A collection of rail encounters during my runs in and around the Greater Toronto Area, and wherever else I may be. I grew up near the 'coal banks' in Sydney, N.S. and often played on the coal train cars. I'm also an avid runner having logged over 20,000 miles. Here I put them both together.
Still here, finishing my reno work, running when I can. My training sucks right now. Didn't have much time to even get vids or pics since my weekends had to be spent elsewhere. My wife pulled a set of prints from a Black's envelope from 1987 when we made a trip down east to Cape Breton for Christmas visit. Long since forgotten that we drove to the Canso Causeway and happened upon some CN freight making it's way from the line from Port Hawksbury and on to mainland Nova Scotia. The train was lead by a foursome of MLW 420s, all with CN 'Zebra Stripe' paint scheme as per the early 90s. The lead was number 3550, then 3569, 3564 and finally 3541. A long gone caboose followed in tow.
A later trip to the North Sydney ferry terminal had a MLW RS18 unit doing some service, number 3656.
Really just adding these to the on-line collection.
Winter's gone, we don't have to review it, we all know what it was like, either too cold and snowy or too warm and dry. Adios winter.
Back in March I had to take a jaunt home to Cape Breton for a few days. I took along my most aggressive trail shoes, a small smattering of running shirts and a pair of shorts, and the Sony. I managed to win the weather lottery and snagged what was probably the few decent days they had weatherwise. Chilly air but bright and sunny and plenty cozy for running. I was staying just outside the Coxheath area and the sidewalks were less than ideal for running on. Apparently the plows gave up at some point during the winter and I had to make my way along 5 foot wide strips of ice (homage to my trail shoes for keeping me upright).
If you know Keltic Drive in the Sydney River area, you would be familiar with the railway bridge that crosses it just S/E of the vehicle bridge. The county decided the sidewalk underneath it would be a convenient place to store snow. With the new bridge in place and open, and Keltic Drive now very busy, I opted to stay on the west side of the area and not get smooshed by passing traffic (being from the area I'm a bit familiar with driving habits of the locals).
The harbour was as frozen as I've ever seen it in my life. Enough that people were out walking on it, snowmobiling on it and making ice skating patches on it. Not sure it was wise to clear snow for a skating patch given the strength of the sun and it's effect on clear ice after a few hours. It is salt water after all.
Toward the outer harbour I was fortunate enough to catch one of the big ice breakers in action, keeping the laneways open to the coal port and government wharf. The ship performing duty was the CCGS Henry Larsen, a 'medium' ice breaker. They classify it as medium but it is no small ship. It's the second largest in the icebreaking fleet, even larger than the classified heavy icebreaker Terry Fox.
Since I had to keep the zoom up for this, and reliance on handholding the Sony, I opted to allow yootoob to steady the vid for me for a bit more comfort in viewing, Apologies for the occasional waviness that inherently results in the toob's stablizing algorithm. It was a challenge for me to see the viewfinder with blazing sunshine over my shoulder. It was great to keep me feeling warm and toasty, sucked a bit on figuring out what I was framed on.
Turn the volume up at the 1:27 mark. You'll hear a train horn in the background. That's the GP38-2s of the Sydney Coal Railway accross the harbour, somewhere on the trackage between the coal pier and the Lingan generating station.
These days the SCR is the only functioning railway on the island. The long standing line from Sydney to the causeway was closed last year after seeing train service for the last 135 years. While there I was staying at a house mere meters from the CBCNSR trackage just beyond were it crossed Coxheath Road. It was eerie to see it unmaintained and snow covered. Snowmobile tracks abounded along the line, the thick unplowed layer making an excellent pathway for skidooers. Hard to say what the future may hold but for now there will be no other activity on this line.
I've rode on many a unit along those tracks. As a kid we took a trip to Toronto, first boarding a big old F unit led CN passenger train out of the long gone Sydney station to Truro, then overnight service to Montreal and finally into hogtown. VIA eventually came to be and the F unit led trains out of Sydney switched to rail diesel car service. Smelly things the RDRs could be but I always enjoyed them, particularly while in college and sitting in the back at the bar, it's always fun to sit at a bar on a train.
Passenger service in and out of Sydney on a seasonal basis did revive on occasion with VIA's Bras D'or making a weekly touristy run but that ended in the early 2000s.
So my winter was doing reno stuff, running when I could, which wasn't very much or often, working (thankfully) and grabbing the rare vid. Since I do my railfanning on foot, this winter hasn't been particularly cordial towards my hobby, thus the lack of postings this last few months. It's been hard enough just finding the time to run.
