Caption: Train 83, led by CNR U-1-f 6071, a 1944 product of MLW, crosses the Desjardins Canal on its journey from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Due into Hamilton James Street station at 1440h, the train will change numbers from 83, the westbound trip from Toronto, to 86 for the eastbound trip to the Falls. 6071 would be scrapped in June 1961.

Originally constructed as a swing bridge in 1855 by the Great Western Railway, Canada’s third worst railway disaster would occur on this bridge on March 12, 1857, when a Hamilton-bound train with a broken axle tore through the bridge, plunging into the canal below. 59 souls perished. (More information from the Hamilton Public Library HERE.). The bridge would be rebuilt in its current form in 1859, though the solid bridge no longer allowed large ships to access Dundas via the canal, eliminating the town as a port facility. Modifications would come again in 2016 with the installation of a third span for Metrolinx expansion into Hamilton’s West Harbour GO station.

Note the overpass just above the head end cars: Valley Inn Road, which, as seen in this 1959 aerial, crossed over the CNR “cowpath” and CPR Goderich Sub just south of York Boulevard, joining it just west of the rail lines. Further off to the right near Bayview Junction, the large sign overlooking the scene sits just north of the intersection of Highways 2 and 6, today the intersection of York Boulevard and Plains Road West and can be seen much closer in this circa 1960 shot. “NEILSON’S JERSEY MILK CHOCOLATE, THE BEST MILK CHOCOLATE MADE.”

Robert F. Collins Photo, Jacob Patterson Collection Slide.