It came from Niagara...for years, before Kingston Trolley Tours, there was the Confederation Tour Train. The Niagara Choo-Choo was temporarily lettered ‘Retail Merchants of the Kingston Chamber of Commerce’ and was touring downtown Kingston in November, 1966 (above, on Brock Street). A jeep hauled two single-axle trailers around downtown and across the causeway to Royal Military College:
The original Tour Train in Kingston was a train ‘shape’ cut out of plywood then painted. Passengers’ seats were constructed by local Canadian Penitentiary Service by Collins Bay or Joyceville Penitentiary prisoners. The power train was upgraded, but the weight of those seats eventually wore out the engine.
Fittingly, the Tour Train was front-and-centre at City Hall during the visit of the Confederation Train, August 22-25, 1967:
New power! The tour train had an import pickup truck minimally-labelled 'Chamber of Commerce', on July 31, 1969:
(All Queen's University Archives except fourth photo - from Vintage Kingston FB group)
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