The mid-December ice storm kicked the year off on the wrong foot, and made the underfooting for a lot my running a lost less stable. Last year and the year before I ran trail nearly the whole winter. This year, maybe twice, and only when we had good snows down to get some traction going. Actually one of the runs had superb conditions, even better than some summer runs, with hard packed snow nicely levelled by off-road cyclists. Too much ice and thaw/freeze cycles to keep it in shape for long.
On the railfanning side and with the ice storm having set the tone for the year, my running stayed pretty local and sticking to the Lakeshore commuter runs. But it gave a chance to visit a couple of locales I've not ventured to, such as the Birchmount Road bridge over the CP Belleville Sub. This gives a nice view of the long sweeping curve from west to east:
From the same location, face east and you get the long corridor through the Kennedy GO Station:
Standing around outside waiting for trains isn't much fun. At least commuter traffic has schedules so I canto time my run to arrive just-in-time and catch what I can. Like this one, where I catch VIA's luxurious Glenfraser lounge car tacked onto the end of a Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal run, VIA combo 62/52:
Glenfraser is a pretty interesting car. One-of-a-kind, it's a Canadian Car & Foundry unit built to the same dimensions basically as the stainless Budd cars. VIAs fleet site has a whole page dedicated to this unit. Since it's only one car, I do wonder how VIA decides which train gets to pick it up, it would be a nice bonus for a train trip. However, VIA often rents it out for special functions so seeing it on the train you're about to board may not turn out as promising as hoped.
Cars like this is what made riding the rails such a thrill when I was a kid. As a young-un, we did take a family trip once from my home in Sydney to Toronto and then back and all those images of getting set up in the sleeper bunks, eating in the dining car, hanging out the lounge, still there in my head. When my wife and I were dating we did a trip from Toronto to Sydney while the railliners (more commonly known as the RDC cars) still ran from Halifax to Sydney. The Atlantic ran from Montreal to Halifax for our overnighter and we took a nice big cozy bedroom for the trip. The Atlantic was one of the last steam-heated trains in service. When you sat on the toilet, the water was all steamy and warm, so you got this gush of nice warm air when you sat on it. Wasn't a lot of money those days, a couple of hundred for the unit each way. She wasn't quite as enthused with the railliners from Truro to Sydney thoguth, with their built-in diesel engines. I always liked them, having spent many a ride from the Annapolis valley, sitting at the bar in the back. Nothing quite like drinking a beer or two and watching the country side slide by out the window.
So, only a handful of vids this winter. My yootoob page has a couple more. When I get more time I'll be able to dedicate a bit more to the task. Right now any extra time I have is spent getting in the miles to avoid becoming a non-runner.
The nice thing about commuter traffic is that it's both predictable and constant. Living close enough to the Lakeshore east line that I can listen to the engines throttle up from my back porch gives me a venue to catch a lot of commuter traffic.
Early mornings reflect a sequence of trains that have to cover a mix of long and short haul commuter traffic in a variety of services. The nice thing about the mix of GO and VIA is the power options and the mix of express and local trains together on the same lines and makes for some interesting management.
Between 6:45 and 7:15 AM, you have 7 different trains in 6 distinct consists prioritizing themselves over the Kingston sub east of Union Station. 5 of those pass through in the first 15 minutes, often parallel to each other and can have as many as 3 consists over the stretch below Danforth Avenue at the same time. On October 10th I decided I would capture all of this action into a single vid, which ended up being 5 minutes in length.
2 of the trains are on a single consist, being the VIA 50/52 trains that are tied together until Belleville, then split their respective ways to Montreal and Ottawa. This is the first of the bunch that passes through and can often be in a drag race with a westbound GO express that departs roughly 1 minute later than the VIA depending on lateness of the VIA units. With the GO units, the convention is to have express units use the same center track as VIA while the westbound GOs share the north track with local units. Some track switches manage the overlap of westbound local and express trains. All of this is within close tolerances as the units are often within short minutes of each other.
A couple of unique hits on this video. One of the GO trains had dual MP40 units up front, an express EB train probably moving an extra power unit to Oshawa. I also got a good throttle up for an F59PH leading WB with an MP40 pusher. For the final sequence I managed to catch a head-to-head meet of the EB and WB units on the short bridge over Woodbine Avenue. This was a good sequence of trains to catch in such a short period.
