Vehicles · Trains
The biggest engines on the ground
Every car person is a train person the first time a diesel-electric notches up under load next to them. Steam is the origin story. Shinkansen is the future that arrived in 1964.
Locomotives
Worth the trip to the yard
JNR Class D51
The workhorse of Japanese steam. Over a thousand built, a handful still under steam on excursion lines. The Land Cruiser of locomotives.
0 Series Shinkansen
The first bullet train. 210 km/h on opening day of the Tokyo Olympics, and the reason every other country's rail plan looks late.
Union Pacific Big Boy 4014
Articulated 4-8-8-4, 1.2 million pounds, restored to running in 2019. When it passes, the ground has an opinion.
CPR Royal Hudson 2860
Streamlined 4-6-4 with the crown on the running board. Ran the Vancouver to Squamish excursion for decades along the Sea to Sky.
EMD FT and the F-units
The diesel-electric that killed steam. A 567-series V16 driving generators driving traction motors. Bulldog nose, five-chime horn.
LNER Mallard
203 km/h in 1938, still the steam speed record. Streamlined by a man who also designed the tea service.
Near Toronto
Where to see them running
Toronto Railway Museum
The John Street roundhouse downtown. A working turntable, a CN 4-8-4 Northern, and the Cabin D interlocking tower. Combine with a drive along Lake Shore.
South Simcoe Railway
Tottenham, Ontario. Steam excursions on summer weekends behind a 1883 4-4-0. An hour north, and Highway 9 out is a decent road.
Exporail
Saint-Constant, Quebec. Canada's biggest railway museum, 160 pieces of rolling stock, and a streetcar line on site. Pair it with the Gaspé loop.
Community
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