Caption: Another for the train station fans: the old GTR/CNR Brampton Station, taken from along Railroad Street looking at the platform view on a sunny afternoon. The brush wasn't as heavy that summer, affording a fairly clean shot compared to years past when the bushes and brush blocked the entire station view here. Back in 2002-2004 when I used to walk along Railroad Street from the bus terminal (the 9 Vodden was always good for a GM fishbowl ride downtown) to patronize The Little Train Shoppe nearby, the overgrowth was so bad it was hard to tell there was even a train station here, and I never bothered visiting it. But, I did note down things like the Amtrak/VIA International, and the GEXR with leased CN GP40-2LW's, even if the film camera was not at the ready.

This was the second Grand Trunk Brampton Station, built in 1907 as a replacement for the first when the fine growing farming and flower town of Brampton demanded increased train service from GTR, and a more modern station building. It has managed to stand the test of time through the GTR/CNR era (at the time of this photo, it would have been 100 years old) and now serves as the local downtown GO Transit/VIA Rail station.

At one point there were plans to build an entire Ryerson University medical school in the parking lot right next to the station, in the much-toted "Brampton Innovation District", but city council eventually gave them the old Bramalea Civic Centre (much to the ire of longtime Bramalea residents, and giving up Bramalea's newly renovated public library in the process), and the station area was spared that indignity. It looks about the same today, like a classic train station should, with an extra platform shelter or two blocking this view in the foreground.

A 1981 view by Bill Thomson: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=22176