A brief trip to Ottawa gave me a small bit of time to scout around the local trackage and see what was happening. Our hotel was a couple of kliks aways from the main VIA Rail station near Vanier Parkway of Tremblant Road. I had been down that area last year scoping out viewing locations. A local trail near the transit road offers good sitelines and for westbound traffic out of the station.
I timed it on Sunday morning to catch train #643 on exit. I had little time for neither running nor fanning so I had to keep my wait period down to a minimum. I arrived about 5 minutes before departure and had enough time to pick an angle and focus points. The trail pathway is however on the northerly side of the tracks which means you don't get a direct sunlit view on departure. Trains will get full sun once they round the bend and turn southward so the morning sun catches them full side, as seen in the Youtube thumbprint.
For this morning, 643 was lead by F40PH unit #6455. I believe the parked unit on the right is #6415 but hard to tell in the shot hear, the original 1080 vid reveals the numbers a bit better but I'm still not positive if it's 6415 or not.
The departure is quite slow. The train doesn't start to throttle up until it rounds the bend so it's a fairly quiet pass. Next time I'm in the area I'll venture down line a bit, there are some level crossings further south that should offer good views and units at higher power output.
I haven't had much time to be out taking images of trains lately. There is a bridge under repair that connects my local area of Taylor Creek with Sunnybrook and it's throughly fenced in until the workers have completed their tasks. If you're familiar with the area, it's the bailey bridge that crosses the CN Bala tracks near Don Mills Road. The area has been undergoing renovations to replace the aging footbridge under Don Mills. That work is completed and now they are doing the decking on the bailey bridge. Before the bridge closure you could still navigate across Don Mills but a deckless bridge isn't very useful. Most people are just going around the fencing and cross the tracks but I have this inate refusal to tresspass on the Metrolinx right of way so I'm staying away from the area until the work is done.
Bala below Doncaster sees not a lot of CN action these days. VIA's Canadian #2 still uses it and Richmond Hill GO service on weekdays, but I haven't seen freight action there in months. CP's Belleville and North Toronto subs are my freight train sources these days. The bridge work at Don Mills makes this less accessible for the time being. I can still get around through the area near Cottonwood Flats if I have time for longer runs. The level CP crossing at Wicksteed needs only 25 minutes for me to get there with the bridge open, but over an hour with the bridge out. Summerhill is more accessible right now and Summerhill has better viewing, albeit not at track level. I did try a few longer shots of the Leaside yard area from Cottonwood Flats but there are just too many trees in the way.
The reliable Kingston sub is always nearby. 6:30AM and on that is one busy line. Mutliple GO trains an hour, plenty of VIA trains coming in and going out. Being wakey wakey with the ever earlier sun shining in through the window and the window opened a crack for air, the Lakeshore line gets mighty noisy. This morning I headed down Woodbine Avenue to the crossing north of Gerard Street just in time to catch VIA combo 50/52 heading to Ottawa and Montreal with it's unique two train tandem.
Blink and you'll miss it:
They don't have the high-speed train warning signs posted everywhere on that line for nothing.
While scoping out some other locations on the streets nearby I'm glad I had the camera rolling here for this GO eastbound unit:
Not the best location, it was over a fence at the base of Westlake Avenue just south of the Danforth, but it was a unique catch. This double-ender had two of GOs refurbished F59PH units, #564 up front and #563 tacked onto the rear. These 59s have to double up to meet the performance demands of 10 car passenger service as they lack the oomph of the MP40PH 4000HP powerhouses on most of GOs trains.
It's starting to brighten up out there. However, I will have to have a talk with those gophers that predicted an early spring because it's been anything but for the last several weeks.
I managed to turn an ankle while running frozen trail a couple of weeks ago on some ruts and sidelined myself for a week. I could have run as it doesn't really affect straightline running but I wanted to play it safe, and the less than desireable weather meant I didn't feel too bad about sitting around for a few days.
The trail system is peppered with signs informing users to stay off the trails in muddy conditions as this damages the slopes and really messes up the surface. I've been running them all winter and conditions have been good but it looks like plenty of people ignored the signs when the temps crawled over freezing and the trail was heavily rutted from walkers and a small handful of cyclists. After it froze over, which is when I ran it, it's like cobblestones turned on their edge and I managed to misjudge on a downhill, rolled my ankle and hobbled home. The swelling a couple of days later let me know it needed some rest.
