Images by mrdanno4050

MrDan — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:22:16 +0000

the diamond with the ex-CP OBRY Owen Sound Spur just west of Brampton Station and "Beating the GO Rush" before the first Georgetown-line GO train shows up around 5pm.

At the time the downtown Brampton area of the Halton Sub had a bit of a vegetation overgrowth problem (much to the detriment of photographers), that would later be fixed when CN dug up the area to upgrade the signals around the diamond, and began clearing land to double- and triple-track parts of the Halton Sub through Brampton during the next year. The building in the background used to be an old Pease Swift foundry many years ago (with a siding off CP), before its current use as a self-storage facility. The OBRY would discontinue all operations in December 2021, and the end finally came for the old Brampton diamond when it was ripped out in July 2024. Hard to believe there was once even an interlocking tower here controlling traffic until 1958!' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	08/21/2006
Location:	Brampton
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 6 Favourites

Those 4300 horsepower SD9043MAC units were built with 710G engines as "convertible" units, to be re-engined and converted to 6000 horsepower when EMD's new 4-cycle 265H engine was ready. The process however was more complicated than originally thought (and CP's four H-engine'd 9300's did not perform to impress) so none were ever converted. The SD70ACu rebuilt program later came along as a more practical solution to the SD90MAC's problems.

5560 was one of those wreck replacement units included in CP's many SD40-2 orders, built new to replace units Ogden couldn't pull out of the shop's scratch and dent bin to fix. As per notes by the late Bruce Chapman, the original SD40 5560 was wrecked in a grade crossing accident with a government motor grader in Saskatchewan in April 1980, and the government of Saskatchewan paid to "fix it", which ultimately resulted in CP ordering a new Dash-2 replacement unit in their next SD40-2 order and numbering it in its place as CP 5560(:2). The old 5560 remains were scrapped at Angus Shops the same year in 1981.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	09/15/2007
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 17 Favourites

They're passing Ryerson University's (they hate it when you call it that) Ted Rogers School of Management, the crown jewel of Rye's High's Faculty of Business built in 2005-06 on the site of a former Eaton Centre parking garage at Bay and Dundas, and replacing the old and mediocre Victoria building that was previously used by the business school (I've heard the stories from classmates...just a generally outdated building equivalent to attending a high school, nothing like poaching rats in the basement for extra credit or anything).

Open for business* in the fall of 2006, bragging rights at the time were that Ryerson finally had a proper "Business School on Bay Street" to compete with the likes of UofT's Rotman School of Management and York U's Schulich (I did attend there once - to use the washrooms, it was nice). For the first two years or so the new facility operated as the Ryerson Business Building (RBB), until a wheelbarrel full of cash rolling down Bay Street tipped over in front of it, and then it became the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) in 2008 or so. It shared the building with commercial retail on the ground level including Canadian Tire, Best Buy, and Mark's Work Warehouse (a good source of soldering irons and golf shirts for those Bay Street finance interviews down the street), and has since remained the TRSM after the TEMU U rebrand. Most of their reviews on the Goog' are positive, so they must be doing something right.

*Pun intended.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	10/28/2011
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 8 Favourites

riding in the back of GO Transit cab car 201 on late morning train #252 (Georgetown line, Bramalea-Union), we've just rattled over the crossover switch between CN's Weston Sub mainline tracks and over the steel girder bridge span over busy Queen Street West at CN Parkdale, click-clacking down the stick rail on the home stretch to Toronto Union Station downtown. We're on the south mainline track, with the north mainline visible to the right, along with the start of the CN Newmarket Sub (GO Barrie-line trains) branching off at the switch by the sign. The "last minute" crossover track here let Barrie-line GO trains use the south track of the Weston Sub to/from Parkdale.

On the left are CP's two Galt Sub mainline tracks (GO Milton line), that at the time were completely separate all the way to West Toronto and weren't connected with the Weston Sub at all. This location has the mileboard for "CP Dundas" (after Dundas Street, further north at Mile 3.5 CP Galt Sub) however this location itself was still known as CP Parkdale in official timetables (Mile 2.3), but with nothing to really here of importance to note anymore. There was a really old wooden relic of a CP Parkdale sign that used to be around Lansdowne Ave in the distance, with a modern sign lazily nailed over it. Hopefully it went to a good home when Metrolinx removed it.

