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Don Branch? I always thought that was the unused and abandoned portion of the Belleville Sub?
A brief history of the Don Branch. In 1888, the CPR was granted permission to build a branch line from Leaside Junction to Bay Street. Prior to this route being laid, the CPR had no direct route into downtown Toronto. Before the Don Branch, trains from Montreal and other eastern points were required to enter the city core by following a circuitous and perilous route. Locomotives had to transverse the northern reaches of the city entirely, stopping at Leaside Junction, then moving on to West Toronto Junction, then reversing five miles into Toronto’s original Union Station.
Reversing? This was because there were no curved lines leading from the westbound line to a southbound track. Considering the numerous level crossings at the time, reversing a train into a city centre was dangerous.
The construction of the Don Branch was an obvious and successful solution. Freight traffic opened on the Don Branch in 1892. The following year, the railway corridor was opened to CPR passenger trains.
The corridor remained in use for over a century. The final official train to travel the branch was CP’s holiday train. That was in December of 2007.
@homerjay84, technically you are correct! It is the continuation of the Belleville Sub, but another name for that section is the Don Branch.
@ngineered4u thanks for the info!! It’s sad that there is no logical use for it anymore, I would’ve loved to see a train on that line.
Well don’t get too sad. There are plans to use that line again. Metrolinx has plans to run on that line and go to Havelock at some point.
Really? Last I heard they wanted to use it for a layover facility and keep the section north of the Bloor Viaduct still abandoned.
Yes, that is a plan that i have heard from Metrolinx
Hi Liam, very nice picture, nicely framed and great colour. I saw this train at about 5:30pm rolling south through Old Cummer GO station, great to see #2 back in town again after, as you said, a 14 month absence. And ngineered4u, thanks for the history of CPR Don Valley Branch ( Trenton Sub, then Belleville Sub, and now owned by Metrolinx). Correct about GO using the line from Don Interlocker to just short of the south end of the viaduct over the Don River, ex-CN Bala Sub, and ramp from DVP to Bloor St and Bayview extension. Metrolinx has published on line a number of releases regarding the use of the track up to this point as a daytime lay over track for two or three diesel powered GO 12-car trains between morning and afternoon rush hours, along with location of proposed crew building, power plug-in facility. What’s interesting is that VIA’s proposal to use the CPR Havelock Sub and abandoned right-of-way on to Glen Tay/Belleville Sub to Smiths Falls for a higher-speed passenger line to Ottawa/Montreal would use the Don Branch out of downtown Toronto. The federal government in its recent budget provides funding for VIA to complete its feasibility study for this project and if it does go forward, a second track would have to squeezed in beside the proposed layover site, the track re-habilitated over the viaduct and up to Leaside and the switch put back in to get on to CP Belleville Sub. We live in interesting times, but in the meantime, hopefully VIA #2 will be rolling under the CP viaduct for years to come, even if it is only weekly. Thanks for posting, John