Nonetheless, back at it this weekend and inspected the trails on Sunday. They seemed fine until I got to some messy muddy sections near Bayview Avenue and had to run off-trail. While high in the section near Bayview I heard a consist trundling it's way southbound on Bala near the trial crossing at the 5 mile mark. I had my camcorder with me and was a bit out of position for a clear shot which left me finding a reasonable opening through the trees. Much to my surprise, being a Sunday, it was VIA train #2, the Canadian, running more than a day late after being held up by snowstorms in Saskachewan.
Quite the catch as there isn't much activity on south Bala outside of the Canadian and the weekday GO commutes. I used to see a lot more freight action along this line. For freight action these days I hang out around the level CP crossing at Wicksteed when time allows:
Without aid of a scanner, railfanning becomes part luck and part experience. Over time you get some idea of when certain trains tend to pass and plan accordingly but most of the time it's just winging it and depending on lady luck.
After a few trips to the Summerhill pedestrian bridge crossing CP's North Toronto Subdivision I figured out that a mixed westbound consist, likely originating from the Markham yards, passes under the bridge at about 11:25 on Sunday mornings. It means a crossing of the high trestle bridges in the Don Valley a few minutes earlier.
An outing two weeks ago had bad timing as I was late making my way through the snow into the valley and caught only the last car and EOT device disappearing over the bridge. After hanging around a bit I headed up the valley walls only to hear another westbound unit crossing the trestle bridge. Out of position to vid I got back in time to see a lengthy crude consist which I had not seen while hanging out in Summerhill.
Last Sunday, February 17, with sunny skies and fresh fluffy white stuff down it was back to the trestle bridge and try for the mixed consist. Sticky snow on ice is pretty good to run on but light cold snow over ice is tough slippery going. I got to the bridge just a shade to late to catch the power units on a surprise eastbound mixed slowly crossing on the north track. Within a couple of minutes, with the e/b in motion, a trio of engines appeared westbound on the south track in bright sun and towing two boxcars and 404 axles worth of crude tankers. Likely headed stateside (train CP 605 perhaps?) with two CP SDs and a DME SD sandwiched between. This is shortened to save bandwidth but it's 3 locos, 2 boxes and 101 crude tankers. The lead is SD60 CP 6245 followed by SD40-3 DME 6068 and SD40-2 CP 5941.
Edit: It was train 609 as caught in this vid by SD402F:
This is Union Station in Toronto. The train that juts out the east and west ends of the platform appears to be the VIA Canadian, the giveaway being the observation dome on the tapered end car on the east (right) side. A pair of engines, the first car and part of the second car protrude the west side while the trailing 3 cars and part of the 4th protrude the east side. Obviously too long for the platform, I guess to board and de-board, either shunt the cars to position in stages or everyone passes through to the platform adjacent cars.
Having been sidelined with a cold for the last while, rail vids had to take a back seat. Oh, I've done plenty of running. I just can't be standing around in the cold waiting for something to show up. The closest I've gotten is a couple of visits to the pedestrian bridge over the CP tracks at Summerhill to see if I could get a lucky strike. The one time I was there and had a chance, I managed to double pump the rec button on the Sony and came up blank as a beauty of a mixed CP consist trundled by.
So with this biggest storm of the last 4 1/2 years upon us, I thought a quick jaunt over the Main Avenue timed for a couple of scheduled passes would be in order and chance to get some footage in nasty conditions. It's not far away, less than 15 minutes. I had my trail shoes outfitted with hex screws for traction and my full winter wear on. Camera in a carry bag, in a plastic bag and all wrapped up nice and tight.
Made it with a minute to spare as the eastbound VIA tandem of 52 and 50 headed for Montreal/Ottawa came peeking through the blizzard like conditions at speed. 6442 was in lead for Montreal bound #52 up front but the unit leading #50 in tow lacked number lighting and I didn't catch what was on the side as it passed.
An Oshawa bound GO train would be next. It would normally arrive just before the VIA but I'm guessing was a bit late on it's Union Station arrival and took a few more minutes to reach Main Ave. In the meantime I taped a TTC streetcar climbing the hill on Main on it's way to the station. No slipping here, the tracks were clear from plenty of traffic. I think the vehicles with tires fared a bit worse in the city today. This is tacked onto the end of the clip. After that, the GO unit finally arrived. Autofocus took a bit to kick in with the snow flying about, and again I couldn't catch the lead unit number in the poor lighting.
Sunshine promised for tomorrow. Down into the valley for me, camera in hand, and see what I can come up with.
