Comments on: The CN engineer in charge of GO Transit cab car 242 keeps her speed down and the bell ringing as we pass by the TTR’s John Street Interlocking Tower, having just departed Toronto Union Station on train #257 (one of the afternoon Toronto-Bramalea “Bramalea Flip” trains, this one departing at 11:30am off Track 1, on-time). The click-click-click of the throttle would soon bring the train up to a slightly faster departing the USRC at Strachan Ave. Back in 2005-ish there were no new cab cars (that have an enclosed cab and no see-through windows for passengers to watch out the front), little security concerns, and the cab car door was open more often than not. It was fun sitting there looking out the front “railfan seat” window the whole trip, while glancing across and watching the speedometer hover around 80 miles-an-hour (about 130 km/h) on the stretch past Woodbine Racetrack between Etobicoke North and Malton, and after Malton on the approach to Halwest, with bell ringing for any crossings and the wind whistling through the engineers’ open cab window. IIRC, the beginning of the end of the GO cab car “railfan seat” was in the late 2000′s or early 2010′s when GO switched to having two crewmembers in the cab, and started installing pull-down blinds on the conductor’s side of the cab partition because of this. http://www.railpictures.ca The BEST Canadian photos on the Internet, eh? Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:07:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Driver8666 http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=59570#comment-69550 Driver8666 Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:45:21 +0000 http://www.railpictures.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/02841exjs-GO-242-527-on-257-interior-cab-car-view-passing-TTR-John-St.-Tower-1133am-copyr-shrp67.jpg#comment-69550 Back in the 90's especially on the Hawkers (might have also been on the Can-Cars), which had the rope for a whistle (Phil Hall or Mike DaCosta can correct me on this one) you also had this little warning: "Smoking Material Must Not Be Thrown From Rolling Stock Equipment". Also back then the cab door was wide open on those trains (at least the ones I was on), even when it wasn't leading. Engineers driving from the cab car end were extremely kind as well. The speedometer was this small little thing on the left console (it was 1/4 the size of an Apple Ultra Watch on it's face). But the experience? Yeah, you never forget that. Back in the 90′s especially on the Hawkers (might have also been on the Can-Cars), which had the rope for a whistle (Phil Hall or Mike DaCosta can correct me on this one) you also had this little warning:

“Smoking Material Must Not Be Thrown From Rolling Stock Equipment”.

Also back then the cab door was wide open on those trains (at least the ones I was on), even when it wasn’t leading. Engineers driving from the cab car end were extremely kind as well. The speedometer was this small little thing on the left console (it was 1/4 the size of an Apple Ultra Watch on it’s face).

But the experience? Yeah, you never forget that.

]]> By: Eric May http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=59570#comment-69538 Eric May Sun, 19 Jul 2026 23:32:45 +0000 http://www.railpictures.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/02841exjs-GO-242-527-on-257-interior-cab-car-view-passing-TTR-John-St.-Tower-1133am-copyr-shrp67.jpg#comment-69538 The single level cars were great for this type of experience. The single level cars were great for this type of experience.

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