A Sunday morning at Exporail

No trip to Montreal would be complete without a visit to Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum established in 1961, which holds the largest collection of railway artifacts and rolling stock in Canada.

It turned out that a visit was not without its complications. The museum, like many others in Canada, does not fully open until mid May and I was around a week too early. I would be able to see the displays in the main exhibition hall, but not the storage sheds (where the British A4 class steam locomotive ‘Dominion of Canada’ is to be found). It would also be too early for the streetcar and passenger trains to be in operation.

A colliery locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia (1900) as a 2-4-0T for Nova Scotia Steel & Coal. The locomotive marjks the entrance to Exporail.

The second complication was that the railway museum is not the easiest place to reach under winter opening hours. The most direct route on public transport is by rail. A few trains run to St Constant railway station, near the museum entrance, on Mondays to Fridays. However, the museum is only open Fridays to Sundays under the winter schedule (which changes to daily opening when they switch to a summer schedule in mid-May).

My only free day was a Sunday, so I took the 7.55am bus (130) from the dark subterranean bus terminal connected to Bonaventure Metro to the end of the line at the parking lot Georges-Gagné, Delson, a journey of around 35 minutes. The buses are quite small, more like large minibuses. In theory there are connecting buses, but a quick search showed that the option I had looked up before my trip was not running. Instead I walked the rest of the way (25 minutes) with the aid of a satellite image of the route I had printed out before the trip. It is quite a pleasant walk through the suburbs for the most part and felt quite safe, so no great hardship.

I arrived at the museum just a few minutes after opening and went on to spend a good two hours looking round the main hall. There is plenty to enjoy in the main hall, so if you can only visit during the more restricted opening it is still very much worth it. I know some folk have been disappointed not to see the A4, but for me the big draw was the Canadian stuff I wouldn’t see back home.

The star exhibit was Canadian Pacific 2850, a Royal Hudson class 4-6-4 steam locomotive (Montreal locomotive Works, 1938) which was used to carry King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during the Royal Tour of 1939 (with the King apparently spending as much time in the cab as he could). During my visit the loco was still decorated with Union Jack bunting following recent celebrations to mark the coronation of Charles III.

Montreal Street Railway No. 1

Another striking piece of rolling stock that caught my eye was an observation streetcar, nicknamed “Golden Chariot”, built by the Montreal Street Railway Company in 1905 with illuminated arches for night time running on sightseeing trips. Apparently four carriages of this type were built between 1905 and 1924. I have never seen anything quite like this – it looked wonderfully over the top!

Other highlights from my visit included: CN 5702, a K-5-A class Hudson 4-6-4 steam locomotive (Montreal Locomotive Works, 1930); CN 9400, a class MR-16 diesel electric locomotive (Montreal Locomotive Works, 1950) complete with a walkthrough of the engine room with simulated sounds; CN 55361, a rotary snow plough (Montreal Locomotive Works, 1928); VIA Rail Canada 15513 ‘Sibley Park’, a striking silver panoramic observation dome car (Budd Company, Philadelphia, 1954); VIA Rail Canada 6309, a class GPA-418A diesel-electric locomotive (General Motors, Ontario, 1957); CP 3618, a mail sorting car (Angus Shops, Montreal, 1940); and CN 6711, a class Z1A electric locomotive (General Electric, Philadelphia, 1914).

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Meanders around Montreal

Montreal proved to be a fascinating city to explore. Step down into the Metro and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Paris, such are the similarities with some of the station designs and the rubber-wheeled rolling stock, especially combined with the monolingual approach to announcements and signage. However, come up to the surface and you find a fascinating fusion of European and North American influences.

Our wanders around Montreal gave us a chance to see one of the sights I associate most with the city, the Biosphere designed for the US pavilion at Expo 67 by Buckminster Fuller. At the time of its creation this was the largest geodesic dome in the world, complete with a monorail running through it. The interior impressed too, with visitors able to take an escalator to the top to see the Gemini spacecraft parachutes.