Too nice to hang about this weekend. It's not often we get temps in the teens in January. Getting them for a full weekend makes you wonder what you did to deserve it. Shorts on, a couple of t shirts and out the door to catch some Kingston sub action.
Saturday was dropping by nearby Danforth GO station, enjoying the sunshine and catch what I could. I headed out to try and catch VIA 60 as it passed through Danforth and got there just in time to miss it. I did get a few seconds of it's rear end disappearing to the east. Some bits of a couple of scheduled GO units had to suffice. I did grab a couple more segments at a section on Eastwood Avenue thats pretty close to to rails but hard to get good position. The southern track is so close to the ROW fencing that eastbound units seem like they're going to roll right over you. The houses nearby must have their dishes glued down just in case. I returned to Danforth a little after noon to see what else may come by. I noticed the signals on the north and centre tracks switched from yellow to red while standing on the bridge. The north track would be the scheduled westbound GO. The centre track would be VIA, but I wasn't sure which one. Later checking it was VIA 643 Kingston/Toronto. The GO had already passed, the VIA came by 10 minutes later.
On Sunday I headed out to an area just off St. Clair Avenue E and Midland Avenue, a little N/E of Scarborough GO station and see if it offered a decent viewing location. It rained all night but by morning had moved off to the east leaving just a hazy day behind so no problems taking the new Sony along.
I scoped some sections along a street adjacent to the tracks called National Street. The hillside leaves the ROW fencing well below the viewing angle, although a bit steep and hard to get a good footing. Also, lots of trees planted to offer some separation from the tracks for the nearby new housing development making some spots more obscured than others. At the north end of the street the view of Kingston sub to the north east is nice and unubstructed although the property beyond the roadway is CN owned. No need to step into the field though, the view simply standing at the end of the street is as good as it gets.
First came VIA train #60 out of the southwest. The heavy haze carried the unmistakable roar of a locomotive from well down the tracks. The haze also gave it neat effect of the lights piercing through as the train powered it's way through Scarborough GO station and along the long straightaway until it bends to Brimley. Lead loco was P42DC VIA 919. I shot it from the embankment in a slightly flattened area with decent footing an no tree or fencing in the way of the shot.
Next up, I headed to the north end of the street to catch an eastbound GO unit reversing it's way toward Union Station, nothing particularly interesting and I failed to have the Sony on as it appeared around the corner so we'll leave that vid in the archives.
For the last I waited for the eastbound GO which would be a few minutes after the w/bound unit. Staying in position at the north end of National, I picked up the lead loco as it passes on the southern track and appearing through the trees of the embankment. As it passed and I switched to the N/E view I noticed the lead loco was not alone, with an older EMD slotted in second place. The second unit was 558, an F59PH. A quick lookup in google and youtube shows a few other hits for this locomotive for the past couple of years. Not sure if it has been in continuous service or temporarily retired but it was a surprising catch nonetheless!
Trails were too messy to run this weekend with the snow melt and the rain. Kingston sub is never far away for a street run, always manages to deliver and even the occasional surprise can be had.
GO's Richmond Hill train makes it's way northward on an early departure from Union Station to get New Year's Eve revellers home in time to get ready for the evening.
I positioned myself in the trails above Crother's Woods in the Don Valley with a wide view of this section of the Bala sub that runs just north of Pottery Road. The signals at a pedestrian trail crossing are marked as 4.92 on the crossbucks. Just really trying out this new camera in twilight conditions (Sony CX250), this being shot at 4:42PM on Dec. 31, 2012.
Upgrading to HD for my videos as Santa put a Sony CX250 under the tree with my name on it. After poking around with it in the house for a couple of days, I took it along with me on the trails, after a decent little 8 inches of snow came down late on Boxing Day. The trails are nicely runable with good packing snow down. With shorts on I did get a couple of "Aren't you cold?" questions coming my way with -6C temps. The cool air feels nice on the legs when your pushing through the snow as it burns calories a whole lot quicker than flat dry stuff. I managed all of last year with shorts although it really didn't have any of the really nasty cold days we can get up here.
Bala was quiet but the CP rail lines that comprise the Belleville and North Toronto subdivisions as well as Leaside Yard are always active. After making my way through the snowy trails to the Bayview Avenue I waited near the CP rail bridge over Bayview to see what might come my way. It never takes long and from the west came a consist of 115 tankers, two auxiliary cars and a pair of ES44ACs (8737 and 8784) leading . This one was unusual with an AC400CW unit 9585 pushing from behind for assistive power. The sound of the AC4400CW is quite distinct from it's ES44AC cousin, you hear it coming through near the end of the video.
