Click on the image for a closer look!
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Thomas Blampied of Whitby has provided us with this image of the Pyke Crane taken in October of 2006 during major renovations of the station platforms in Union Station. Thomas has an extensive photo library of railway images online. Click here to view them.
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Below we also have a brief video taken by Dave Wetherald of the Pyke Crane being moved in Don Yard as the TRHA and TTR team prepared it for the move. It is being positioned beside the float used to transport it to Roundhouse Park.
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Posting by Russ Milland
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Click on each image for a closer look!
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As sections of the Roundhouse move to completion, one of the final finish items is building lighting. These two photographs taken on December 21st during aiming trials shows the turntable courtyard and roundhouse doors as they will be lit during non-occupancy hours. Our electrical engineer and designer Deborah Gottesman wanted to capture and display the unique curved form of the building. You will notice the lighting of the clerestory high bay windows emphasizes this curved sweep.
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The turntable has also had it's lighting installed. All portions of the structure will receive unique lighting treatment as we progress. The display tracks next to Bremner Avenue will have plug locations so that exterior lighting of the locomotives and rolling stock may be set up and changed for different exhibits.
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The interior work bays will have two systems of lighting. The first system will handle the vital shop work lighting, and the second will be display lighting, giving us a flexible space.
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Our criteria for our lighting is simple - Safety, Security, and Drama.
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Posting by Orin Krivel; Pictures by Deborah Gottesman

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Monday, December 28th marked a major milestone in the development of Roundhouse Park. While our TRHA team did not drive an actual last spike to complete the miniature railway, they did complete a host of tasks remaining on the railway to render it operational and operated a miniature train to ensure it was now operational.
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Michael Guy reports that:

"We ran a miniature train consisting of the miniature F7 Diesel plus one of our new TRHC passenger cars around the circuit numerous times while making track adjustments to reduce the number of nuisance derailments that occurred during the first circuits of the track. Several of the crossings needed tweaking and a few rail joints had slight misalignments which were easily fixed with a grinder. These derailments were caused by the use of used rail with different existing wear patterns at the ends. The good news is that most of the track needed little or no work to be usable. There was plenty of interest from passing visitors, many with small children in tow."
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The completion of the miniature railway, its Sweet Creek steam locomotive and the passenger cars adds to a significant list of major milestones in 2009.
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Congratulations to all involved in the development of the railway and the equipment we will be running on it.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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In this installment of our news posting of the move of the Pyke Crane to the Roundhouse, we first see (in the upper left picture) the CLC Whitcomb in action moving our #4803 GP9 to a new location. In the middle picture one of the moving crew works on the intake of the engine while we operated the crane from in the cab. In the picture at the right above, we find our CLC Whitcomb #1 beginning the move of the Pyke Crane to the turntable. The fencing was lowered so that we could swing the boom of the crane out of the way and allow us to couple up to it with #1. This pictures clearly shows how small the Whticomb and the crane is compared to #6213 on the track behind them.
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In the picture at the left below, the crane is pulled onto the turntable, in preparation for locating it in stall 15. The middle picture below shows the boom extension being stored in the pit of stall 15 for now. Finally we see (from left to right) Arno Martens, Dan Garcia and Michael Guy posing with the Pyke Crane which is now safely stored in Stall 15.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Dan Garcia
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Click on each pciture for a closer look!
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Well before sunrise on Tuesday, December 22nd, the Pyke Crane arrived on its float at Roundhouse Park. The float was positioned adjacent to the track just to the east of the coaling tower. Two I Beams were again to used to move the crane from the bed of the float to the track beside it. In the last photo at the lower right, we find the crane almost ready to be moved into the Roundhouse for the winter.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy and Russ Milland
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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On Monday, December 21st, the McCulloch crew worked on loading the Pyke Crane onto the trailer. Dave Wetherald reports on the day's activities as follows:
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"After all the fuss, work, and preparation over the weekend, the Pyke crane was moved west through a couple of switches, then back east to line up beside McCulloch's trailer. The Pyke was then jacked up, moved sideways using rollers on two I-beams, and lowered onto the trailer. The crane was scheduled to be moved to the park very early ( 5 AM ) on Tuesday morning.
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Toronto Terminal Railways (TTR) provided official track flagmen for the day as we were fouling (a railway term for "blocking") a still used line that goes east to some of the Port Lands industries. As fate would have it, a CN train (2 engines and 1 tank car ) wanted to go down the track, but as can be seen in the picture below, it was stopped by the red flag from the TTR flagmen. After discussions with TTR and their dispatcher, the train crew decided not to wait for another hour or so and backed up."
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Dave Wetherald
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Click on the image for a closer look!
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The TRHA is proud to announce that Derek Boles, our Historian, has published a new book entitled "Toronto's Railway Heritage". As the book's cover states:
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"On May 16, 1853, the first passenger train steamed out of Toronto from a wooden depot that was located near the site of today's Union Station. Over the next century, the railways had a profound impact on the geography and economic fortunes of Toronto and helped transform it from a provincial town into the commercial centre of Canada. To the dismay of many, the railways also swallowed up prime real estate on Toronto's waterfront and isolated its citizens from Lake Ontario, the city's most scenic asset. The struggle between the promoters of unfettered railway development and crusaders for public access to the waterfront culminated during the 1920's with the building of the waterfront railway viaduct and Union Station. This magnificent Beaux-Arts railway terminal is the busiest transportation hub in Canada and is undergoing a $1.5 billion revitalization."
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Toronto's Railway Heritage retails for $24.99 and contains 225 images, a relative bargain compared to the cost of many rail books being published today. The images cover a period of about 80 years, from the mid-19th century to 1930. Each image is accompanied by a 60-70 word caption. There is also a 2,600-word capsule history of Toronto's railways during that period.
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The Author:
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Derek Boles is the historian for the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre and has written and lectured extensively on the railway history of southern Ontario. He publishes the daily ToTyHeritage blog on the Internet and advises the City of Toronto on railway heritage matters. Derek coordinates the annual Doors Open event at Union Station and leads popular monthly tours of the station. He is on the board of Heritage Toronto and is the chair of the Union Station Revitalization Public Advisory Group.
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Note: The book is available from local hobby shops as well as Amazon and Chapters/Indigo
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Posting by Russ Milland

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Tired of the Boxing Day Madness and Crowds ... Join us for a relaxing informative tour of Union Station instead on Boxing Day!
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The TRHA offers tours of Union Station on the last Saturday of each month at 11 a.m. Cost is $10 each payable on arrival for the tour. Reservations are not necessary and those interested should meet by the Traveler's Aid counter in the centre of the Great Hall at 10:50 a.m. For more about these tours, click here.