The Biosphere

After the expo the Biosphere was repurposed for an exhibition ‘Man and his world’ but all of this went up in flames in 1976. The fire ignited by a welding tool took just 15 minutes to destroy the acrylic panels that covered the dome and the buildings inside. Today, the Biosphere houses a sadly underwhelming museum about the environment and a viewing platform. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to see up close after so many years of spotting it on TV in the background of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Talking of the Grand Prix, you can walk around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve when it is not in use. I didn’t have time to do a complete lap on foot, but just took a little wander around its distinctive 180 degree hairpin bend. If I had a little more time it would have been lovely to walk along to the spot where “Salut Gilles” has been permanently painted on the start line in tribute to Gilles Villeneuve (1950-82), one of my heroes.

The Olympic Park from 1976 was another stop on our itinerary. The Olympic Stadium still cuts a striking sight, with its retractable roof supported by cables from the world’s tallest leaning tower. The whole project ran way over budget and over time, racking up extraordinary levels of debt. The tower itself would not be complete until 11 years after the Olympic Games. Today, it is closed for renovation and not expected to re-open until the Autumn of 2024. However, we were able to visit the former Velodrome, now known as the Biodome and home to five ecosystems filled with wildlife. A pleasant enough way to spend an hour.

Just over the road from the Olympic Park is a remarkable Beaux-Arts mansion known as Château Dufresne (built 1915-18), used as a reception for dignitaries arriving for the Olympics in 1976. Nothing had prepared me for just how stunningly beautiful it would be, for the house is so much more impressive than their website would lead you to expect. Along with the tour of Habitat 67 this was the highlight of my time in Montreal.

Château Dufresne

The mansion was the vision of Marius Dufresne and architect Jules Renard who ambitiously modelled their new building on the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. If the exterior looks splendid, it is nothing compared to the extraordinary murals and ceiling paintings added in the 1920s-30s by Guido Nincheri, sometimes referred to as the Michelangelo of Montreal. All of this has been brilliantly restored over the past few decades.

The museum uses a clever iPad like device for audio guide with a map which updates to show you which rooms you have visited as you make your way round. It’s a super use of technology that does a great job of enhancing your visit.

Another wonderful interior can be found at the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal (built 1824-29) with its gothic revival styling, stunning late 19th century altar (featuring wood sculptures on an azure background) and twisting pulpit (1844). There are some impressive lightshows in the cathedral during the evenings but we only saw it during the daytime and that was impressive enough!

There were yet more wonderful interiors to see at the striking Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours and associated Musée Marguerite-Bourgeoys. The chapel is dedicated to seafarers and features ships hanging from the rafters, the odd freighter here and there striking quite a contrast with the 18th century interior decoration.

The striking exterior of the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours and Musée Marguerite-Bourgeoys

The museum tells the fascinating story of Marguerite-Bourgeoys (1620-1700) who established a convent in the 1650s, played a key role in the construction of the first permanent church in the city (on whose footprint this later church stands) and opened Montreal’s first school. A visit to the museum also allows you to visit the ‘chapel of the heavens’ at the base of the statue of ‘Our lady of the harbour’ (1893) which welcomes all seafarers to the port; take in the marvellous views from the balcony, alongside the angels; and descend to the monumental stone vault.

I also spent some time at the Pointe-à-Callière, a museum covering the history of the city, which had partially re-opened following smoke damage from a tragic fire that occurred recently in a neighbouring building. I liked what I saw, but probably didn’t get the best impression of the place in its reduced state.

Our visit to Montreal may have been focused around a three day music festival but we certainly had a great time visiting the city and enjoying its many sights during the daytime.

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Montreal’s concrete masterpiece

The undoubted highlight of our trip to Montreal was an opportunity to see one of the most distinctive housing complexes in the world, Habitat 67.

Habitat 67 was a housing estate built from 354 identical modular concrete boxes, stacked in various permutations, to create 158 apartments (subsequently reduced to 146 flats after some apartments were joined together). It is hard to apply labels to such a unique complex, but in the view of the architect it is an anti-brutalist building, reacting against the prevailing trend to build grim concrete high-rise blocks with poor spaces to live.

