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Fun: Visiting a heritage station with the longest train platform of a small town in North America
Learn: Cultural heritage of Ontario, Engineering (Rail)
Thomas the tank engine has been in his 80s. The character was first introduced by Rev. Wilbert Awdry in 1942 when he took care of his son Christopher who was sick in bed with measles, and his first Thoms book was published in 1945 in England. The father also made a wooden train toy for his son and happened to paint it in blue.
That was an age of trains. In Ontario, many towns still keep the train stations not in operation and rails as their precious heritage. St. Thomas is one of them. It was an important train transportation hub between New York State and Michigan State.
St. Thomas Station has the longest platform of a small town in North America. We can still see lots of train tracks in the town even in some residential areas.
The not-in-operation rails provide a safe place to observe the rail engineering and how the track switches, crossing work. Before the trip, I highly recommend watching this video to get some ideas about certain rail terminologies, such as crossing, crossing nose, wing rail, and check rail.
Jumbo means large. Do you know that word comes from an elephant whose name was Jumbo?
That was a star African elephant who lived in Paris Zoo, London Zonn, and then as a circus animal star came to North America. He even walked on Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
Unfortunately, Jumbo was struck by a train and died in 1885 in St. Thomas.
When you visit St. Thomas, don't miss the Elevated Park near the Jumbo statue.
Explorer and Research
In the train track picture, can you identify the crossing nose, wing rail, and check rail? Don't worry if there is something missing from the picture.
In Thomas & Friends cartoon, there is a roundhouse. Could you find a real roundhouse for trains?
Photo by Xin Yi Zhang (2023)
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