Click on each picture for a closer look!
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In the picture at the above left, we find Michael Guy admiring the progress that has been made on the development of the scale model of the TRHC's full size CLC Whitcomb diesel switcher with a cab and handrails having been added to the chassis. In the middle photo, Mike Salisbury shows pride in the beautifully machined filler cap systems that he developed for the Sweet Creek locomotive to replace the "drop in" caps that came with the locomotive. In the picture at right, we find our "caboose team" hard at work at restoring the cupola seats and completing the tracing of the lettering on the caboose so that we can't accurately duplicate it when the caboose is repainted.
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One of the most urgent new undertakings this weekend was to prepare the Pyke Crane for an imminent move to Roundhouse Park the following week. Michael Guy reports on the effort as follows:
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"Since we needed to lower the boom and rotate the cab for transport to Roundhouse Park, operation of the engine for a brief period was necessary. The engine is a Detroit Diesel two-stroke, 6V-92T (six cylinders, V arrangement and turbocharged) rated at 550 BHP.
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On Saturday, we worked over the engine to attempt to render it operational but success was mixed. We did start it after clearing a solid plug of ice inside the air intake and several hours of work replacing missing electrical parts. Cooling system problems quickly appeared due to other parts which we suddenly found also to be missing. This caused us to shut the engine down again rather smartly!
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On Sunday, we resumed our work on the Pyke Crane. We made running repairs to the cooling system and the hydraulics. "Persons unknown" had removed the radiator, radiator fan module and hydraulic oil cooler rendering the entire machine inoperable. We “kludged” together enough of a cooling system using hardware store ABS plumbing materials to allow coolant to be reintroduced to the engine. With no actual cooling going on (no radiator or fan) we were not really fully operational but we could quickly make the needed moves. By 3:00 p.m. we had all systems operating and had managed to place the controls in the proper positions so that nothing unexpected was going to happen as we shifted the crane to the needed configuration to allow it to be moved."
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In the picture at the left below we find the crane in the Don Yard waiting to be moved. In the middle picture, bolt holes are being drilled into the turntable bearing for the miniature railway facility. In the picture at the right below, we find Tom Murison's crew painting shingles in the Roundhouse as they continue to make progress on the restoration of Don Station.

Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Michael Guy and James Rasor
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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A Brief History of the Railfan Hobby in Canada - Part 5 of 5 by Derek Boles
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In 1972, Canadian Railroad Historical Association members based in Toronto re-established a local chapter known as the Toronto & York Division. The division opened the first Toronto Railway Museum at Harbourfront in 1975. Unfortunately the museum lacked the resources to interpret its modest collection in a compelling presentation and was unable to attract financial support. As Harbourfront was converted into a recreational and residential area, the extensive network of railway tracks that once serviced the piers of the Toronto waterfront was torn up and the museum was facing permanent isolation from the rail network. In 1985, some of the artifacts were retained for a future Toronto railway museum, while others were scrapped or disbursed to other museums and collections.
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In 1976, the Toronto & York Division began sponsoring the annual Toronto Model Railway Show. The show utilized various buildings in the Harbourfront complex until 1981 when it moved to the Queen Elizabeth Exhibit Hall at Exhibition Place. In 1986, the show was shifted to the International Centre near the airport, by which time it had become the largest train show in Canada. When the event was moved to the Congress Centre in the 1990s, attendance figures had already begun to decline and the last show at that venue was held in 2004. A final and unsuccessful attempt was made to stage the train show at an elementary school in the Jane-Finch corridor in 2005.
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The T&Y continues to conduct informal excursions, publish their newsletter Turnout, and hold monthly meetings, although they too are facing the perennial problem of an aging membership and an inability to attract new members. In 2006, the Toronto Railway Historical Association arranged for the T&Y archives to be stored at Union Station. The executives of the TRHA and the T&Y are currently investigating a possible merger of the two organizations and a further pooling of resources.
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The national Canadian Railroad Historical Association continues to thrive and Canadian Rail has evolved into a higher quality periodical that is published bi-monthly. The only regular train event held for the general public in the immediate Toronto area is the Christmas Train Show at the International Centre.
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Another local organization worth noting is the Toronto Transportation Society, founded in 1973 by a group of transportation enthusiasts who shared a common interest in streetcars, buses, subways and railways. The organization's focus is now primarily on transit in and around the Greater Toronto Area rather than on railways. The TTS conducts well-attended monthly meetings, excursions that mostly revolve around buses, and publishes a monthly newsletter Transfer Points. The organization has a number of younger members and maintains an active Internet presence.
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This overview does not include the many professional organizations that exist for railroaders. The Toronto Railway Club has been active since early in the 20th century and features dinner meetings with speakers. There are many professional railroaders who are also railfans although they tend to remain "in the closet." Unfortunately, there is still widespread disdain for railfans among many railroaders in some part due to the irresponsible and sometimes dangerous actions of a very tiny lunatic fringe that tends to gravitate towards any hobby like ours.
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In 2001, the first public meeting of the Toronto Railway Historical Committee was convened at the Scarborough Model Railroad Club by Toronto rail enthusiast David Garon. The organization came about when Garon used the Internet to solicit interest in organizing a steam locomotive hauled excursion in the Toronto area. Soon thereafter the TRHC became involved with advocating for the establishment of a railway museum at the former Canadian Pacific Railway John St. Roundhouse and began hosting an annual railway heritage fair at the Roundhouse in 2002 during the city-sponsored Doors Open event. In 2003, the TRHC also began hosting Doors Open at Union Station.
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The following year the TRHC became the Toronto Railway Historical Association and was incorporated as a charitable organization in 2005. The ability to issue tax receipts for charitable donations is a critically important factor in convincing collectors to donate historical artifacts for an archive. In recent years, as many pre-eminent railfans have passed away, several Toronto-focused collections of railway artifacts have been dispersed or left the city because there was no suitable archive here in which to deposit them.
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The TRHA is assiduously working as a full partner with the City of Toronto to build the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, a project that has finally seen much tangible progress in the last couple of years after two decades of inaction. This progress has been well documented on an ongoing basis in the News & Events section of this website. An active and dynamic website is the key to the survival of organizations like ours in the 21t century. In the past year, the TRHA website has received over 4,000,000 hits.
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Part 5 - Images
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#32 - Number 6060 helped open the Canadian Railway Museum at Harbourfront in May 1975.
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#33 - As commercial development began in earnest at Harbourfront, the museum became increasingly untenable, especially when faced with the prospect of a loss of direct rail access.
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#34 - The Harbourfront museum acquired a fairly large collection in the few years that it was operating. Many of these artifacts eventually went to other museums.
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#35 - Canadian National 7988 was a Montreal Locomotive Works Alco S-2 built in 1949. Although it was built five years later than the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre's 7020, it was a sister engine. The locomotive was scrapped in 1989.
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#36 - For a few years, the CRHA's Toronto Model Railway Show was the biggest such event in Canada and one could easily spend two days taking in the entire show.
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#37 - The Canadian Railroad Historical Association's Canadian Rail is the only periodical in Canada devoted to railway history.

