CNR's Spadina Roundhouse and CPR's John St. Roundhouse 1930's view from on high.
CPR's John St Roundhouse is now a 17 acre railpark complex with a brewery, Steam Whistle Brewery, and a restaurant and entertainment complex. Also CNR 6213 is there.
CNR Spadina Roundhouse long gone. Now the CN Tower and Sky Dome ( Rogers Centre) home of the Blue Jays.
In the mid 1980s I remember seeing a large roundhouse from the CN tower. Which one would that have been?
Wow! Is that impressive or what?
Makes me feel like singing...
"Nothin' could be finer than to be there in Spadina in the Thir-ir-ir-ties..."
Nothin' could be sweeter than to fix a superheater; it's not diiiir ... tee...
Midland Mike-- That would be CPR John St Roundhouse
This is the view you saw but more developed and recent.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roundhouse_Park_Toronto.jpg
In the original picture, notice at the bottom the full tracks at the CN and CP (lower) freight sheds. Traffic was obviously good. At the top, I think most if not all of the water area has subsequently been reclaimed with fill, and the present waterfront is out of the picture. And in turn the newer dock area and sheds is now condos.
What were the two adjacent roundhouses used for?
The photo is great.
Ed Burns
Retired Clerk from Northtown (Minneapolis)
NP Eddie: They were located at Union Station, Toronto, along with the coach yards and a lot of freight handling. Many passenger trains both East and West originated at Union Station. A wide variety of steam was looked after, one Canadian Pacific and the other Canadian National.
CPR's John St Roundhouse was known for its meticulous and spotless appearance of its passenger steam power, Hudsons, Jubilees , Pacifics.
CNR housed Northerns, Mountains, and Pacifics for passenger. Both of course housed smaller power, 4-6-0's, switchers, Consolidations and Moguls.
Building the Gardiner Expressway and the footprint of the CN Tower
Why built on the waterfront pushing it back when the city had lots of room North, East and West? They did a swell job of it all over the years except for the Gardiner Expressway which cut everything off. Plans now to make it gone!
M&SC now a Pizza Shop. What a legacy that is. At least it's still standing but few will remember or know. DPM and the Regulator Clock gone too.
The arrow of time only points one way, for us anyway.
Interesting story behind that submarine.
It's a German minelaying-capable sub from World War One, surrendered to the US Navy after the war and used for Liberty Bond tours.
Here's the story...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_UC-97
They found a cannon while building the TTT streetcar line? I'm not really surprised. Worn-out iron guns were considered unfit for melting down and recasting, so many of them wound up as ship's ballast, hitching posts, and landfill. The last time we were in Placentia NFLD there was a small field on the outskirts of town that had old Royal Navy iron cannon just laying around. They were too big to fit in a suitcase, otherwise there'd be one less of them up there!
Here's a really wild cannon story. Back in the 1970's there was road bridge repair work being done in upstate New York, and the crew working on the foundations for the new bridge uncovered a British cannon abandoned by Burgoyne's army in 1777!
In 1978 some Revolutionary War re-enactors (Royal Artillery, natch!) were putting it to good use! I know, I saw it!
NDG... the Great Lakes Passenger Steamer 'SS Eastland' which capsized at its dock in Chicago with the loss of over 800 lives.
This the evil counterpart to the Britannic. The latter proved the worth of the rush to install plenty of lifeboats after the Titanic disaster; the Eastland proved they could be an aggravating factor.
The ship was noted for behaving top-heavily at times only a few years after it was launched (as I recall, as a banana boat carrying a comparatively small 'movable load' of passengers. See the relevant scene from Circus World for the 'other' part of the problem that did all those people on the Eastland in...
Unbelievable, sickening and bewildering story on the roll over of the Eastland and 800 lives lost, in 20 feet of water, 20 feet from shore and immediate rescue. What a tragedy.
On the Harbour Commision Building finding itself in the heart of the city without being moved: walk up to anyone in those cars or along the sidewalk and explain to them that a WWI German submarine was right here, in the water! They would assume you are a nutbar!
Here's the story of the Gardiner Expressway sent to me from Mike. There has been for some time now serious consideration for tearing it down.
Thinking other great cities cut off areas by putting in some kind of expressway, even from their own waterfronts. No easy solution now as to where to put the redirected highway.
How the Gardiner got built
My, Mr. Gardiner looks formidable! However, sometimes when something needs to be done in a big city you need a guy to do it who doesn't just intimidate his inferiors, but his superiors as well. It's a gift few men have.
Mr. Gardiner certainly looks like he fit that category!
Speaking of navy ships on the Great Lakes, I remember as a kid 50+ years ago going on a tour of the USS Amhert (PCER-853). It was docked, along with a couple of submarines, on the Detroit River across from Belle Isle. It was commissioned in 1944 and served until 1970. I just did some research and discovered that she was transfered to South Vietnam and escaped to the Philippines with the Communist takeover. She served in the Philippines Navy until 2010. Quite a long and interesting career.
PS -While on the Lakes, her and several other vessels trained reservists and were known as the Corn Belt Navy.
Backshop : Turns out it was built by Pullman Standard!
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/vbAAAOSw0e9UzBeY/s-l1600.jpg
I
Imagine that, a Pullman that floats.
Have to admit I did not know that, or if I did it, its long forgotten. Truly impressive on Pullman's part.
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