(rshsdepot) Canadian Pacific Railway Don Station in Toronto

[Derek Boles <derekboles_@_rogers.com>]

The historic Don Station was moved early on the morning of December 
10, 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:
E on Pottery Rd.
S on Broadview
W on Danforth-Bloor
S on Queen's Park-University
W on Front
S on Blue Jays Way
E 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 December 9.

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 No. 6213.

Derek Boles
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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