Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Tanks a Lot!

 I had no idea that we have a tank museum in the Toronto area! To be fair, Canadian Tank Museum wasn't always known by this name; it is also the Ontario Regiment Museum. Given that it was sort of on our way to Ottawa, I added this as a stop on our trip (it is in Oshawa, right beside the airport).


The date of our visit (August 8th) was the day they were holding their Korean War observation. This meant that they highlighted 6 vehicles in particular, where the Priest SPG is confirmed to have been in that war, and the other vehicles were possible. 


They had laagered these vehicles in a separate area and we had a good look at them before the start of the main show. The vehicles are a jeep, a truck, the Priest mentioned above, a Sherman Easy 8, a Centurion 5, and a T34-85.

After that, we went over to the main building where they put a bunch of vehicles out into the open to make room so that you can move around to see the vehicles inside. 


There's a video where you can see how they park all of those vehicles in what seems like an all too compact space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0laT02Ar_pU 






The highlight for me was the US-made version of the Renault FT-17 tank that they are restoring. 


Finally, they put on a show featuring the Korean war vehicles parading around, although the T34 had to cut its parade short due to mechanical problems. 




The Sherman popped off a couple of rounds, which rattled my ribs. 


The finale was a simulated tank battle between a Leopard 1 and an M60.


The museum is well worth a visit, especially on an event day.






2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for these photos, much appreciated. I'm an Ontario resident and I've known about this museum for a long time, but never actually visited. (Likewise I've never been to HMCS Haida in Hamilton but that's another embarrassing story). I think they have the ONTARs must have the best set of actual AFV runners in Canada (unlike the CFB Borden museum, which has zero runners). Cheers, Michael

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  2. They say they have the largest collection of running tanks and vehicles in North America. The staff were great on the weekend and the show was great.

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