Thursday, June 10, 2010

Spadina Roundhouse, July 1982

Climb down the steps from Toronto's Spadina Street bridge, sign a release in the shop foreman's office, don a hard hat and spend a couple of hours soaking in the atmosphere of CN's downtown locomotive shop. In July 1982, VIA and ONR F-units, VIA RDC's, CN switchers and Tempo units called Spadina home for servicing and for inspection by visiting railfans.
Having arrived in Hogtown on the morning Railiner from Kingston, my dad and I first viewed Spadina from the CN Tower, then at ground level. The roundhouse was still full of passenger power, and the coach yard hosted a plethora of passenger equipment.With our releases in hand, we explored the ready tracks.
Power on hand: 6758, 6765, 6769, 6770, 6774, 6775, 6778, 6782, 6865, 6868, CN 6867, 6870, 6532, 6541, 6635, 6621, 6637, RDC's 6135, 6123, 6129, 6126, 6102, 6114, 6117, 6104, 6202, 6205, 6207, 6210, 6002, 6006, 6000, 6004, 6005, 6401, CN switchers 8512, 8513, 8514, Tempo 3150, 3152, 3153, and ONR 1502:
Clambering up into various units' cabs, obsolete train orders were still stuffed in control stands and garbage receptacles. Not for long.

Trains represented in the clearances: No 635 at Clifton, No 636 Hamilton, No 668 End 3153 London and Stratford, No 128 Eng 1502 North Bay, Washago, Nipissing, and Huntsville, No 82 Sarnia and London, No 84 London, No 2 Eng 6541 Schreiber, White River, Washago and Barrie, No 72 London, Tecumseh and Komoka.
The turntable was in use, with 6782 hostled up and going for a spin:
Need a flash. Switcher 8512 and some other units were ensconced in the roundhouse. Dad in cab:
VIA and GO consists, CN and CP transfers trundled by to and around Union Station:

EB VIA: 6539-6613-5654-5587-2511-5631-5537-Mount Royal Club-9651.

EB VIA: 6906-3338-3340-3302-3343.

CN 7218-76560

CP 8143-437073, 8124-437028

GO 907, 503, 510
EB GO: 515-2058-2066-2031-2020-107 (above). One final photo from the bridge, showing 6205, 6135, 6117, 6207, 6775, 6104, and 70604, one of two CN work baggages, still in the CNR green-and-black scheme, the other was 70609:
Then it was time for a quick lunch at Rails restaurant in the lower concourse of Union Station. TTC subway and streetcar took us to George's Trains, returning in time to catch an LRC train back to Kingston.
Running extra...

Union Station, the former CP John Street roundhouse and much of downtown Toronto is being cordoned off for the G20 summit later in June. Inbound VIA trains will be terminating in Oshawa, Oriole, Oakville and Brampton.

CPR rostered G3 and G5 Pacifics. CN G8's were light rail diesels, while Pennsy ran GG1 electrics. Gee. No, GE. Or is that PGE?

Glee wrapped up its season, with the school club New Directions getting a funding reprieve, meaning they can return for another season of lip-synched production numbers on Global.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Piece Eric! Neat to see all the old pictures and VIA equipment!

Eric said...

Thanks for your kind comments, A. With all the security measures currently going into place in Toronto, it reminded me of the freedom we had to rove around and explore Spadina 28 years ago!
Eric

Anonymous said...

Gone are the days when we could just sign a release and stroll around Union Station and Spadina, photographing whatever we wanted to. Sigh...I have so many Kodachrome slides from those days!

Steve Lucas.

Eric said...

Yes, diesels, diesels everywhere! Oh, and SGU's and RDC's and who-knows-what-else might have turned up the previous day, Steve. Plus, whatever was running by to Union Station, AND CN or CP transfers. Truly a Canadian cornucopia.

Since you brought it up, if you had those Kodachromes scanned, they would make a great postscript post to this one! Contact me at my email if this sounds good.

Thanks for stopping by and for your comment,
Eric

Unknown said...

Eric you never mentioned the shop foreman's name. He was Will Chalmers and I was hustling Locomotives and running yard movements and then over the mainline long before I hired on as a Locomotive Engineer and subsequently as an instructor. All of these accomplishments thanks to Will Chalmers and his CP counterpart in the John Street shops- John Clarke