I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Lake of the Woods Railroaders Museum in Kenora, Ontario.
This was maybe my fourth or fifth time in Kenora, but it seemed like every time we were in the area, it was off season or the wrong time of day to visit. This time the museum was open!
Even if the museum isn’t open, locomotive CP 8120 and caboose CP 837473 are on display. 8120 is one of 72 SW1200 locomotives built by General Motors Diesel Ltd. (GMD) in London, Ontario.
The station building has a lovely mural on the side.
Go around to the parking lot side – away from the road – and there is an entrance into the museum, which is in the lower level of the building.
The museum is a bit, um, cluttered, which seems to be common for a lot of small town museums. They have more things to display than they have room, which is a bit unfortunate because there isn’t a lot of room for interpretation of the displays.
On the day I visited, a gentleman was providing verbal interpretation by conducting a couple around the room, explaining the function and significance of different pieces.
The gentleman offered to show me their model railway display, which is in an attached building.
It models the area around Kenora, and has a couple of loops so two trains can orbit the layout simultaneously. In the photo below, a CP grain train is about to pass the very museum we were in.
My wife was waiting for me, so I couldn’t spend a lot of time, but I enjoyed my visit to the museum.
In 2024 the museum is open in the summer, Wednesday to Sunday 11 AM to 5 PM. Admission is by donation, with a suggested $5 per adult.
Please visit their web site for more up to date times and information at: https://www.kenorarailroadersmuseum.ca/