Oh Canada

[TT-Pete]

exo

 

The Exporail website says to get a local train from Gare Lucien L'Allier Montreal downtown, to St-Constant where the museum is located. So I did.

 

 

 

 

Lucien L'Allier is a downtown business district commuter terminus with at least 3 lines radiating out. Waves of trains UP in the morning and DN in the afternoon, with the 09.35 train being the first DN service of the day on the Candiac line and getting out to St-Constant just after 10.

 

The 13:27 is the last UP departure of the day so if you miss it, you're screwed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All aboard.

 

 

[TT-Pete]

exporail 1

 

So, to the museum.

 

 

 

Well it confirms what a lot of people have said about it being dark and gloomy.

 

 

Fortunately there's just about enough light for the EOS, but it really is a dark place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brossard]

The museum is really very good.  You're timing is off, you missed the layout weekend back in August.  I had my layout there:

 

 

John

[TT-Pete]

exporail 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brossard]

For a lot of people in the British railway community here, DoC's relegation the back shed is horrible.  Thousands were spent some some years ago to ship it and DDE to Shildon for cosmetic overhaul in time for the great gathering.

 

Upon it's return it did spend some time on a plinth in the main hall but that didn't last long.  I have some pictures of DoC in it's place of honour.

 

John

[TT-Pete]

retour

So I make the 13:27 back from St-Constant

 

 

On the way back I was looking out for a depot I had first seen from the taxi on the way into town from the airport (a railway enthusiast always picks this sort of thing up - much to the wife's dismay) and the on the train up (or DN) I had seen it again, so on the way back I was timed and ready at the window camera in hand;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does anybody recognise the location or any of the stock on display?

 

 

 

[pH]

I would suggest CAD Railway industries:

 

https://www.cadrail.ca

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by pH

[jjb1970]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! For taking pictures in dark museums (and indoors in general) I find a phone camera much better than a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Usually such pictures are well served by the standard or wide lens (which really means wide or ultra-wide) of a smartphone and these days computational photography software in smartphones is way ahead of regular cameras and works to give excellent results in low light conditions. Although the lens is probably not up to much, software correction means optical quality of the final image can be excellent. That's not to say a DSLR or mirrorless no longer has relevance and there are many applications for which a proper camera is still a better choice (especially telephoto) but these days the cameras in smartphones really are very good.

[TT-Pete]

I like Gare Centrale -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TT-Pete]

On 10/09/2023 at 22:45, brossard said:

I have some pictures of DoC in it's place of honour.

 

John

 

Hi John, I'd be interested in seeing those!

 

Peter.

 

[brossard]

OK, I know I posted them here at one time but no idea where now.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

John

 

[TT-Pete]

And I also like Gare du Palais -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TT-Pete]

But I am not so keen on Ottawa's station, so just for a moment let us pretend that the downtown Union station was not closed to all traffic in 1966;

 

 

 

 

 

 

But unfortunately it was, so now we've got this soulless airport terminal instead...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BR60103]

We used the Ottawa station for the first few years of my life. After my sister was born, Dad bought a car and we only occasionally took the train.

I don't have clear memories of it, but the line in went along the side of the Rideau canal. There was a single track that went out the other side across the river to Quebec.

 

[TT-Pete]

Toronto Railroad Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TT-Pete]

On 16/09/2023 at 04:29, BR60103 said:

I don't have clear memories of it, but the line in went along the side of the Rideau canal. There was a single track that went out the other side across the river to Quebec.

 

I have read that although the grandiose terminal building was modelled on the baths of Caracalla, the actual trainshed was a dark and gloomy low-roofed cast concrete structure that nobody misses. We walked back from the National Museum across the Alexandra river bridge, I noticed it is a trypical railway girder construction, has got commemorative railway company builders' plates on the ends and that the alignment points up towards the Fairmont hotel through the Major's Hill park, so I suspected it had railway origins. :^)

 

(BTW what a barking idea to come up with a plan to deliberately remove all railways and stations from within your capital city centre in order to become car-centric. I wonder how that has worked out?)

 

[Johann Marsbar]

13 minutes ago, TT-Pete said:

 

I have read that although the grandiose terminal building was modelled on the baths of Caracalla, the actual trainshed was a dark and gloomy low-roofed cast concrete structure that nobody misses. We walked back from the National Museum across the Alexandra river bridge, I noticed it is a trypical railway girder construction, has got commemorative railway company builders' plates on the ends and that the alignment points up towards the Fairmont hotel through the Major's Hill park, so I suspected it had railway origins. :^)

 

(BTW what a barking idea to come up with a plan to deliberately remove all railways and stations from within your capital city centre in order to become car-centric. I wonder how that has worked out?)

