As mentioned in earlier updates on this website, we have a new initiative to animate the Railway Village at the Toronto Railway Museum by opening up to visitors Cabin D, Don Station and the newly restored Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo caboose. This past weekend even more visitor experience was enhanced by setting up a small viewing theatre at the east end of the ground floor of Cabin D, a space that up until now has been essentially unused.

Upon entering Cabin D on the ground floor, visitors are greeted by an interpretive display on the left and a railing on the right enclosing the lower end of the interlocking mechanism. Beyond that is the staircase to the second floor with the interlocking levers and the Canadian Pacific Railway Centralized Traffic Control board originally controlling CPR’s mainline east of Toronto and acquired and assembled for us by TRHA board member John Mellow. Past the staircase is the new viewing area.

The new mini-theatre contains a combination of old shipping trunks and chairs to provide a seating area in front of a flat screen TV. On the TV will be showing a number of videos depicting railway activity in Toronto, including a newly released DVD showing railway activity along the Union Station Rail Corridor in 1973. Prominently featured in this production is Cabin D at its original location when it was still in use.

Posting and photos by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian

Click on each image for a closer look!