Some shots of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train as it makes it's December 1, 2012 stop in Toronto at the CP Lambton Yards off Runnymede Avenue. Lots of people on hand for the visit, many of them casuals who just happened to see either the crowd or the train and wandered up. Also a chance to get decently close to some action in the yard as work went on in the background.
Prior to arrival, a group of engines sit idling to the west. The Holiday Train will arrive on a track to the right of these units. Yes, that's a GO train car. I saw it yesteday attached to a consist being shunted in Leaside Yard and headed off west, I guess to here.
After arrival, the train backs up to the near tracks.
Lights, lights and more lights:
The band entertains the crowd:
Some inventive aligning of the yard work light over the tree adorning 9815:
The show comes to a close. Lights on and the 2012 Canadian Pacific Holiday Train...backs out of Lambdon Yard:
Work goes on as a pair of power units are shunting stock in the yard:
Earlier in the summer I was doing some surfing for information on the old Canadian Northern Railway. This was mainly inspired by the recent conversion of the CNoR locomotive works building in Leaside into a Longos grocery store. It's a pretty cool looking building if you haven't seen it yet, both inside and out. It's hard to imagine that this century old structure was used to service railway engines of the day. Despite the loss of CNoR and it's ultimate encapsulation into today's Canadian National Railway, the building survived under a few different industries until sitting idle behind a group of buildings along Laird Avenue. Most people (me included) never laid eyes on the structure until some businesses along Laird were removed, exposing the building's facade to passing traffic.
Along the way I found this site with images from the Global TV helicopter showing a series of overhead views of the east Toronto area and a few key images of East York. I was guided to the site by a hit on one of the comments regarding the second image showing Taylor Creek. Taylor Creek is my bread and butter for running since it's literally steps away from my house. I run the higher south side trail frequently, known to a few as the Taylor Creek harrier circuit, since it's soft and fairly flat for the most part albeit a bit swampy in places.
This image on the site shows Taylor Creek (the image is captioned Looking northwest up Glen Stuart Ravine on the page)along the section east of the baseball diamonds in Stan Wadlow park. If you look along the left side of the valley you will see a long straight line leading up to the diamonds. From there it veers a bit left and continues on towards the lower Don Valley at Don Mills Road. This was part of the CNoR Toronto-Ottawa railline. I've often thought this had to have been a railline at some point given the sheer straightness of this mainly level trail.
Hard to pass up an opportunity to explore a railline that once passed only a few hundred meters away from my house. With that, it was doing some searching of maps, aerial images and whatever I could find, wait for the leaves to fall away, then go on a hunt. It starts with a whopping 3 minute jog down hill to the base of Haldon Avenue. Standing on Haldon in line, the ROW would be roughly where the hydro lines are.
Following the line of the eastbound trail the rails would have passed through where the roadway ends and the parking lot begins. Hydro One towers run the full length of the trail in both directions.
Utility poles just north of the pathway on the east section may be the current incarnations of those used by the CNoR at the time, being reused and replaced over the years. Previously the poles used to terminate at a hydro substation just beyond the parking lot.
Further east is much the same until you reach a hydro station past Main Avenue. From Google aerial maps you can see the line stretching through the valley and detect the segment between Dawes Road and Victoria Park Avenue just south of Massey Square and continue on to what is now the TTC line out of Vic Park station.
Returning back to Haldon Avenue, growth makes the immediate west part inaccessible for a bit
and today it's a slightly muddy climb under the O'Connor bridge to connect back to the ROW area.
The trail runs high on the north side of the ROW and you can see where the railbed would have existed lower on the south side.
It's pretty swampy down there and must have presented some challenges in keeping the railbed dry and intact. As you progress westward you descend a sharp hill and soon are back onto the old ROW.
It also gets pretty swampy on some of the higher parts of the old right-of-way.
At the northwest end of the trail, the ROW would have crossed part of what is now a parking lot and extended into the web of on and off ramps around the DVP and Don Mills Road. Anything that existed along there is long gone with major regrading and reworking for the DVP. Next is looking up archival aerial views on the City of Toronto Archives site. These particular images are from 1942, well after the rails were pulled up but the right-of-way can be easily seen. You will need an SID reader for the files downloaded from the archive site. Compare it to either Google maps or Bing maps, you can see that Don Mills Road was the same as it is now along with the sections of O'Connor Drive that form it's southern terminus. Also pretty well intact is the Bala sub ROW. The river itself has been rerouted to accomodate the DVP in some sections although you can see that the short curved section of the river that approaches the CN lines is still the same in the area where the CNoR line would have connected up.
