Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

Several years ago, our friend and occasional guest-blogger JetLaggedJaff made a visit to Toronto and the CN Tower , which he was kind enough to share with us.  Recently, we made the trip down to downtown Toronto to visit the Toronto Railway Museum ourselves, which is nestled in the heart of the former Railway Lands , adjacent to the aforementioned CN Tower. For any fan of railway history or urban development, this museum offers a fascinating glimpse into the city’s rich railroading past right in the heart of downtown.  FRRandP photo. Caption from the Toronto Railway Historical Association , "Cape Race was built for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1929 as the River Liard. The car was one of a series of 15 River cars fabricated at National Steel Car in Hamilton for $66,300 apiece. The opulent interiors were finished at CP’s Angus Shops in Montreal and featured individual ladies’s and gentlemen’s showers, leather-upholstered smoking rooms, ladies’ lounge and observation parlour ...

Guest blogger Alain Bernier returns to discuss an unusual part of railway history, both in Quebec and across the United States and Canada, the early adoption of using wood as opposed to steel and iron rails to save on costs for early railway lines.  NOTE : This blog was originally sent to me for publication in February, but due to email mishaps, it got lost in the shuffle. Nonetheless, I thank Alain for his hard work, research, and especially patience in contributing to this blog! Abandoned colonization wooden railroads in the province of Quebec   THE HULBERT WOODEN RAIL SYSTEM When speaking of wooden rails here, we are not referring to the wooden rails laid with strap iron that were commonly used in the early days of the railroads. We are referring to railroads that were built using rails entirely made of wood with no iron whatsoever and without using any iron spikes or other metal fasteners.  By some accounts, this system of wooden railways, developed in Norway an...