On the Rails: The Experiences of Toronto’s Railway Workers On the Rails: The Experiences of Toronto’s Railway Workers Toronto Railway Museum
Steam locomotives were far more labour-intensive than today’s modern diesel engines. Hundreds of workers were employed at John Street and worked 24 hours a day during the steam […]
The John Street Roundhouse was part of an extensive complex of over forty buildings devoted to railway maintenance. The Roundhouse and the machine shop, visible just to the […]
This is the mechanical staff of the John Street Roundhouse in 1937, posed in front of Canadian Pacific steam engine 3002. The Toronto Railway Museum is housed in […]
This photo was taken in 1941 during a promotion to encourage shop employees to buy Victory Bonds during the Second World War. John Clarke is standing at the […]
“RESTORED BY J.CLARK LOCO. FOREMAN TORONTO 1971” is stamped on the bottom of the photograph. John Clarke on the pilot of No. 1057 at stall 19 of the […]
John was appointed as shop foreman shortly after this photo was taken.
With the popularity of cars in the 1950s and 1960s, the prominence of railways declined. This photograph shows how Toronto’s landscape changed with the railways and later, the […]
The railways brought industry to Toronto. While this meant jobs for railway workers, it also meant smoke from the trains’ coal-powered engines in their locomotives.
On the right side of this image, you can see Toronto’s second Union Station. Today, Union Station is the largest railway station in Canada and occupies the entire […]
