Friday, November 20, 2015

Postscript: Toronto Waterfront Stroll

While on this enjoyable November afternoon stroll, the easternmost point I reached was the Water's Edge Promenade, just past Sugar Park, in sight of  Redpath Sugar. Corus Entertainment and the tony George Brown College buildings are here. Looking west, the stern of saltie Torrent is just visible beneath the increasingly leafless maples. Check out the guardrail:
Looking east toward the Essroc cement terminal on Cherry Street, at which the cement boat "Stephen B Roman" often calls with cement powder from Picton, Again, note the guardrail. And when I say guardrail, I mean guard-RAIL. I noticed the blue-painted horizontal segments, intended to retain rubber-necking tourist gawkers like me from tumbling into the water while uttering phrases like, "Gee honey, ever see somethin' that big that didn't have 'John Deere' written on it?" These are actual rails, turned 90-degrees and welded in place, between bollards!
Other strollers might have thought I was photographing Toronto's aquatic life, driftwood, flotsam, jetsam, cinder-block-weighted Habs fans, well you get the idea. But I was merely trying to get good light on the lettering formed on the rail - manufacturer, weight per yard, and year of manufacture and month (vertical 'I' hashmarks). Though several pieces were lettered C.P.R., I wondered about the source of these rails. While they may have come from removed waterfront trackage, that may not necessarily be the case. But they are sturdy! 
Algoma 100-lb 1965

Algoma 85-lb 1920

Algoma 100-lb

Algoma 85-lb  1919

Algoma 85-lb 1913

Algoma 80-lb 1905 C.P.R.

DOSCO (Dominion Steel and Coal Corp.) 100-lb 1967
Running extra...

Steve Young is killing it on Railpictures with his photo collection from Nova Scotia! Mostly MLW!

Everett Baker travelled Saskatchewan in the 1940's. His photos are so real, so earnest and so honest. What an amazing photographic record of an era of hard work and simple joys. Baker's photos are also in a book.

A 15-second video of the power of CN No 149 westbound through Kingston on November 21.

Thanks to loyal Trackside Treasure readers Jason Paul Sailer (truck sale) and Mark Perry (CP trailer photo) I recently added a couple of CP Express & Transport trucks to my Vancouver Wharves HO scale layout.

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