The Guelph Historical Railway Association found it’s start in 1991 with a small group of individuals aiming to preserve Guelph’s railway heritage. In 1994, we became a registered charity, dedicated to preserving Guelph’s railway history. Without the railways, the Royal City we all know and love would not be anything like it is today. Did you know the city of Guelph has owned its own railway since 1887? Guelph was the first city or municipality in the British Commonwealth to own a railway. Today the Guelph Junction Railway is one of the best assets to the city.

We actively preserve full size railway equipment such as our 1928 wooden CPR Caboose (CPR 436994), NEW!1954 CNR Passenger Car 3216 1950 CNR Baggage Car 60337, and 1954 CPR steel Caboose 4900. In addition we also collect smaller railway artifacts and photographs. We share the wonderful and interesting story of Guelph's railways, and our artifacts by putting them on display in museums or hosting our own displays.

We display our equipment to the public for tours when possible. We were and are a regular display at John Galt Days, GuelphFest, Doors Open Guelph, and in 2019 part of the first Rail Safety Day in Guelph a planned annual event. During these events hundreds of thousands of people have toured our equipment and been able to experience what railroading was like many years ago.

We're experts in restoration of wooden railway equipment and feel our 22 years of expertise in maintaining CPR 436994 qualifies us as such.

We are very receptive in receiving or preserving small to medium sized railway artifacts of all kinds including photos or slides and able to offer tax receipts for those who do and are so charged. Our smaller to medium sized artifacts are housed in a climate controlled secured warehouse provided by a local business.

Some of our smaller artifacts include a large collection of CPR silver and tableware, lanterns, locks, signs, paperwork and so much more. In recent years our group was gifted the Bruce Lowe collection of photographs, taken by Bruce during his life. We have been working to share these photographs, and can be viewed in the photograph library on our website. As time allows we continue to add more to our online library.

When opportunities arise we also charter excursion trains on the Guelph Junction Railway (GJR) or the Goderich-Exeter Railway (GEXR) (now CN) such as the Dinner trains on GJR in 1998 and 1999, Steam excursions on GEXR in 2003, and Rare Mileage excursions on GJR in 2009 and 2010.

How Donations Help Us

Your donations go directly to our work preserving our equipment, or growing our collection for the enjoyment of future generations. As we are a small and growing group, we have a small overhead with no paid positions. All donations go directly to our preservation and restoration efforts.

In late 2020 we acquired caboose 4900 from the Ontario Southland Railway. In 2021 we acquired passenger car 3216 from the Waterloo Central Railway, we are in the process of beginning our restoration of this car, bringing it back to its former Canadian National Railway look. This restoration will be extensive, requiring a full floor and wall removal and rebuild, reupholstering of all the seats and more. Donations will fund the entirety of this restoration. When completed this passenger car will be a unique addition to our collection and an asset we want to see be enjoyed by the citizens of Guelph.

From 2010 to 2013 after substantial fundraising through our excursions, private company donations, donations from other organizations, support from our members and supporters like you we put $10,000 and hundreds of man hours into a major restoration of CPR 436994 - structural restoration, removal of plywood and restoration of as-built 1941 tongue-and-groove wood on sides of caboose. These renovations ensure the caboose will be preserved for the enjoyment and education of all for many years to come. In 2019 we completed a full repaint of the exterior of the caboose, bringing it to it's best looking state since we acquired it.

We have about 25 members and growing, with many more additional supporters. As a group we maintain our equipment using 100% volunteer labour. Being a non profit, we also engage high school volunteers as needed to help the young learn skills and earn their volunteer hours.

Donations $50 and above automatically receive membership in the organization if one is desired.

If you wish to meet our membership in person, we meet at the Co-Operators building, 130 MacDonnel St in downtown Guelph, across  from the GO/VIA Rail station, on the second Monday of every month (+1 week if a holiday) at 7:30 PM. We've been meeting at this location since 1991 and guests are always welcome, join us anytime. **Due to COVID-19, our meetings have moved online, information on how to attend is posted on our Social Media and our website**

Thank you for considering your support of our organization.