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Caption: It's 8:04am and the usual crowd of Bramalea commuters, sipping their morning coffees and chatting on their cellphones, have all shuffled from the south side of the platform to the north side as GO Transit F59PH 544 leads train #210 (the final morning train from Georgetown, running on time) under Steeles Avenue overpass and into Bramalea GO station, with ditch lights dimmed and bell ringing. Everyone would soon pile on in the usual "semi-orderly" fashion, grab what free seats were still available (sorry Malton and Etobicoke commuters, you get to stand!) and settle in for the ~30 minute ride to another day in downtown Toronto.
Everyone always crowded the south side of the platform as usual morning practice was for the CN RTC to run the GO's on the south track between Peel and Halwest, giving them a straight shot onto the Weston Sub (judging from the work flags there may have been track work going on along the south that morning). GO 544 is on the "old" north main track, today the #2 main after the GO triple-tracking upgrade was completed. The north service track is visible next to it (present-day #1 main track), with switches to the Torbram Industrial Lead and Lipton Lead visible (I spy two boxcars spotted at Robert Transport). In the distance the CN Halton Sub climbs to the downtown Brampton area, with West Dr. and Highway 410 overpasses visible beyond the old signalbridge.
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Nice one Dan!! Must have inspired you to post this after seeing the photo I posted yesterday of the GEXR at Bramalea?
Anyway one quick question, do you know by any chance if 559 still dose the Lipton Lead? It’s been quite some time since I seen any box cars sitting over there.
One of my biggest missions this summer is to capture the infrequent train that goes to the industrial area near Queen st on the Torbram Lead. Bet that operations over there at the time this photo was taken were much more common than present.
Anyway thanks for sharing!!
Unfortunately it doesn’t appear anyone on the Lipton Lead gets service anymore, the last customer was Robert Transport (ex-Titan Transport) that closed up shop in the early 2010′s. Most of the spur behind the warehouse buildings appears to have been removed now.
Just keep an eye on when a train heads up the Torbram Lead, and it shouldn’t be too hard to follow. There aren’t too many customers along it, so they’ll probably either switch Hubbarts off East Dr., or head up to the run-around at Walker Dr. before shoving further north to switch that part of the Bramalea Business Park. I think current customers are Confederation Freezers, Par-Pak and Plastmo (way at the north end), although I could be wrong.
Thanks for the advice Dan! Ya last time I saw box cars sitting in their siding was probably sometime in 2013. Kind of a funny fact, only time I ever managed to follow 559 all the way up to the Bramalea Business Park was Civic Holiday 2014 (pretty much 4 years ago today as today is the holiday Monday). After that whenever I was able to chase them from end to end they only went as far as the Sutton Stormant plant which is about half a km north of the Clark BLVD crossing.
With the consumers though you seem to be right about Par-Pak and Plastmo although the spur serving Confederation Freezers that crosses Summerlea rd dosent look to have seen a train in sometime. I checked out the area last Friday actually to see if it looks like any of the factories made any rail shipments resonantly and their siding seems to be rusting away.
I did have a question tho as well speaking of that spur, it seems that the Summerlea rd crossing was once a double track crossing and that the second track was on the north and continued on straight past summerlea, do you have any idea where the north track went before it got torn out and paved over? Thank you again for the advice, as long as the weather cooperates I hope to check out 559 again tomorrow. Have a great rest of your holiday Monday!!
The spur that once ran just north of Confederation Freezers was to service the K-Mart/Zellers/The Bay warehouse (demolished 2014, and a new warehouse built on the site), it had a switchback and siding that ran to the east side of the building (the City of Brampton has a map archive on their site that you can access various years, including 1994 when it was still there).