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About MrDan

MrDan is an avid photographer, railfan, modeller and slide collector with an interest in rail photography, prototype operations, equipment information, urban transportation and model railroading. He also assists the RP.ca moderation team, as well as has helped in the past model railroad manufacturers with research and development of various rail-related models and projects. He has had a number of photographs appear in magazines, books, advertisements and used by historical groups. As per RP.ca's photo use guidelines, all photos uploaded by this user are not to be used for commercial and other purposes unless prior written permission has been obtained (but link sharing to the photo's page is welcome and encouraged). Original photographer credit is noted for any collection slide uploads whenever possible. ***Images posted including (those collection slide images) are not to be reused in any publication, both print or online, without prior permission***

MrDan's Railpictures.ca photo upload statistics

Number of images: 991
Total gold: 10442
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Number of comments posted : 1094
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MrDan's 991 photos on Railpictures.ca:

Canadian Pacific 7047, a little 1000hp Alco S2 switcher built in 1946 and assigned to John Street Roundhouse nearby, rumbles through the Toronto Terminals Railway corridor at Spadina Avenue with a short local freight or transfer move, heading eastbound towards Union Station. Its duties today could be numerous depending on assignment, as CP worked industries downtown along Queen's Quay, the Portlands, and also interchanged traffic with CN at Don Yard and Cherry Street.
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<i>Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	unknown, Dan Dell'U…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	10/12/1972
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 12 Favourites

There's catches, there's "catches", and then there's CATCHES(!!!): both CP Rail GP30's, 5000 and 5001, set up elephant style, leading an eastbound freight together on a gloomy day at Galt.
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In their early days the two CP GP30's (the only Canadian-built GP30 units at that) could often be found paired together, but by the 70's both were mixed in general freight service with CP's large fleet of 4- and 6-motor units, and it became somewhat harder to catch the duo working the same train. But apparently the stars aligned on this day, and both GP30's must have been at the same shop at the same time for some power planner or shop foreman to line up both together for a freight, elephant style, with a successor GP35 (5008) to boot. The occasion was not lost on Bill, who made sure to note "LOOK AT POWER!!" on the slide mount.
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It appears someone at Toronto Yard may have <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=41079><b>had a thing for pairing them</b></a>. Later on in the 80's when a bunch of the GP30 and GP35 units were reassigned out west in BC, there were a few instances of both running together with other units on local freights. Both were retired in the 90's and disposed of, with one being donated to a <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=10246><b>museum</b></a> and the other ending up as a lease unit at a US grain elevator.
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An interesting note here is 5000 had been repainted in relatively fresh 8" action red paint with large multimark (same paint as 5008 trailing), while 5001 retains its mid-70's "Ogden multi" paint with 5" stripes and small multimark. Both GP30's were still DRF (Diesel Road Freight) units, (converted to DRS (Diesel Road Switcher) next year in June 1980), but 5000 had been modified with smaller standard-sized EMD window glass in its middle front windows, while 5001 retains its wider as-built GP30 center windows (modified later).
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<i>Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Bill McArthur photo…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	03/24/1979
Location:	Galt
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 17 Favourites

Departing downtown Toronto in the low December late afternoon/early evening light, CP Rail train #11 "The Canadian" (Toronto-Sudbury leg) passes by John Street interlocking tower (visible behind the Skyline dome) and the old CN freight loading platforms as it makes its way through the downtown Toronto Terminals Railway trackage to CP's Galt Sub at Bathurst Street. Lead unit is CP FP7 4069, sporting bright "Action Red" paint with later 8" striping. Trailing is steam generator-equipped RS10 8478 in very ratty maroon & grey "Script" paint. A short consist of six stainless steel Budd cars follow (no Park car this late in the game for #11/12).
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All the usual suspects are in attendance in this pre-condo boom photo of Toronto's downtown skyline: the TD, BMO and RBC towers, CP's Royal York Hotel, the brown CNCP Telecommunications building at 151 Front Street, and Union Station off in the background beyond the new yellow CN Tower pedestrian bridge.
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<i>Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Bill McArthur photo…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	December 1977
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 17 Favourites

