Our watchman’s shanty, also known as a gatehouse, was originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1914 to protect a crossing on John Street that used to exist about a half kilometre north of our museum. It was positioned adjacent to several tracks which led to a Canadian Pacific freight shed between Wellington and King Street. Its purpose was to provide shelter for a railway employee who would protect the crossing while trains went by. In the case of the John Street crossing, this involved the use of manually-controlled gates to block vehicles. Most gatehouses were elevated up to five metres tall to provide better visibility of approaching trains, but since ours was located on industrial trackage with low speed limits this was not necessary and it was placed on the ground. Our gatehouse was taken out of service upon the closure of the freight shed in 1977, after which it was donated to the Toronto Historical Board. It was immediately passed along to the Canadian Railway Historical Association’s Toronto & York Division, which had just opened a railway museum at Pier 4 on Toronto’s waterfront two years earlier. That museum began using the gatehouse as a parking lot booth in May 1978 and it remained in this purpose until the museum went under in 1985. The gatehouse was moved into the John Street Roundhouse shortly thereafter with the hopes that it could form part of the collection of a new railway museum in the future. Volunteers of the Toronto Railway Historical Association restored the gatehouse in time for the opening of the Toronto Railway Museum in 2010, and it is currently the smallest building in our “railway village” in Roundhouse Park.
The gatehouse in our railway village shortly after its restoration by our volunteers. 
An aerial image of the less-than-carload freight facilities on Simcoe Street in 1956. The facility below Wellington Street was built by the Grand Trunk, while the one above it belonged to Canadian Pacific. The road running vertically through the west side of both facilities is John Street. 
A Toronto Star photo of our watchman’s shanty in 1972. The bell at right was used to provide an auditory warning to pedestrians and cars, and possibly came from a retired steam locomotive. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library. 
A circa 1970’s colour photo of the gatehouse seen looking north along John Street. Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives. 
Another shot of the gatehouse, this time looking east across John Street towards the freight shed and downtown Toronto. Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.