 

 

As far as I know this was the former rail bridge - as seen in 1989........

 

 

It does feature in the NFBC film "The Railrodder" with Buster Keaton as he crosses it on his speeder!

 

Even the remaining rail interest in Hull, over the river in Quebec, has gone nowadays, even if it was of Swedish origin.....

 

 

[TT-Pete]

Toronto Union Station has to be my favourite -

 

Coming back from the railroad museum I took a random stairwell up from the Lower Simcoe street underpass (vibes of a brighter version of Waterloo Station Leake Street underpass back in the days when you could still drive through it) which rather to my surprise came out at platform level -

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking East -

 

 

I was trying to give a sense of just how BIG these locos are, they really are the size of a house when you're standing at track level

 

 

 

 

 

I love these classic innox coaches, reminiscent of French expresses of the 1970's -

 

 

 

 

Looking West -

 

 

 

[TT-Pete]

Union Station - part 2

 

The green and white triangles are over what was the spur leading down to the MPD, now the museum roundhouse.

 

It's nice to see that so much of the old trainshed fabric has been incorporated into the refurbishment, it really gave me a sense of yesteryear -

 

 

 

The Fairmont Royal York is a magnificent structure.

 

 

The Great Hall:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The station frontage presented a bit of a challenge, the sun was always behind it and the only shot I could get without getting blinded was at the extreme right with the room window reflections from the Royal York across the street -

 

 

So only one solution - it will have to be at night:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh well, all good things come to an end, back to Blighty...

 

FIN

 

[davknigh]

6 hours ago, TT-Pete said:

 

(BTW what a barking idea to come up with a plan to deliberately remove all railways and stations from within your capital city centre in order to become car-centric. I wonder how that has worked out?)

 

The people behind the planning didn’t get the memo about steam being eliminated from both CN and CP as the move was intended to keep the smelly, smokey, engines out of downtown.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[VIA185]

Looks like they've finally completed the construction works in front of Toronto Union and the endless refurbishment inside. I went every summer from 2011-18 and it seemed to be a constant construction site. I thought Montreal station was bizarre - the upper part away from the trains is grand and open and just a retail space. The trains are down below in a pitch black tunnel. Ottawa station is so far out of town it's a taxi ride to get anywhere. I was in Montreal on a Sunday, so no commuter trains. I paid a colossal amount for a taxi out to the Museum and had to book him to return later in the afternoon to pick me up. This was my favourite spot in Montreal. I think there was a plan to do up the Wellington signal tower but I don't know if anything came of it. (CJL)

Edited September 19, 2023 by VIA185

[BR60103]

Pete:

Around the Great Hall, chiseled into the stone, are the names of all the cities you used to be able to get to by train. 

The big white thing at the bottom of the CN Tower is the football stadium (current name eludes me) which was built on the site of the CN roundhouse.  I believe the turntable pit is used as the visiting team's showers. It could be modelled using a bedpan as a base.

 

I think there was a plan once to move all the railway stations from the city centre out to where no one could find them.

 

 

 

[davknigh]

13 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Pete:

Around the Great Hall, chiseled into the stone, are the names of all the cities you used to be able to get to by train. 

The big white thing at the bottom of the CN Tower is the football stadium (current name eludes me) which was built on the site of the CN roundhouse.  I believe the turntable pit is used as the visiting team's showers. It could be modelled using a bedpan as a base.

The stadium is the Rogers Centre used primarily for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team home games but also monster truck rallies, moto-cross, rock concerts, assorted ethnic cultural gatherings. It features artificial turf and a retractable roof which can be open when it’s sunny and closed when it rains or is too cold. Built at public expense it got sold off after a few years for a pittance and is now owned by a TV/Internet/mobile phone super mega corporation for whom it is named.

 

13 hours ago, BR60103 said:

I think there was a plan once to move all the railway stations from the city centre out to where no one could find them.

They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations in Ottawa and Edmonton.

 

Cheers,

 

David

Edited September 20, 2023 by davknigh
Last minute addition

[Siberian Snooper]

I had a quick look around down there this afternoon, no photos I'm afraid. There seems to be more exhibits at the roundhouse, than my previous visit 7 or 8 years ago. A pity that I couldn't spend more time, but I'm sending this from the airport.

 

 

[VIA185]

Yes, from the pictures above the Baldwin switcher and one or two cranes may be new but the rest has been there when I've been in the past (2018 was my most recent visit). The 4803 is starting to look tatty (it was very smart five years ago) but the big steamer looks to have been repainted and reunited with its tender. It's a decent little collection which, I think relies on the support and goodwill of a very small number of people. (CJL)