In the next picture, we see that the road behind the roundhouse also is being rebuilt. In the pictures below, we see Leon's new sign being mounted on the coaling tower.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Russ Milland & Lance Gleich
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In keeping with our TRHA mandate to research, interpret and communicate the rich railway history in the Toronto area, today we turn to reporting on one of several significant Canada Day historical events as reported today in the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian. Derek writes:

"July 1, 1873:

Toronto's 2nd Union Station opens for business, the largest and most opulent railway station in Canada. Built on the site of Toronto's first Union Station (1858), the new facility occupied most of the block between York and Simcoe streets. The three track trainshed was 470 feet in length and the 100-foot high clock tower was long the most familiar landmark on Toronto's waterfront. Celebrations were muted owing to the death of the builder of the station, John Shedden, who was killed in a railway accident on the Toronto & Nipissing Railway a few weeks earlier.
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Owned and operated by the Grand Trunk, the station owed its "union" status to the narrow gauge Toronto, Grey & Bruce, whose 3'6" track was the northernmost in the 3-track trainshed. Great Western and Northern trains continued to use their own Toronto terminals until those railways were absorbed by the Grand Trunk in the 1880s. By the 1890s, all railways operating into Toronto were at Union Station and the facility was extensively remodeled by 1896. The 1873 headhouse remained in operation until the present Union Station opened in August 1927. The clock was removed from the tower before demolition and has been preserved in Huntsville. In 1929, the station site was occupied by the Canadian National Express building, which was transformed into the Skywalk in 1989."
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To read about the other historic events occuring on Canada Days in the past and to get daily postings of items of historic interest from Derek, join the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group by clicking here.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Canadian flag picture by Marilyn Cornwell; Union Station picture from City of Toronto archives