CN's Hanley Spur, From the Air

The Grand Trunk Railway (later CNR) built a line to its inner station at the foot of Johnson Street, which the Kingston & Pembroke (later CPR) had to cross to reach its 1885 station across from City Hall.  CN's line to downtown left the Toronto-Montreal Kingston Sub east of the outer station on Montreal Street.  CP's line to downtown crossed over the Kingston Sub via a steel bridge built in 1913.  The Railway Transport Committee granted CP permission to remove its Kingston Subdivision trackage between Mi 101.1 and 101.3 on February 18, 1974. The bridge was removed on March 29, 1974, as CN was realigning their sharp curve north, away from the outer station.  The industries served by the Hanley Spur are shown in this 1970's CN car control diagram, with the former CP line shown curving from left to right south of Elliott Avenue:

Some of the above CP-served spurs are shown numbered in an aerial photograph (below): 1. Anglin/Marker; 2. Coca-Cola; 3. George Weston; 4. MacCosham Van Lines; 5. Quattrochi Produce; 6. CE McPherson, 7. I Cohen/Pilkington Glass (long spur curving south to Joseph St); CN Outer Station and yard.  Elliott Avenue runs across the top, and Montreal Steet crosses up to the right, at bottom right corner of the aerial photo:

A 1984 CN car control map of the few remaining industries, all served by CN (former CP trackage shown as dotted line includes KH80 CE MacPherson, KH82 Quattrochi Produce, KH83 I Cohen, KH84 MacCosham Van Lines) and CN's KH05 Rosen Fuels (leased to Canfor), KH10 Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper (National Grocers) warehouse, KH15 Imperial Oil.

Paralleling marshland from its gently-curving alignment off the Kingston Sub (Outer Station is in top left corner-below), and Kingston's to-be garbage dump near Belle Park, the line straightened as it approached the Davis Tannery at bottom, in later years a 'brownfield' contaminated former industrial site.  CE MacPherson is the long building at extreme left, later served by a CP spur crossing Rideau Street near the River Street bridge.  Next three photos from 1924 aerial views, copied at Queen's Archives.

Meeting the CN Kingston Branch line, the CP paralleled it and Rideau Street, to the foot of North Street, site of CP's engine house (built in 1912) and small yard.  South of the River Street bridge, there was a semaphore controlling the crossing of the CP track across CN.  The next large building to the left of the track at the Cataraqui Street crossing became National Grocers, and to the east is the Woolen Mill, towards which two spurs diverge. On a 1924 insurance map, the Woolen Mill is listed as the Dominion Textile Co. Ltd. Kingston Branch Cotton Mill.

The line then bent around the CP engine house, past CN's freight house and 11-track team track yard. Near the throat of the yard were Anglin's substantial lumber operations, drydock and shipbuilding facilities. The sandy spur area at right once included a swing bridge.

Today the roadbed is barely visible along the water, with the OHIP building built on the site of the former railway facilities. Once the OHIP building construction began in 1981, CP's trackage in the area was removed.  Permission was granted to remove the following downtown trackage on the following dates:

• Mi 101.3-101.6, Mi 102.5-103.26  May 21, 1980
• Mi 101.6-101.85, Mi 102.09-102.5 January 31, 1983, and to transfer
• Mi 100.28-101.1, Mi 101-85-102.09 to CN ownership prior to the 1986 abandonment of CP's Kingston Sub

'North St' label was location of former Imperial Oil tanks.  The small, 1908-built limestone Imperial Oil warehouse to right of label is now owned by the City of Kingston. Yellow and black tanks at top of photo are Anglin-owned. (Whig-Standard Neighbourhoods series aerial photo, spring 1995)

Buildings abutted the right-of-way near the waterfront, so CN and CP shared a mutual track approaching City Hall (red and blue dashed line below). Then CN (red) continued along the water to reach its station then the Canadian Locomotive Co., while CP (blue) branched to its station and small yard across from City Hall. Today, a few buildings remain with odd-angled rear walls marking the former path of the mutual track south of Ontario Street.  In this 1965 aerial photo, CN's Wellington Street freight shed is still standing (red box) as is the Soward/Anglin's coal structure and spur (green line).  At one time, the GTR line (dashed red line) continued over a swing bridge across Anglin Bay, and continued north along the waterfront.

In this later aerial photo, the line to City Hall is gone (yellow line is Brock Street) and the white 'W' marks the Wolfe Island Ferry Dock.  The CN freight house is no longer standing, but a boxcar (red arrow) is visible in the small yard.  Want to see more?  Check this page by David Page.

A 1920's aerial view shows the heavy industrial nature of the waterfront along Ontario Street between Clarence and Queen Streets: ships, sheds, and smokestacks (Vintage Kingston Facebook photo) plus CPR passenger cars at the CP passenger station and the odd-angled buildings facing the tracks:

The CP passenger station, freight station and yard tracks between Clarence Street and Brock Street, and CN Hanley Spur (at bottom) are shown in this 1950's aerial view (CSTM Collection MAT007635):

Another two views, from Vintage Kingston Facebook, shows activity on the CP, though the engine seems to be behind the the warehouse, which also hosts a boxcar nearest the coalpiles. This photo, based on tour boat Miss Kingston operating from the Brock Street dock, would be from 1959.

A second view, circa 1960, shows stacked CPR-lettering boxcars and passenger cars at the station:

A Canadian Locomotive Company advertisement from 1951, as posted on Vintage Kingston Facebook shows an aerial view of the plant taken over Lake Ontario:

Next in the series...CN's Hanley Spur, Along the Line.  Back on terra firma!
Running extra...

Some interesting links:

Scale Model Plans hosts a nice assortment of unique structures.  Thanks to Tom Carson for featuring my VIA Rail books on his news page.

CNW Modelling is full of cool data pertaining to freight cars, the shipments they contain and possibilities for modelling them, centering on Milwaukee, WI in 1957.

Vintage Railroad Audio has an extensive CD listing by Jay Winn.  I'm currently listening to some of Jay's CN and CP action, and have three more discs to listen to.  

Super Connie Sim is not about a female Asian comic book hero.  Are you interested in transportation-based mockups, simulators and stuff?  Then this Super Constellation simulator may be for you.  A beautiful aircraft.