#38 - The Toronto Christmas Train Show is now the only such regular event held in the city although the venue is just across the municipal boundary in Mississauga.

#39 - The Toronto Transportation Society has attracted many younger members although their focus is on transit rather than mainline railways. This was the Christmas Lights charter of 2006.

#40 - David Garon was the founding president of the Toronto Railway Historical Committee and is seen here at Metro Hall in 2002 chairing a meeting to determine an acquisitions policy for what later became the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre.
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Posting by Derek Boles
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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A Brief History of the Railfan Hobby in Canada - Part 4 of 5 by Derek Boles
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At least two Canadian Railroad Historical Association chapters in Ontario split off from the national organization and formed their own organizations. In 1941, the Toronto Chapter became the Upper Canada Railway Society. The beginnings of the UCRS can actually be traced back to 1932, when two neighbours who lived on Grenadier Road, D. W. Knowles and J. H. Allen, called a meeting of all Toronto area railfans whose names had appeared in the U.S. publication Railroad magazine. A small group of railfans was formed as a result of this meeting and continued to meet informally for the next several years. In 1940, this group petitioned to become the Toronto Chapter of the CRHA, before striking out on their own.
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The UCRS operated their first chartered excursion in 1943 aboard Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto Railway No. 83 (ex Toronto Suburban Ry. No. 107). This was one of the first railfan charters in Canada, predating the first official CRHA charter by five years, although the CRHA had organized several informal excursions in the Montreal area since its inception.
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For many years the UCRS was Toronto's most active railfan organization, sponsoring numerous excursions and holding well-attended monthly meetings. In 1960, the Locomotive Preservation Committee of the UCRS visited the Canadian National Railway Spadina roundhouse for the purpose of choosing a steam locomotive suitable for preservation and presentation to the City of Toronto. The committee chose U-2-g 4-8-4 No. 6213 and it was presented to the city in August 1960 and moved to the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds. The locomotive was maintained by the UCRS for several years, later by members of the Toronto Locomotive Preservation Society. Unlike most "stuffed and mounted" steam locomotives, including 6213's sisters, the engine has been well looked after for the past half-century. In 2009, 6213 was moved to the John Street Roundhouse for incorporation into the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, where it will be featured as the crown jewel in the museum's collection.
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The UCRS also owned two private cars that, in a touch of class, usually brought up the rear of the organization's railfan excursion trains. The last such car, former Canadian Pacific Railway "Cape Race," is now stored in the John Street Roundhouse and it too has become a TRHC artifact.
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The vicissitudes of the UCRS can be traced in the evolution of its monthly periodical. For many years it was called simply The Newsletter. In 1975, it was renamed Rail & Transit and given a visual makeover twice until 1980 when it reverted to being called The Newsletter and resumed its pre-1975 appearance. In 1992 it was made over and renamed Rail & Transit once again before suspending publication altogether in 1998. Unfortunately this long-running identity crisis has made it difficult for researchers to locate back issues of this periodical in library catalogs.
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The UCRS also published a series of Bulletins, pamphlets devoted to single topics such as individual railways and classes of steam locomotives. As well, they produced booklets and calendars and, on at least one occasion, a substantial book on the history of the Toronto Civic Railways. Unfortunately the UCRS suffered the fate of many railfan organizations, with an aging membership and an inability to attract new and younger members as older members passed away or became less active. Another key factor was the railways' unwillingness to provide opportunities for chartered excursions, the raison d'etre of the UCRS. Sadly the most important railfan organization in Toronto for 60 years terminated its affairs early in the 21st century although the organization's Hamilton chapter continues to hold regular meetings.
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A happier outcome was in store for the CRHA Ottawa Branch, which split off in 1969 to form the Bytown Railway Society. It remains one of Canada's most active and productive railfan organizations. The BRS has acquired and restored railway equipment at the Canada Science & Technology Museum and publishes the monthly newsmagazine Branchline, the definitive Canadian print source for current news of interest to rail enthusiasts. The society also publishes the annual Canadian Trackside Guide, considered the bible of railfans throughout the country. As well, the BRS maintains a busy book publishing program that includes the Traction Heritage Series, two volumes on Canadian National passenger cars and Omer Lavallee's posthumous book Canadian Pacific to the East. Recently the organization created an online searchable index for Branchline that extends back to 1966.
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Part 4 - Images
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#19 - The first general interest publication devoted exclusively to a Toronto railway subject was this booklet distributed in 1953 by the Upper Canada Railway Society. It was published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway, the first steam railway to operate in Ontario.
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#20 - Public interest in the railfan hobby probably peaked in the late 1950s with the retirement of steam locomotives from both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways. This 1962 cartoon by the nationally famous Montreal Star cartoonist Doug Wright, himself a railfan, captured the nostalgia of the era.
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#21 - The UCRS continued to publish special bulletins highlighting various aspects of Toronto and southern Ontario railway history.
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#22 - The Upper Canada Railway Society's most lasting legacy was the preservation of CNR 6213 at the Exhibition Grounds. In this February 1960 photo, UCRS members swarm about the locomotive after choosing it for preservation.
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#23 - For many years, the UCRS maintained an information table promoting the railfan hobby at various venues, in this case, the Sportsman's Show of 1963. The TRHA maintains this tradition at the annual Christmas Train Show and other events.
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#24 - From 1964 to 1971, the UCRS sponsored several excursions using Canadian National 6218, now retired in Fort Erie. The engine is seen here leading an excursion between Toronto and Gravenhurst. (Photo by John West)
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#25 - Canadian National 6060 assumed excursion duties in 1973 and operated in the Toronto area until 1980. The locomotive is seen here hauling an excursion out of Union Station. Railfan excursions have completely disappeared from Canadian mainline railways in the 21st century. (Photo by Michael Taylor)
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#28 - The UCRS continued to publish information booklets about the various steam locomotives used in excursion service.
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#29 - The last steam locomotive to haul on excursion out of Toronto was Canadian Pacific's No. 2816 in 2004. The engine is seen here at Union Station in 2003. (Derek Boles)
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#30 - The annual Canadian Trackside Guide published by the Bytown Railway Society is considered the bible of railfanning in Canada.
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#31 - The BRS's Branchline featured extensive coverage of 6213's move to the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre in June 2009.
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Posting by Derek Boles
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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A Brief History of the Railfan Hobby in Canada - Part 3 of 5 by Derek Boles
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The oldest national railfan group in North America is the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, created in 1921. The organization began publishing a semi-annual periodical, The Bulletin, a scholarly publication that featured well-researched articles with ample footnotes mostly written by university academics. The magazine also published a number of Canadian authors, including John Loye, Robert R. Brown, Ray Corley and Omer Lavallee. A 1940 issue was entirely devoted to Ontario's Great Western Railway and in 1982 they published an extensive roster of Grand Trunk steam locomotives, still the most complete treatment of that subject ever published. In 1972, The Bulletin was renamed Railroad History and early in the 21st century transformed itself into a livelier, more attractive publication that remains the gold standard for aficionados of rail history. The R&LHS currently has about 4,500 members. Unfortunately their publication is almost unknown in Canada and difficult to obtain except by direct subscription.
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The first railfan organization in Canada and the second oldest in North America was and is the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, founded in Montreal in 1932. The founding marked the conclusion of an exhibition at the Chateau de Ramezay museum commemorating the 100th anniversary of the granting of the charter to Canada's first railway. Over the years, the CRHA became a national organization with several chapters throughout Canada. In 1961, the CRHA established the Canadian Railway Museum near Montreal, the largest and most comprehensive railway artifact collection in Canada, recently evaluated as one of the top railway museums in the world. The CRHA now has about 900 members and publishes Canadian Rail magazine six times a year, the only periodical devoted exclusively to Canadian railway and traction history.
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The other leading railfan organization in the U.S. is the National Railway Historical Society formed in 1935. The NRHS is the largest such group in North America with nearly 17,000 members and over 170 chapters. There is supposedly one Canadian chapter in British Columbia, although the annual NRHS yearbook has not shown any activity in this chapter for several years. The NRHS focuses less on the past and more on contemporary railroading than does the R&LHS. The NRHS actively promotes the hobby among young people and runs the annual week long Railcamp for high school students during the summer.
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The NRHS has twice held their annual conventions in Toronto, the first in 1958 and the second in 1980. The latter attracted over 1,000 railfans from all over North America for the 5-day convention, which was appropriately based at Canadian Pacific's Royal York Hotel. 250 of the U.S. conventioneers arrived at Union Station on the "Independence Limited" from Alexandria, Virginia, a special train of chartered private cars. Several excursions were arranged by the TTC, GO Transit, VIA and CN, including the last excursions in the Toronto area hauled by steam locomotive No. 6060. In 2002, the Toronto Railway Historical Committee investigated the possibility of becoming the Toronto chapter of the NRHS but there was insufficient interest from local members and the proposal was dropped.
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Part 3 - Images
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#13 - Railroad History, published by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, is the most scholarly publication devoted to that topic. This 1982 issue was devoted to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and featured articles by Omer Lavallee and a complete locomotive roster compiled by Ray Corley.

