Toronto Division

Lambton

R.L.Kennedy

West Toronto, Lambton, Islington, Queensway, Dixie and Cooksville.

Galt Subdivision (double track) Mileage 3.8 to Mileage 15.0

Bloor Street at Mile 3.8 was the demarcation point between Parkdale and West Toronto. In addition to the double track mainline a service track on the west side ran between Parkdale (north side of Queen Street) and West Toronto (south side of Dupont Street) to serve local industries and Bloor Yard.

Old Bruce Service Track later known as S Yard, and finally PS Lead, ran between West Toronto Diamond and Dundas Street West just north of Parkdale, and was once the Toronto, Grey and Bruce mainline. It was east of the Galt Sub. and was separated by the CNR Weston Sub. double track.

It remained in use for many years to serve a number of local industries, including Rowntree (chocolates), Joe Lowe (Popsicle Pete), Glidden Varnish and Viceroy Rubber. It ran across West Toronto Diamond into the MacTier Sub. In later years this seldom-used diamond was eliminated and the service track was extended eastward on a sharp curve across Osler Avenue and connected to the North Toronto Sub. It remained in use until its last customer Laura Secord (formerly Rowntree) ended rail use (sugar from Redpath on the EastWharf).
finally being abandoned in 199x when the last industry Laura Secord (formerly, Rowntree, originally Cowan's) stopped using rail. It was dismantled in April of 1996. Eventually, the 1.59 mile long right-of-way was sold in July, 2003 to the City of Toronto for a proposed trail which has yet to be built.

Old Bruce service track, looking south from Wallace Ave. footbridge.
Tank car sitting in Nacan products (National Adhesives). Note diamond, unusual for sidings, other track
was Solways (scrap dealer). Track at right is West Toronto interchange track. CNR Weston Sub. at
GO Transit Bloor station. Far right CPR Galt Sub. July 1985 Gord Billinghurst

West Toronto Mileage 4.5

West Toronto looking north from Royce Ave. (Dupont St.) towards the Diamond. Galt Sub. at left, CNR Weston Sub. and at far right Old Bruce service track Osler Street team track and small industries on south side of North Toronto Sub. Behind the camera was Royce Avenue where a subway was constructed and other industry located including nearby Chevrolet Motor Car Co. April 1923

West Toronto Freight Shed at left is hidden partially beneath (Old) Weston Rd. bridge. Galt Sub. eastward track in the foreground and westward track to the right. Mac Tier Sub.curves far right across the Diamond.
Station is behind camera to the left. NOTE: An old shed once stood near the last station express building.

Shed is at left behind camera. Galt Sub. is two centre tracks (one curves), two connecting tracks from North Toronto Sub. two Mill sidings and another to warehouse. Heintzman Piano factory far left at Keele Street, later, site of Canadian Tire, now vacant. Steam engines are at Keele Street yard office.

A pig transfer eastbound (backing up) at Keele Street (likely from the Queensway) to Parkdale Yard
with 7022 and wooden van 436277. August 1974 Michael Taylor.

West Toronto is centered around the Diamond, or Junction, where lines from the East, North and downtown Toronto all meet. Originally named Toronto Junction since it was the only junction point in Toronto. In the beginning, trains from Montreal had to travel across North Toronto, then down via Parkdale to Union Station in downtown Toronto. The reverse proceedure was necessary for eastbound trains. Construction of the Don Branch which opened in September 1892 finally corrected this situation.

Located here were the main shops and roundhouse relocated from Parkdale between 1884-1890. A station, (replaced twice), along with its accompanying Express building. Next to these were team tracks and a crane belonging to the freight shed just to the west on the Galt Sub. West Toronto Freight Office and Shed were closed and then demolished December 1978. The team tracks and crane, long out of use were not removed until February 1980. Passenger service ended October 28,1978 at the station, (known as the depot, to distinguish it from union station,) the offices upstairs were relocated and it was closed. Finally being demolished November 25,1982 in a public relations disaster that was to have far reaching consequences.

West Toronto Station

West Toronto Junction Gallery Shops etc.

West Toronto Shops aerial view inc. Ontario Stock Yards

Aerial view of Packers and Stock Yards

Lambton Mileage 5.8

Lambton Yard Feature Article, which perhaps should be read later to avoid confusion with this article when paging back etc. Link is repeated at the bottom of the Toronto Division main page.

Here was located the main freight marshalling yards for Toronto starting with West Toronto Yard in the 1880's and adding Lambton Yard prior to the Great War (World War I), eventually being replaced by a new hump yard at Agincourt in 1964, although both continue in use today in a lesser role.

