Fifty years after the last streetcar in Ottawa disappeared, the history of rail is being celebrated in a new exhibit at the City Hall Art Gallery.
The exhibit showcases photographs and artifacts exploring the past 150 years of rail service in Ottawa.
“It’s a good way to discover the past,” says Serge Blondin, exhibit co-ordinator and a city archivist. “Trains are not as they were before.”
The exhibit focuses on the major milestones of the railway in Ottawa, starting with the first train in 1854, the development , growth and decline of streetcars, the relocation of the main railway hub to Alta Vista and the creation of the O-train.
“It’s history,” said Blondin. “We’re trying to keep the heritage alive in a certain way and tell the story to kids.”
It gives people the opportunity to see how much the city has changed. Streetcars, as the exhibit will demonstrate, were very popular in Ottawa.
“It is difficult to imagine what Ottawa looked like 50 years ago because all the major thoroughfares were rail lines,” says Paul Henry, also a city archivist.
“Rail history is very fascinating because Ottawa has changed dramatically,” says Mike Steinhauer, director of the Bytown Museum.
“It puts us into the past and present,” says Blondin.
The exhibit runs from Nov. 13 until Jan. 3. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and admission is free.