#14 - A more recent issue of Railroad History also featured several articles on Canadian railways. Unfortunately this excellent publication is difficult to obtain in Canada except by direct subscription.

#15 - The earliest known photograph of railway excursionists in Canada shows some of the founding members of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1932. The gentleman on the far right is Robert R. Brown, one of Canada's pioneer rail historians. Beside him is John Loye, whose art work and essay on a Toronto locomotive was featured in a September 29, 2009 item on this website. The photograph was taken by the Donald Angus, grandson of CPR Syndicate member Richard B. Angus and father of the late Fred Angus.

#16 - This 1939 CRHA excursion was held at Asbestos, Quebec for an open pit mine tour on the Asbestos & Danville Railway. Obviously more women were involved in railfanning back then than is the case today. It's hard to believe that excursionists would dress in their Sunday best to ride in an open car behind a steam locomotive descending into a mine pit but that's how people still comported themselves in the months before the outbreak of World War II.

#17 - The National Railway Historical Society runs an annual week-long RailCamp for teenagers at Steamtown in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Canadian Pacific Railway is one of the sponsors of this event, a terrific way for the NRHS to encourage the recruitment of younger members.

#18 - The Independence Limited departs from Toronto following the 1980 NRHS conference held in the city, probably the only time that Southern and Norfolk & Western power hauled a passenger train out of Union Station. (Photo by John D. Thompson, from UCRS Newsletter, September 1980)
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Posting by Derek Boles
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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A Brief History of the Railfan Hobby in Canada - Part 2 of 5 by Derek Boles
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It's difficult to determine with any accuracy the number of railway enthusiasts in North America since most railfans don't belong to any organization. Periodical circulations provide some clues as to the extent of the hobby.
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Railroad Man's Magazine began in 1906 as general interest periodical for working railroaders with a peak circulation of 167,000. Following a 10-year hiatus in the 1920s, it was reinvented as Railroad Magazine and targeted towards hobbyists as well as rank-and-file railroaders. This pulp magazine retained its working class roots and often featured fiction and photographs of pretty girls flirting with railroaders on the front cover. In 1979, it was merged into Railfan & Railroad and dropped the fiction and cheesecake content. It currently has a monthly circulation of around 40,000.
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Trains, the leading commercial U.S. railfan periodical today, began publishing in 1940. It was a decidedly slicker publication than Railroad and tended to reflect a more management-oriented perspective on the railroad industry. It currently has a monthly circulation of around 93,000 and the publisher estimates that railfans spend about $135 million a year on the hobby. Many railfans are also model railroaders, a much larger hobby that generates about $500 million of commercial activity annually.
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There are also numerous specialized railfan groups that focus on narrow areas of interest such as the collecting of timetables or railroad china as well as organizations devoted to a single rail company. Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo and the Ontario Northland, to use local examples, all have their own active organizations and publications.
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There is little record of 19th century railfan organizations although undoubtedly such clubs did exist. It is believed that the oldest such organization in the English-speaking world is the Stephenson Locomotive Society, named after the 19th century father and son locomotive pioneers. The society was formed in Great Britain in 1909 and is still active. An even older organization, the Railway Club in Great Britain, began in 1899 and just wound up its affairs in December 2008.
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Part 2 Images
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#8 - One of the earliest general interest magazines for railfans was the U.S. publication Railroad. This 1940s cover shows the elements that helped make the periodical a success: a locomotive hauling a railfan special, an engineer, an attractive young lady and a leering young fireman who appears to have more on his mind than the location of the next water tank.
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#9 - Trains began publishing in 1940. Canadian content in the magazine was usually sparse and railfans north of the border had to wait until 1954 before Trains published a front cover with a Canadian subject, the CNR Maritime Express at Riviere du Loup, Quebec.
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#10 - This 1914 photograph shows the Bay Street crossing in Toronto looking west towards Union Station. It contains several interesting details, including a rare CPR 0-6-4 tank locomotive performing switching duties between the station and John Street. It also contains a previously unremarked upon detail, a young man in the lower left.
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#11 - Could this be the earliest photograph of a Toronto railfan? The young man is obviously interested in something going on along the tracks behind the photographer.
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#12 - This 1915 photograph shows two railfans violating just about every safety regulation considered necessary today. They were photographing the Lackawanna Limited near Binghampton, New York. The gentleman on the right fell off the fence before the train passed.
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Posting by Derek Boles
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Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Many of us spent our youth (and often well beyond) haunting railways and railway yards as well as participating in railfan trips and then working to duplicate these railways in miniature. In this serialized series of postings, we will publishing for the first time an article by Derek Boles on the topic of railfanning in our area, Here is Part 1 ....
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A Brief History of the Railfan Hobby in Canada - Part 1 of 5
by Derek Boles
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In just the few years since its inception in 2001, the Toronto Railway Historical Association has become the leading advocate for railway preservation in Toronto. The TRHA is working as a full partner with the City of Toronto to build the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, a project that has finally, after two decades of inaction, seen much tangible progress in the last two years and is scheduled to open in 2010.
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In many respects the TRHA is building on a foundation established by several generations of railway enthusiasts here in Ontario and elsewhere in North America. In this article, I will provide a brief history of railfan organizations in general, with an emphasis on those that operated in the Toronto area.
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Enthusiasm for railways among the general public dates back to the beginnings of the railway era. When the first locomotive in Canada was built at the Toronto Locomotive Works in 1853, it took five days to move the engine from the foundry at Queen and Yonge through the streets of Toronto to the nearest railhead on Front Street. Thousands of Torontonians gathered to watch the snail-like progress of the locomotive as it was pinch-barred inches at a time west along Queen Street and south on York Street. After the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway began regular operations in May 1853, hundreds, possibly thousands, of Torontonians bought tickets simply to enjoy the novelty of riding on a train.
