Frugal Film Project – September 2024 – Light Rail

I love visiting museums, especially living history museums. While I would have loved to include more in this year’s project cycle, I’m glad to have a chance to visit one of my long time favourites. I first visited the Halton Radial Railway Museum when I was in Kindergarten and was taken in by the collection. The Museum is home to the largest operating fleet of light-rail vehicles that operated on the inter-urban lines and mass transit services that once dominated Ontario and beyond. From a vast collection of TTC vehicles and predecessor operators to smaller services the museum this year is celebrating seventy years in operation. And while later in the month than I usually like to shoot this roll it was worth the wait.

Interurban Railways were a popular means of traveling to and from the suburbs and into the city and vice-versa, these were often called radial railways as they radiated out of single point. These systems were popular through the late 19th Century and into the early 20th Century, but after the rise of personal automobiles and improved highways fell off. The story of the Halton Country Radial Railway Museum starts with one such radial railway. The Toronto Suburban Street Railway Company (TSSR) formed in 1894 and quickly took over two smaller companies, the Weston, High Park & Toronto Street Railway (formed in 1890, and renamed City & Suburban Railway Co) and the Davenport Street Railway Co in 1891. The take over of the two smaller companies netted the new operator two existing routes, the Davenport and Crescent runs, while TSR would be quick to complete two additional routes Weston and Lambton. By the turn of the century, the company took its modern name, Toronto Street Railway Company (TSR) and began to look to expand out beyond Toronto and the immediate suburbs and received authorisation in 1904 to construct a line to Woodbridge and Guelph. But also had plans to go further into Brampton, Hamilton and even Niagara, but the company lacked the needed capital to complete the projects. During this time the company also converted from generating electricity locally for their lines to using high voltage generated in Niagara Falls. The needed infusion of capital came in 1911 when William Mackenzie and Douglas Mann (of Canadian Northern Railways) purchased the company incorporating it into their growing railway network. The same year, survey work for the Guelph line started and construction started a year later. By 1914 some 67 kilometers of track had been laid out west and the line up to Woodbridge had opened all while working on getting the entire line updated to the standard railway track gauge. By 1916 the high-level bridge over the Humber River saw completion and in April 1917 the first cars rolled into Guelph. The Guelph line quickly became the popular option with the main stations being at Dundas & Keele, Acton, Georgetown, and Guelph with the car barns and shops located near Lambton Park. But there were some 100 stops along the route, some had shelters but others were open air flag stops. When the Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) formed in 1921 they would purchase the Davenport and Lambton lines in 1923, the Crescent route closed the same year due to lack of ridership. The purchase and conversion to the “Toronto Gauge” of these lines isolated the Woodbridge route. But trouble was already brewing with Canadian Northern, the company’s over-extension resulted in bankruptcy, and the Canadian Government, rather than loose a valuable piece of railway infrastructure folded Canadian Northern into a newly created Canadian National Railway in 1923. Operations at the TSR soon fell to Canadian National Electric Railways, the Woodbridge Line would continue to operate until 1926 when it was shut down. Operations continued on the Guelph line, but with slowing ridership with the improvement in Provincial highways and personal automobiles. But the real killer was the Great Depression and CN’s failure to pay interest on the bond and in 1931 operations stopped on the Guelph Line and the entire line was dismantled by 1935. As the years went by the former Guelph line right-of-way was slowly swallowed up and other remains of the TSR were reused by other companies including CN, CP and the TTC. And while mainly radial lines began to sink into obscurity, some of the former right-of-ways on the TSR line would be transformed into hiking trails. But in 1954 the formation of the Ontario Electric Railway Heritage Association would bring a small portion of the TSR line back into operation. The OERHA did not form specifically to preserve the TSR, but rather former TTC Streetcar 1326. And the OERHA did succeed to securing No. 1326 and get their hands on a second historic car, Toronto Civic Railway No. 55. Volunteers would get to work in restoring these two cars to how they looked during their operation in revenue service. The collection would continue to grow through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s as the OERHA looked for a place to establish a museum. While I’m not sure when the land was acquired, but the group managed to secure a section of the former TSR Guelph right-of-way between Guelph Line and Fourth Line Nassagaweya in Milton, Ontario. The volunteers got to work constructing a set of tracks, running overhead cables to operate their growing historic fleet. The group also secured and moved the former Rockwood railway station, constructed barns and worked to re-gauge several cars and adapt to run on overhead cables. The Halton County Radial Railway Museum opened in 1972. I can’t remember exactly when I first visited the museum but it was either in preschool or Kindergarten but I was immediately struck by the collection. The HCRR maintains a large number of functioning TTC and other inter-urban and radial rolling stock. The latest additions to the collection is a large number of CLRV streetcars and an ALRV car as well.

If I like a place, it makes picking out sixteen photos even more difficult. The featured image I picked the pick. These cars first appeared in 1930s and in TTC service operated regularly from 1938 to the early 1980s. From there I went and picked the different cars that I had photographed. Because I was only working with 200-speed film I stuck to rolling stock outside. Which offered up a lot of excellent subject matter as the museum was going all out. From Older Peter DeWitt, PCC, and even modern CLRVs that make up the operating collection. There were other cars out and running on the tracks. The one car that I did want to include but couldn’t find is Montreal & Southern Counties Railway 107. Thankfully Car 107 was behind a banner and was driven out during a ceremony after I left the museum.

To make my life easy, I went ahead and shot the roll this month at the box speed of ASA-200 and used the standard 28-80mm kit lens to give me a bit more freedom. Despite arriving for when the museum opened, it was a busy day and having a zoom lens gave a bit more freedom in composing shots, I didn’t have to stand too far back. What made this month interesting is that I also shot some POV video using my iPhone mounted on a bracket on the camera’s hot shoe. As I had a couple of other rolls to develop both in Ilfotec HC so I went with the same developer. Now when I looked at the listed time I was a bit startled to see a nine minute time for the 1+31 dilution. Going back to my original review of Fomapan 200, the nine minute time was for the 1+63 dilution (H). The results worked perfectly, giving a nice classic long tonality and the grain wasn’t too bad, visible, but in a good place helping to keep the images sharp.

Living history museums are among the best types of museums out there. While you can visit places like the Royal Ontario Museum and similar places and get a glimpse into the past, but a living history museum shows you what the past was like, almost as if you were there yourself. These places are well worth a visit, if you’re in the Milton area, then the Halton County Radial Railway museum is worth a trip, although they are limited in operating hours at this point. But you can see their Christmas event soon! You can also check out all my photos from the day’s trip, including the digital images over on Flickr. Next month you can join me in the one city that changed my photography, the stunning Montreal, Quebec and to be more specific the Old City which is filled with history that dates back to ancient times that traces Indigenous, French and English settlement in the area.