All Aboard Toronto- Virtual Exhibition

Welcome to the Toronto Public Library's first virtual exhibition. All Aboard Toronto! - Railways and the Growth of a City celebrates the role that railways have played in the history and development of Toronto. The images shown are from the Library's Special Collections as well as some loaned items. The virtual exhibition is intended to complement the resources of the TPL Virtual Reference Library gateway, Historicity: Toronto Then and Now.

The Train Tour follows the route of Toronto's first railway in 1853. Virtual travellers can board the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway engine "Toronto" and journey from Toronto north to Machell's Corners (Aurora) and Collingwood, viewing buildings and scenes that would have been found along the route during that era.

The Online Gallery heralds the coming of the railway to Toronto and the effect it had on the city from the 1850s to the end of the steam era in the 1950s. The Online Gallery of images and text can be fully viewed by era or area, or you can browse the entire gallery of images with abbreviated captions. It is a full recreation of the exhibition on display in the Canada Trust Gallery at the Toronto Reference Library from August 4 - October 7, 2001.

Fun and Games provides a lighter view of railways for all ages. Test your railway knowledge and have fun.

Technical Notes

No special viewers are required to view the atlases or map images in the exhibition, however users may choose to load the ExpressView Browser Plug-in, to view MrSID (multiresolution seamless image database) files. The plug-in is available at lizardtech.com.
Audio for the Train Tour is not available for in-library use.
When printing, orient the paper to landscape for best results.