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Many of the best known authors of the 19th century published detailed accounts of their rail journeys, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Railroads dominated popular culture and railroad themes were reflected in books, poems, songs, movies, advertising, magazines, theatre and art. Newspapers assigned reporters to the railway station since much that was newsworthy happened there. For over a hundred years, everyone had a relative who worked on the railroad and almost all intercity travel in Canada was by train.
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In the last generation born in the 20th century, that personal connection with railroading has been lost. For most Canadians, intercity rail travel doesn’t exist outside the Quebec City to Windsor corridor. The media usually only devotes space to contemporary railroads when there are problems to report such as late commuter trains, labour strikes, derailments and other accidents. Most often, railways are in the news when motorists ignore crossing signals and pedestrians are killed or injured while trespassing on railroad property or doing something stupid that puts their lives at risk.
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Yet, there are literally millions of people who still love trains and who feel a chill down their spine when they hear the lonesome and melodic sound of a train whistle. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world consider themselves to be rail hobbyists and spend considerable sums of money on models, books, videotapes and other railroad artifacts. Tens of thousands of books have been published about railways, about the businessmen and engineers who built them, about their engines and rolling stock, the history of individual companies, their premier passenger trains and their stations, their construction and financing, and books that just celebrate the nostalgic romance of a bygone era.
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Toy trains no longer enjoy the widespread popularity they did in the post World War II era, when the New York-based Lionel Corporation sponsored huge displays in department stores and advertised extensively on national television. Fortunately the worldwide Thomas the Tank Engine phenomenon has made millions of children aware of trains and especially of steam locomotives, whose prototypes disappeared from mainline railways over half a century ago. No one under the age of 55 can even remember when steam locomotives were operational on regular trains.
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Images accompanying Part 1
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#1 - In 1853, the locomotive Toronto moves through the streets of its namesake city from the Toronto Locomotive Works located at Yonge & Queen Streets. Torontonians had never seen a locomotive before and the five-day-long move attracted much attention as it was moved to the nearest Ontario, Simcoe & Huron tracks at Front and York Streets.
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#2 - Nothing is known of this photograph other than it was probably taken in the 1850s judging by the clothing styles. Unlike most stiffly posed photographs of the era, it shows a group of ebullient young men (and one woman) crowding onto an early train car. In the early years many people rode trains just for the novelty of the experience.
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#3 - This photograph is the earliest known image showing North American railfans at a photo run past. It shows the Artists' Excursion at Tray Run, Maryland in 1858. The six-car train consisted of a studio-darkroom in the baggage car, a dining car, a smoking car, a parlor car with a piano and two sleepers. Three of the artist/railfans on the excursion can be seen on the right.
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#4 - This well known painting by Edward Lamson Henry, The 9:45 Accommodation, illustrates the importance of railways to most communities in the 1860s. The arrival of every train was a major social occasion in small towns throughout southern Ontario.
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#5 - Railway stories have long been a popular elements of Hollywood movies, beginning in 1903 when the American film industry was still based in New Jersey. Even today, long after railways have faded from public consciousness, several movies a year are released with rail themes.
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#6 - Lionel was tremendously successful in large part because of its clever marketing that struck deep chords in the family psyche. What dad could resist a product that promoted family harmony and a deeper relationship between father and son?
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#7 - Most rail enthusiasts are aware of the tremendous impact of Thomas, the Tank Engine in build enthusiasm for trains among young children. As they grow older, The Harry Potter books and movies featuring the Hogwarts Express helps to maintain the interest.
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Posting by Derek Boles
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Once again, the Halton County Radial Railway Museum hosted special Christmas trolley trips at their museum last December 5th and 12th from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. They are located on Guelph Line a few kilometres north of the 401 Highway in Milton, Ontario. In the pictures here we see some remarkable images of their evening and night operations taken by Stephen Gardiner through the artful use of a powerful flash camera. As they say on their website, "There is nothing like riding the rails through the woods with snow on the trees and singing Christmas carols."
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#1: One of the operators, shown here on the steps of the small Peter Witt streetcar, was dressed as Santa.
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#2: The large Peter Witt streetcar at the Rockwood Station as dusk falls.
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#3: Recently restored ex-TTC S-37 Snow Sweeper which was in action on the trolley line.
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#4: The driving car of the Rail Grinder TTC Rail Grinder W-30. The second car which actually did the rail grinding is awaiting restoration.
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#5: The Oshawa Railway #45 overhead line car.
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#6: The large and small Peter Witt streetcars waiting at Rockwood Station for their next trip down the line.
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To see more of Stephen Gardiner's images visit his Flickr image library.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures and Captions by Stephen Gardiner
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There was a great turn out of TRHA volunteers last Saturday. The weather was sunny and warmish at +3C or so around midday but by late afternoon the wind was up and it got decidedly crisp around the ears. We had a good number of visitors with small children, all very interested in what we were doing and in looking at and visiting the various locomotives.
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Our team made great progress fitting flangeway blocks to the track crossings. 'Chester' (our miniature work car) has now made it around the track from the station via the west loop and back to the diamond crossing. One of our volunteers also worked on the TH&B caboose while the rest of the crew shuffled the rolling stock around outside using our CLC Whitcomb locomotive. #6213 is now fenced in under the coaling tower while #7069 and #7020 are clear of the patio door posts to allow snow clearance. #4803 is on the turntable and #1 is back inside stall 15.
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Our F7 Cab is seen above awaiting fitting of its skirt early last Saturday just after #1 moved out of the roundhouse leaving a smoky haze near the ceiling. We then fired up Elwell the Crane and used it to fit the front skirt to the F7 cab. It took the combined efforts of six of us plus the crane to wrestle the skirt into place and fit the thirty-four 3/4" diameter bolts. The coupler was lifted into place but could not be fitted properly as we lack the 4-inch diameter steel pin required to attach it. A new one will be manufactured in the next few weeks. In the pictures below we see the skirt being fitted and a portrait of the F7 Cab with its skirt in place.
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Posting by Michael Guy; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner
