Visited the Toronto Railway Museum on Thursday June 28th. A few interesting things there but I was surprised that only a couple of stalls of the old roundhouse are used by the museum itself.
That is all there was outside to see. There were some photos and papers indoors for viewing and a cag from a geep that had a simulator set up in it that semi worked with the EMD control stand. While I enjoy seeing any equipment preserved, I was bit surprised at how sparse the overall collection was. If you are in the area, I'd still recommend checking out the equipment displayed outside for sure.
What they have looks interesting. Your comment about only using a couple of stalls has me curious. How much is continually outdoors and exposed? Or can more be moved inside if necessary?
It would appear that everything outdoors pretty much stays outdoors. The indoor section was 2 stalls that had artifacts and pictures on display along with the simulator. There was a stall with a bunch of stuff piled in it and what looked like an all black Alco S1 switcher behind it. There may have been a 4th stall that had more stuff that isn't accessible to the public but I wasn't for sure. To the right of the museum stalls was a couple of restaurants and to the left an area that looked like it might be future shops or eateries. In one of the pics, you can see the nose and cab of an F unit. That is all there was of that unit. It does not extend back into the building.
Even if it's a tad limited (I'm spoiled by Exporail near here...), the collection is of excellent quality. Steam, Alcos, and you just gotta love that original paint CN GP7 with the big barrel headlights. They're in very good condition despite being outside, so there's someone there to take care of them. The fact that there still is a roundhouse is exceptional. We had two nice ones here in Montreal, the CP Glen facility and the CN Turcot roundhouse, formerly the largest in Canada, full circle with 56 stalls. Both are now long gone, CP's Glen yard now houses the brand new McGill University health center, while Turcot was demolished by 1962 to make way for a badly designed highway interchange of the same name - which, ironically, is being demolished and rebuilt at this very moment (and for every moment for the next few years... ), causing traffic mayhem of biblical proportions...
You bet she's a beauty. CN's Northerns were also beauties mechanically. Those machines ran like Swiss watches. Some of them could easily run up to 90 mph and one hardly felt it. The hoggers loved them.
