Beer-loving railfans, rejoice! I’ve found the perfect place for you to visit… It has been quite a few months since I’ve come back from Canada (I went in June), and I have such a backlog of photos that I had intended on posting, but never got around to. Some of my Toronto photos managed to get up here a bit ago, but so far I’ve left out one of the nicer places I visited there, including the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre.

The Toronto Railway Heritage Centre is a relatively young organization, and the first part of their museum proper, in Roundhouse Park, opened in May of this year. I got a chance to visit the place at the start of their opening season, and took a ride on their mini railway. I’ll be posting up some pictures of the actual Heritage Centre a bit later, and today focusing on another resident in Roundhouse Park: Steam Whistle Brewing.

The John Street Roundhouse in Toronto was completed in 1931, and used by the Canadian Pacific Railway up until 1986. The 32-bay roundhouse was later donated by the railroad to the city of Toronto. The grounds around the roundhouse building became known as Roundhouse Park, and it is just adjacent to the Rogers Centre, and practically underneath the enormous CN Tower. Underneath the park and roundhouse is a parking garage, and part of the Convention Centre – when these were constructed, a portion of the roundhouse had to be dismantled. It was later put back together, and has been nicely restored.

Steam Whistle Brewing has taken up residence in bays 1 through 14 in the old roundhouse. Although the name of the beer sounds perfect for a business in an old steam engine roundhouse, it isn’t related to trains. The steam whistle it refers to is the 5 o’clock whistle – marking the end of the work day.

If you ever get the chance to visit Toronto, you can take a tour of the factory, see where the beer is made, and see the old restored roundhouse. And of course, get some free samples of beer (my brother thoroughly enjoyed this – being 20 he can legally drink in Canada, but not here in the States).