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Here's an aerial view of the downtown Toronto railway lands taken from the Bank of Commerce building's observation deck in September 1964. Visible in the foreground is Toronto's Union Station on Front Street, opposite the CPR's famed Royal York Hotel.

Behind the station's train sheds are CPR's John Street coachyards, roundhouse and servicing facilities for both locomotives and passenger cars (CN's Spadina facilities are out of frame to the right). A switcher is visible moving around stainless steel Budd equipment for The Canadian, amid plenty of heavyweight and lightweight steel coaches in the yard. A pair of F-units can be seen on the servicing tracks near the roundhouse by the old coal tower, along with a pair of Budd RDC cars ("Dayliners" in CP parlance).

Nearby is the Toronto Terminals Railway Central Heating Plant (which supplied steam heating to downtown buildings including Union Station, the Royal York, and CP's John Street facilities). Along the harbourfront are buildings for Yardley's (perfumes), the Terminal Warehouse, grain elevators, and various piers. The Toronto Island airport is off in the upper right.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Bill Thomson all rights reserved.



Caption: Here's an aerial view of the downtown Toronto railway lands taken from the Bank of Commerce building's observation deck in September 1964. Visible in the foreground is Toronto's Union Station on Front Street, opposite the CPR's famed Royal York Hotel.

Behind the station's train sheds are CPR's John Street coachyards, roundhouse and servicing facilities for both locomotives and passenger cars (CN's Spadina facilities are out of frame to the right). A switcher is visible moving around stainless steel Budd equipment for The Canadian, amid plenty of heavyweight and lightweight steel coaches in the yard. A pair of F-units can be seen on the servicing tracks near the roundhouse by the old coal tower, along with a pair of Budd RDC cars ("Dayliners" in CP parlance). Most of the view of the roundhouse is blocked by the top of the Royal York.

Nearby is the Toronto Terminals Railway Central Heating Plant (which supplied steam heating to downtown buildings including Union Station, the Royal York, and CP's John Street facilities). Along the harbourfront are buildings for Yardley's (perfumes), the Terminal Warehouse, grain elevators, and various piers. The Toronto Island airport is off in the upper right.

Photographer:
Bill Thomson [715] (more) (contact)
Date: September 1964 (search)
Railway: Canadian Pacific (search)
Reporting Marks: Not Provided
Train Symbol: Not Provided
Subdivision/SNS: Toronto Union Station, CPR John Street Yards, etc (search)
City/Town: Toronto (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 37311

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

Full size | Suncalc
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4 Comments
  1. Excellent picture!

  2. This is great Bill! I say I got into the hobby of Model Railroading from looking down from the CN Tower at the ‘toy’ trains at the rail yards.

  3. Memories aplenty in this picture! The whole area has changed almost beyond recognition.

  4. A song comes to mind. Sing-a-long: “On a clear day…”

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