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Further to my comment on Liam MacDougall's photo capturing a GO train at Danforth between Main Street and Victoria Park Avenue ( http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=42149 ), here is a glimpse of the CN Danforth Work Equipment Shop that once occupied the grounds where all the townhouses now sit. This photo was taken on the new shops official opening day of June 5, 1956. The new 'state of the art' facility replaced a much older and smaller facility on the same property. The old shop was built on a foundation that had the large rollup doors into the building at boxcar door/flatcar deck height. It became a small repair and storage facility when the new shop opened. After each season of rail replacement, tie replacement, ballast gangs, surfacing crews, and general Engineering projects, most equipment on the Great Lakes Region was returned to the Danforth shop to be repaired/overhauled for the next production season. Through the 1960's and 70's the yard tracks were home to the fleets of Engineering accommodation and work service cars including red fleet boarding cars, tool cars, coach cars, tanks cars, machinery flats, white fleet units, etc. They were all stored, stocked, and repaired here. With the ever increasing quantity, size and complexity of work equipment machinery, a new repair facility was constructed in Capreol, Ontario in the late 1970's to take some of the workload from the Danforth shops. The value of Toronto real estate made the railway property at the Danforth complex very appealing and the yard, Steel Bridge shop, and once modern Work Equipment shop would soon be gone to make way for the townhomes that are present there today.
Copyright Notice: This image ©CNR photo, Paul O'Shell collection all rights reserved.



Caption: Further to my comment on Liam MacDougall's photo capturing a GO train at Danforth between Main Street and Victoria Park Avenue ( http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=42149 ), here is a glimpse of the CN Danforth Work Equipment Shop that once occupied the grounds where all the townhouses now sit. This photo was taken on the new shops official opening day of June 5, 1956. The new 'state of the art' facility replaced a much older and smaller facility on the same property. The old shop was built on a foundation that had the large rollup doors into the building at boxcar door/flatcar deck height. It became a small repair and storage facility when the new shop opened. After each season of rail replacement, tie replacement, ballast gangs, surfacing crews, and general Engineering projects, most equipment on the Great Lakes Region was returned to the Danforth shop to be repaired/overhauled for the next production season. Through the 1960's and 70's the yard tracks were home to the fleets of Engineering accommodation and work service cars including red fleet boarding cars, tool cars, coach cars, tanks cars, machinery flats, white fleet units, etc. They were all stored, stocked, and repaired here. With the ever increasing quantity, size and complexity of work equipment machinery, a new repair facility was constructed in Capreol, Ontario in the late 1970's to take some of the workload from the Danforth shops. The value of Toronto real estate made the railway property at the Danforth complex very appealing and the yard, Steel Bridge shop, and once modern Work Equipment shop would soon be gone to make way for the townhomes that are present there today.

Photographer:
CNR photo, Paul O'Shell collection [404] (more) (contact)
Date: June 5, 1956 (search)
Railway: Canadian National (search)
Reporting Marks: n/a (search)
Train Symbol: n/a (search)
Subdivision/SNS: Danforth / Kingston Sub. (search)
City/Town: Toronto (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 41014

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

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3 Comments
  1. Thanks Paul, I enjoyed both the caption and the photo very much. :-)

  2. Real cool shot! I’m glad I was able to inspire you with my shot of the GO train. It’s sad but also really cool to learn about the history of this area, and how it ended up today. Cheers!

  3. Whats the connection with the Caso Sub? Well CN promised the City of St Thomas that if they supported the CN/CP aquisition of the Caso, they (CN) would move the work from Danforth to St. Thomas. The City endorsed CN’s bid and CN never did move any work to St Thomas and also shut down the Danforth shop.

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