CNR 6167

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CNR 6213 was retired from active service in 1959 and placed on display at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto in 1960, where it has sat ever since. After 20+ years on display, the locomotive was starting to show the toll Mother Nature had taken on it. In the 1980's, the locomotive was subject to an asbestos abatement and a cosmetic restoration that have left it looking absolutely fantastic.

The John Street Roundhouse was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1929 to replace an existing roundhouse. It featured a 120 foot turntable, the largest in Canada, a 350 ton coaling plant, 60,000 gallon steel water tower as well as the being the first Roundhouse in Canada to use Direct Steaming, where in a series of steam pipes running throughout the roundhouse could supplied steam locomotives with steam from the nearby Central Heating plant meaning that the locomotives would not require a fire to maintain boiler pressure while the engines were being serviced between trips. The John Street yard (next to CNR's Spadina yard) gave the railway convenient access to Toronto's Union Station, and this yard was in fact used to maintain locomotives and rolling stock used on passenger trains.

As the CPR dieselized, passenger service declined and real estate values went up, the railway decided to close the John Street, but not before donating the Roundhouse to the city of Toronto in the 1980's. It was hoped that the roundhouse and property would become a railway museum, but bit by bit, structures on the site were demolished, and other developments sprung up. It wasn't until the early and mid double-o's that something happened to the roundhouse, in the form of Steam Whistle Brewery. about a third of the roundhouse was taken down to allow the construction of a parking garage underneath the Roundhouse Park , as it is now called, at which time this section of the Roundhouse was rebuilt. Finally after several decades people could actually walk into part of the roundhouse (and have a drink).

A few years later, a deal was finally reached that (sadly) would see the other half of the Roundhouse converted in Leon's, a Furniture store, thus leaving only three stalls (of 32) and the machine shop for the museum. Once the roundhouse's fate was sealed, the turntable was pulled out of the roundhouse, rebuilt, and installed in a new turntable pit. From there, all the equipment that had been stored inside the roundhouse was pulled out so that the interior could be redeveloped. Part of the Roundhouse redevelopment was the creation of roundhouse park which features several historic Railway buildings, tracks for displaying equipment and a miniature live steam railway.

As the renovations progressed, Leon's announced that they wanted 6213 to be at the Roundhouse in time for their grand opening in July 2009. That's when we got the call to finally prepare 6213 to be moved to the John Street Roundhouse.

Beginning in April 2009, the main items on our agenda were separating the Engine and Tender and returning the wheels and rods to a condition fit for moving.

Notes

I'd like to to give a few recommendations to people who are contemplating moving their own Steam Locomotives:

1) Clean and Tag everything that comes off the locomotive

2) Take LOTS of photos. I'm glad I've taken taken so many photos of 6167 in the years before the restoration so that we have some idea of how to put the engine back together.

3) Remove all valuables from the locomotive. No locomotive is truly safe, even engines in the middle of major museums have been picked clean by looters and vandals. Before 6213's fence came down we made sure to remove all collectible parts. We have even looked into having replicas of these parts made to put back on the locomotive.

4) ALWAYS assume that electrical connections are live. We found this out the hard way. The lights on the engine haven't worked in the last few years and we always assumed that the wires running underground had been cut, perhaps as the ground shifted during the winter. The conduit coming out of the ground was getting in our way so I cut the line going into the locomotive without trouble, but when we tried to cut the same line coming out of the ground, we got a fireworks display.

CNR 6213 in the weeks prior to being relocated to the John Street Roundhouse.