Caption: Here's a location that Steve had mentioned liking to patronize, and the "oeuf" mentioned CP crews on the downtown portlands switching job used to stop at Union to visit: the Harvey's restaurant located in Toronto Union Station's Great Hall. This photo was taken on a special GHRA private tour of John Street Roundhouse (pre-museum) and the closed-to-the-public areas of Toronto Union Station including the vacant upper levels (before GO/Metrolinx renovated them and moved in), guided by the late Toronto railway historian Derek Boles. Note the vacant 2nd level corridor above the restaurant (used as railway office space before CN and CP moved out), and 3rd floor walkway above (just a narrow walkway with a very old glass floor, like the ones on this side above the main entrances).

The Harvey's restaurant chain was owned by Cara Operations Ltd, originally the Canadian Railway News Co. (that ran those CARA news kiosks in railway stations like Union, and later became the owner of the Swiss Chalet and Harvey's franchises). According to Derek, the Toronto Terminals Railway contracted out operations of Union Station's restaurant, lunch room and two newstands to the Canadian Railway News Co. in 1956, which some speculate may have eventually lead to this location later becoming a Harvey's. Incidentally, the location of the aforementioned restaurant was the old "Oak Room" at the west end of the west waiting wing, that was demolished for the Skywalk entrance from Union, and the lunch room was the "Maple Room" (as the York Pioneer Restaurant in the 70's) in that same area, now the site of the VIA Business Lounge. This area in the Great Hall operated as a coffee shop in the 70's before becoming a Harvey's at some point in time.

This photo may have broader appeal than just the railfan community, as it was one of those places frequented by many that was always there until it wasn't, that nobody (well, almost nobody) bothered taking a photo of to document its existence until it was too late. It was always good for grabbing a quick bite to eat with friends (as was the case on this day during lunch, with some fellow RP.ca contributors) or grabbing something to eat on the cab car ride home. And just like that, it was closed in early 2011 during the Union Station renovations in order to replace the location with an escalator to the concourse below.

If you watch the end of "The Silver Streak" when the train was a runaway, this spot (as "The Coffee Shop", pre-Harveys) was the first restaurant location the train dispatcher ran into to look for the trainmaster. The Oak Room restaurant nearby was the second. You can also see the train crashing through the CARA news kiosk, that I remember was still at that exact same location in 2000 with the same sign, but was gone by 2005.

Other fun facts about that area of Union was the original barber shop closing in early 2012 (also due to renovations), whose barber Bruno Villanova cut hair there for nearly 51 years - he was originally hired at Union Station not long after he came off the boat from Italy in 1961! The men's washrooms right next to it were also used to film the (politically incorrect) "blackface" scenes when Gene Wilder and Richard Prior procured some shoe polish in order to get back on The Silver Streak ("What do we want with shoe polish?!" "Just pay the man!!!"). Many a happy moment was spent in there by commuters over the years, and many not-so-happy moments by overly inebriated sports fans from the Skydome waiting for their evening GO trains home.