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How it all began. This photo of the Sunday evening Havelock to Toronto Dayliner taken by brother best exemplifies my introduction to railroading. I was born and raised in Peterborough. Our family would use the Saturday train for trips to Toronto. The train would seem to take forever to arrive due to the city's 10 mile per hour speed limit. No horn blowing either. All you could do was wait and watch the Mars light flash as it slowly made its way to the station. I have lots of good memories of these trips, seeing the countryside, passing through Agincourt yard, crossing the Leaside bridge, the then filthy Don River, Don Yard and into Union Station. I vividly remember one trip back from Toronto during a blizzard, probably in 70 or 71. Drifts had blown across the line, and in the open stretches the engineer accelerated as much as possible before hitting the drift. Once we hit the drift, you could feel and hear the car pushing through the drift. The speed would drop and drop until finally we would break through. Then we would accelerate as quickly as possible before the next drift. When we arrived in Peterborough the crew were looking under the first car. The drifts had dislodged a 5 foot square pan on the underbody which was now only secured by a 4 inch wide strip of aluminum and dragging on top of the rails which could have caused us to derail. The crew tried going back and forth a few times to dislodge it to no avail. In the mid 70s we started driving to Pickering and taking the GO train in to Toronto. I didn't ride again until 1981 when I went to college in Scarborough, and used it for a few trips home until the train was cut by VIA.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Eric May all rights reserved.



Caption: How it all began. This photo of the Sunday evening Havelock to Toronto Dayliner taken by brother best exemplifies my introduction to railroading. I was born and raised in Peterborough. Our family would use the Saturday train for trips to Toronto. The train would seem to take forever to arrive due to the city's 10 mile per hour speed limit. No horn blowing either. All you could do was wait and watch the Mars light flash as it slowly made its way to the station. I have lots of good memories of these trips, seeing the countryside, passing through Agincourt yard, crossing the Leaside bridge, the then filthy Don River, Don Yard and into Union Station. I vividly remember one trip back from Toronto during a blizzard, probably in 70 or 71. Drifts had blown across the line, and in the open stretches the engineer accelerated as much as possible before hitting the drift. Once we hit the drift, you could feel and hear the car pushing through the drift. The speed would drop and drop until finally we would break through. Then we would accelerate as quickly as possible before the next drift. When we arrived in Peterborough the crew were looking under the first car. The drifts had dislodged a 5 foot square pan on the underbody which was now only secured by a 4 inch wide strip of aluminum and dragging on top of the rails which could have caused us to derail. The crew tried going back and forth a few times to dislodge it to no avail. In the mid 70s we started driving to Pickering and taking the GO train in to Toronto. I didn't ride again until 1981 when I went to college in Scarborough, and used it for a few trips home until the train was cut by VIA.

Photographer:
Eric May [166] (more) (contact)
Date: 03/1981 (search)
Railway: Canadian Pacific (search)
Reporting Marks: CP 9071 (search)
Train Symbol: Not Provided
Subdivision/SNS: Havelock (search)
City/Town: Peterborough (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 23418

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

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One Comment
  1. Very nice, Eric. This image brings back a lot of memories for me. I grew up with the mainline of the CPR running against my back yard in Scarborough. If I got ready in time for school, I’d watch this train pass at 8:34 AM. It was normally on time. It was a great way to start my day! Thanks for posting, Sir.

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