Canadian Railroads > On this day -- 40 years ago

(with apologies to Hoggerdoug)

Quite a few TO members have been posting photos to celebrate the 50th anniversary this week of GO Transit. I decided to dig through my slides from a visit back to Toronto in 1977 but apparently I did not shoot any GO action. (bummer)

However I did find this neat set of slides that I did shoot on May 27, 1977. The first three are scenes from the CN's Spadina shops.

#1: The CN Turbo train conveniently posed with the CN Tower in the background. I had posted a comment earlier this week that today there is nothing to tie the CN tower to the railroad. However back in the old days there was, and this photo does a great job of linking the tower and the railroad.
#2: The Canadian departing Union Station with a short consist -- note there is no Park car on the Toronto section.
#3: One of many CN/VIA Budd car trains that fanned out to southern Ontario

Those were certainly the golden days in downtown Toronto

WP17

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And I had to go to the top of the CN tower; after all it had been open for less than a year. So here are two views: on of a modest downtown Toronto and another showing the extent of the railway yards west of the station.

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Love picture #5. Amazing how much this place has changed over the years. It's still a great train watching location, I can only imagine what it was like 40 years ago.

Dwayne

WP17 Wrote:
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>
...
> #2: The Canadian departing Union Station with a
> short consist -- note there is no Park car on the
> Toronto section.
...

>
> WP17

I believe it was after the summer season of 1972 that the CPR eliminated the Park car on the Toronto section in the off-peak season. Peak season was mid-June to mid-September and for a week and a half or so in the Christmas/New Year season.

I see in the photo that the train had one more coach and sleeper than the minimum off-peak consist. In the mid-1970s both The Canadian and Super Continental often had only a single sleeper in the Toronto section in the winter season. I was surprised that the government didn't force a reduction in service to tri-weekly. I had a few winter trips on The Canadian in the pre-VIA years when there were just four to six passengers in the Toronto sleeper.