Ontario Vacation

[R L Smith]

My SO and I spent about a week in Ontario in early May, and I was able to do a bit of railfanning.  Most of the time the weather was uncooperative.

In downtown Toronto, we ended up near the train station at rush hour and I caught a couple of shots of GO commuter trains and VIA trains:







The next morning, just east of Whitby, and the sun was out.  There was a CN intermodal in the siding facing west, and this GO Transit streaked by (this is a "going away" shot of a westbound):



Then the freight pulled out.  By this time I had crossed the tracks, leaving my SO in the car reading a book.  Had I known this train had every stack car east of Detroit on it, I would have stayed where I was. It took him more than 15 minutes to clear the crossing...



Later that day at Smith Falls we found a museum that unfortunately had not yet opened for the season.  Also found some four-axle power by the old CP station:





The next day I captured a meet at the station:





...and on the other side of town near our hotel:



The sun finally made an appearance at Merrickville, where I talked with a delightful and informative gentleman who came out to see what the heck I was doing in his side yard with a camera...



And I'll close with another piece of history at Ganonoque:



All in all a delightful trip from Niagara Falls to Ottowa to the Thousand Islands.  Although the Harmonized Sales Tax of 13% took some getting used to.

Ron

[Philip H]

Ron,
That's a sweet little switcher.  Any singe that told you its purveyance?

[cv_acr]

That little engine is Thousand Islands Railway 500. A CN subsidiary, it was a _short_ branch from the mainline down to Goderich harbour. It brought tourists arriving on mainline passenger trains into town.

The automobile pretty much killed it, as the whole line was less than 10km long and AFAIK did not serve any freight traffic.

[R L Smith]

Here are some more photos of #500, along with the plaque that is mounted on the cab side.

Ron