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Caption: "Nothing to see Here". Well, at least not any more. The CN yard is gone. It is weeds. The obnoxious dangerous dust spewing Cyanamid plant in the background was torn down in 1992, after being a plague on the north-end of the city for many years. The two GP9s, 4589 and leader 4592 are no longer around. This leaves us with pretty well nothing but the two track CN main line seen on the left. Most of what was once a notorious industry ( which produced calcium cyanide) and once was a rather large CN yard as seen in this photo is today nothing but wasteland, save for an arena built on part of the rejuvenated Cyanamid factory property on the far extreme left.
So, the photo is old enough to be filed under history, having been taken from the Victoria Avenue overpass 45 years ago next month.
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There is another thing you don’t see any more in this photo. If you notice, the unit closest to us is in fact, backing up. That means that the engineer is on the right side. Look very carefully along the string of cars he has a hold of…and you’ll see a trainman clinging to the side of a car near the other end of the cut. Back in the day, even when equipped with radios, crew members tried as much as possible to be on the
engineer’s side. This was to be able to issue hand signals. The old lunchbox radios crapped out sometimes and it was nice to be able to revert to hand signals. I wonder if today’s railroaders even know how use hand signals?
Thanks, Ronald. I was too intent on getting a shot of 6060, which had just passed to realize the trainman way back. The fact this yard power was pulling up near where I was standing gave me the opportunity not only to catch 6060 but some yard action as well. Sure miss those days.