Ghosts of Raillines Past - The GECO / Kingston Extension

I saw a post somewhere that made mention of trains passing by the old Hy & Zel's in Warden Woods Mall and it sparked a memory for me at the same location. I remember sitting in the parking lot as a train headed south, my wife headed into the mall and I stayed back to watch a short consist go by.  I now recognise this rail line as part of the GECO branch line.  This section was built to form a loop for local switch traffic in nearby yards, connecting back to the very busy Kingston line.  It was closed in 1996 and Hy& Zel's, together with the rest of Warden Woods Mall, is now history.

A few weeks back I traced the existing active section of the GECO branch from Comstock to the Uxbridge sub.  This weekend I followed the path of the removed section to see what would remain 16 years later.

With Google maps, the rail bed can be traced fairly easily and the in between reclaimed sections are easy to interpolate from it's satellite view.  On foot, it's not so easy.  I cached the satellite view on my phone, grabbed the Sony cam too, just in case I met some traffic on the active lines, and went off towards the southern connection point.

I wound my way south to along the Danforth then east to Danforth Road.  Near Warden, I could hear a short unit, maybe engine(s) only, heading along the Kingston line but wasn't yet in position to catch it.  A bit later I found Milne Avenue near where the spur connected up with the Kingston line tracks.  An industrial building occupied the section just north of the switch and I wasn't about to enter to see if I could spot any remnant of the switch bed, with 'private property' sounds in abundance.

Edit: I found this image on Railpictures.ca from June, 1983. On the right side of the image is the building shown above. Note the railway crossing signal where the extension would have passed near the building. The first indication of the line is an asphalt patch on Milne Avenue left behind after rail removal.

At the north end of the patch is a short metal barrier added to prevent road traffic from accessing the road level bed.

The path of the rail bed is quite obvious here as it parallels Milne Avenue.  When you stand at this point you can see the path of the former railbed through the entire section.

It the crosses Mack Avenue with a similar patch in the asphalt.  At both former crossings can be seen the painted 'X' warnings on the roadway, this despite maybe 20+ years of wear.

North of Mack the patch guides the railbed into a dome shaped storage building.

With the path leading into closed industrial property, I was forced to head west and looped around to find the crossing point on Danforth Road.  Here, I had to resort to my cached map on my phone as finding the location was essentially impossible visually.  There was no sign of any former crossings, likely the roadway had since been resurfaced.  The only indication of the former line was the curvature of the property lines of the nearby buildings indicating they abutted to the right-of-way.

Maybe this road patch was part of the crossing, but I doubt it.  My maps indicated it was very close to the correct location but it didn`t seem to completely cross the road.  However, it`s possible that more patching simply fooled me.  Very difficult to say.  This lead to a roadway into a new housing development.  I followed the road until it was blocked and exited to some new but existing housing at Oates Drive

After running through a park north of Oates and passing a couple of standing water overflow ponds, I was now on Bell Estate Rd., a section thoroughly regraded and any hint of the former rail bed is long since removed.  Back to Warden I headed north.  A multi-business complex had an access area towards the back just south of a Hydro One station.  The area of the rail bed is somewhat obvious here, if you knew what you  were looking at.

It`s recessed along the back fences of some older existing housing of Santamonica Boulevard (yes, that`s what it`s called).  You can detect the climb from further south as you get here so the recessed grading was necessary for rail traffic.

I had no intent to wind my way behind the Hydro One station so instead headed back to Warden and then north to St. Clair Avenue.

At St. Clair, a trio of railway bridges cross overhead.

The western two bridges are for TTC line traffic.  The eastern bridge serviced this GECO branch section.

Climbing some stairs to Santamonica Blvd off St. Clair, you can cross along a field to track level and see the top of the bridge.

The rail ties are still in place, but no rail.  There still exists `no tresspassing' signs so it may still technically be trespassing to step onto the bridge, so I didn`t.  The TTC tracks into Warden Station are adjacent to the west side.

Back along the field, you can see more ties where the rails used to reside.  A TTC train is seen exiting Warden Station.

Southward, the rail bed disappears into the brush, heading on a downgrade.  I didn't venture down this way as the growth is pretty thick and leads back behind the Hydro One station.  I'd be interested to see how far the ties carry though without venturing too far, but not today.

While nothing large and mechanical may ever cross the GECO part of the bridge ever again, the other two bridges are perpetually active with TTC traffic, seen here as a TTC train crosses St. Clair.







I headed north through a park adjacent to the tracks, eventually returning to lower spur of the existing active GECO branch line extending from the Uxbridge subdivision.  This was seen in my previous GECO blog entry.

The immediate southern section has been regraded, making it impossible to locate any trace of the line.  A bit further south, adjacent to Pidgeon Street (clearly, they are running out of names for streets in T.O.), the line can be picked up through traces of right-of-way fencing and 'No Tresspassing' signage, the signs seemingly ludicrous given that nature has effectively reclaimed the entire area.

From Google maps, it does look traceable, although the late summer growth shown here makes naviging it next to impossible.  I may revisit this area sometime before next spring after the growth has died off and see what remains.

Of the whole spur section, the reminders of the track persist in the southern most section through the impact on the streets and housing.  The centre section is mostly reclaimed by industry and housing development.  In sections not regraded, the location of buildings and fencing hints at the CN ROW points.  Only in the nothern sections, especially around St. Clair Avenue, can the former railbed's infrastructure be seen and will likely be there for a very long time to come.