TTC PCC 4744 in "subway red" paint (A13-class, built by Pullman in 1947 for Birmingham, Alabama) turns westbound onto The Queensway off Roncesvalles on a Dundas short-turn, returning to nearby Roncesvalles Carhouse after morning rush hour. TTC 4653 (A11-class, built by Pullman in 1946 for Cleveland) follows behind, another Dundas car returning to the carhouse. Both are passing the old Edgewater Hotel and the Gray Coach terminal in Sunnyside.<br><br><i>Dennis Cowley photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Dennis Cowley photo…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	07/31/1973
Location:	Toronto (Sunnyside…
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 10 Favourites

A matched A-B-A set of CP Rail F-units (FP7 4036, F7B 4432, and FP7 4063) leave their westbound train on the mainline as they switch cars at the west end of Galt Yard on a gloomy day.<br><br>By this point in time, the Alco/MLW and FM/CLC fleets of cowl units had been retired, leaving only the GMD fleet, which would soldier on until most of the passenger F-unit fleet was sold to VIA in 1978, and most of the remaining F-units in freight service were retired in the early 80's. <br><br><i>Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Bill McArthur photo…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	05/22/1977
Location:	Galt
Province:	Ontario

4 Comments | 19 Favourites

Things are looking more than a little hazy around CN's Stuart Street yard in Hamilton, as four GMD SW1200RS units (CN 1250, 1315, 1249 and 1254) on an eastbound freight coat the yard in a blue-white haze of diesel exhaust as they switch cars.
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Things of interest in this scene include the BC Rail bulkhead flatcars, CN 40' boxcars in the yard, a snowplow on the track to the side, and the high level York Blvd bridge in the background by Hamilton Junction.
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<i>Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection negative.</i>

Name:	Bill McArthur photo…
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	09/12/1981
Location:	Hamilton
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 24 Favourites

Four burly MLW C424's lead by CP 4239 head southbound on the Nephton Sub bound for Havelock, coming down from the Unimin mines at Nephton and Blue Mountain with covered hoppers full of nepheline syenite. The four units are coming through the rock cut at Mile 10 by County Road 44, one of the few crossings along the line.
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This was about the spot where a scene in the movie <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ015GoR41k><b>"Martin's Day" (1985)</b></a> was filmed, where the main characters hijacked a train for fun at the crossing, lead by a CP C424.
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<i>Bill Grandin photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection negative.</i>

Name:	Bill Grandin photo,…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	August 1988
Location:	Nephton (south of)
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 15 Favourites

CN RS18 3118, FPA4 6779 and a single passenger car work their way back to the station on the Brockville Loop Line after visiting the Brockville wye (located amid a residential area to the southwest of the CN station area). After some research and input from others train appears to be heading eastbound on the north end of the Brockville Loop Line, crossing over a culvert for Butler's Creek and approaching Perth Street crossing. The houses in the background appear to be along Hubbell Street.<br><br>The wye trackage was part of the old Brockville, Westport & North-Western Railway, that ran between Brockville and Westport, Ontario. The line was acquired by Canadian Northern, and became part of Canadian National, who abandoned it in 1952. The wye and CN connecting track (the "Brockville Loop Line" that ran from the CN station area west, ducking under the Kingston Sub to get to the wye and BW&NW) was left intact, and used by CN and later VIA to wye passenger power and equipment as needed into at least the mid-80's. The wye and line is now part of the Brock Trail.<br><br>The processing date on this slide was stamped June 1973, but judging by the snow and sparse foliage, this may be a March or April photo.<br><br><i>Al Gorney photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Al Gorney photo, Da…
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	Early 1973
Location:	Brockville
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 15 Favourites

