Built in 1889 by the Northern Pacific and Manitoba Railway Company, this structure is the oldest surviving railway repair facility in Manitoba. It originally included a machine and blacksmith shop, engine house, and ten-stall roundhouse and turntable. It is the only surviving building of a complex that included two roundhouses, freight sheds, an elegant hotel and a large station. The industrial site subsequently became Canadian National's East Yards before the complex was transformed into The Forks.
Members of various railway craft unions worked at the East Yards for the Northern Pacific and Manitoba, Canadian Northern and Canadian National railways. Engines and cars entered the engine house on tracks positioned over pits. Repairs were undertaken from beneath the engines and cars, and were then passed onto the turntable to be pivoted on to one of the 10 roundhouse stalls. After 1909 the building fell into disuse. Canadian National locomotive repairs increasingly were undertaken at the Fort Rouge, Transcona and Symington shops, though the building was used in a variety of capacities until the 1960s. In 1993-94 the Bridges and Structures Building was renovated to become the home of the Manitoba Children's Museum.
Français
Cet édifice, construit en 1889 par la Northern Pacific and Manitoba Railway Company, est le centre d’entretien d’équipement ferroviaire le plus ancien au Manitoba. Il comprenait à l’origine une machinerie et une forge, un bâtiment de locomotives, une rotonde à dix places et une plaque tournante. C’est le seul édifice qui existe toujours d’un ensemble qui comprenait deux rotondes, des entrepôts, un hôtel de luxe et une grande gare. Ce site industriel est ensuite devenu les « East Yards » du Canadien National avant de devenir ce qui est maintenant la Fourche.
Un grand nombre de membres des syndicats représentant de nombreuses professions y ont travaillé, pour trois compagnies de chemin de fer, la Northern Pacific and Manitoba, la Canadian Northern et le Canadien National. Les locomotives et les wagons y entraient sur des voies ferrées passant au-dessus d’une série de fosses. Les réparations aux locomotives et aux wagons étaient effectuées par le dessous. L’équipement était ensuite acheminé vers la plaque tournante et dirigé vers l’une des dix places dans la rotonde. Après 1909, on a cessé d’avoir besoin de cet édifice. Les réparations des locomotives avaient de plus en plus lieu dans les ateliers de Fort-Rouge, de Transcona et de Symington, mais il a continué de servir à diverses fins jusque dans les années 1960. En 1993 et 1994, l’édifice a été rénové pour devenir le Musée des enfants du Manitoba.
This is the Manitoba Heritage Council’s text as the Historic Resources Branch publishes it. The Branch calls these plaque inscriptions and says they reflect the time they were written; TreeAlive has not compared them with the plaques themselves, so a plaque may read differently. The Branch’s plaque list ↗
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Plaque text and location: Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques, Historic Resources Branch, Government of Manitoba, as the Branch publishes them on its plaque pages. The text is the Manitoba Heritage Council’s text as the Branch publishes it; the pin on this page is ours, worked out from the location the Branch gives and marked approximate. Contains information from the Government of Manitoba, licensed under the OpenMB Information and Data Use License (Manitoba.ca/OpenMB) TreeAlive is an independent project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Manitoba Heritage Council, the Historic Resources Branch or the Government of Manitoba. OpenMB Information and Data Use License This marker on the program's own site