The Don Station - 12 Sep 1910 Photographer unknown.

2 April 2011

Whistle Stop Finally Finds a Home

Toronto Ontario - Railways have always played an important part in the growth of Canada, Ontario, and the City of Toronto. In fact, our city was less than 20 years old when, in 1853, the first steam train made an appearance on a line constructed to connect Toronto with a station near the dusty cross roads at Machell's Corners, a small farming community in the hinterland just west of today's Town of Aurora.
 
It wasn't long before this pioneer line was joined by dozens of others and soon the province was crisscrossed by a multitude of tracks connecting almost everyplace with everywhere.
 
One of the earliest promoters was the newly created Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1884, CPR tracks were laid down across the city's northern suburbs allowing its freight trains to deliver goods through a small station the company constructed on the west side of Yonge. Incidentally, it was some three decades later that the old station was superseded by the handsome North Toronto station, now a liquor store across the street.
 
Other railway companies coveted their connections into and out of the city and it wasn't until 1888 that the CPR was able to gain access to and from downtown Toronto. It accomplished this using tracks the company was finally authorized to build through the community of Leaside and then to and from the city's waterfront via tracks laid down through the still mostly forested Don Valley.
 
One of the stations along this route can still be visited today. Built in 1896 near the Queen St. crossing of the CPR tracks on the west side of the river it naturally became known as the Don Station. In use for more than seven decades the station was removed from service and in 1969 moved to Todmorden Mills Park where it sat amongst a small collection of historic buildings.
 
Now, after years of fruitless attempts to display the city's fascinating railway heritage in one setting or another, we finally have a proper railway museum. Located just south of the CN Tower, the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre is the creation of a number of devoted railway enthusiasts not the least of whom is Derek Boles.
 
And it's here in Roundhouse Park that the little Don station has finally found a proper new home where it will enjoy new life as a welcome component of the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre.
 
Mike Filey.

The Don Station at the Toronto Heritage Centre - Date/Photographer unknown.