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Caption: Construction of platform expansion/upgrades at Bramalea GO continues to make progress in 2019! Here we find 2 of the rush hour GO trains parked side by side on tracks 3&4 at Bramalea to let off passengers who are commuting home from Toronto. The train on track 4 (which has cab car 318 in the lead) happens to be a older 10 car train which only ran as far as Bramalea meanwhile, 357’s train on track 3 happens to be one of the a newer 12 car trains and it will continue on westbound throughout afternoon rush hour until eventually reaching its finishing point at Kitchener GO.
On both trains (depending on where they were sitting), passengers getting off at Bramalea had to move up several coaches before getting off as certain sections of both platforms are closed off for the ongoing construction of platform expansion. By the time the project is all complete, Bramalea GO would hopefully be able to accommodate all 12 car trains so passengers won’t have to get up and walk down several coaches before hopping off.
With the newer block of wood and warning sign (to warn construction workers I assume) resting right on top of the disused spur into Kuehne + Nafel just after the switch, it appears that yet again they aren’t really interested in any kind of rail service. Looking at the length of their building, it appears that their spur accommodated well over a dozen box cars back in the day but now (like most buisness in Brampton), they’ll likely choose to rely on CN BIT with any rail shipments. Time was 17:19
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Khune & Nagel are an overseas freight forwarding company. I’m sure most of their business arrives and departs their warehouse in containers.
Awesome shot man
Great picture Graydon. Lots going on in your shot.
FYI. This location actually only has three tracks at Halwest. The track that 318 is on is a stub track at the moment and is referred to as the Bramalea Commuter lead. It will be a 4th track someday. Probably after Metrolinx acquires the Halton Sub
Thank you for the comments and info guys!!
@ngoneered4u wow I actually never really knew that! Roughly a decade or so ago at this time, I remember the first track on the north was a local service track and the following tracks were numbered 1,2 and 3 making the Bramalea Commuter Lead as track 3 and mostly for GO trains as 1&2 took almost all freight traffic.
Sometime in the late 2000s, CN ended up realigning the tracks and converting the north local service track into a mainline so therefore all tracks at Bramalea were numbered 1,2,3 and 4 making 4 the Commuter Lead but honestly from what I recall, it was rarely used throughout the early-mid 2010s. Almost all commuter trains arrived & departed on track 3 and freights took tracks 1&2 but occasionally the odd freight would take track 3 if tracks 1&2 were occupied (usually the local 559 would be involved in this case while its clogging up track 1 to switch the north industries near highway 10).
Ever since early January of 2015, the track #4 platform was actually completely closed off for the platform expansion project so I don’t think the commuter lead saw ANY trains (only MOW equipment) until 2019 when the workers reopened a small portion so passengers could get off on the platform (as I believe GO service expanded a bit more) but nonetheless, thanks for the info and I myself am looking forward to seeing what Bramalea has to offer in the future!
Another side note, with some previous discussion I had with RP.ca contributor Mr Dan on a post last summer http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=34072 it appears that the Commuter Lead also was originally a local service track for a long time up until GO transit expanded their service and began using it for their trains in 2004.
@railfan99. There is no track 4. The commuter lead used to connect to track 3 and there was a derail at the west end. In fact a few years the roadswitcher mistook the commuter lead for track 3 and there was no one on the end of the train as they shoved back to get behind the light at Halwest. They were lined into the commuter lead and ended up shoving over the derail and ran through the switch at the west end, derailing tank cars with dangerous goods. It was all captured on video from the GO platform.
Well the platforms and stuff at Bramalea always numbered it track 4 but in reality I guess your right being that it’s not a main track.
And Interesting about the derailment, do you remember when it was?
@railfan99. I think that you are talking about GO transit using numbers for the tracks? Those numbers have never been used for track identification by the railroad as what is in the timetable. Those numbers are for the public. At this moment the Halton sub is 3 tracks from Halwest to Peel
What GO calls its platforms or tracks is different from what CN calls them. For example, back in the 2000′s CN called their two mainlines the north track and south track, where GO at the station referred to the platforms/tracks at the station as 1, 2 and 3 (the latter was the commuter track).
It’s different at Union Station as well, with track 1 at the trainshed being GO’s platform/track 3, and so on (I’ve heard the logic behind that was to start at 3, because the Union subway station platform tracks were regarded as 1 & 2…). GO also numbered the platforms at both sides of the tracks, so platforms 25 & 26 straddle track 13 for example.
@MrDan. I have no idea how GO comes up with the numbers for platforms at Union Station. Even i get confused any time i take a GO train there.
As for what CN called the tracks in the 2000′s? This applies anywhere on CN. If there are only two tracks they will always be either north and south or east and west. Once a third or fourth that no longer applies. Then the tracks become 1, 2,3 etc.
For 2 tracks, railways use north south or east west. For 3 or more tracks they number 1, 2, 3 etc from north to south or east to west.
Platforms at Union Station are numbered for emergency services so platform 1 is the TTC’s to University Spadina line, 2 is to the Yonge line. Three and on are in the train station.
Outside of Union the platform number is the same as the track it serves so at Bramalea the platforms are 2, 3 and 4 as track 1 only leads to the Halton Sub.
Track four’s platform has been ripped out 2 or 3 times while they try to decide what to do with it. The trains on platform 4 can only load through the accessibility door on car 5 and the doors on cars 6 and 7, at least that was what the signs said the last time I was there.