Habitat 67

As you stand before this striking architectural wonder it is all the more astonishing to consider that this was architect Moshe Safdie’s first completed building project. Habitat 67 started life as a thesis project at McGill University but took on new life after his tutor suggested he submit for the Montreal Expo. It has proven immensely popular as a residence despite its well publicised flaws.

If you are not a resident or guest, the only way to see inside the complex today is through a guided tour in small groups (with security quick to escort off-site anyone casually wandering inside). I have long had a soft spot for brutalist buildings, perhaps on account of spending most of my working life inside one, so a guided tour of the complex was quite impossible to resist.

The volunteer led tours, lasting 90 minutes, are absolutely fascinating – taking you through the unusual development of the complex (including the role played by lego) amply illustrated with the aid of contemporary photographs (shots of the prefabricated blocks being craned into position were particularly incredible); the philosophy of the architect; what it is like to live there and how the estate has changed since it opened. You get to explore a little bit of the complex, take a lift up to the upper levels and step inside the ground floor of the unit owned by the architect, Moshe Safdie, which was restored in 2018.

It is rather striking to step from the concrete walkways into the beautifully clean, light and spacious interior of one of the blocks. There is an equally sharp and pleasing contrast between the concrete, white interiors and the vibrant greenery of the rooftop gardens and the park that surrounds the site (all in keeping with the architect’s vision for housing with “more light, more contact with nature, streets in the air”). It’s not hard to see why these apartments are so highly prized.

The light and open interior of an apartment at Habitat 67

The nearest metro station to Habitat 67 is Jean-Drapeau, from where it is around a pleasant 25 minute walk, across the Pont Concorde. The views of the Montreal skyline were impressive enough on the walk over, but once you get up onto the terraces of Habitat 67 you really appreciate the stunning positioning of the estate with superb views over the waterfront.

Habitat 67 was supposed to herald a myriad of similar schemes across the world. While these didn’t come to fruition there is no doubting the influence this scheme has had on the architectural world many decades on.

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Canadian railway heritage in Ottawa

The stations and impressive hotels of the Canadian Railways are woven into the fabric of the country. You can’t miss the French Gothic Revival styled Château Laurier (1912), a former railway hotel, which sits right at the heart of the city, next to Parliament and opposite the old Union Station. Today, it is a luxury hotel with a hefty prices.

Union Station in Ottawa had a relatively short life as a railway station, from 1912 until 1966, but after its closure found new life as a Centennial visitors centre (1967), a Canadian government conference centre (1969) and then as the temporary home for the Senate of Canada (2019) after a six year rehabilitation programme. The Senate will remain here while Parliament is being refurbished. The exterior of the building cuts an impressive sight with its Beaux Arts styling.

The Senate of Canada (formerly Union Station Ottawa)

We joined a guided tour of the Senate of Canada building. Once inside you are immediately struck by how vast the departures hall was back in its heyday, despite the adaptations for its new role. Apparently the Baths of Caracalla in Rome were an inspiration for the design.

Across the tour it was fascinating to see how it has been adapted with the occasional nod to its past life, such as a single original mahogany bench in the lobby (one of 12 that used to sit in the departures hall, donated by the Canada Science and Technology Museum) and a railway scene engraved in some of the bronze panelling (showing a steam hauled train crossing a wooden trestle bridge on Vancouver island).

The Senate chamber (known as the red chamber) now occupies part of the concourse with the same amount of floorspace as the permanent Senate chamber (309 square metres) but a slightly lower ceiling (10m rather than 12.5m). Some of the artworks that you would see in the permanent home of the Senate have moved across here, such as a striking portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in a yellow dress (1957) by Lilias Torrance Newton and a portrait of a young Queen Victoria (1842) that has been saved from four fires, including the huge fire in 1916 that destroyed the central block of the Canadian Parliament.

The impressive ceiling of the old departures hall

Finally, a visit to the Canada Science and Technology Museum presented some of the astonishing mechanical beasts that once roamed the Canadian railway network.

On display at the museum are CP2858, a Hudson class steam locomotive (Montreal Locomotive Works, 1938); CN6400, a sleek streamlined steam locomotive (Montreal Locomotive Works, 1936) and solve survivor of the U4-A class; CP3100, one of two experimental K1-A class steam locomotive’s built (CPR Angus Shops Montreal, 1928); and CP926, one of over 500 D-10 class locomotives commissioned (CPR Angus Shops Montreal, 1911). CN 6200 (Montreal Locomotive Works, 1942) is also plinthed outside. It’s well worth a trip out from the city centre to see these leviathans.

