June 18 Field Trip to Exporail

Shortly after noon on Saturday, June 18, some dozen MonSFFen gathered, physically, face-to-face in the lobby of the Exporail Museum, located in the town of St-Constant, across the river, just south of Montreal. This outing marked our long-awaited but tentative return to in-person gatherings.

Exporail houses the nation’s largest collection of locomotives, rail coaches and cars, and railroad equipment and paraphernalia, representing Canada’s railway heritage, dating back to the early days of steam and streetcars. Steampunk fans will surely delight in this museum, strolling among the elegantly appointed passenger cars, and the massive nuts-and-bolts steam locomotives, their cabs replete with a plethora of pipes and valves and levers.

The museum also featured several exhibits devoted to the history of toy trains, and a sizable, operating HO-scale model-railroad layout, of particular interest to the collectors and scale-modellers in our group. Furthermore, we braved the day’s rain to walk about outside, where were parked on sidings additional engines and cars awaiting restoration. We both explored the museum on our own and benefitted from a guided tour of some of the notable trains in the collection, including a first-generation Montreal Metro car!

For the benefit of those who were unable to join us on this field trip, we present, here, a photo gallery of our visit to the Exporail museum. (All photos by Keith Braithwaite unless otherwise indicated.)

The main “Angus” pavilion was our starting point. From the lobby and leading into the cavernous primary exhibit area, a short passageway served to display an assortment of track-laying tools, uniform caps, signage, promotional models, toy trains, plaques, historical photographs, and other railroad accoutrements. Interpretive videos screened on television monitors, as well.

Within the exhibit area itself, numerous locomotives, coaches, and railroad cars were grouped together on sidings amongst which we were able to meander, effectively taking a stroll through Canadian railway history.

Street Cars, Montreal Metro

In one corner and belonging to the Montreal City Passenger Railway was an early stagecoach-like vehicle, which had been pulled through city streets by a team of horses, presaging rail transportation.

An open-air, sightseeing type was among several street cars on exhibit, including the “Rocket,” which we were able to board. Period advertising signage was reproduced as a detail of this car’s restoration.

Regrettably out of service on this day is an operating street car that carries patrons on a brief tour around the museum grounds outdoors. It was undergoing work in a maintenance garage adjacent the Angus building.

Familiar to Montrealers was a first-generation Metro car, its sky-blue colour and white trim easily recognized. A vintage map of the Metro system, circa mid-1960s, was among the details featured aboard this car—the Metro then was but a fraction of the circuit it is today.

Passenger Coaches

Exporail’s collection includes a number of passenger coaches, from vintage to more modern, and we were able to view the interiors of some of these trains by way of an elevated platform.

Moreover, we were able to board a couple of the coaches for a closer look at the ornate decorative flourishes of a bygone era, and such features as fold-out upper and lower sleeping berths, a rather compact washroom, and a coal-fired stove positioned at one end of the coach, providing heat for the entire car. Passengers seated closest to the stove were charged more for their tickets!

We also boarded a mail car and learned about the pick-up/delivery system employed to move mail across the vast expanses of this country, in a time when carrying the mail was an important function of Canada’s railways.

The Age of Steam

A highlight of our visit was the opportunity to view the many mighty steam locomotives in the collection, from smaller—relatively speaking—workhorse engines to formidable, giant powerhouses and streamlined behemoths, some of which we were able to board for a close-up look at the crew compartments. Given the enormous size of these locomotives, their cabs were a surprisingly cramped space to work for engineer and crew!

We were able, as well, to descend into a pit and have a gander at the undercarriage of one huge locomotive, and view, in a secondary pavilion, a couple of European-made engines, the showcase example of which was the beautiful, aerodynamic, A4-class “Dominion of Canada.”

Built in 1937 for British Railways’ London-Edinburgh line and originally dubbed “Woodcock,” this locomotive was cutting-edge railroad technology in its day. Renamed “Dominion of Canada,” it was rescued from the scrap heap in 1965 after having been put out of service, restored by British Railways, and shipped to Canada just in time for this country’s Centennial Celebrations in 1967.

 

Also on view in this secondary pavilion was the exquisitely reconditioned “John Molson.”

Diesel-Electric Locomotives, Boxcars, Snow Removal Equipment

The age of steam gave way to diesel-electric power, and Exporail’s inventory includes a number of fine examples of these more contemporary locomotives.

 

There were on site a couple of boxcars, too, and this being Canada, special snow-removal equipment.

Model Railroading and Toy Trains

The Angus pavilion also featured several anterooms dedicated to model railroading and toy trains. A large, finely detailed model of Canadian National’s number 5606, locomotive and tender, marked the entrance to these rooms, and within was spotlighted a toaster-sized model of an engine imported from England for service on Canada’s first railroad, the Champlain and St. Lawrence, running between La Prairie and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu beginning in 1836.

 

A few wonderfully intricate model railroad layouts were on exhibit, including a pintsized set-up enclosed within a suitcase! Glass display cases showcased a variety of miniature locomotives and railcars, the most popular and common scale among model railroaders being HO, or 1:87.

A big, impressive HO layout occupied most of one large room, with operating trains snaking through miniature forest and mountain, tiny, lifelike town and city.

Toy trains and accessories were featured as well, from simple wooden models to metal and plastic replicas of varying sizes and levels of detail. Several of the famous and very collectible Lionel electric trains were included, here.

Railyard

As the rain let up a little, we made our way outside to explore the many trains parked in the railyard—locomotives, passenger coaches, boxcars, flatcars, maintenance vehicles, all awaiting refurbishment.

Recreated were a couple of passenger train stations and platforms, one of which harkened back to an era when passengers were segregated by gender as they awaited their train, the women in one waiting room, which was heated by a coal-burning stove, the men in the other, without any source of heat! The station’s ticket office was positioned between the two, with service wickets on either side. Luggage carts, and the office’s furniture and antiquated equipment completed the recreation.

As the time came to put a caboose on our field trip, we made one last stop before departing: the gift shop! We left having enjoyed a most pleasant afternoon exploring a most interesting museum.