Caption: It looks like someone didn't have their railfan filter on their lens (anyone look familiar here?). The Upper Canada Railway Society held a fantrip on March 9th 1974 using CN "Railiner" RDC cars 6106 and 6111 that toured the Toronto Bypass (York & Halton Subs) and Beach Sub on a trip between Pickering and Stoney Creek, which included a special run down the Milton Townline Spur across the CN-CP diamond to Milton Station, and a trip down the Beach Sub (with a photo stop on the lift bridge at Hargrove). Here, a photo stop ensues near Stoney Creek as the two RDC's proceed south with a crewmember flagging the Van Wagners Beach Road crossing near Beach Blvd. The QEW is visible on the right, where Beach Blvd. ducks under it.

The gloomy weather foreshadowed the fate awaiting the CN Beach Sub (aka the "Beach Branch") in the near future. Most CN mainline traffic used the more popular Oakville & Grimsby Sub mainlines through Hamilton, and the old Beach Sub (originally part of the Hamilton & North-Western Railway) between Stoney Creek and Burlington was soon to be severed into two spurs by QEW freeway construction that took place in 1974-1975 (which included removal of the famed QEW traffic circle). The main spur ran south from Burlington to service a customer near Stoney Creek for a few more years, but was later abandoned in 1981 and removed, leaving only short stubs on either end.

Gord Taylor photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.