Canadian Pacific Railway Don Station

The former Canadian Pacific Railway Don Station originally straddled the western bank of the Don River on the south side of Queen Street. An important part of building preservation is an appreciation of the context in which the structure existed. The station lacked any railway context after it was saved in 1969 and moved to Todmorden Mills. For years, the station was boarded up and not even open to the public. Relocation to Roundhouse Park has allowed the Roundhouse Park Miniature Railway (RPMR) to replace this lost rail context. Passengers for the miniature railway are able to purchase tickets and board trains at the Don Station, effectively recreating the station’s original function.

In Roundhouse Park, the Don Station serves as an initial contact point and reception area for visitors to the Toronto Railway Museum. The station contains the following elements:

• A photographic and artifact display on the history of the station.
• A model showing the station in its original location.
• A recreation of the station operator’s desk and ticket sales area.
• A short video introducing visitors to the railway museum.

From 1884 to 1892, CPR passenger trains arriving in Toronto from Montreal and Ottawa traveled all the way across North Toronto to West Toronto Junction and then backed five miles into Union Station. In 1892, the Canadian Pacific Railway finally completed their branch line south through the Don Valley from Leaside, and the Don Station opened for business on October 19th, 1896. Like many suburban depots, the station was built as a convenience so passengers wouldn’t have to go all the way downtown to Union Station to board their trains.

For several years Queen Street crossed the tracks at a grade level crossing north of the Don station. In 1904, a collision between a Queen streetcar and a Grand Trunk freight train at a level crossing near DeGrassi Street several blocks east of the station resulted in three deaths and several injuries. The accident underscored the necessity to eliminate level crossings wherever there were busy intersections of road and railway traffic.

In 1906, the Canadian Northern Railway entered Toronto from Parry Sound and began using the Don Station as a suburban stop. Canadian Northern timetables referred to the station as Queen Street East and all their mainline trains to Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal stopped there. 

In 1911, the City of Toronto built a high level bridge carrying Queen Street across the Don River and over the railway tracks, eliminating the level crossing. A long staircase was built from the bridge to the station platform so that streetcar passengers could directly access the station from Queen Street. After the war the Canadian Northern became a component of the Canadian National Railways and both CPR and CNR trains continued to call at the Don station. In the mid-1920’s, the CNR began to abandon portions of the Canadian Northern line east to Ottawa and Montreal and through trains were shifted to the more direct Grand Trunk route.

At the height of intercity railway travel during the 1920s, all CPR passenger trains between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal stopped at Don. After the CPR entered into the pool train arrangement with the CNR in 1933, many CPR trains were shifted to the more direct CNR main line and the station declined in importance. In its last years, the only CPR passenger trains that stopped at Don were the locals to Havelock and Peterborough.

The last train stopped at Don Station on April 27th, 1968, and the structure was moved to Todmorden Mills in 1969 with help from long-time East York mayor True Davidson. In order to accomplish this move, the roof was taken off and the remaining structure was divided in two. The three portions were then moved north on Bayview Avenue and east on Pottery Road then reassembled in its current location. For some years, the building housed a railway heritage exhibit and was accessible to the public. By the 1980s, the Don station was being used a storage facility and closed to visitors. In 2006, the TRHA began hosting an open house at Todmorden, with various historical displays on exhibit during selected weekends.

Don Station was moved by truck from Todmorden Mills to Roundhouse Park in 2008, ahead of the grand opening of the Toronto Railway Museum in 2010. During those two years, the station was painstakingly restored inside and out by our volunteers in time for opening. It currently serves as the main terminal for our miniature railway as well as our gift shop. The exterior was repainted in the summer of 2020 to reflect a more historically accurate colour scheme.

Between 1853 and 1966, there existed about 75 railway stations within the boundaries of what is now the city of Toronto. The Don station is the only 19th century Toronto station remaining. The building’s distinctive turret was typical of hundreds of stations across Canada but only a handful of these buildings survive.

Written by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian, who retains copyright on the content. These pages are not to be reproduced without written permission.