How the mighty have fallen: this part of Toronto was once home to not one but two decent-sized railway stations (CN and CP Parkdale, both demolished), small and medium-sized yards and associated facilities for both railways (all removed), and lots of industrial sidings and spurs for local factories and industries around Parkdale and Liberty Village (all gone). Parkdale railway-wise in 2007 had been reduced to just an interlocking plant where the Newmarket Sub (Mile 2.4) split off from the Weston Sub (Mile 2.5), a far cry from the days of Stompin' Tom Conners hanging out on the platforms..

Around 2008, the (Metrolinx/CN) Parkdale interlocking was moved north closer to Lansdowne underpass to facilitate rebuilding the underpasses and Duffern Street, in order to eliminate the "Dufferin Jog" at Queen Street (continuing Dufferin Street below the rail bridges instead of its previous disjointed alignment). New modern signals went in replacing the old ones, some track realignments took place around this time with the unused spans to keep rail traffic flowing as the bridge spans were rebuilt or reconditioned, and several new spans added. More recent track diagrams now show Metrolinx has a total of 8 bridge spans here: 4 for active mainline tracks (x1 Galt Sub, x3 Weston Sub) as well as 4 extra spans for future track additions as-needed (x2 for future planned extensions of the Newmarket Sub, x2 for adding extra Weston or Galt Sub mainline tracks back).' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	GO Transit
Date:	11/26/2007
Location:	Toronto (Parkdale)
Province:	Ontario

8 Comments | 15 Favourites

Church Street, and beyond that the towering Eaton Centre shopping mall and office tower at Yonge Street. The brown building in the middle is the Bond Place Hotel.

But the real attraction here (in a matter of speaking) is the Warwick Hotel, another one of those seedy establishments of ill-repute in the general Yonge-Dundas area of Toronto. "Star Strip Revue", "Stripperrama", and "Nude Girls" advertise the kind of entertainment one may expect to witness inside, as well as rooms charging a $7 per person rate, rather than per hour. Other photos show retail shops sharing space on the ground level of the hotel included Lisa Variety at the corner, and some place called the "Nut Nest" (a nut shop, selling nuts). Aptly named.

Research shows the Warwick Hotel was originally built as a hotel known as the Royal Cecil Apartments, owned by James Franceschini, an Italian immigrant who originally came to Canada from the old country before the war with no money and no English, but who picked up a pickaxe and went on to found and grow the Dufferin Construction empire. The Royal Cecil was originally just a hotel, and featured dance bands during the 1940/50's, but changed to its later questionable offerings by the 60's. City of Toronto Archives photos show the wrecking ball would come knocking on the Warwick in a few years, brought to the ground by Teperman Wrecking during 1980-81. The site would become home to a rather uneventful parking lot for many years to follow.

Roger Jenkins photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Roger Jenkins photo…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	Circa September 1978
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

4 Comments | 7 Favourites

Dundas West Subway Station (just to the north) to begin its trip eastbound on the Dundas route across the city to Broadview Station.

It's passing one of the tall towers of The Crossways Mall, built in the mid-late 1970's on the old Canada Bread factory site as two apartment towers with commercial/retail on the bottom level. Having visited myself in 2005-2006, it still looked straight out of the 70's in there, sort of a place stuck in time like the old Dufferin Mall, with that raw brick wall look inside popular with old shopping malls of the day, plenty of orange and brown earth tones, the usual use of the Bookman JF font, and large glass ball light fixtures mounted on the walls that gave off much less light than was needed. The commercial space has since been renovated and upgraded for the better inside, although online reviews aren't kind about the apartments...

Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Unknown, Dan Dell'U…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	10/09/1979
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 6 Favourites

seen from the back of GO cab car 201 on morning train #252 (Georgetown line, Bramalea-Union) as it clickity-clacks down the jointed stick-rail CN Weston Sub after making its station stop to detrain a lone passenger or two. This whole area was a bit of a sleepy place rail-wise in the afternoons, as aside from the odd VIA and afternoon Union-Bramalea GO trains, no freight ran on either line (all the action was in the distance by the signals around the CN-CP West Toronto diamond). The neat element here is CP's "West Toronto" mileboard sign for the Galt Sub that runs parallel on the left, although at the time it was mostly just Milton-line GO trains using it (the Strachan to West Toronto section may have already been purchased by GO some years prior).

