Railfanning in our Jammies...

[TinGoat]

Ruby and I were laying in bed around midnight last night listening to the trains go by. It was very busy and we counted four trains in the space of about 10 minutes.

There is a double Canadian Pacific mainline east/west, a double Canadian National mainline north/south and a single Canadian Pacific mainline north that wyes onto the double Canadian Pacific east/west line. Not to mention the various interchange tracks. Via Rail and GO Transit have trackage rights through the junction too....

The most common motive power in the area are GMD SD 40-2's owned by CP. There are also SD 90/43 MAC-H's and AC4400's.

CN runs mostly GP 40-2C's and CW's which tend to chug.

The first train to arrive stopped and waited for the other lines to clear before proceeding.

It is very soothing to listen to the trains, but you have to make sure that the house is secure, or else you end up with things rattling as the trains go over the diamonds and frogs.

As we lay listening to all the trains, I was trying to identify all of the sounds. The one train that spent the time idling while the other traffic cleared was humming nicely with a nice deisel whine. You could hear the air compressers and releaf valves chuffing happily.

The one sound that I often hear from idling trains is a ticking or clicking sound. It sounds like an electrical discharge and I figure it has something to do with the capacitors discharging, but I don't know...

Does anyone know what this sound is????

 

[60103]

West Toronto Junction

Well Tingoat, I spent about 25 years rattling past your place at about 8:00 am on the GO train.
I was really sorry when CP rebuilt the crossings breaking the north bound line from Union station. I saw plans for GO stations on that line, but how do they get downtown?

 

[Vic]

Hi Ron, The "clicking" sound "sounds" like some kind of high voltage/current relay(s) opening and closing.

 

[TinGoat]

Re: West Toronto Junction

Originally posted by 60103
Well Tingoat, I spent about 25 years rattling past your place at about 8:00 am on the GO train.
I was really sorry when CP rebuilt the crossings breaking the north bound line from Union station. I saw plans for GO stations on that line, but how do they get downtown?

Hi 60103,

The GO Trains run north/south through the Junction on the Canadian National double mainline. There is a cross-over to the Canadian Pacific mainline just to the north. I don't know if the GO Train stays on the CN tracks or crosses over, but I can check. The GO Train also comes up the CN line and swings around onto the east/west CP tracks going west.

Automobile traffic in our area is really bad and just getting worse. They are doing a lot of residential in-filling. There is a bottleneck where Old Weston Rd. and Keele Street have to funnel through Keele Street. along with all the traffic coming south off of Hwy 400 via Black Creek Drive.

Shortly after CP pulled up the tracks south of the Junction to down town, they started to dig out the approach to the Old Weston Road bridge over the tracks. I thought that the city was finally replacing the bridge to releave traffic. No such luck! CP built a new cutting to run Autorack unit trains from the Alliston Honda Plant down and to the west, without having to change ends. Before this, the auto trains came south and around to the east. They then had to switch ends before proceeding west. It's great for railfanning, but lousy for traffic.

There were two old train stations on Old Weston Rd at Junction. One was a CP passenger station and the other was a CN freight. The CP station was burned down and levelled a few years ago, and the CN one was torched and levelled this summer. I have some Before and after pictures of the CN station, still in the camera and waiting to be developed.

The Provincial Government has been slashing funding to transit. The first things to go were a couple of GO train stops within city limits. It sure would be nice to have a GO train stop in the Junction, but that won't be happening any time soon. There is a GO station just to the south at Dundas and Bloor. They are building a pedestrian tunnel between it and Dundas West Subway station. This is a better location for a GO station because it has more routes running though it.

Originally posted by Vic
Hi Ron, The "clicking" sound "sounds" like some kind of high voltage/current relay(s) opening and closing.

Thanks Vic. That "sounds" right.

 

[Matthyro]

I still take the odd GO train from Georgetown into Toronto. Too bad about that old CP station as it was a great example of the standard CP used to build. Now mostly we see piles of litter and graffitti. Railroads always went through the backyards of industry and residential areas so what else to expect.

 

[TinGoat]

Canadian Pacific Railway Stations in the Junction...

About 5-6 years ago, the two CPR Stations in the Junction were torched....

Both within a short time period. The one at Old Weston Rd, and Junction was actually torched a couple of times if memory serves....

It took CP a couple of months to come around and level them.

When the CN Station was torched this summer, it was bulldozed the same day!

Alledgedly, the fire was caused by vagrants who were alledgedly living in the abandoned station....

I saw the fire reported on the 6 O'clock news and the building was on fire on live T.V.. By 7:10, I was there with camera in hand to snap a few pix. By this time the firetrucks were still there, but there was a wrecking crew that had already removed the second floor and half of the first.

CN sure was in a hurry to bury any evidence of the real cause of the fire.