A morning westbound VIA passenger train speeds through Scarborough with three MLW's on the head-end: FPA4 6788 and 6769, sporting VIA paint and logos, and an unknown 6800-series FPB4 still in CN zebra stripe paint. Nine passenger cars trail, including two baggage cars (most appear to still be in CN paint, as the new "VIA" branding was barely two years old at this point). It won't be long before the train covers its final miles and arrives at Union Station in downtown Toronto.<br><br>The location is just before Greenwood Avenue on CN's Kingston Sub. As per track diagrams, the train is heading westbound on the "west mainline", with the next track over the "east mainline", then the Y-200 service track, and the track bumper at the end of the old Greenwood Avenue team track (Y-012, appears to be out of use at this point). North of the mainline track was another service track, Y-230, that lead into the back of the <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=30975><b>TTC's Greenwood Yard</b></a> nearby.<br><br><i>Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	unknown, Dan Dell'U…
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	Circa July 1978
Location:	Toronto (Scarborou…
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 19 Favourites

VIA FPA4 6762 and F9B 6622 sit on a passenger consist on Track 10, poking out of the west end of Union Station's train shed in downtown Toronto. A few tracks down, VIA's "The Canadian" consist sits with on Track 4, with CP FP7 1424 (and GP9 8517) on the head-end. VIA had taken over CP's passenger services last fall, and plenty of the ex-CP power was still in full CP colours (the 1400-series F-units were sold to VIA, but the steam generator-equipped GP9's were retained by CP and used as passenger protection power when needed).<br><br>The brown 3-story brick building in the background is the old CN Express Building (cut down and turned into park of the Skywalk in the 1980's). While Union Station itself isn't visible (other than the train shed), part of CP's Royal York Hotel is on the right.<br><br><i>Barry Schroeder photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Barry Schroeder pho…
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	Circa June 1979
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 20 Favourites

Tracklaying of the new Canadian transcontinental railway takes place across the prairies in the Summer of 1882 under the watchful eye of William Cornelius Van Horne, famed "Abelsist Railway General in The World". An American railway builder, he took took up the challenge of building the railway for the CPR when things were behind, for $15,000 a year (1882 funds). He completed the railway in under half the projected time.<br><br>According to Pierre Berton's book "The National Dream", Winnipeg was the base of Van Horne's operation, and railway building contractors stockpiled it with living supplies, hoards of men, rail supplies, lumber, provisions, and horses in order to build the railway line further west. Supply trains were dispatched from Winnipeg to "end of track", that kept moving each day. Mobile boarding cars with kitchens and dormatories were kept nearby to house the "navvies" - the labourers <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=55064><b>toiling away grading, laying ties and spiking rails</b></a> under sometimes harsh prairie conditions.<br><br>This is, of course, the dramatization: the filming of Pierre Berton's "The National Dream" - an eight-part series filmed by the CBC in 1973 and released in 1974 documenting the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Here, the filming crew are either rolling or setting up their shot with Van Horne (in black with hat, behind microphone) and Secretan (in grey). Workers toil away in the background laying and spiking down rails, while the supply train with 2-3 flatcars and Canadian Pacific "144" (really <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=47318><b>ORA's ex-CPR 4-4-0 136</b></a>, borrowed for filming, backdated to 1880's appearance and given a different number) sits in the background. In this series, Van Horne was played by Canadian actor John Colicos, and Secretan by Davis Schurmann.<br><br>According to a source on the matter, the track-laying filming scenes here were done on CP's Cassils Subdivision between Miles 9 and 9.5, on the curve approaching Kitsum, Alberta.<br><br><i>Eric. W. Johnson photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	E.W.Johnson photo, …
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	06/07/1973
Location:	Cassils
Province:	Alberta

1 Comments | 11 Favourites

TTC PCC 4440 (A7-class, CC&F 1949) operates on the Long Branch streetcar route, laying over at Humber Loop before its trip west through Mimico to Long Branch Loop. The Long Branch streetcar, later the 507, connected here with the Queen streetcar and other services. In the background is the old Oshawa Group warehouse (IGA, Food City, Towers brands), just east of the <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=36009><b>Ontario Food Terminal</b></a>.
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<i>John F. Bromley photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	John F. Bromley pho…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	04/23/1966
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 9 Favourites