The orange building on the left is The Crossways Mall complex, then still a relic of the 70's inside (raw brick décor, large round glass light fixtures and earth tone tiles). Behind that is the old Ideal Aluminum building off Dundas Street West, and the Wallace Avenue pedestrian bridge spanning the rail corridor from Dundas to Ernest Avenue. Some other office or apartment complex is on the right off Perth. The picturesque G. Solway & Sons scrapyard is hidden behind it but was still a going concern near the station (hard to miss the giant piles of scrap metal from the GO train every day). There was yet no West Toronto Railpath on the right, at the time CP's former TG&B line (the "Bruce Service Track", aka the S-Yard Lead) had long been abandoned and removed, as were the dual CN-CP interchange tracks just north of the station (although ties remained in the ground).

The amenities were sparse at Bloor GO Station: both brick-enclosed open entrances to the platforms were accessed off stairways roughed into the Bloor Street West railway underpass wall, between the bridge spans. The east side platforms were the most used (lots of people did the short jog along Bloor from nearby Dundas West Subway Station and boarded westbounds home here) so it got the corrugated square station shack that was perennially never open, and multiple shelters. The west side platforms were sparse except for a pair of shelters (and a payphone!). One wonders why they never added an extra platform here for the Milton-line trains. Substantial station upgrades have since been made here for improved GO and UPX service, and a direct TTC subway-GO train connection is finally happening.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	GO Transit
Date:	11/26/2007
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 11 Favourites

It's hard to place this shot, but it appears to be just south of King Street grade crossing, north of GO/CN's Weston Station. CP's Weston Station was once just to the south at John Street, the town of Weston had wanted to save it but CP demolished it in 1974, apparently despite a stop-work order issued (sound familiar?). The tracks through this corridor of Weston at the time included the two CP MacTier Sub mainlines, a CN-CP interchange track just in front of the caboose, a CN customs/bond/team/service track in the foreground, and CN's Weston Sub mainline along with a passing siding (both would be in the foreground at the bottom of this photo, out of frame). In the 1960's, the switch off CN to the interchange was at CN "Moffat" (named after the nearby stove company), at Mile 8.8 Weston Sub (just north of Weston, Mile 8.6), but by the 70's that name and reference had been eliminated from timetables.

Mike Bannon photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Mike Bannon photo, …
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	06/11/1977
Location:	Toronto (Weston)
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 11 Favourites

three rebuilt SD40 units (CN 6020, 6016 & WC 6944) are working hard moving #399 past Airport Road overpass and bearing down on the crossing at CN Torbram, giving us just enough time before the bells and lights go off to cross over to the other side for a wider shot. The hum of the nearby switch heaters, offering no warmth to us, were keeping the switch for the western Brampton Intermodal Terminal lead at Torbram warm (note the small storage yard along the lead, off to the left). This was all a side-trip while waiting out the yard set with the GMD-1 inside BIT to get back to work around the Highway 7 overpass.

CN Torbram was at one point a great spot to shoot from and easily accessible from the Torbram Road grade crossing (name likely from TORonto Gore + BRAMalea), until CN turned it into an underpass during 2015-2019. Malport Yard (MALton + airPORT) was once an all-freight yard, but in recent years was closed down, most of the tracks removed, and rebuilt to handle overflow intermodal traffic from BIT (with improved security measures to keep photographers away).

At the time local job #578 was based out of Malport (4102 & 4135 in the yard on this day), which switched the Bramalea area industries including the Torbram Industrial Lead, and I think also for a #579 that switched the Weston Sub at night, with #577 dropping and lifting traffic for both from Mac Yard. Then there was CN #559 from MacMillan Yard that handled the Brampton customers and as far west as the Dixie Cup Spur (that may have been covered by #578 before, the specifics are a bit hazy).' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	11/24/2007
Location:	Brampton
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 13 Favourites

Since unrebuilt 219 didn't yet have a full cab, it became our chariot of choice for the ride downtown: standing in the A-end doorway shooting out the rear window for part/most of the trip (back when one could still do that sort of fun thing).' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	GO Transit
Date:	08/05/2008
Location:	Brampton (Bramalea…
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 12 Favourites

Some stuff here remains in service today, some has since been dispersed to museums, tourist railways or scrapped, and others are on borrowed time due to Siemens trainsets and recent announcements for more new power and equipment for VIA. The ironic part is, the five RDC's (since dispersed between the VIA Historical Society and Waterloo Central) and maybe the Budd HEP cars will probably outlive almost everything else.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	08/05/2008
Location:	Toronto (Mimico)
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 13 Favourites

CN #559 (finished from switching Georgia-Pacific) backing past and slipping into the clear at Peel about 10 minutes before. Shooting anything off the pedestrian bridge here, you had to keep your ears peeled and know when something was coming in order to time the shot correctly, since there was no visibility down either side of the line. The regular GO trains with a schedule committed to memory made things a bit easier.

