Comments on: And a photo that has aged well – many of these things are no longer possible – GP9′s on CP? Nope. The frame train? Gone. That building at left – gone. Question is – what was it? It is clearly a railroad structure and quite old at that.. I’d bet it dates to the Credit Valley Railway though! Sometimes it’s best to hold onto your shots – in time they do age and eventually, your ‘dreary crummy day shot’ can turn into gold if you wait long enough. In this photo, this is Train 141, the daily frame train – which is now on the St. Thomas Sub headed for St. Thomas. The frame train was an interesting thing – in 1997/8 CP put the St. Thomas sub on the block due to lack of traffic, but in 1999 they won a contract from GM to run frames from Formet (Magna) in St. Thomas to the GM Truck plant in Oshawa. CP had to become creative – as in doing this, two crews would be required due to crossing terminals (from London Division to Toronto Division) and an exception was granted by the Union to allow a single crew to man the train – which was the London Division that crewed it. The train ran seven days a week and was very predictable – it was one of the hottest trains on the line. Due to this, crews loved the train as you were working basically, days, home at regular times, and in order to hold this job, you basically needed to be top of the seniority list. Jeff Willsie was one of the men that held this job. Only until this frame traffic dwindled did CP re-activate the shortline plans – bringing us to OSR’s operation today. Also interesting, around this time, in the event of major derailments on the CP or CN – this connecting track would be used to detour trains back to/from CN or CP – anyone shoot re-routes here? I never did! So youngins – your lesson is things change – and fast. This is only 10 years ago. :) Get your shots, things will continue to change as they always have :)

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 04:05:41 +0000

The building was used to store Roadmaster Russ Cain’s motorcar. Between the track & the pavement there was a track known as “the chips siding”. We used to put the odd OCS car in there, and on the 1830 roadswitcherwe’d park the 6589 in ‘the chips’ and shuffle across the street to the Chuckwagon’ restaurant, hopefully still in business when COVID settles down. Ray, the scales were east of here, this shot is closer to Governor’s road (Hwy 2).

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:50:21 +0000

I like marination… when it comes to Steaks

This is one of the things I chose to shoot cause it spoke to me – I enjoy old structures. I kind of wish I did it on a sunny day though!

By: trainsrocks147

trainsrocks147 — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:45:38 +0000

Wow, great shot. I wish more structures would have survived. Great marination Steve

By: BradKetchen

BradKetchen — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 12:16:30 +0000

Love the detailed information Steve!

By: RLK2211

RLK2211 — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 16:35:45 +0000

I think that’s actually the old scale house, there was once a track right beside the main at that location.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 23:16:25 +0000

Thanks. Note: Photo taken with 50mm 1/8 at 3:30 PM.

By: Mike Lockwood

Mike Lockwood — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 17:46:44 +0000

Looks like the structure was for the section crew… looks like they stored their speeder in there.

Hey, at least the track is still in place.