10 December 2008
Don Station Move
The Don Station - Date/photographer
unknown.
Toronto Ontario - The historic Don Station was moved
early on the morning of 10 Dec 2008 from Todmorden Mills to its permanent home at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre at
Roundhouse Park.
The structure was divided into six sections to facilitate the move.
The lower part of the station was separated from the roof and divided into two segments that were loaded onto flatbed trailers and
began their 8-kilometre journey under police escort close to midnight, arriving at Roundhouse Park in exactly 59 minutes.
The route followed was: East on Pottery Rd., south on Broadview, west on Danforth-Bloor, south on Queen's
Park-University, west on Front, south on Blue Jays Way, and east on Bremner.
The remaining four sections of the station, consisting of the divided roof, the turret, and the turret roof had been delivered to
Roundhouse Park earlier on 9 Dec 2008.
The Don Station was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1896 and was originally located just south of Queen Street on the west
side of the Don River.
The station remained in service until 1967 and was moved to the Todmorden Mills Museum in 1969.
For the past two decades the station was used as a storage facility and was usually inaccessible to the public.
Beginning in 2005, the Toronto Railway Historical Association hosted an open house and archival display at the station on selected
weekends.
The segments of the station are now resting at Roundhouse Park and will be soon be reassembled on a permanent concrete foundation that
was prepared several weeks ago.
Following its almost forty-year sojourn at Todmorden, some of the floor joists were badly rotted and will be rebuilt with
new materials.
The structure was divided along seams that separated it for its original 1969 move, so no additional structural damage was sustained
in the 2008 move.
The Don Station is the only remaining 19th century railway station in Toronto, the last of 75 that once existed within the present
city limits.
The station will be completely restored beginning in the spring of 2009 and will be one of the centrepieces of the Toronto Railway
Heritage Centre, along with the 1896 Cabin D interlocking tower and Canadian National steam locomotive number 6213.
Derek Boles
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