Rail

Railways, trains, etc.

The end of the line

The end of the line

Last Thursday, walking north along the Newmarket/Barrie GO tracks, north of Dupont St.

There's only a single active railway track here, but it's interesting to look at all the other bits of abandoned tracks along here. It's a narrow railway corridor (much smaller than the Georgetown corridor to the West of here), but it still used to have multiple tracks and spurs to service the industry along its path. Many of these old tracks and spurs just appear and disappear quickly into old factory buildings, piles of rubbish, or overgrown bushes.

Walking along the tracks...

Walking along the tracks...

Last Thursday's after-work walk around the neighbourhood. Here I was heading north along the GO/CN Newmarket tracks, north of Wallace Ave., next to Campbell Park.

Apart from all the litter and illegal dumping, this is a great place for walking, though the railway companies might disagree.

Paton Rd. and Erwin Krickhahn Park

Paton Rd. and Erwin Krickhahn Park

I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood on Thursday after work. First stop: The new Erwin Krickhahn Park extension at the corner of Rankin Cres. and Paton Rd.

The stump of Paton Rd. next to the railway tracks was dug up and re-allocated to the park last Fall. It was great to see this stump of asphalt converted into something nicer. It's still undecided what the final form of this new bit of parkland will be: Maybe a community garden, and extension of the grass field, or....??? A couple of years ago, the idea of putting a community garden in this park was somewhat controversial (to put it mildly). The next community meeting about this park's future should be interesting.

Wallace Ave. Bridge, Junction Triangle

Wallace Ave. Bridge, Junction Triangle

They say "a picture is worth a thousand words".

I was walking home from the Dundas West subway station on Friday evening and decided to take this photo from the Dundas St. side of the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge. I always enjoy the view from here, especially since it contains two of our neighbourhood's most iconic sights: The bridge itself, and the old G.E. Water Tower near Lansdowne Ave.

When I came home and took a closer look at the photo, it struck me that there are many things going on within the frame of this picture. Little bits of history, neighbourhood icons, and changes that are happening rapidly. Here's what I spotted. Maybe there are some things I missed?

Wallace Ave. Bridge

Wallace Ave. Bridge

Yet another photo of the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge. Looking east across the bridge and down Wallace Ave. towards the old G.E. Water Tower.

This is a similar view to the winter pic I posted back in January, but now everything is turning green.

Snowy Bloor GO Train Station

Snowy Bloor GO Train Station

February 26, 2010: Walking west on Bloor St. next to the Bloor GO Train Station.

It has been a wimpy winter, and the weather has started warming up again. Maybe this was the last snow storm of the year?

Winter morning view from the Wallace Ave. bridge


A GO train on the Milton line heading toward Union Station. I took this photo from the east side of the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge.

On the morning that I took this photo, there was a near white-out blizzard that seemed to last only a few minutes. I grabbed my camera as I got ready to head out the door so that I could take some nice winter photos of the neighbourhood while walking to the subway. Unfortunately, the snow nearly stopped by the time I got outside. Ohwell, I still had a nice walk to Dundas West station through a small amount of fresh snow, and I was able to enjoy the view from the bridge.

Wallace Ave. Pedestrian Bridge

Wallace Ave. Pedestrian BridgeWallace Ave. Pedestrian Bridge

Taking another short break from posting vacation photos. This one is much more recent and closer to home: Looking east from the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge.

I like this view because it shows off two very old and prominent features of my neighbourhood: The Wallace Ave. bridge, and the old General Electric water tower a little further east on Wallace Ave., closer to Lansdowne Ave. This is a great place to spend a few minutes just watching things happen in our 'hood: GO trains going by underneath, people walking and cycling along the West Toronto Railpath, environmental cleanup of the old Glidden Paint factory site, construction of new condos on Wallace Ave., heavy machinery at work on the West Toronto Diamond railway grade separation project, and much more.

I often "take the long way home" from work just to come across this bridge and stop to watch things for a few minutes.

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