For some very not smart reason lost to time, the old town of Brampton (downtown) was built OVER the Etobicoke Creek, with the original alignment following Main Street winding south underneath some of the buildings downtown. This caused many seasonal flooding issues, including very significant flooding of the entire downtown area in March 1948 (see olde-timey documentary here, 10:32 shows this exact spot). After this, Brampton had enough of decades of mother nature casually trying flood it out of existence. A new concrete diversion channel was built to the east to divert the creek alignment out of and around the downtown area, running from Vodden Street to here, just south of a new CN bridge. At the time of this photo, the bridge was part of the single-track "gauntlet" between Brampton East and Peel, but CN would soon add another span here in 2006-2007 on the north side in order to double-track the line all the way through.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	GO Transit
Date:	08/21/2006
Location:	Brampton
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 7 Favourites

Woodbine East along the Weston Sub: CN Woodbine West, Mile 14.1 CN Weston Sub. Our view is trailing eastbound aboard GO cab car 241 on train #260 (Bramalea-Georgetown) after making our stop at Malton GO station, hidden by the approaching train. CN #577 with sister GP40-2LW units 9411-9410 is about to crest the grade on the north service track and will follow us downhill, enroute to West Toronto to interchange traffic with CP. In the distance one can see the Highway 407 overpass at Halwest, and faintly the Owens Illinois glass plant in Brampton.

The siding on the right is for the Home Depot's Malton lumber distribution facility (receiving boxcars and centre beam flatcars). The switch to the left was the old American Can Lead that lead into the Northwest Dr industrial area, serving customers in the business park that once included IGA, American Can and Kuehne & Nagel (Brenntag Canada was the last active customer before removal). Fairmont Motor Company even had a warehouse and siding at 6320 Northwest Dr. This area of Malton also used to be home to a variety of aircraft manufacturing facilties, including the large McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing Malton plant at Airport & Derry (of Avro Arrow fame), Orenda Engines, and DeHavilland (now the International Centre), all of which used to receive rail service from various sidings off the Weston Sub.

The tracks here have since been upgraded, and the signal bridges replaced. Most of the old sidings and spurs have been pulled up, with the only remaining customer being Home Depot.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	01/11/2008
Location:	Mississauga (Malto…
Province:	Ontario

7 Comments | 14 Favourites

Can't win 'em all: this Caterpillar M318 mobile excavator with hi-rail equipment was doing some track maintenance along the Orangeville-Brampton Railway in Brampton with its brush-cutter head attachment, seen making its way south/west between McMurchy and McLaughlin (approaching McLaughlin grade crossing) leaving a somewhat more cut-back right-of-way in its wake (still better than anything you'll see on the OBRY today, thanks to Orangeville city council...).' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Orangeville-Brampt…
Date:	08/07/2008
Location:	Brampton
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 12 Favourites

The consist for the evening was VIA 919, 4004, 4118, 4122, 4116, and 4121. Hard to believe those 1940-50's Budd stainless steel cars might outlive the entire P42 fleet...' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	09/17/2007
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 13 Favourites

yet again, riding the rear end of GO Transit cab car 237 on train #252 (Bramalea-Union), having just jolted through the crossover switches at CN Woodbine East, Mile 12.5 CN Weston Sub, through the dip between Malton GO station in the far distance (by Woodbine West) and Etobicoke North GO station (by the former CN Rexdale). We're galloping east on the mainline track, with the north and south service tracks on either side (the odd time we would pass a CN #577 along this stretch). On the left, you can see one of those old classic wooden CN phone boxes mounted on a pole, probably a relic from the 60's or 70's.

