Roundhouse Park acquires a triple expansion steam engine!
For many years, a triple expansion steam engine was on display outside the old Marine
Museum at Exhibition Place (the CNE). Click here for more information from a newsletter from that era about the engine. It is a triple-expansion marine
steam engine from the Niagara II suction dredge which operated on the Niagara River. Before that it had been the "Rideaulite" and later the "Imperial Lachine". Click here for information and photos of it in these roles.
With major development of a new hotel complex at the CNE, the triple expansion engine needed a new home. The TRHA agreed that moving it to Roundhouse Park would provide another worthy attraction associated with our museum. Aside for the the need for some new sod around
the enclosure, the move is complete. We have started to clean up and repaint the engine. In the images below we are repainting the main columns supporting the steam cylinders (the big green lump at the top) and working to free up a stuck entry door. We have also started to de-rust one of the secondary support columns.
Much of what shows as rusty in the images was once polished steel with an oil
finish. Some of it is brass, some of it is bronze. The corrosion and "guck" will
be cleaned off to restore the bright parts to their proper look and the whole
engine will again show in its former glory.
At the Marine Museum the engine
was motorized to revolve slowly to show the motion. At present the mechanism is
stuck and will not turn but we have plans to carefully free things up so it
will turn once again.
Posting and pictures by Michael Guy
Click on each image for a closer look!
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