TTC PCC 4516 (A8-class, built by CC&F 1951) waits southbound on Weston Road waiting to make the left turn and head east on St. Clair Avenue. IT has just departed nearby <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=34071><b>Keele Loop</b></a>, operating on a St. Clair run eastbound and then northbound on <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=37064><b>Mount Pleasant</b></a> for <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=24456><b>Eglinton Loop</b></a>. In the background is part of Swift's (later Bunge, demolished around 2009), one of the handful of packing houses that once populated this area of West Toronto.
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<i>Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Unknown, Dan Dell'U…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	Circa July 1971
Location:	Toronto (West Toro…
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 9 Favourites

Hundreds of "navvies" labour over the prairies to lay Canada's new transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific, connecting eastern Canada to British Columbia. Using primative hand tools, horses and carts, and good old fashioned manual labour, they toil on to met Van Horne's goal of laying 500 miles of track across the prairies in the single season during the Summer of 1882 (spoiler: they only got 417 miles laid due to the weather).<br><br>This would have been the story in the 1880's, but this photo was actually taken in 1973 during the CBC's <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=55064><b>filming of Pierre Berton's "The National Dream"</b></a>, documenting the story of laying Canada's transcontinental railway from sea to sea. Difficult conditions in the mountains, hot prairies, and rocky northern Ontario "Canadian Shield" mixed with political and monitary difficulties made the construction a feat of its own.<br><br>According to a source on the matter, the track-laying filming scenes here were done on CP's Cassils Subdivision between Miles 9 and 9.5, on the curve approaching Kitsum, Alberta (unsure of exact geolocation on map).<br><br><i>Eric. W. Johnson photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	E.W.Johnson photo, …
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	06/07/1973
Location:	Cassils
Province:	Alberta

1 Comments | 10 Favourites

Name:	C.R. Scholes photo,…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	Circa June 1971
Location:	Toronto (West Toro…
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 11 Favourites

CP train #904 heads eastbound through the falling snow, passing the station and yard at Galt. Leading are a trio of borrowed GO Transit commuter locomotives, GP40-2W's 702, 700 and GP40-3 722. It's a Saturday, so this power was likely borrowed (from Guelph Junction?) to run weekend freight service on CP before being returned in time for their Monday morning commuter duties. GO would soon start receiving the first of their new F59PH locomotives from GMD, which would eventually render the whole GP40 and F40 fleet surplus.
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<i>Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Bill McArthur photo…
Railway:	GO Transit
Date:	03/19/1988
Location:	Galt
Province:	Ontario

6 Comments | 15 Favourites

Chesapeake & Ohio GP7's 5730 and 5744 (built by GMD and EMD respectively, in 1951), gleam in the evening light outside the old wooden enginehouse at Chatham in 1970. <br><br> Due to tax/duty rules at the time, a handful of US railways including C&O, NYC and Wabash purchased locomotives from EMD's Canadian operation, General Motors Diesel, in London Ontario, for their lines in Canada. C&O acquired units 5720-5738 from GMD (5720-5729 later sold to the New York Central RR for their Canadian operations in 1956, as NYC 5818-5827). <br><br> C&O 5744, built by EMD, was one of a handful of US-built GP7's transferred to the C&O's Canadian operations. The Geep fleet worked C&O's lines in southern Ontario for many decades and into the 1980's under CSX, until <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=18272><b>mass retirement in the mid-1980's</b></a>.<br><br><i>Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Unknown, Dan Dell'U…
Railway:	Chesapeake and Ohi…
Date:	Circa April 1970
Location:	Chatham
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 21 Favourites