This was a good, quick stretch with one single grade crossing at Carlingview Drive (note pickup truck in distance and grade crossing gates) leading to Entrance Road that looped around Woodbine Racetrack (out of frame to right). That row of tall trees along Entrance Road by the tracks was a nice place for people to pull off and park under during the day. Passing by, I often wondered what all the individuals in their cars were doing there, possibly taking an afternoon nap, enjoying lunch, or engaging in other activities that involved discreetness and a quiet place (like enjoying a good book, of course).

There were a few spurs and sidings to nearby customers in the Attwell/Disco Road area, that once included IPEX (pipe), Canron's old Toronto eastern structural plant (involved in CN Tower construction, originally Disher Steel Co. hence "DISCO" Road), Westeel Rosco, some paper companies, but not including the Gazzola Brothers asphalt plant on the left. There were also a pair of runarounds/sidings just past Carlingview near Highway 427 to handle the local traffic, that would also see wing gondolas from the nearby McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing Malton plant sometimes. Refer to this nice 1971 aerial and this 1991 aerial for some industrial goodness.

Since the purchase of the Weston Sub by GO/Metrolinx in 2009, this stretch has since been upgraded with 4 mainline tracks, the interlocking plant rebuilt to the west for the Pearson Spur and renamed Wice, all the local sidings and runaround removed, and Carlingview Drive grade-separated. This exact spot near Highway 27 will be home to the new Woodbine GO Station in the future.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	GO Transit
Date:	09/17/2007
Location:	Toronto (Etobicoke…
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 14 Favourites

This unit was originally part of VIA "J-Train" #40-52's consist. Every day, a spare F40PH would couple up to the rear of that combined train to lead it from the TMC to Aldershot, then the train would change directions and run in service from Aldershot (6:00am) to Toronto Union Station (arriving 6:35am) with the F40 in tow, where it would make its station stop and drop this unit off the tail end before departing (6:55am) east out of Union and on to Brockville (doing the split for Ottawa/Montreal there). That train was an early morning arrival/departure into Union that I never caught arriving (and caught departing only once), but I did catch their stray F40.

Another one of those morning eccentricities to look forward to at Bathurst Street, this thing would show up sometime before the height of morning rush hour, going against all the inbound traffic to make it back upstream to the TMC in Mimico. It was on the morning "hit list", but would usually depart Union around 7:30am so the lighting wasn't the best (and it couldn't be shot well in the darker months). Not entirely sure if VIA continues with this practice today, and not entirely sure how many people actually shot this early move, but a solo F40 passing through every morning was an odd sight.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	04/25/2008
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 13 Favourites

6000-6028).

This clear wide-open shot wasn't possible before (and isn't now) as most of the foreground was previously overgrown with heavy brush, bordered by a chain link fence. It was all bulldozed clear for construction of a second (south) Brampton Station platform on this side of the tracks. Half of Railroad Street, that we're standing on, had also been closed off to traffic for the work. Today, new platform shelters and brush block this shot once more.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	06/17/2008
Location:	Brampton
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 15 Favourites

Mount Pleasant, drops a bit for the Credit River, climbs again to almost 900 feet by Georgetown, and rises to 1200 feet for the grade through Limehouse/Acton.

It was always nice to get "Canadian" leader RLK 4096, which was originally one of the 15 GP40 units built for CN as 4006/9306.' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Goderich-Exeter
Date:	11/06/2006
Location:	Brampton (Bramalea…
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 14 Favourites

In the distance are more goodies that have passed minutes earlier: Ontario Northland GP38-2 1802 with F-unit generator car 204 and four single-level Hawkers advancing on Union Station for the regular morning "Northlander" train #697, following right behind the nose of VIA F40PH-2 6417 with three HEP cars on #85's equipment move, backing to Union Station from the TMC a few hours before its late-morning departure. We shot all that stuff inbound on the other side of the bridge, and with little time to spare, quickly jaywalked morning traffic to line up our shot of The Maple Leaf departing.

Also worth noting is part of York Excavating (now York 1)'s fleet of old "yellow iron" Caterpillar 225, 235 and 245 excavators working on the CityPlace condo development, built on the vacant "railway lands" (former CN Spadina Coachyard). A couple more condos have since been added to the view here...' height='150' width='200' />

Name:	Dan Dell'Unto
Railway:	Amtrak
Date:	03/07/2008
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 17 Favourites

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