It was a fun run for a Saturday, about 90 minutes of running with an added hour for the shot taking.

Following the CN GECO branch

I spent a bit of time after work on Friday to google map the layout of the branch rail line that winds it's way through the industrial area of Scarborough just south of Eglinton, ultimately crosses Comstock where it ends beside Griffith Laboratories.

It was plenty warm and sunny out.  It's about 3 miles for me to get to Comstock before I pick up the rails.  So at 10 this morning I moseyed out the door, Sony and smartphone in hand.

It took 35 minutes to reach the line.  I'm not sure if this section is technically part of GECO, but others have referred to it as such.  The shine on the rails away from the road show that it receives sporadic but frequent use.  Some dry goods hoppers were parked at the very end of the line.  Crossing Comstock the line makes a bend eastward and parallel to Comstock.

I head south on Faulkland and east on Leahurst, passing through a gate to Hymus.  A short section nearly unmarked crosses Faulkland.

The branch then crosses Hymus with a sign 'watch for flagman' at the south rail entrance. South and east the railline looks abandoned, except for the sheen on the surface.

Just after this it crosses Warden Avenue with dediated lights and a control box on the east side. I failed to get a pic of the box and mile marking, though. I'll have to fill this in sometime later.

The next section is hard to get access to. I had headed south and crossed a dead end street (Upjohn) instead of sticking to Hymus which may have granted one or two viewing points. The end of Upjohn was blocked by fencing for a material business. However, from my viewpoint I caught this image of what appeared to be a subway car, numbered 5707, sitting probably on the line. Google shows no second tracks in the area. I found that interesting.

Edit: The car turns out to be TTC car H5 5707, a Hawker-Siddeley unit. Unknown why it as this location.

With no route to the north, I head south and cross the housing development that used to be Warden Woods Mall. At the N/E corner is a pathway that passes just south of a short N/S extension which branches from the segment followed so far to the west, and east towards the Uxbridge sub. This extension is necessary as the lines E/W do not directly meet.

At this point I was past 45 minutes into the run. Breeze was good and outside of some sweat I was fine, courtesy of a number of lunchtime runs at high noon in 90+ degree temps that this feel easy by comparison. I still wanted to follow the line through   so onwards to the crossing at Birchmount. Another significant road level crossing marked as mile 2.12 on the CN signal control box.

A gravel parking area inhabited by a cabless tractor trailer gave a chance to shoot some close images of the rail bed area.

Extensions on the ties reveal that this was a small yard at one point with at least two additional spurs. Stacks of rails and ties lay by the tracks.

The east side starts making a slow southward turn.  A gravel path follows the south side with hydrolines overhead.  The track actually divides into two lines at this point.  The track continues eastward with banks on the northside over which the hydrolines pass.

 Eventually it exits at a familiar crossing on Kennedy Road just south of Eglinton.

The signal box at Kennedy is marked as GECO mile 2.79.

Stops signs for the trains (not the traffic) are located on each side of the roadway.

The track then tucks into a tight restricted area and begins an aggressive bend southward.  The TTC Kennedy parking lot sits just north of the line.  At the south-east corner the rail can be seen passing by the backyards of trackside homes.

Adjacent to the TTC station sits the Kennedy GO station.  Standing just off the platform and looking a couple of hundred yards down the track, you can spot the section where the GECO branch veers away from the Uxbridge Subdivision that runs GO trains north to the Stoufville area.

North of Eglinton, the Uxbridge line parallels the LRT rails to Scarborough Town Centre.  Note that the northbound signal on the Uxbridge line is red.  The schedule marked at the GO station only showed times for Mon-Fri, although I may have read it wrong.  I was hoping maybe I'd at least catch a GO train in motion along Uxbridge as there would be nothing moving on GECO on this day.

I was now an hour 15 into my run.  It would take about 45-50 minutes to return more directly.  I snapped one final shot of GECO just east of Kennedy with a view alongside the hydro lines over to Birchmount.

As I headed south on Kennedy to return home, I took a quick glance upon reaching St. Clair to see if, by chance, anything may be moving on the Uxbridge Sub.  Sure enough, the engine and lead car of a GO unit were very slowly making their way southbound.  This would be the reason the north signal was red on the line back at Eglinton.  Just my luck, I would have caught it coming over the light rise at occurs at the far end of the track had I waited another 10 minutes or so.  At St. Clair I was too far to snap the train with my cell phone camera, and couldn't cross the street in time to catch it with the Sony.

So no moving action, except some video of the LRTs in motion.  It was fun tracking the GECO branch, though.  With a little luck, one could catch CN moving those dry tankers out of Griffith labs during the week. With the intimacy of the branch and the roadways, that would be some pretty action to shoot.

I made it back to my local park just under 2 hours, hopped in a park washroom and chugged handfuls of nice cold water as I was pretty dry by that point, then finished the run through the park back home.  The last mile was a bit sluggish but capped off a good 2ish hour run and some rail fun.

Edit: I passed this way again on the weekend.  Curious of the subway car by the aggregate dome, I viewed it from the other side:

The car sits on the asphalt, maybe used as an office or storage area.  Go to youtube and you can find some vids with this car, TTC #5707.