From this aerial image, you can see the ROW extending from the Bala line to the river and what looks like supports for the bridge structure:
The orientation of the images is slightly different. The Google map has north directly up while the aerial image from 1942 has north a little to the right, more in line with the orientation of the street grid pattern. There's a whitish section in the water that looks the same in both images and lines up with the rail ROW.
On Sunday, with warm temperatures and growth dying off, I was able to climb around the area of the hydro tower that appears near the center of the Google image above. Directly adjacent to the hydro tower is this structure covered in weeds and vines:
It sure looks like a bridge support to me. In the 1942 image there's several industrial buildings just south of this spot but they don't appear to be where this structure lies.
On the opposite side of the river is the large angular whitish object that appears in the water in both the 1942 image and the Google image. It's just a rocky outcropping that's accessible from a trail that runs on the north side of the river.
This is the same outcropping from the other side:
I poked around but could find no sign of any bridge structure. The overgrowth is very heavy though:
What is obvious on the other side is the raised railbed built up to level the tracks for merging:
When you stand here, you can see the bed leading from where the bridge abutment would have been and it's path into the Bala tracks.
So, not much of this line remains beyond this bridge structure, the level graded areas in the valley, the raised railbed areas and the legacy of the utility poles east of Haldon Avenue. It's still fascinating to think of a steamer chugging it's way delicately through Taylor Creek on it's way east, or back.
Glad I took along the video today. I dropped off the car for service and hopped down into Crother's Woods, seeing it was a picture perfect sunny day for running some trail and maybe catch a unit going along Bala.
I was checking out an open area a bit north of Pottery Road, it's about 11 or so. After grabbing a couple of shots of a bridge, I was in between open sections and could hear a horn blast further north, followed shortly by activating signals at a foot trail crossing. I had to sprint back to an open area and luckily caught VIA Canadian #2 passing through. Odd setup with 4 power units up front lead by 6442, 6410, 6456 and 6441 in that order. Then the shorter winter consist of 10 cars.
After poking around the trails for a while, I wound my way back near the line and found the north signal showing red, and the south signal green. Nothing had gone north so either something was heading southward or track maintenance was happening further up the line.
I got a call that my car was ready for pickup and headed back up the trails to the dealership. Just before passing the waste treatment facility below the Redway Loblaws, a diesel sounds on the line. This is about 12:30. I'm a fair bit away but open the camera expecting a CN freight unit.
Surprise! It's another VIA! A more modern unit with light cars making it's way southbound. Not what I was expecting at all. I know of no other VIA units using Bala on a regular basis outside of the Canadian. I was too far away to see any numbers.
So two interesting catches. A 4 power unit short consist Canadian and a light modern Via unit.
Update: Apparently there is some problems with a building near Union Station in danger of collapsing onto the tracks. The Canadian was delayed and some other trains rerouted, notably VIA 84 out of Sarnia. This is most likely #84 as the timing fits.
At Pottery Road to try a little nighttime railfanning, mostly just a practice run. I was hoping to catch a night passing of VIA's Canadian train #1 so a southbound unit near the schedule departure time of #1 had me a bit confused. The unit numbers were unfortunately missed.
Admittedly, I'm not sure about exactly when the Canadian leaves Union Station or even which route it takes. As it makes it's first stop in Washago it seems natural it would follow Bala the same way it uses it eastbound, since it would otherwise have to reverse or wye somehow to reach Washago on anything but Bala. VIA schedule shows departure from Union at 10 PM, Saturday night. This unit came through at 10:05. I've seen it several times on arrival eastbound but never ventured to catch a westbound departure.
I did hang around a while to see if VIA would come through but it got progressively colder and less comfortable and I eventually gave up. Consider this a consolation prize.
The Sony SX63 has it's limitations at night. Autofocus isn't all that great and the manual focus is difficult to set and get it right since I have to use the touch panel. Next time I'll prepare focus before venturing out. Low light is okay, not the best but so much better than cameras I've used in the past.
Had to assemble the video for this post and only got to it today.
Up early and headed up the trail to a unique viewing perch high over the Bala line near Northline Drive. Catching the ONR Northlander northbound. Not sure which unit was leading, usually it's 1800 for this Sunday run.
