Caption: When one thinks of John Street they think of CP's famed roundhouse, that maintained CP's fleet of steam and diesel passenger power, RDC's and in later years vintage Alco/MLW switchers until it closed in the mid-80's. But there were also other facilities on site at John Street: here's a rare look inside CP's 3-track John Street car shops building, located near the roundhouse just south of the CN tower, and used to maintain CP's fleet of passenger cars operating on trains out of downtown Toronto since it was constructed in the late 1920's for steam-era operations.

Three stainless steel Budd-built passenger cars used on The Canadian are in for work, including a "Park" series observation-dome-lounge car (likely Sibley Park). By this time in the mid-70's, service cuts and rationalization of CP's passenger network left few passenger trains to maintain out of Toronto. Trains #11/#12, the Toronto-Sudbury sections of "The Canadian" still called John Street home, along with the Peterborough and Buffalo Budd RDC runs. CP also operated piggyback ramps out of its John Street yards downtown starting in the 50's, and the carshops were also utilized to service CP's fleet of 50xxxx-series piggyback flatcars, like the one on the right and another barely visible on the left.

Down the middle between two tracks, passenger car wheelsets equipped with Budd's disc brakes and patented "Rolokron" anti-slip skid system are lined up in the rail indents between tracks below the 15-ton Northern overhead crane, ready for any change-outs. Truck springs of various sizes line the floor nearby, and a pile of brakeshoes can be seen further down.

From what I gather, what little passenger car servicing that remained here after VIA took over in 1978 was moved to VIA's ex-CN Spadina Coachyard at some point in the early-mid 80's (stainless steel ex-CP cars started appearing there before VIA's move to the TMC), and the car shops continued to be in use servicing freight equipment like piggyback and container flatcars (most piggyback operations had been moved to Obico, but nearby Parkdale Yard had been converted into a container handling facility) and storing work cars until John Street was shut down in July of 1986. The roundhouse was donated to the city by CP, but the car shops building was eventually demolished in the following years.

Bernie Smith photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide (from what I gather, that's Bernie's son in the photo, who made a few appearances in his photos).