The Northern Ontario Railroad Museum and Heritage Centre is a rail transport museum located in the community of

Capreol Capreol ( ) is a community in the Ontario city of Greater Sudbury. Situated on the Vermilion River (35 mins north of the downtown core), Capreol is the city's northernmost populated area. From 1918 to 2000, Capreol existed as an independent to ...

in Greater Sudbury,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The museum's mandate states it is, "focused on the preservation of historical artifacts that pay tribute to the heritage of

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

and the history of the lumber, mining and railroading industries."

History

Northern Ontario Railroad Museum Building

The Northern Ontario Railroad Museum & Heritage Centre was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1993. During July and August, the museum initially operated out of the CN Caboose #77562 in Prescott Park with a small display of railroad memorabilia. In 1997, the museum acquired the former home of the superintendent of

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Man ...

and Canadian National Railway, which they promptly converted into the NORMHC Museum House and main site, with Prescott Park acting as the outdoor portion of the attraction. During the summer of 2010, NORMHC received funds from outgoing councilor Russ Thompson for the construction of a Garden of Life to promote organ and tissue donation. Significantly boosted by a major donation in 2013 by CN Rail, the project has since been completed but is constantly maintained and upgraded each museum season. In 2012, the former Capreol fire hall was acquired by the museum. The fire hall was used actively until October 2010. Since it was built in 1923, it has served as the police station and jail, circuit court, temporary housing, council chambers, town offices, credit union, and the fire station.

Prescott Park

Prescott Park, named for the former mayor of Capreol Harold Prescott, holds the museum's outdoor locomotive and rolling stock exhibits, as well as the museum's G-Scale model train outdoor layout and children's play structure. This is also home to the Garden of Life, a garden exhibit dedicated to the awareness and celebration of organ donation in Ontario, in association with the Trillium Gift of Life Network.

Locomotive & Rolling Stock Collection

The museum's train collection includes four locomotives, six pieces of rolling stock, as well as several mining cars, handcars, and speeders. The museum currently has the following on display: Locomotives: * Canadian National Railways #6077 1944 U-1-f Class MLW

4-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as ...

steam locomotive *

Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway The Ontario Northland Railway is a Canadian railway operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a provincial Crown agency of the government of Ontario. Originally built to develop the Lake Timiskaming and Lake Nipissing area ...

#219 1907 MLW 4-6-0 steam locomotive *

INCO Vale Canada Limited (formerly Vale Inco, CVRD Inco and Inco Limited; for corporate branding purposes simply known as "Vale" and pronounced in English) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. Vale's nickel mining and ...

#101 1919

Westinghouse Electric The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

50T locomotive *

#116 1948

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

100T locomotive Rolling Stock: * Canadian National Railways Caboose #77526 (built by

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

in 1887) * Canadian National Railways Caboose #79231 (built by Hawker Siddeley in 1967) * Canadian National Railways Rules Instruction Car #15019 ''Stadacona'' (built by

Pullman Standard The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

in 1912 for

Intercolonial Railway The Intercolonial Railway of Canada , also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely o ...

, currently used as a School Car exhibit) * Canadian National Railways Warehouse-baggage Car #60049 (built by

National Steel Car National Steel Car is the largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock in Canada, based in Hamilton, Ontario. The company was founded in 1912, and has been a top 3 rolling stock manufacturer in Canada for its lifetime. National Steel Car is a subs ...

in 1953) * Canadian National Railways Snow Plow #55208 (built by the Eastern Car Company in

Trenton, Nova Scotia Trenton is a town located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1786, it is situated on the east bank of the East River of Pictou. The community gained its name in 1882 at the suggestion of a prominent citiz ...

in 1924) is a single track wedge plow with wings * Canadian National Railways 30 Ton Crane #50392 (built by Browning/Wellman in 1957) *

Vale Limited Vale Canada Limited (formerly Vale Inco, CVRD Inco and Inco Limited; for corporate branding purposes simply known as "Vale" and pronounced in English) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. Vale's nickel mining and ...

Hot Metal Car #5 *

Slag Pot Car

Heritage Centre

The Former Capreol fire hall, located one block east of the main site, is used to house and display the in-process restoration project of the town's first police vehicle purchase, a 1956 Dodge Fargo (used as the police force's

paddy wagon A police van (also known as a paddy wagon, meat wagon, divisional van, patrol van, patrol wagon, police wagon, Black Mariah/Maria, police carrier, or in old-fashioned usage, pie wagon) is a type of vehicle operated by police forces. Police vans ...

and a 1929 Godferson Bickle fire engine. The Fire Hall is also the location of the museum's library and offices, exhibits on the social history of the town and surrounding area, as well as annual exhibits involving different themes.

Model Railroad Layout

Unveiled and officially open on May 20, 2017, the Heritage Centre also holds the Museum's newest attraction, a 1000 sq. ft. HO scale model railroad layout. Deemed the largest in Northern Ontario, the layout took 2 years to complete (construction began in December 2015) and has been hand-built, painted and decorated by NORMHC volunteers as well as the Sudbury Model Railroaders Club. It features recreations of Capreol town features as well as scenes of Northern Ontario, including a space detailing the museum's outdoor exhibits in miniature.

Railroad Simulator

Opened May 2, 2017, the heritage centre also now features a railroad simulator, created and installed by RSI Simulators. Included in the admission price, visitors can use the simulator and experience the basics of train operation, with the scenery used based on a Northern Quebec area and a planned future update changing this to the Capreol yard and scenery around the town. The simulator is set to "arcade mode" to enable visitors to operate it with ease, however, the ability to operate in full "engineer" mode is also possible (the same setting used to train CN employees in the nearby yard).

Gallery

File:Steam engine 6077.JPG, Steam engine 6077 File:6077 engine room.JPG, The interior of the cab of

Steam engine 6077 Canadian National Railways 6077 is a preserved 4-8-2 locomotive of Canadian National Railways U-1-f class, which were nicknamed ''Bullet Nosed Bettys''. Construction and initial use 6077 was built in 1944 as part of order of twenty locomotives ...

File:Norm june 2009 Ben Groves144.JPG, Rules instruction car File:INCOelectric.JPG, One of two

electric engines An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

on display File:Schoolcar.JPG, A classroom on the school car File:Ironsdisplay.JPG, Clothes irons and other tools of the time File:Garden-train1.jpg, G-Scale Train at the NORMHC File:Temiskaming & Northern Ontario 219 steam locomotive 4-6-0 (2016-Aug-22).jpg, Steam engine 219 File:Inco hot metal bottle car, NORMHC, 2016-Aug-22.jpg, INCO hot metal car #5 File:CN 50392, 30-ton Welland rail crane, NORMHC, 2016-Aug-22.jpg, CN 50392 rail crane

References

External links

Northern Ontario Railroad Museum
{{authority control Railway museums in Ontario Museums in Greater Sudbury Rail transport in Greater Sudbury