In 2007, an authentic locomotive cab from Canadian National GMD F7 no. 9159 was donated to the Toronto Railway Historical Association by Barry Silverthorn. The locomotive was originally numbered 9038, and it was delivered to CN by General Motors Diesel in June of 1951. The engine was used exclusively in freight service for 40 years and was assigned to trains from Quebec to British Columbia. The rest of the engine was scrapped in the spring of 1991, but the cab was saved by Barry Silverthorn who took steps to restore it to its as-delivered appearance. After its donation to the TRHA, the cab was moved to Western Mechanical who further cleaned up its appearance. It finally arrived in Roundhouse Park in December of 2009, less than a year before the grand opening of the Toronto Railway Museum.
For more than a decade, the Toronto Railway Museum has used our U33C cab as a platform for our interactive train simulator. However, our current simulator has become quite dated due to vast advances in simulation technology since it was created. Since acquiring the F7 cab, it has always been our goal to use it for a more advanced simulation experience. While the cab has been set aside for the time being as our volunteers prioritize more important projects, this remains our long-term goal. We believe that a new simulator utilizing the latest technology will create a significantly better experience for our visitors, and allow us to create a more historically accurate representation of railroading in Toronto. Given the necessary time, our vast resources on railway history can be used to virtually re-create a variety of locations and time periods centered around different parts of the city. Preliminary efforts to develop a new simulator have started, but this remains in its infancy.