Caption: Toronto's Riverdale! In another rare view of east-end Toronto along the CN Kingston Sub, GO Transit GP40TC 602 heads up a 5-car eastbound Lakeshore line GO train to Pickering, having just departed Union Station minutes earlier. The consist is seen passing some old disused station platforms north of Queen Street East, and won't be stopping here, nor have any GO or CN trains for at least 3 decades past...

The building visible on the right (in shadow) is the reason why there are platforms here: this was CN's old Riverdale Station location (built in 1896 as the GTR's Queen East Station) off Queen & De Grassi Street, that was closed in the early 1930's when the Union Station/TTR corridor was grade-separated. When Riverdale ceased to be a stop on CN, they leased the station building out for various uses, including as a private residence, until it was demolished in 1974 (the site is now part of Bruce Mackey Park). The abandoned platforms between the mainlines appear to have survived into the 1980's.

Other notable mentions in the scene: on the left (north of Queen) is the old Dunlop Tires plant (closed 1970, one of the warehouse buildings was reused for the Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre). In the distance is a "gasometer" gas storage tank for Consumers Gas Station B, one of their three coal gas manufacturing plants in downtown Toronto (by this time the site had been closed, and the gasometer was later demolished in 1969). In the background by the water tower is the Lever Brothers (Unilever/Korex) Don Valley soap plant (opened 1950, closed in 2009).

But what's old is new again: despite no GO trains ever stopping at Riverdale, Metrolinx/GO and the TTC are planning on establishing a new multi-modal Riverside-Leslieville Station here. A photo of the current GO 602 stopping at the new station platforms may be possible sometime in the near future!

Foster Morrison photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.