Canada Science and Technology Museum

The Canada Science and Technology Museum sits on a 4.0-hectare (10-acre) site at 1867 St. Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa's east end, roughly 6 km (4 mi) from the city centre. It opened to the public on 16 November 1967 in a converted bakery and distribution centre and drew more than 400,000 visitors in its first year. On 1 April 1968 it became an independent institution, the National Museum of Science and Technology, and took its present name in 2000. Today it is one of three national museums run by Ingenium, the Crown corporation created in 1990.

The building visitors walk into now is the result of a C$80.5-million rebuild. The museum closed in September 2014 after high levels of airborne mould and structural problems in the south wall were found, and reopened on 17 November 2017 with a new facade, seismic upgrades, a photovoltaic roof and enlarged galleries - 13,458 m2 (144,860 sq ft) in all, of which more than 7,400 m2 (79,700 sq ft) is exhibition space. The steam locomotives were never trucked off site: they stayed put through the reconstruction, and the museum has described keeping them in place as one of the project's defining engineering problems.

Rail is the anchor of the collection. Ingenium holds more than 20,000 artifact lots and some 60,000 individual objects, and states that only about 12 percent of the national collection is on display in the museum at any one time. The engines that stayed in the galleries carry the Steam: A World in Motion exhibition, while eight more locomotives and nine rail cars were moved in July 2019 into the purpose-built Ingenium Centre next door at 1865 St. Laurent Boulevard, which is now open for guided tours.

Personal photography with hand-held devices is welcome throughout the museum, and Ingenium asks visitors to tag images with #SciTechMuseum. The locomotive hall is the obvious subject: 6400's semi-streamlined nose, driving wheels at eye level, and the cab interiors - one cab is set up so you can sit in the engineer's seat among the valves and levers with a simulated coal fire glowing, while a second cab is viewed through glass.

Be warned that interpretive signage is mounted close to the engines, and railfan photographers have complained that it blocks clean broadside shots. Work the three-quarter angles and the detail frames - rods, wheel faces, cab fittings - rather than fighting for a full side elevation. Interior light is exhibition-grade rather than daylight, so a fast lens or a high ISO does more for you than a flash. Outside, the 4.0-hectare (10-acre) park in front of the building gives you room to frame the 2017 facade with open sightlines in both directions.

The reason to come is CN 6400. Montreal Locomotive Works delivered five U-4-a class 4-8-4 Northerns to Canadian National in 1936, and 6400 is the only one left. Its semi-streamlined casing came out of wind-tunnel research the National Research Council of Canada carried out in the 1930s to push exhaust smoke clear of the cab, and the wooden wind-tunnel model used in that work is displayed beside the locomotive. In May and June 1939, 6400 was one of seven locomotives that hauled the royal train carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth across Canada on the first visit by a reigning monarch; the same year it travelled to New York as an exhibit in the World of Tomorrow display at the World's Fair. It was donated to the museum in 1967 and has been under a roof ever since.

Steam: A World in Motion is built to be climbed on rather than roped off. The museum invites visitors into the cabs of two vintage locomotives and to stand beside a driving wheel taller than they are; a working triple-expansion steam engine and scale models of steam-powered coastal boats, cargo ships and ocean liners fill out the gallery. Railfan trip reports place CP 3100 - a K1a 4-8-4 built in 1928, one of only two Northerns Canadian Pacific ever owned, retired in October 1966 - along with CP 2858 (class H1d 4-6-4 Hudson, Montreal Locomotive Works, August 1938) and CP 926 (4-6-0 Ten Wheeler, CPR Angus Shops, September 1911) in the same hall. Ingenium's own pages name only 6400 and 3100, so confirm the current line-up before travelling a long way for a specific engine.

For anyone who wants more than the gallery engines, the Ingenium Centre next door is the real prize. Eight locomotives and nine rail cars were moved across the site into it in July 2019, among them CP 1201, a G5a 4-6-2 Pacific built at CPR's Angus Shops in 1944 and, at 185 tonnes, the largest single artifact in Ingenium's collection, plus cars used to convey British royalty in 1939 and 1977. The Centre can only be seen on a 75-minute guided tour, which runs Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays - worth building the trip around.

This is a family museum first. Twelve exhibitions are open, plus a Demonstration Stage with daily science shows, the Exploratek tinker lab, and ZOOOM - Children's Innovation Zone, which is aimed squarely at younger visitors. The museum's own FAQ puts the average visit at about three hours; visitor reviews land between 1.5 and 3 hours depending on how much time goes into the hands-on galleries. Beyond the steam hall, Artifact Alley lines a central spine with more than 700 objects from the national collection, and the Crazy Kitchen - a tilted room that scrambles your sense of level - survived the renovation as the museum's best-known set piece.

Expect crowds during March break and in June, when school field trips fill the galleries; one reviewer visiting in field-trip season described the museum as quite busy with students. Tickets are sold online with timed entry. There is a cafe on site, reviews of it are mixed, and food and drink are not allowed inside the exhibition areas. Tickets allow same-day re-entry, which makes a break on the grounds practical in good weather.

The trade-off for railfans is worth stating plainly: the locomotive hall is excellent but small relative to what Ingenium owns, and passenger rolling stock is largely absent from the public galleries. That gap is exactly what the Ingenium Centre tour fills.