Caption: A wooden Canadian Pacific van (caboose) trails a short local freight job with a little Alco switcher in charge, pulling out of CP's Cherry Street yards and ducking under the Eastern Avenue and Queen Street overpasses as it crosses over CN's Bala Sub onto CP's Don Branch. The van had just cleared Bayview Avenue, and is equipped with a trainline-operated air whistle on the rear handrail for whistling during reverse movements over crossings.

A sun symbol on the cupola is an odd touch, according to "Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific", this was an old practice dating back many years when crews used to fasten ornaments to their assigned vans to personalize them and make it easier to pick theirs out of a lineup on the van track.

Since the steam era, CP had freight sheds and team track facilities in the Cherry Street area to the east of Union Station, specifically north of the rail corridor between the Don River and Cherry Street (with spurs and sidings continuing west). CP's Don Branch (Belleville Sub) was on the east side of CN's Bala Sub, so to access their own tracks CP would have to cross over CN first near Don. CP would also interchange cars here with CN at their own Cherry St. yards nearby.

In later years CP had a large freight shed here, but over time the largely industrial area fell into decline, and CP pulled up their Cherry Street industrial tracks around 1989-1991. The large shed would remain until most of the area was cleared out in the mid-2000's for a planned large-scale urban redevelopment of the formerly industrial West Donlands (today known as the Canary District).

Keith Hansen photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.