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Caption: This is the First Run of the Maple Leaf thru Niagara over the CN Grimsby Sub. The train is shown eastbound crossing the trestle known on the timetable as "CN Iron Bridge", with the GM #2 plant dominating the background. On the left is the Welland Canal Lift Bridge #6, and the superstructure of a Lake Erie -bound ship can be seen. This photo was shot from up in now off-limits property of Walker Industries quarry, and is an impossible angle these days. Because this is a first run, the total consist was noted: AMTK Loco 344, baggage, 1370 and coaches 21126, 21148, 21071, 21054, 20224 and 21107.
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Geez GM was huge back then! I can see a ton of boxcars in behind GM..did you manage to catch any local trains shunting or around GM? And nice shot, as well. I’ve always loved the Iron Bridge.
What trains I did catch within the plant, with that yellow switcher they used to have, as well as some other strange unit, were all behind the security fences and I never did get a clear decent photo.
I can attest to the fact that that body of water we see in the foreground was great for catching critters – the kind you’d find in a pond, and especially a big one like we see here. Doubt if that pond still exists – since much of the area east of the Third Welland Canal is now part of a golf course.
If you are referring to ‘critters’ such as newts and salamanders and the like; yeah, it was probably loaded. I did my “ferocious hunting” for same at Fisher’s Pond in North Burlington when I was a kid.
) Haven’t been in the area of this photo in years. It is probably off limits by now.
Thanks to the construction of the third and fourth Welland Canals, and the rail-lines associated with them, that area of Merritton and Thorold lent itself to pasttimes beyond catching critters. You could swim in the various bodies of water around what remained of the third Welland Canal, and one of them in particular – the Mudhole (just a very short walk from the trestle seen in this photo) – was excellent for skating.
Spent many summer days in the late 80′s around this area watching trains. Times sure have changed with GM or even getting near this area now. Even recall a school trip with Burleigh Hill up in this area around 87 or 88.
Geez first day and they put it on the south track…must have been fun at the St Kitts station