Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum

Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum, located in Saint-Constant, Quebec, is Canada’s largest railway museum, featuring over 400 artifacts and offering interactive exhibits and rides.

Planning your visit

Exporail is Canada's largest railway museum, and railways are more central to Canadian history than to most countries' — the Canadian Pacific was the condition on which British Columbia joined Confederation, and the line was built explicitly to hold a young country together across an implausible distance. The collection reflects that: over 160 vehicles among more than 400 artefacts, including steam locomotives, the streamlined equipment of the passenger era, streetcars, and rolling stock covering Canadian railway history from the 1830s onward.

The Angus Pavilion holds the main indoor display, and the scale of the machinery indoors is the immediate impression. Outside, a working demonstration railway runs visitors along a short line in period equipment, and a streetcar operates on the grounds — the rides are part of the ticket and are what children remember.

It sits in Saint-Constant on Montreal's south shore, around half an hour from the city centre, and is seasonal in its full operations, with reduced schedules outside summer. Allow three hours with the rides.

Bookable options cover museum admission including the train and streetcar rides. Checking the operating calendar before travelling matters here more than at most museums, since the rolling-stock demonstrations are what distinguish the visit. Current availability is listed below.