Way back when I lived in West Toronto and attended Humberside Collegiate I
found and read a history of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce that was a doctoral
thesis/dissertation written by a woman 20 or 30 years earlier. I do remember
that it was quite detailed and that I found it quite fascinating. Before I
moved away (in 1961 to Richmond Hill as part of the flight to the suburbs) I
found that it was no longer in the West Toronto branch collection. I hope that
when it was removed from the West Toronto branch it went to the main reference
library downtown.
Brian Freemantle
Prince George, BC
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Derek Boles <derekboles@...> wrote:
1a. Re: Interlocking towers Northern Diamond
Posted by: "rlkennedy27" r.l.kennedy@... rlkennedy27
Date: Sun Oct 4, 2009 4:35 pm ((PDT))
When I first began railroading at Lambton Yard in the '50's I heard
frequent references to the "Diamond" which of course, I knew meant
West Toronto Diamond. Very infrequently I would hear a reference to
the "Northern Diamond". At first I assumed it was north of the (West
Toronto) Diamond. I soon found out it was EAST of the Diamond. (I
never wondered why it was called "Northern" instead of "Eastern").
Once I began to learn about other railways I first thought its early
history was Canadian Northern since I knew of its existance as a
component of the CNR. As I learned more about the history of
railways I discovered it was actually the Northern Railway of Canada
which hadn't existed for a century! Talk about old names lasting a
long time. In more recent years, since the existance of the CROR
places were given a name that never had one in the employee time
tables. The Northern Diamond became Davenport Diamond. Nowadays,
like so many other things lost to antiquity I doubt there is anyone
on the railway who knows how the former Northern diamond got its name.
Other old names that still hold on are tracks and industries. In
West Toronto Yard there is a track still known as the water track.
It was a lead track that steam yard locomotives used to get to a
water stand every four hours. Nobody could tell you that now even if
there was someone still working at Lambton Yard!
Industries often change ownership yet, crews still refer to the old
name. A good example is the former Alkaril (chemicals) private
siding near Cooksville. It changed to Rhone-Poulenc and is now
Rhodia. Yet, it is still called Al-kah-rill. Old names die hard!
Raymond, weren't you the one who first told me about the "Old Bruce,"
that portion of the old Toronto, Grey & Bruce that disappeared in
1883, but railroaders still referred to the track that way until the
1990s?
Derek Boles
