Electric Utility Threatens Toronto Railway Museum

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 948

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le2409756/

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The condo boom on the city’s old railway lands has sparked a 127-per-cent increase in requests for new electrical connections downtown since 2003, and nine alternative locations for the station were deemed unsuitable before Toronto Hydro exercised an option to buy the Bremner Boulevard land in 2010.

“As much as we would love to accommodate [the railway museum], there are specific regulatory and safety requirements for the station,” said Tanya Bruckmueller, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, which is spending an extra $9-million to preserve the heritage character of the machine shop.

Local Councillor Adam Vaughan urged the TRHA to make the best of a difficult situation by presenting its exhibits in the machine shop’s leftover space.

“The hydro station is needed, otherwise you’re not going to have people getting up and down the elevator to apartments at City Place,” he said. “When you’re confronted with that, losing a small portion of the rail museum, unfortunately, is what happens.”

The problem doesn’t seem small to Mr. Krivel and other members of the TRHA, who have spent years assembling a collection of artifacts that includes everything from railway silver to train staff uniforms to old railroad books.

softwerkslex · **Posted:** Sat Apr 21, 2012 1:40 pm

This is horrible, and an enormous waste. If you have been following this group, what started as a great plan for an urban museum with roundhouse and turntable is slowly being dismantled. First, they gave over a chunk of the roundhouse for a furniture store because they wanted to eliminate the subsidy, now they want to take the remaining space for utilities.

It is an enormous waste. They spent large rebuilding the turntable and its structural support over top of an underground parking garage.

What started as a railway museum is turning into a shopping mall with a token railway theme.

In fact, I just looked at the satellite photo now and it appears the roundhouse does not have a rail link.

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 21, 2012 5:34 pm

If the remarks by softwerkslex above and those of the readers commenting on the article are accurate at all, it reminds me once again that railroad preservation is one activity that "gets no respect, no respect at all!"

And this is after spending money on the turntable, on becoming self-sufficient (no subsidy), on pouring money and sweat into things--far more than the supposed "job creators" seem to really do. . .

Bah!

k5ahudson · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:30 am **Posts:** 773

softwerkslex wrote:

In fact, I just looked at the satellite photo now and it appears the roundhouse does not have a rail link.

It does not have a rail connection. As a matter of fact they had to truck ex-CNR Northern #6213 on to the site a couple of years ago.

softwerkslex · **Posted:** Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:08 pm

I am quoting some sentences from the association's website that foreshadow these difficulties:

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Roundhouse Park was created in 1997 on top of the southern expansion of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Encompassing some of the most valuable real estate in Canada

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fully restored and operational 120-foot long locomotive turntable

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CPR decided to close the facility and donate the facility to the City of Toronto for use as a municipal railway museum.

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The three stalls have been be refurbished so that repairs can also be made to our locomotives and cars.

"Most valuable real estate in Canada" :: this is a losing battle. I bet the turntable is a rotating restaurant in five years.