Summer reading: A piece of Ottawa's railway heritage unearthed

This week, I decided to skip my usual commentary to bring some fascinating reading to your attention. As you may know, I am a history buff and was fascinated to learn that acheology crews have come across parts of the old Canadian Pacific Railway 1870s roundtable that was once located in the Ottawa West yard (the photo below is the shot of the roundhouse that replaced the original).

Instead of explaining the whole story to you, I would encourage you to check out the extensive story found in the Kitchissippi Times, a well regarded community newspaper here in Ottawa. The newspaper posts its stories for free, so no need to worry about a paywall.

Here's the link to the story.

There are a number of photos of this site online at the Times website. I am hopeful that the developer will factor in some sort of plan to preserve this roundtable, which would become an interesting monument or courtyard in any future development of this area.

And while we're talking about the old Ottawa West Yard, here's a post from my blog's early days where I did some archeological exploring of my own around the old rail yard, when this area wasn't off limits due to construction. I'm glad I went there when I did.

Let's hope everyone takes an enlightened approach to Ottawa's railway past and preserves the old roundtable, which could prove to be an important piece of the city's industrial heritage.