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In this final set of pictures, we wrap up our visit to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in our search for ideas for our evolving museum. Here are the captions for each of these images:
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#13: This is a Climax locomotive. Their were at least three variants of this form of geared locomotive .. Shays, Heislers and Climaxes. They were typically used for logging and similar operations on very rough often temporary track. They could reliably stay on the tracks in very difficult conditions and could climb very steep grades that normal steam locomotives could never do. Their maximum speeds however were very limited. This museum has one example of all three types on one track allowing for a fascinating comparison of each to the others.
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#14: The museum's lcomotive roster lists this locomotive as a "1940 Camden & Amboy No. 1 John Bull Replica Altoona 4-2-0 RR79.40.2A Gift 10/1979 of Penn Central Corp. Built for NY World's Fair. Serviceable. Wood-burner. Exact copy of original 1831 locomotive." However, in the picture, it looks like a 2-4-0. The explanation for this discrepancy can be found in this Wikipedia entry. It was originally built as a 0-4-0 but a leading truck was added due to problems with derailments. The addition of a leading truck made it necessary to disconnect the front drivers from the back drivers technically changing the locomotive to a 4-2-0. The original John Bull is housed in the Smithsonian and was briefly operated under steam in 1981 making it the oldest operational steam locomotive in the world at that time.
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#15: This interesting display is a large scale model of an early Post Office car and is partly complete in order to show the structure of this wooden car. A model of our Fowler Box Car would make a great exhibit if done similarly as the Fowler car design was a Canadian invention.
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#16: The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum has a large yard and extensive repair and overhaul facilities. Here, we see their operational turntable with equipment waiting for restoration on their radial tracks.
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#17: The museum has one of the well-known Budd RDC self-propelled cars which did so much to continue passenger service in the face of stiff competition from other transportation systems. In this case it is Lehigh Valley Railway's #20. This engine last operated in 1988 and it too is awaiting restoration.
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#18: In our final image we see a pair of steam locomotives on display outside the entrance to the museum. The museum has a remarkably large roster of 24 steam locomotives, 11 internal combustion locomotives, 3 self-propelled passenger cars, 8 electric locomotives and 4 pieces of electric multiple-unit passenger units.
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In addition, there is a third major railway museum in Strasburg, the National Toy Train Museum. Their website says that the museum "contains one of the most extensive toy train collections in the world. Trains that children pushed, pulled or rode upon are included. The collection also includes miniature trains that are accurate replicas of their full sized counterparts. The Museum exhibits trains from the mid-1800s through the present day." We were unable to visit this museum due to the sun setting on our adventure that day.
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The Strasburg Railroad, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the National Toy Train Museum collectively provide a superb destination for the railfan nd should not be missed.
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Posting and pictures by Russ Milland
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Continuing our tour of the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum, we offer the following captions to the images.
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#7: The main display pavilion for the engines and rolling stock has an overhead walkway across the middle of the pavilion which leads to a second floor display of small artefacts and a railway art and photography gallery. This image shows one half of the this very large display space. The corridors between the trains are very spacious and leave you with the feel of being in a railway yard.
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#8: The museum designers have cleverly built a "half station" in front of one of the side walls of the pavilion with a passenger platform in front of it and a passenger train on the track which provides a wonderful feel of being a passenger waiting for a train.
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#9: The museum used the interior of the half station to develop an area of interactive exhibits primarily focussed on young children to allow them to experience and operate trains. Here we have a peek into this area.
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#10: Here we see one of several large (but not full size) static displays of the interior of diesel and steam engines with explanations of how the engineers operated the trains. Being three dimensional, these were quite effective.
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#11: The museum also created very effective displays of typical railway operations right on the floor of the pavilion among the engine and rolling stock displays. Here we see a track gang at work.
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#12: Here we see another vignette of railway operations with a crew putting blocks of ice into the end of a refrigerator car (call "reefers" in those days) used to haul fresh produce and fruit on special fast trains (what we might now call "unit trains") in the days before we had mechanical refrigeration equipment.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ Milland
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In an earlier news posting we visited the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania. As noted then, the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum was right across the street from this museum. In this news posting, I will cover some of the highlights of that visit. The museum was superbly well done and will provide us with many ideas for future possible developments for our museum. Here are captions for the pictures.
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#1 & #2: Here we see the dramatic entrance and main foyer of the museum. Not shown is the large museum store to the left of the main entrance.
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#3: Here we find a beautifully restored Pennsylvania Railway E-8 Diesel locomotive.
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#4 & #5: Here we find the museum's full-sized railway simulator which actually is a historic item in itself with yours truly in the engineer's seat. Unlike our planned simulator, this one was used by the Norfolk Southern to train engineers. As they worked the controls they controlled the running of a video which the railway had produced for this purpose of one specific stretch of track. In our simulator we will be using a real-time computer-driven simulation system as used today by several railways.
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#6: Here we find a beautifully restored Penssylvania Railway GG-1 Electric locomtoive designed by the famed Raymond Loewy.
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Posting and Pictures by Russ and Pat Milland
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Often it has been difficult to find pictures of our equipment in operation. In the case of the Pyke crane, we are fortunate to have access to several pictures of it at work in the rail corridor in downtown Toronto. In the picture in the left above by Dan Dell'Unto, we find Toronto Terminal Railway (TTR) employees at work on a switch east of Union Station in October of 2005. The right hand picture (also by Dan) shows the crane parked among maintenance of way equipment just east of Union Station in April of 2007. Dan notes that he almost always saw the crane paired with an old CP friction-bearing flatcar TTR (formerly CP 302839). In the final image by Gene Burles, we find a similar Pyke crane owned by Go Transit at work removing the Strachan Avenue crossing tower in December of 1984.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Dan Dell'Unto & Gene Burles

