Comments on: Well, I can safely say that today, no matter what price ticket you bought at the Rogers Centre, you’d never get a view like this ! Looking across an array of CN,VIA and even GO power, not to mention a bunch of steam generators, CN 6060 heads west towards Niagara Falls. The tailend of 6060′s train has just passed the John Street interlocking tower, which today hides flat-roofed under a pedestrian bridge. Indeed, more has changed than just the Toronto skyline.

By: robin lowrie

robin lowrie — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 21:00:38 +0000

I am going to say a treasonous thing to my home province….. but I think this locomotive should go back to Ontario. Alberta doesn’t have the population to support any type regular operation.

By: runeight

runeight — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 19:54:56 +0000

You got it Steve. I don’t think we realized how good we all had it.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 19:29:36 +0000

All this discussion makes me realize how much ‘fandom’ there seemed to be at the time – seems a glorious era for fans with tons of activities of all kinds…

All that and 6060 doing regular excursion to niagara on weekends:?????

By: railwayguy

railwayguy — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 18:28:02 +0000

Oh my gosh, I believe Chris and run8 are correct ! Although I can’t see the big green GO logo on the nose, I can vaguely see a small image just back of the number board, which would be the Ontario flag, and that was definitely not on the SR 6141. Also, on looking at my slides of 6141, the green side paint makes a curl around the number board – should have noticed the difference. Makes sense to keep the 6141 inside, don’t want anything taken off as a souvenir. My apologies.

By: runeight

runeight — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 17:56:57 +0000

Yes, that is a GO Transit APCU. The Southern 6141 was in the roundhouse.

By: Chris Furman

Chris Furman — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 17:23:39 +0000

Railwayguy, isnt that a GO Transit FP7?

By: railwayguy

railwayguy — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 16:49:16 +0000

Great picture Steve. Good for you for taking a longer distant picture, as not only the 6060 powered NRHS special interesting, but both the foreground and background are also very interesting. Looks to me that this picture was taken from the east side of the Spadina Ave bridge. One item that’s interesting to me is the white nosed F unit at the far right side of this picture. I don’t know if you included it intentionally, but I am glad it is in your picture. This F unit I believe is ex-Southern Railway FP7 number 6141 which was the lead unit (at least in Canada) on the NRHS Independence Limited, travelling all the way from Roanoke, Virginia via the N&W main line through Bluefield WVa., to Toledo, then the NKP to Cleveland to Buffalo, then NYC to Niagara Falls NY, and along CN Grimsby & Oakville Subs to Toronto. I had the good fortune to ride on this train in the restored Pullman 12-1 sleeper “Pearl River”. The Limited started in Alexandria VA powered by CPR Royal Hudson 2839 over the SR mainline to Lynchburg where we traded the 2839 for the FP7 “A” unit 6141, restored to SR green and white paint scheme, which pulled us to Roanoke. There, more cares were added along with N&W maroon coloured SD (?) 6175 for the climb to Bluefield. The special left Roanoke Sat July 12, 1980, at about 6pm and was scheduled to arrive late Sunday evening in Toronto, bringing attendees for the NRHS National convention starting the next day. However, the train got further and further behind schedule after leaving Roanoke, and so got to sleep a 2nd night in Pearl River, arriving in Toronto on Mon morning, July 14, twelve hours late. The SR 6141 was parked at Spadina Roundhouse all week long during the convention, and I think it was the only time a Southern Railway F unit visited Spadina, The 6060 was again the power with a CN MLW FPA on the Convention’s wind-up trip around Lake Simcoe. Thank you for sharing this picture.

By: First954

First954 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 15:09:29 +0000

No, the steam generator cars were all built new. These all appear to have been built by General Motors. Others steam generator cars were built by CC&F and NSC.

By: PRR5406

PRR5406 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:33:09 +0000

Were the steam generators built from older, retired equipment?

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 03:19:20 +0000

Glad you stood back for this one Steve – great effort.