By: railwayguy

railwayguy — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:38:14 +0000

Great picture sdfourty, wonderful colour, and love your notation of the bridge tender’s row boat tied up at the west concrete abutment of the manually operated swing bridge. This is a very familiar scene for me, having travelled numerous times under this bridge (my beloved 1972 20’ Grew 165hp inboard-outboard “Clivea”) and over the bridge on various steam powered and diesel hauled CNR passenger trains trains, ONR TEE trains (like the nb one in your picture), VIA’s Canadian and UCRS 6167 and 6218 powered excursion trains. Simple manual technology at its best, semaphore bridge signals controlled from the bridge tender’s tower just out of sight on the left (west end of bridge), manual powered row boat to get to the bridge, and pushing circular rotation of large V-shaped metal bar in between the rails in dead centre of the bridge to crank it open. Even though the bridge was well balanced, it was still an effort to swing the bridge. Did stop at the Esso marine gas dock in the foreground a few times, and because my boat had low clearance, could travel under the bridge (duck your head) and didn’t have to wait for the bridge to open. What can’t be seen is the few remnants of the old CPR bridge to the north of this bridge for CPR’s line from Orillia to Lindsay, long abandoned before this picture was taken. Today, the bridge and boats are still there, but the TEE, bridge tower, rails approaching the bridge are long gone – wonder what happened to the row boat ! Thanks to Mr. Danko for capturing this view, and to you sdfourty for posting – much appreciated ! John

By: Jacob Estrin

Jacob Estrin — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:16:17 +0000

Beautiful, Orillia has some very nice scenic locations!

By: mile27

mile27 — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:07:18 +0000

Neat scene.

By: Carson McGinness

Carson McGinness — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 03:40:59 +0000

Awesome shot!