A number of small industries were located along the south side of the Galt Sub. west to the Humber River including Lambton team tracks. On trackage reached from within the yard Union Stock Yards were built in 1903 on 35 acres adjacent to West Toronto shops. In 1944, the Ontario Government took over from the private owners , renaming it the Ontario Stock Yards. All rail usage ended by 1980 and it was finally closed at the end of 1993. Additionally, a lead ran to extensive meat packinghouse facilities begun early in the 20^th Century. Gunn’s in 1907 and Harris Abattoir Co. in 1912. In August 1927, Harris Abattoir and William Davies Company merged to become Canada Packers, also acquiring Gunn’s and Matthews & Blackwell. Levack’s in 1905 was acquired by Swift’s in 1911 was located there, as well as small independent packers. A GTR lead ran into this area as well. So big had this grown by the 1950’s that Canada Packers had 26 tracks! They had their own weigh scales, a yardmaster and a car checker! CPR provided all switching for Canada Packers, while CNR switched only Swift’s and two or three Canada Packers tracks where tank cars were loaded with blood.

Stock Yards and Packing Houses in Toronto

Lambton station Mileage 6.4 Between Jane Street and Scarlett Road.

Islington Mileage 8.7

Extra 5305 West passing Islington Station enroute to Hamilton on April 4, 1954. Dick George
Note the immaculate right-of-way!

The area under Islington began on the west bank of the Humber River, past Islington Station at Islington Avenue, past Obico where the cut-off was, to Summerville at Dixie Road, to Dixie at Cathraw Road, and Cooksville. Only a few industries, starting with a lumberyard just past the Humber, were located along here, none very significant except for CP Express at Obico, and Cooksville Rail Transfer. The station (built 1922) at Islington faded in importance and was closed for passenger service in the 1960’s remaining as a freight agency for some years longer.

Area H is a newer (c.1950's) industrial area off the south side of the Galt Sub. between Islington Avenue and Kipling Avenue (Obico), and south to Jutland Avenue. It was under the Islington station agency. A number of industries were located on this spur including the huge Dominion Glass plant which opened in 1954, (later Consumers Glass and more recently Owens-Illinois) and some still remain.

7100-7107 a pair of MLW S-4's equipped for road service, on the Ham Way Freight February 1956.
Note the early paint scheme. Al Paterson

A north service track ran from Islington Avenue to past Highway 27 serving more lumber yards and small industries including Lake Simcoe Ice, A&P and Dominion Stores. A south service track ran from Obico to east of Dixie serving many small industries plus the CP Express 4 track shed.

Obico Mileage 9.6 Junction with the Canpa Subdivision See Canpa cut-off below
Original limit of Toronto Terminals.

Obico, looking west, Galt Sub. westward track, north service track at right. Crossovers to eastward main line and to Canpa Sub. westward track. Far left track is Canpa eastward track. 1960 R.L.Kennedy

Map of Obico Yard 1971

Obico pronounced oh-bee-co, it is short for Etobicoke Township, pronounced e-toe-bee-co (silent k). Located west of Lambton yard on the Galt Sub. at the junction of the Canpa Sub. It was once a small storage yard with a large OCS coal dump in the middle of the wye. It was here a new roundhouse was proposed in 1950. Additional land was acquired for a new large freight yard, however it was never built and much of the land was sold to Ontario Hydro.

A number of small industries were located (some still remain) below the bottom of the yard at North Queen Street, not far from Canpa.

It became a major piggyback yard after additional land was bought back from Hydro, only a small amount of land that cost much more than the whole sold to Hydro! Obico Piggyback replaced both Queensway as well as John Street Piggyback, which had outgrown the available land in downtown Toronto.

Eventually, Obico converted to containers and the end ramps used for trailers were removed. Again, lack of sufficient land to expand caused CP to look for a new location. They settled on a large tract of land next to the Mac Tier Subdivision not far beyond Metropolitan Toronto. Originally intended to replace Obico, it has continued to expand as has traffic, thus Obico remains open and busy. Since Vaughan Intermodal Terminal opened all traffic to and from the northwest has used Vaughan, while the one remaining Montreal train uses Obico. This train is expected to move to Vaughan to allow for expansion of New York traffic. For a while the volume of traffic required some trains from Vancouver to go to Obico to relieve congestion. Thus the latest expansion of Vaughan Intermodal Facility, was completed in November 2001, providing a major capacity boost.

Obico is not likely to be closed, as more and more freight is going by rail in both containers, and now once again in traditional highway trailers, this time using dedicated terminals and trains that were originally known as Iron Highway and now known as Expressway. Obico IMS (Inter-Modal Service) eventually took over all of Obico Yard for its needs. The facility is 61 acres, with 12,900 feet of truck-rail track and another 20,000 feet for storage.

