Caption: Afternoon layover at GO Transit's Don Yard east of Union Station shows multiple 10- and 12-car train consists awaiting their call to PM rush hour service in a few hours. Cab cars visible from left to right are 216, 202(?), 2??, 236, 206(?), 250, 209, 251, 204, and 237, with various MP40 and F59 units on the other ends.

Don Yard used to be an old CN freight yard for the longest time, dating back to the steam era, until it was taken over by GO Transit around 2006-07 and converted to store GO trains on layover (like Bathurst North Yard years earlier). The track running along the bottom of the retaining wall was the spur from the Union Station Rail Corridor to the Toronto Harbour Commission trackage in the Toronto portlands (Eastern Harbour Terminals) including Keating Yard at the foot of the Don Roadway, the Toronto Port Authority, the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, and to the old Wilson Yard (a small storage yard just south of Don Yard). All of that trackage has since been removed after rail service to the portlands was discontinued (last run in 2018).

The CN Bala Sub can be seen curving up the Don Valley to the north off the USRC (above the leftmost cab car), and the CN Kingston Sub curving off in the distance beyond the signal bridge. The large building on the right with the water tower is the old Lever Brothers/Unilever/Korex soap plant (once had rail service, but recently closed for good in August 2009 after the company declared bankruptcy during to a labour disruption that started in 2008). The two old red buildings beyond that are from the old Consumers Gas Station B coal gas manufacturing facility that was once around Eastern Ave & Booth (they once had multiple sidings and rail service too). Some apartments in East York are visible in the distance above the foliage canopy (possibly around Victoria Park/Dawes Rd).

This was a rather difficult shot to get at the time, as in 2009 we weren't blessed with the abundance of cheap commercially available drones, there were no condos, bridges or overpasses nearby to shoot from, stopping here in a lane of speeding traffic was not advised, and you couldn't exactly walk up the side of the Gardiner Expressway to this spot without quickly being branded a looney and getting a wellness visit from a few Crown Vics ("Yes officer, I'll come down peacefully, I just need to shoot the GO trains in the train yard first"). The side barriers and guardrails also blocked this view from most cars. But a ride bouncing around at the back of a GO D4500 commuter coach on the Barrie-King City-Vaughan run (that only went down the Don Valley on certain days, at certain times, depending on certain operators) gave just enough elevation to snap a photo looking backwards and get all of Don Yard in view. I remember sending it to the late Ray Kennedy (OldTimeTrains) at the time, and he seemed quite impressed I was able to get a shot of the new GO yard from this angle.