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Today's pictures show the "moat" between Union Station and Front Street. There are three bridges over the moat, one each for the office entrances to the east and west wings and the much larger centre bridge which provides access to the train station. Most people refer to this section as a plaza and are unaware that it is a bridge. It is this centre bridge that the city has been rebuilding. They divided it into two sections so as the allow continuous access from Front Street during the reconstruction. The western half has been essentially completed although parts of it are still blocked off because of other construction work. The eastern half is now now being reconstructed and scheduled for completion in the spring of 2010. Completion of both bridges is shceduled for mid-2010. This is the start of the major renovations to Union Station.
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Posting by Derek Boles; Pictures by Michael Guy
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In this series of pictures above, we first see the diesel power truck that is being used to support the F7 Cab. It was moved using our CLC Whitcomb switcher to the loading track and the cab and truck united for the trip to the Roundhouse. We moved 6213 once again on Saturday and then towed the F7 Cab to the Roundhouse. With the F7 Cab safely in stall 16 in the Roundhouse, the F7 Cab restoration will continue as we prepare it to host a full-sized simulation experience at our new museum.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner
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The F7 Cab has finally arrived at Roundhouse Park. In this sequence of pictures above we see the Cab arriving by float from Western Mechanical on Friday of last week. The Cab was delivered to the end of the track under the coaling tower. In the set of pictures below, our CLC Whitcomb switcher is being used to move the massive CNR Northern 4-8-4 on to the turntable and then on to to the coaling tower track to free track 34 for the delivery of the F7 on Friday. Track 34 is our loading and unloading track. The delivery process was not completed until midday so 6213 was returned to its fenced enclosure on track 34 overnight to await the move of F7 Cab to the roundhouse on Saturday.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Stephen Gardiner
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Tom Murison, the restorer of our structures in Roundhouse Park, reported earlier this week that they have made signifcant progress on both Cabin D and Don Station with a lot of work focused on the restoration of the turret in Don Station. In the pictures above we see the east overhang on Cabin D and pictures of Don Station in its current state of completion. In the pictures below we see that work is progressing on the restoration of the Saxby and Farmer switch frame assembly whcih occupied the second floor of Cabin D.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Tom Murison
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We open this week's report with a fine shot of 6213 in the early morning light with the fencing having been removed from around the engine providing a much better view.
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This week, progress was made on multiple fronts at Roundhouse Park. In the middle photo above, a post-hole digging crew poses for the camera! Cedar posts are being installed across the park as supports for electrical outlet boxes for rail car and locomotive display lighting. At the upper right, an electrician pulls wiring into the first of two crossing barrier posts.
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In the pictures below, we have two images of Nick from Western Mechanical delivering the F7 cab's skirt to our speeder carts on track 40 by Don Station. The skirt is upside down in these photos. The cab had also arrived but will nto be moved into the park until Staurday.
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Finally in the last picture below, we find the Pine Valley contractors busy completing the miniature railway depot building. The roofers were roofing, the door contractors were hanging the roll-up doors and the landscapers were doing their thing. The goal was to complete all remaining work by the end of the day on Friday. That being the case, Saturday's work crews will lay the very last of our miniature track up to the miniature railway turntable.
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Posting and Pictures by Michael Guy
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Derek Boles, TRHA's historian, publishes a daily posting on the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group List. These postings document major railway oriented events that happened on that day of the year. Two of today's items are as follows:
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"December 5, 1977:
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GO Transit unveils the agency's first new bi-level passenger coaches at Union Station. These were the first bi-level (actually three level) cars to feature a full-width upper floor rather than the hanging gallery that characterized the bi-level Canadian Pacific commuter cars used in Montreal and borrowed by GO for two weeks in 1974. The expansion of GO's passenger capacity had been constrained by two factors:

