Our Collection

Exporail is more than 180 vehicles, the oldest of which bear witness to the steam era, while the most recent ones illustrate a railroad that plays an increasingly important role in the fight against climate change.

But it is also more than 14,000 other smaller collectibles, ranging from uniforms to various instruments, model railroads, artwork, tableware, furniture, signs and much more.

The permanent exhibition pavilion – the Angus Building – presents a remarkable selection of quality and variety, including nearly 50 vehicles and hundreds of artifacts. Open year-round, you’ll always find something to discover, especially when you take advantage of the temporary exhibitions where other pieces of the collection come out of hiding!

If you visited in the winter, come back again in the summer! The outdoor site and several other exhibition buildings offer you other discoveries and even a train station from the end of the 19th century. Because, yes, the collection is not only trains, nor objects…

Rolling Stock

Discover here our collection of railway vehicles and learn more about these giants of Canadian history.

Artefact donations

The easiest way is to write to the curator!

Over the course of the past eighty years, the Canadian Railroad Historical Association has collected and preserved extremely rare railway objects that testify to the major role that railroads played in our country’s development.

These artefacts also reflect the know-how and sometimes difficult living conditions of thousands of railway workers.

Form for artefact proposition to Exporail

Recent acquisitions

Locomotive and passenger cars from the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT)

The Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) made a large donation to Exporail’s historic collection last September, consisting of three pieces of rolling stock that ended their service on the AMT network in 2010.

First, is the GR 418 AMT 1311 diesel-electric locomotive, one of the hundreds of GP9 engines built by General Motors in London, Ontario. Secondly AMT 1101 passenger car, an example of the cars which ran in commuter service for almost 40 years, for the AMT in Montreal and, before, for Go Transit in Toronto. Lastly, AMT 603 generator car, was built by Canadian Car & Foundry in Ville Saint-Pierre. This car illustrates the conversion of passenger trains from steam to electric heating while providing energy.

Station letterbox no. 4

Introduced at the end of the 19th century, letterbox no. 4 was designed for the sole purpose of being installed on railway station platform posts.

Passengers in transit could drop off mail items addressed to a destination serviced by the railway’s mail service. Its distinctive feature is a locking cover shaped as a lion’s paw.

It was removed from service when the railways stopped delivering mail in 1972.

Donated by David Jenkins