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Canadian citybreaking

A long-delayed birthday celebration, deferred from the days of the pandemic, saw us land in Montreal on Monday night, before travelling on by train to Ottawa.

The day flight from London was pretty smooth, with some impressive views down the St Lawrence River as we came in to land at 7.40pm, an impressive 35 minutes early. After a long trundle to our stand we disembarked into a pretty empty terminal and made swift progress until my baggage was randomly selected for secondary screening. It was all very friendly – though the customs officer at the screening asked if I had OCD when he saw all my paperwork I had prepared for the trip! No, I am just a well prepared librarian…

Stone bas-relief artwork in the concourse at Montreal station

After a good night’s sleep at a city centre hotel we made our way over to the Gare Centrale in Montreal for a scheduled 2 hour ride along “the corridor” (the route connecting Windsor, London, Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City) to Ottawa. The station, opened in 1943, was built in art deco style with impressive stone bas-relief artworks reflecting Canadian life at each end of the concourse. I managed to grab a couple of phone shots of the station and its stylish art before the security guard on duty asked us to stop.

As we had been able to book a long way in advance we were able to get modestly priced, discounted, tickets for business class, affording us a few comforts while we were still adjusting to Canadian time.

The business lounge opened just after we arrived (5.30) and gave us a comfortable space to wait for our train (you are generally asked to arrive 45 minutes before departure) with free self-serve soft or hot drinks. Boarding was announced in the lounge (6.00) and a VIA Rail staffer led us out to a separate business class entry. Tickets are scanned before passengers are allowed down the escalator to platform level where we were directed to coach no 1, directly behind the loco.

Our motive power for the journey would be provided by one of around 50 GM diesel-electric locomotives (GMD F40PH-2) that make up the majority of the VIA Rail fleet, specifically VIA 6438 (originally built 1989, re-built 2011). I can’t stress how much bigger these beasts are to the locomotives you might encounter in the UK – around two foot wider and 3 foot taller than a class 66. Very impressive.

Seats in the business class carriage were mostly arranged on a 2-1 arrangement, airline style, with a galley and luggage rack at one end and two toilets at the other. Once we were on board the bilingual VIA Rail Team went round to anyone sitting at an emergency exit window to talk them through the procedures for breaking the window in case this was necessary, much like you might expect on a plane. It all seemed a bit more serious than the UK train experience!

Business breakfast on VIA Rail

Shortly after departure (6:20) the crew came round and served juice and coffee, followed by a hot meal around 40 minutes later. The menu of the day presented a choice of a hot quiche or continental breakfast (both served with a bagel, fruit and more juice). It hit the spot perfectly.

The ride was quite enjoyable, if a little jolty at times, giving us some great views of the countryside. The blaring horn at rural level crossings was like something out of American movies. It was great!! We could follow our progress using the VIA rail app using the on-board WiFi, which showed us our current position on a map; current speed; time to next stop, plus scheduled and revised times for each of the next stops.

It was going so well, but then we stopped unexpectedly, just outside Casselman (around 50km out from Ottawa) while the engineers made a visual inspection of the track ahead of us. Then, we were told there was a problem with engine and that a maintenance crew had been dispatched to Casselman, our next stop, to fix it. On arrival at Casselman those plans changed again and it was announced that we would continue on with this engine to Ottawa.

Our GMD F40PH-2 (VIA 6438) at Ottawa

In the end we arrived at Ottawa around 30 minutes late. We were happy to have reached our final destination but travellers bound for Toronto were given the unwelcome news that the train would be terminated there and that everyone was to disembark. For us, we just needed to make a short journey on the O-Train (Ottawa’s light rail system) to the city centre and check in to our hotel, the Novotel Ottawa City Centre.

Soon enough we were out and about, soaking up the warmth of an unusually warm spring day and getting our first glimpse of the marvellous architecture of the Canadian capital.