• The length of trains was dictated by the length of the existing station platforms.
• The frequency of trains was limited by an antiquated signaling system and traffic bottlenecks west of Union Station..

Higher capacity cars were seen as a partial solution to these constraints. The bi-levels were built by the Canadian Car Division of Hawker Siddeley Ltd. in Thunder Bay, Ont. and sat 162 passengers instead of the 94 passenger capacity of the original single-level cars. The cars began regular service in 1978 and eventually took over all GO train service. The design of these cars was so successful that only minor modifications have been made in the past 32 years. The cars are now manufactured by Bombardier and more than 900 are in use in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and several U.S. cities."
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The GO service was inaugrated on May 23rd, 1967 and celebrated in an earlier TRHA News item. The black and white pictures above show the engine and passenger cars on that inaugral day. The colour photo shows the current GO bilevel coaches that Derek chronicles.
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"December 5, 1967:
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The Canadian Pacific Railway Don Station is closed. Opened in 1896, the station was intended to serve the rapidly expanding east end of Toronto so passengers wouldn't have to go all the way downtown to Union Station. After 1906, the structure was jointly shared with the Canadian Northern and later Canadian National Railways. The station was busiest during the early 1920s when all eastbound CP and former Canadian Northern passenger trains stopped there. Service began to decline at Don when CN abandoned the C NoR line to Ottawa in 1926 and pool trains were introduced in 1933, rerouting some CP trains onto CN tracks. By the 1950s, Leaside had become CP's principal suburban station for eastern Toronto. After 1965, the only passenger trains stopping at Don were the Havelock Budd cars. In its latter years the station operators spent most of their time issuing train orders to CN freight trains on the Bala Sub., a function which became redundant after CN opened the Toronto bypass in 1965 and installed Centralized Traf fic Control. The station was moved to Todmorden Mills in 1969 and to Roundhouse Park in 2008, where it is now being completely restored."
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Below we see, from left to right, Don Station at its original location in 1910, at Todmorden Mills and finally at Roundhouse Park where it is currently being restored.
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If you wish to read Derek's daily postings, simply join the Yahoo Group by clicking here.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures courtesy of Toronto City Archives, John Vincent, Derek Boles and Michael Guy
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Our F7 Cab, newly repainted as discussed in two recent TRHA News postings (here and here), is coming soon to Roundhouse Park. In this sequence of pictures, we see the Cab being loaded onto a float in preparation for the trip. Loading the cab was no mean feat as it weighs 14 tons. When railways first began building diesels, they felt they had to build them with the same heavy steel that they had used to build steam engines.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Dave Wetherald
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In part 2 of our coverage of the CP Holiday Train's visit to the Toronto area, we present three images by Stephen Gardiner that capture the train's visit to Vaughan just north of Toronto. More of Stephen's images can be found here.
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In addition, we include a video of the train's visit to Smith Falls. If you chhose to go to Youtube and search on "cp holiday train" you will find many dozens of videos of the Holiday's Train journeys for this year and past years.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Images by Stephen Gardiner
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The two CP Holiday Trains which we announced in a recent news post have now passed through our area and several TRHA team members were on hand to witness and enjoy their passing and the associated festivities.
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Dave Wetherald was on hand when one of the trains passed through Midhurst just north of Barrie during the daylight hours giving us a glimpse (see images above) of the old classic heavyweight cars being used as the base for the displays.
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Lance Gleich was on hand in the Lambton Yard last night and took the night pictures of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train and reported his experience in the following excerpt from his personal blog on the Internet:
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"TORONTO, ONTARIO - The annual visit of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train took place in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto today. The train rolled in to the Lambton Yard site exactly on time for a half-hour performance at 18:30, with a noticeably larger crowd than last year, the first year at the present location.
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The Canadian Pacific folks know how to put on a good show. The stage for show is the side of a boxcar, and it dramatically opens with a plume of smoke and Santa Claus emerges to start singing the opening act. After the dignitaries, in this case local councilperson Bill Saundercook and representatives of the Daily Bread Food Bank and "Trick or Eat" campaigns, spoke, the rest of the musical performances began.
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The headline act this year was "The Odds," a band usually described as an "alternative" group with roots dating back to the 1970's. Always an impressive sight, the Holiday Train had mostly new decorations this year, a style described as "whimsical" by some and "child-like" by others. It certainly was an impressive sight as it pulled in for the event, a fundraiser for the Daily Bread food bank in Toronto. Each of the Holiday Train's stops supports local food banks; over the past decade, the train has led to the donation of more than two million pounds of food and $4 million to local groups.
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The performance could only be a half-hour as the train needed to continue to its next stop at Vaughn, Ontario. The Holiday Train has several dozen more stops as it continues its journey west to Port Moody, British Columbia. For a schedule, see the CP Holiday Train web site."
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Here are descriptions of each of the night images taken by Lance Gleich on December 1st, 2009
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#1: The CP Holiday Train parked at Lambton Yard in Toronto, Ontario for a performance
#2: The stage door opening on the train to start the performance
#3: "The Odds" performing from the box car stage
#4: One of the boxcars with new decorations for this year’s train
#5: The CP Holiday Train pulling out of West Toronto, Ontario

Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Lance Gleich and Dave Wetherald
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Derek Boles, TRHA's historian, publishes a daily posting on the Toronto Railway Heritage Yahoo Group List. These postings document major railway oriented events that happened on that day of the year. One of today's items is as follows:
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"December 1, 1903:
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The feature film "The Great Train Robbery," produced by the Edison Company, opens in the United States.
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The 12-minute movie portrayed a group of desperados attacking a train and stealing the contents of the express safe, then being hunted down by a posse and killed in a shoot-out. It is still considered one of the most important films ever made. The movie was widely believed to be the first western, although it was filmed in New Jersey, and the first film to tell a story through narrative editing. It was not, however, the first projected film showing a train. That distinction belongs to France's Lumiere Brothers whose "Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station" in 1895 sent audiences shrieking from their seats because they thought the train was going to run them over.



The first movie in Canada showing a train (the U.S. Black Diamond Express) was presented in Ottawa in 1896.



By 1897, the Canadian Pacific Railway was showing films promoting their trains and destinations. Early in the 20th century, CP hired the Edison Company to make a series of short dramatic films whose narratives were thinly disguised pretexts to show off CPR trains, scenery, ships and hotels."
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If you wish to read these daily postings from Derek, simply join the Yahoo Group by clicking here.
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Posting by Russ Milland