My Volunteer Story: Doug Magee

Happy National Volunteer Week! We’re excited for you to meet our volunteer Doug Magee! Doug is a part of the museum’s restoration team and works on a wide variety of the museum’s rolling stock and railway equipment. What started as a volunteer experience to put his carpentry skills to work, Doug speaks about how the “the people involved are the essence of the [TRM volunteer] experience”.

National Volunteer Week 2022

We’re celebrating National Volunteer Week 2022! Our volunteers – like Doug – are essential to all that we do, and we are lucky to benefit from their amazing work. TRM is supported by a team of amazing restoration volunteers who work in the shops and on the grounds of the Toronto Railway Museum. These volunteers perform various tasks necessary for the restoration of Museum artifacts (locomotives, rolling stock, display areas, etc.). Additionally, they perform maintenance and repairs on the Museum’s outdoor areas. Doug Magee is a part of this essential team at the museum.

Hi Doug! Thanks for chatting with us. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am apparently one of those seemingly few individuals who was born, raised, educated and
lived their entire life in Toronto. I am married and have a son and a daughter both of whom are
married and am blessed with a grandson and granddaughter. My education includes an
undergraduate degree in Forestry at U of T and a Masters in Wildlife Biology. The first ten years
of my career were in environmental consulting, with the bulk working for Hydro One where I
enjoyed many positions all oriented towards undertaking environmental assessments for
Government approvals of electrical transmission facilities.

How did you first hear about volunteering at TRM? How did you get involved?

My involvement with the TRM started from chatting with one of the existing volunteers at a
monthly men’s pub night. I expressed my interest because I love to do carpentry and also
basic electrical and plumbing work. I was invited to come out and see if I was interested
and I have not looked back.

Tell us about your work! What was your most recent volunteer project? What did you have to do to accomplish it?

My work at TRM involves being part of a team that maintains and refurbishes all of the
rolling stock. This is a continuous endeavour because of the number of items that require
either maintenance, repair and/or refurbishment. Our work also extends to the repair of the
mini train track system. Owing to the large variety of needs there can often be multiple
projects being worked on, on any given day. Recent work however, has concentrated on
the re-siding of Nova Scotia which has involved the making of our own mouldings because
there is none available commercially to match what now exists.

Why do you volunteer at the Toronto Railway Museum?

My continuance with the TRM is owed to the people I work with. The work itself is always
interesting and frequently challenging, but the people involved are the essence of the
experience.

Volunteer at TRM

Thank you for all you do Doug! To sum up, National Volunteer Week recognizes Canada’s millions of volunteers annually, including the more than 80 Toronto Railway Museum volunteers. Thanks for following along this National Volunteer Week! If you missed it, you can read Mek Abamba’s volunteer story or Carly Wolowich’s volunteer story on the blog. Don’t forget to join us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to see what our volunteers are up to.