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Finally, Friday, May 28th arrived! At about 9:45 a.m., the band began to entertain us all with some spirited music. At 10:00 a.m. the Opening Ceremonies were launched by Glenn Garwood, who is the City of Toronto’s project manager responsible for the development of the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre. Mayor David Miller then addressed us and shared some of his early experiences with railways in his youth. The Mayor also made a point of acknowledging the tremendous effort made by volunteers and other stakeholders to the success of the Centre. Orin Krivel, the president of the TRHA, then presented his views on the Centre and reinforced many of the points made by the mayor in recognizing those who made this day a reality. Derek Boles, the TRHA’s historian then gave us an overview of the history of the Toronto Rail Lands and described many of the major artefacts now on exhibit. Finally, Don Loucks spoke to us. Don is the Heritage Architect with the IBI Group who worked closely with us on the project to provide their expertise in the management of heritage properties and to especially help facilitate the planning and design phases.
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All of the speakers then simultaneously cut the one long ribbon to officially open the TRHC. The Mayor then received a set of train orders from John Mellow, the former operator of Don Station. The Mayor then took over the controls of a train pulled by our Sweet Creek locomotive and proceeded to take his fellow presenters on a short trip out of the station to complete the first train operation. The Mayor then toured Cabin D to admire the restoration effort and learn about its history.
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures by Thomas Blampied & Stephen Gardiner
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