Canadian Railroads > Cabin D

An image I took late December 1981, a railfan day in Toronto,  during a trip to Ontario.  I maybe totally mixed up with my geography and trackage, Cabin D was located west of Bathhurst Street and was perhaps the junction of the CN Oakville and Weston subs. Please correct me if I'm wrong in the location.
Cabin D has been preserved and on display at the Toronto Railway Museum on the site of the old John Street Roundhouse.
Doug

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Thanks for sharing this photo. I saw it several times but never took a close up.
Bob

Here are the tts for the area Doug.  You are basically right but I added the ETTs to see if you are "railway correct".  I have never worked in the running trades in the as you have so this may better explain the layout of things for you.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON
 CN ETTs

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Here is the CP Rail ETT for the area along with a photo that I was going to use on MLW Monday but I think it is of better use here.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

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Thanks Gerry, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and the picture you posted sure explains a lot for me. Sometimes standing on the ground it is difficult to see the whole layout of things.  Not sure what year ETT's you posted, the ones I was looking at were from 1972 and "Cabin D" was not shown in the station column(s)  on either subs, were as Cabin E was shown in the station column on the Oakville sub. Cabin D was mentioned in the subdivision footnotes but I could not quite visualize the situation.
Thanks again for the info.
and thanks "refarkas" for your comment.
take care,
Doug

moonliter Wrote:
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> Here is the CP Rail ETT for the area along with a
> photo that I was going to use on MLW Monday but I
> think it is of better use here.
>
> Gerry Gaugl
> Ottawa ON

Something that intrigued me about this junction was the fact that although it had interlocking towers to control the switches at the junction, there were also switchtenders employed to control various switches. I'm guessing the main lines had switches controlled from the towers, but the many industrial and yard tracks didn't.

Anyone know what the industrial building with the two brick smokestacks in the background was?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/19 10:05 by eminence_grise.

Phil, not sure what the two smoke stacks were affiliated with, perhaps a power plant or industrial power facility.  Also in the ETT's that I have seen, there were "switch tenders" used in this area and other points for some non controlled switches etc, numerous special instructions in the subdivision footnotes. My brother once told me during his time with CN he was called off the spareboard to cover one of these switch tender jobs, it was awful conditions and they basically had a concrete lined hole in the ground as their position for the shift to carry out their duties. Other switch tender postions were manned by injured / maimed Trainmen that were okay to work but not on trains etc. They usually had a shack somewhere near and tended to a few switches when necessary. One such job that I knew of was in Hamilton, Ontario at "S" office / trainorders, and there was a switch tender that worked the night shift, he had lost a leg on the job and was kept on as a switch tender.
Doug

a "copy & paste" from another fellow regarding the Cabins in Toronto.Confused eh???   There were Cabins A, B, C, D, and E.  Cabin D was located at Mileage 1.2 of the Weston Sub and Cabin E was located at Mileage 1.8 of the Oakville Sub.  Parkdale was the junction of the Weston and Newmarket Subs.  The actual Mileage of Parkdale was 2.4 on the Weston Sub and the actual junction was Mileage 2.5 at the north end of the platform.  The mileage of the Newmarket Sub actually starts at Toronto Union station.  Surprisingly Parkdale is also Mileage 2.4 and the junction with the Weston Sub is at Mileage 2.5 on the Newmarket Sub. Cabin E was on the Oakville sub west of Cabin D.  Now if my fuzzy memory serves me correct, Cabin E controlled the point where the CP crossed the Oakville Sub and not where the CP joined the Weston Sub at Mileage 1.3 of the Weston Sub.  This CP crossing allowed CP to gain access the Toronto Harbour trackage. Cabin C was located just west of the CN Express Building and had a large "red neon arrow" that told incoming passenger train crews what side of their train to unload passenger at the station.  As you know, Toronto Union station was all single tracks, by that I mean there were platforms on both sides of every track: one side for passengers ONLY and the other side was for baggage and express handling ONLY. Cabins A and B were east of the station.  There is no mention of Cabins A, B, and C in timetables that I have. Hope this lifts to fog a little.

 

hoggerdoug Wrote:
My  brother once told me during his time with CN he
> was called off the spareboard to cover one of
> these switch tender jobs, it was awful conditions
> and they basically had a concrete lined hole in
> the ground as their position for the shift to
> carry out their duties..

I see one of those concrete lined holes in the ground in the image , just ahead of the switch engine.

I see also the large loudspeaker on the outside of the tower, which I guess was for talking to the switchtenders.

Didn't "Rail Innovations" (Steve Bradley's company) do a DVD about the TTR Towers? James A.Brown started his railway as a towerman for the TTR. and I believe was the narrator. Downtown Toronto is/was as complex as interlocking gets in Canada.
>
>  

Phil, the two large smoke stacks were for City of Toronto garbage incinerator. East of that there was a meat packing plant. Yes you are correct, the loud speaker on the side of Cabin D was for relaying instructions to the switch tenders. Way to many switches in the area to be controlled from one point and some were on other than main track.
Doug

eminence_grise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Something that intrigued me about this junction
> was the fact that although it had interlocking
> towers to control the switches at the junction,
> there were also switchtenders employed to control
> various switches. I'm guessing the main lines had
> switches controlled from the towers, but the many
> industrial and yard tracks didn't.
>
> Anyone know what the industrial building with the
> two brick smokestacks in the background was?