After that, scooted over to Wicksteed Avenue to catch CPR units 8807 and 8621 absolutely flying through the level crossing westbound on the Belleville sub.
When shooting at a double track, always stay clear of the open track as you cannot hear anything coming up behind you. I stayed in line with the barrier for safety.
I later hooked the trails through Crother's Woods up to Pottery Road to see if anything else may chance by on Bala, and a brief stop to peek at the Don Branch rails . At the northern end, the Don Branch is pretty grown over with fallen trees and other debris scattered around the tracks. Who knows if Metrolinx will ever really use this section of the line, it would certainly need some extensive cleaning up. I returned via Crother's Woods on the path closest to the ROW, but nothing was happening on the return trip. Long run day, 12 or 13 miles of mostly trail.
If you ventured downtown last Sunday (Oct. 14th) you may have noticed the blocked off streets running east and west, particularly Lakeshore Blvd, Eastern Ave, Front St and Queen St E. It was the Toronto Waterfront Marathon (plus half plus 5k) in progress, the bane of drivers who failed to heed the warnings as they sit fuming watching runner after runner glide on by.
No, I didn't run it. I used the day for my weekly long run. I popped down to catch the leaders as they came across Woodbine along Queen on their way along the remaining 5 miles to the finish line. After watching the leaders make the turn down towards Lakeshore, I hustled my way along Queen in time to catch them again doing a short reverse loop back up the Queen Street and then along Eastern Avenue. From that point I had no hope of beating them to the finish line since I was just as far as they are and my recreational running 52 y/o self wasn't about to beat the Kenyans who came to town for the prize money. I did figure I might catch the women leaders at the finish line as they were 15 or so minutes behind the lead men. I was close, the women leaders rounded to corner to Bay street just as I got to Bay and Front, but they were too fast for me to keep up, especially with the crowds in the area, for the remaining half mile to the finish line. Stopping to do some cheering along the way and snap phone vids and pics also helped slow me down.
A runner exits under a rail overpass while a westbound VIA rail speeds by. The highlight for me was catching world reknowned Ed Whitlock from Milton, On., heading towards a 3:30 finish. Consider that Ed is 81 years old, holder of a multitude of age graded world records, and finished here in the top 15% (407/3248 marathon runners) on this day. Backtracking the course, I shot a few seconds of video of him on Eastern Ave where it crosses the DVP. As you can see, the runners are pretty sparse here (as well as the spectators) as the crowds are still half a mile ahead.
There are over 2800 runners behind him here. Ed will have finished, grabbed some grub and gone through a plethora of interviews before the midpackers even arrive. Not bad for someone at an age most people would be happy to even achieve, let alone run marathons at times most runners will only ever dream of.
Last year, at a much younger age of 80, Ed ran 3:15 at this event. I think he finally might be slowing down...just a touch!
My wife, my daughter and myself headed out to St. Jacobs, Ontario, this afternoon to ride the Waterloo Central Railway's Oktoberfest steam rail train. The train starts near the University of Waterloo, stops at the St. Jacobs market and continues on to St. Jacobs, then reverses back to Waterloo. The morning showed some promise of sunshine, which didn't hold up as it was full cloud cover in the K-W area giving a definite fall feeling to the air.
The steamer is Essex Terminal Railway No.9, nicknamed the 'Spirit of Elgin', an ALCO 0-6-0 unit nicely refurbished and working out of St. Jacobs' yards with Waterloo Central. The WCR has a collection of working units, coaches, assorted cars and other works-in-progress. This is the pride of the group.
Today's train consisted of No.9 and it's hopper, three passenger coaches including two CN units with the more comfy recliners (daynighters) and an old CP coach with firmer seating, also two cabooses modified for passenger use, and WCR's #1556 diesel switcher unit for assistive power.
Too late to catch it at the start in Waterloo, we boarded at the St. Jacobs farmers market, purchased the tickets onboard and di dthe full loop to St. Jacobs, back to Waterloo, and finally returning to the market. We chose to sit in the older passenger unit with it's rustic hanging lamps (not working) and sliding windows (working) which granted outside views and photo opts.
The first leg was to St. Jacobs with 1556 leading and No.9 in passive tow. Upon reaching St. Jacobs' yard, the steamer was detached and prepped for work while the main cars continued on over the Grand River to the northern most point of the trip. After pushing back into the yard, No.9 was fired up and ready, lashed up and took the lead back to Waterloo.
