A little railway history in Toronto

As I mentioned in my previous post, a June family trip to Toronto turned out to be a gold mine of railfanning fun for me, as I watched a fair bit of downtown commuter trains in action. Then there was the railfanning I did en route to the city. It was a fun weekend, which included a chance to visit the Toronto Railway Historical Society's Roundhouse Park museum in the old roundhouse across Bremner Boulevard from the Rogers Centre and CN Tower. 

This facility, known more commonly to railfans as the old John Street roundhouse, still has a working roundtable, which the museum uses to shuttle its cars to different positions throughout Roundhouse Park. There are old vintage station buildings (the former Don station), maintenance structures and a few places to grab a bite to eat in the actual roundhouse. It's a great place to visit on a summer day. I always make it a point to visit this park when I'm in the area.

Of course, it shouldn't be a surprise to any knowledgeable railfan that there's a roundhouse near the stadium, as this part of Toronto's core was once almost exclusively railway land. You can read about the history of the area in numerous posts Eric Gagnon has shared over the years in his Trackside Treasure blog. At one point, CN, CP, Via and Ontario Northland trains all shared trackage in this area. The roundhouse is the last vestige of this industrial past.

This early piece of GO Transit equipment was new to me. The last time I was at the park, this was in the roundhouse. People who know about GO's history know that its early days were a cobbled collection of cast-offs from other railways (sound familiar? Via? Amtrak?). This cab car, an exception to this rule, was built for GO in 1967 by Hawker-Siddeley in Thunder Bay (later Bombardier). The car, RTC-85 SP/D numbered 104, allowed trains to be used in push-pull mode, with full engineer controls in the car. This car was officially retired in 1994, when it was sold to the Montreal commuter agency before ending up being used in the Gaspé region for passenger operations. Metrolinx reacquired 104 to mark GO's 50th anniversary in 2016.

 

This old Baldwin switcher was parked behind a fence near the old coaling tower. Its numbering had not been stencilled onto the cab. I checked the TRHA website, which only lists CP 7020 on its roster, an S2 dating back from 1944, when it was at the forefront of dieselization efforts across the system. That old switcher bore the mulitmark scheme for years until it was repainted in its original CP switcher scheme, as delivered from the manufacturer. 

 

Here's a shot of 7020 when it was decked out in the action scheme, from my visit to the old John Street roundhouse in 2016. There are many differences between 7020 and the unnumbered maroon unit. The side grills and the trucks are both quite different, as is the front headlight. So the identity of the engine near the old coaling tower is a bit of a mystery. Anyone out there know more?

I found it interesting that the car hitched onto the old maroon switcher was stencilled for cider purposes. A real throwback to when railways carried more perishables.

Beside the old Baldwin was Canadian National 4-8-4 U-2g class Northern steam locomotive 6213. Built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1942, it served in both freight and passenger operations between Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The engine would have been serviced at the old Spadina Street roundhouse, which is now where the baseball stadium sits. This would have been among one of the last steam locomotives built for CN, as dieselization was already well underway in the mid-1940s.

These old wooden cabooses were particularly popular with people roaming through the park, as they are anomalies for people not old enough to remember them in use. I am pleased to say that I am in fact old enough to at least remember the old steel cabooses in use, although I can't say I ever saw one of these old ones in use. The orange caboose dates back to 1920 and is clad in the classic CNR maple leaf scheme while the other, built in 1921, is in the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo maroon scheme.

I like this old olive green clad CN GP7 high hood unit. I had to wait quite a long time for two teenagers to get off the walkways so I could get a clean shot of this unit. This locomotive was delivered to CN from GM Diesel in London. The museum says this unit is significant in that it is one of the few GP7s that is still largely intact with its original parts. The only thing missing is its traction motors. The unit was one of the few, the museum says, that was not cosmetically altered. It still has its high hood and most of its original controls. I tried to get a shot of it with the old CNR caboose in the background.

The museum's old 50-tonne Whitcomb switcher was hiding in the roundhouse. It was built in Kingston by the Canadian Locomotive Company and was used for an aggregates company for years before making its way to a heritage operation and finally to the Toronto musueum. This unit is clad in the old TH&B scheme. It is fully operational and is often used for switching the museum's rolling stock around.

Here's the switcher on the turntable from 2016.

 I didn't stay at the roundhouse park long, as we had a lot of other things to do and a baseball game to get ready for, but I did make sure to snap a quick shot of this old heavyweight Canadian Pacific passenger car. The museum had a few such cars, one of which was later used as a work train crew car. The old maroon CP passenger cars are such a classy sight. Love to see them so lovingly preserved in their original colours. It makes me think of my grandfather, a rolling stock mechanic, who might have worked on this coach at some point in his years working for CP.

 

I did get some shots of the other pieces of the museum's collection in my previous visit in 2016. You can see those shots in this post and in this post. 

I was disappointed, after my visit, to learn that the museum had ex-Via Bombardier locomotive 6917 that was not yet on display. Having been a kid when those modern looking units prowled around the corridor, it would have been a real treat to see one again, but alas, it was not anywhere visible, as it remains at Via's Toronto maintenance centre, awaiting more cosmetic work. Next time, hopefully. I read that it is one of only two LRC locomotives that have been preserved. The other is at Exporail in Quebec.

All in all, it was a fun trip to the roundhouse. I even made sure my wife got a shot of me on one of the old GP7. It was fun to share my passion with my family for a few minutes.