Just to the west, off the Galt Sub. was a major shed for CP Express, located on 23 acres, the 99,000 sq.ft. shed could spot 24 box cars, 56 trailer doors and 73 pick-up and delivery doors. Built by Dominion Bridge it was similar to another new facility in Lachine (Montreal), opened at the same time, January 1969. It operated until box car traffic ended in the 1980’s. Some years following creation of CP Express & Transport, deregulation of trucking came and eventually it went out of business. It was the last LCL highway carrier that operated across Canada, CN Express had already ceased to exist.

Summerville Mileage 10.8 at Highway 27. Long-gone shelter-sized station shows up again!

Queensway Mileage 11.4

Queensway Piggyback Yard had a 4 ramp facility (4 tracks of 10 cars each) at the end of North Queen Street in Etobicoke, opened January 1959. Queensway Pig Yard relieved John Street, dispatching a Montreal piggyback train at 8.15 p.m. It also handled western Canada traffic on a fast freight out of Parkdale. It had a 40'x50’ six room office building and 4 tracks of 10 cars each. When Obico Pig Yard was opened in October 1971, John Street was closed and no east traffic was loaded at the Queensway, only north traffic. When it was closed, a small shed was put there for Interline Forwarders, a pool car operator that relocated from Parkdale shed. TNT Railfast a small forwarder, also relocated from Parkdale. Following the demise of this operation the property remained in use to store empty containers for Obico and was known as the Empty Annex. It closed June 30, 2005 and is presently vacant.

Dixie Mileage 12.6

Cooksville Mileage 14.2

Cooksville, summer 1938. Gord Billinghurst Collection

Another view of Cooksville station taken in March 1965 after CTC installed in the Terminal.

A number of industries were located along both sides of the Galt Sub. as far as Cooksville at Highway 5. Cooksville Steel, (operated by the CPR) later, independently reorganized as Cooksville Rail Transfer, a rail-to-truck transfer facility for steel was located at Cawthra Road just before the station for several years until replaced in November 2000 by a bigger facility in Aberdeen Yard in Hamilton. A small team track was located at both Dixie and Cooksville.

Toronto Terminals Division Limit: Mileage 15.0

Mimico Cut-Off (later, Canpa Subdivision)

"Canpa Cutoff"

Canpa Subdivision Obico Mileage .0 to Canpa Mileage 2.6

The Cut-Off to Canpa, was built in 1910 as a short cut for freight trains operating between Lambton Yard and Hamilton. Prior to this trains had to back via Parkdale and Bathurst Street to reach the GTR mainline where the CPR had secured special rights as a Joint Section in an agreement dated May 13,1896. It was originally single track, later double-tracked as far as Evans Avenue. Prior to September 1951 double track was extended the remainder of the cutoff. Use of the track was governed by an Electric Staff Block System, likely until May 1, 1952. Such systems were also used on steep grades (as required by Board of Transport) such as down the Don, from King Street down to Bathurst Street.

Passenger trains were not regularly operated over the cut-off except for a few years when a Montreal-Buffalo service operated through Toronto stopping at North Toronto. There were also special Race trains operated from Union Station to Long Branch Race Track near Canpa. This race track operated from September 6,1924 until October 21,1955 after which it was sold for industrial development and was then owned by Goodyear.

Canpa

Often incorrectly pronounced "Campa", it was a tower located at the west end of the CNR’s Mimico freight yard, named by the GTR for CANadian PAcific railway! This tower was staffed by an operator around-the-clock, it controlled GTR/CNR trains in and out of Mimico as well as CPR trains to and from the cut-off. The original wooden tower was replaced by a modern brick structure (on the opposite side of the mainline), effective May 1, 1952 at which time CNR employees replaced the CPR ones. It controlled the area between the Humber River and 30th Street in Long Branch.

A few industries located around here were/are in a joint area. Some others on the south east of the main line were once served from Parkdale. CN-CP Interchange was carried out in Mimico Yard, in later years restricted to local traffic only. See also; Swansea on the Parkdale page.

Road and Yard Crews

While the cut-off is actually within yard limits, the area has traditionally belonged to the Hamilton Subdivision, which was the CPR’s name for the Joint Section. (CN calls it the Oakville Sub.) It was considered part of the Bruce Division and train crews of District 3 as it was known, manned the trains. There were two assignments, Obico Industrial and Canpa Industrial, paid yard rates to switch industries but manned by road crews. Beyond there it was the Hamilton Wayfreight that switched the Joint Section mainline.

In later years changes allowed the Canpa to be re-assigned to work the Galt Sub. beyond Obico to the switching limits at Cooksville, Mile 15, and beyond there with extra pay.

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