Canadian Pacific "Dayliner" RDC-1 9052 trails a 9100-series RDC-2 on train #337 (Toronto-Windsor), stopped at <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=14408><b>West Toronto station</b></a> as passengers cross from the station to board from the center platform. The Budds are seen from the rear Park car of train #12, the southbound Canadian, making its station stop at the same time. Timetables suggest #337 was due at West Toronto at 6:40pm and #12 at 5:55pm, so it's more likely #12 was running a bit behind schedule on its long trip down from Sudbury to Toronto. In the distance one can barely make out the <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=42386><b>connecting track</b></a> that #12 snaked through to get from the MacTier Sub north of the interlocking diamond to the station platforms here. On the right, beyond CN's Weston Sub mainline tracks, was the small yard on the S-Yard Lead (the <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=38483><b>Old Bruce service track</b></a>, today the West Toronto Railpath).<br><br>At this time CP ran four Dayliner runs on the Toronto-Windsor (once Toronto-Detroit) corridor, #337-340, but #339/340 (that <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=36994><b>replaced the #21/22 in 1964</b></a>) were discontinued a few months later in 1969. CP trains #337 and #338 became the final remnants of the <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=34193><b>Toronto-Windsor-Detroit corridor</b></a> passenger service on the Galt Sub, that once hosted more frequent train service with <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=27810><b>conventional passenger consists</b></a>. They made their last runs in early July 1971.<br><br>Other photos from the day suggest US-based rail photographer Harold Brouse was on a trip coming back from the Algoma Central and CP operations up north in the Sault St. Marie area, and was taking #12 southbound (with FPA2 4083 & an RS10 as power) back to Toronto, possibly to connect with the CP-TH&B Budd car run back to the US.<br><br><i>H.E. Brouse photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	H.E.Brouse photo, D…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	07/05/1969
Location:	Toronto (West Toro…
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 21 Favourites

Name:	Robert W. Gibson ph…
Railway:	Toronto Transit Co…
Date:	July 1953
Location:	Toronto
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 20 Favourites

"Come to Marineland, where you can touch a whale in Friendship Cove, see the dolphins do their dolphin thing, and...shoot a train too?". Why yes!<br><br>CP Rail GP9u 8212 on a short local handles a single covered hopper inside Marineland, sitting by the switch to the Washington Mills siding at the main access road inside the amusement park grounds. The Geep is working the CP Chippawa Industrial Spur (around Mile 13.50) that runs south from CP's Hamilton Sub (the old PC/CR Canada Division line, aka the CASO, and now CP's Montrose Spur) down to the Welland River in Chippawa, where the line ends by the only other customer, Saint Gobain. A 1992 CP timetable specifically states only single unit operation is permitted on the entire spur, with a speed restriction of maximum 5 mph. The date of this blank, unlabeled slide is unknown, but judging by other photos of 8212 it was taken sometime in the 1990's.<br><br>Since Marineland is private property, gates block off this portion of the rail line through the park at both ends. Access here for a photo or two would have only been possible by paying admission to Marineland to get into the park (Marineland was the latecomer, having been built in the early 1960's along one side of the line, but it looks like they only began to expanded their park to the property across the tracks in the 1970's-80s).<br><br>This was once the old Michigan Central Niagara Branch that ran from Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake. A hydro corridor also rain south alongside part of it here. Research shows the line south of Chippawa to Fort Erie was abandoned in 1941, and the remaining section served as a short spur from there to the mainline to access a few local customers. The line passed through New York Central, Penn Central and Conrail ownership until CP acquired the old CASO from Conrail in the 1980's. When the main CASO line (CP Hamilton Sub) through the downtown Niagara Falls tourist area was lifted in 2001, it was removed only as far south as the switch to the Chippawa Industrial Spur, letting CP locals continue to have access to serve Washington Mills and Saint Gobain.<br><br>With all the controversy surrounding Marineland and its recent change of ownership, it should be interesting to see what becomes of the place and how this line fairs in the future.<br><br><i>Original photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.</i>

Name:	Unknown, Dan Dell'U…
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	Circa 1990's
Location:	Niagara Falls
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 18 Favourites

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