You’ve heard of the Leaning Tower of Pisa? What about the leaning tower of CN?
Of course, it’s not actually leaning. My phone’s wide angle lens distorts everything, making for some fun effects.
I’m going to share a few photos from two brief visits to Toronto’s Union Station corridor, from two consecutive days this year. The photos from the 20th were taken from the Spadina Avenue overpass, and those from the 21st were taken while I was walking from Spadina to Union Station.
March 20
There was a lot of GO Transit traffic, as expected, as well as the regular UP Express trains shuttling between Union Station and Pearson airport on their 15 minute headway.
VIA Rail sent a train through, and I was shocked to see how dirty it was.
Most of not all of the LRC cars were supposed to be replaced by Venture sets by now, so I imagine VIA Rail hasn’t been spending much if any time maintaining the LRC cars… and it shows.
Eric Gagnon has been documenting the decline of the LRCs.
Anyway. The Spadina overpass provides a pretty good view of the CN Tower and the rail corridor.
Two GO Transit trains and a UP Express train.. lots of action in the corridor.
March 21
I was surprised to see one of GO Transit’s F59PH locomotives, GOT 557, heading up a train coming into Union Station. The newer MP40PH-3C units (in the 600-666 range) are much more common.
Speaking of GOT 666, I caught that demonic unit passing VIA 6420 a few minutes later.
VIA 6420 is one of the locomotive numbers I remember, as it was the first VIA unit to have a third headlight. In the summer of 2005, it was fitted with a narrow-beam 35 watt Xenon light, aimed to shine very far down the track to improve visibility for the crew (TrainOrders). Over time, other VIA locomotives were fitted with the light and now they all have it.
Photograph those LRC cars while you can…
Here’s a pair of GO Transit trains to end off this series.
