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Other Useful Railfan Information
Other Useful Railfan Information
-
Looking for us?...mailing lists and meets for Toronto area railfans
- When do the trains run
around here?
- Safety and Security
- Gone but not forgotten -
traces of former rail lines in Toronto
- Railfan Amateur Radio in Toronto
- Upper Canada Railway Society
- The Ultimate Information Source....
- Hotels, Motels, and
Campgrounds for Railfans
- A Nice Quiet Place to Curl
Up with a Book...
- Toronto's Transit Heritage
- Scanners and Amateur Radios -
My Other Obsession!
- Photo Gallery
Looking for us?
Online mailing
lists
for Toronto area railfans:
There are a
number of Yahoogroups.com mailing lists where local railfans exchange
information, answer questions, and generally hang out. These include:
C-P-R
- Discussion of CP Rail
C-N-R
- Discussion of CN Rail
CNET
- Mailing list of the CN SIG of the NMRA
ontfan
- A paging list for nifty trains in the southern Ontario area
CanPassRail -
Discussion of Canadian Passenger Railways
Bruce Rys
- Discussion of railway lines in the Bruce Peninsula
Sign
up with Yahoogroups (it's free), register with these lists, and
you'll get plenty of interesting email!
Two dormant
mailing lists are available at the listserver at the University of
Nebraska. These are:
CPRSOO
- CPR/SOO
CNET
- Mailing list of the CN SIG of the NMRA
To access these
lists, send an email message
to listserv@crc.vms.unl with the body reading
"subscribe
cnet " and your name
Up close and
face to face:
The C-N-R/C-P-R
list members hold an annual meet at Bayview Junction every summer
where fans can gather and put faces with the names. Watch for details
on these mailing lists.
When do the trains run around here?
A good question!
-
The main CN and CP freight lines run just about all the time. If you stake out the CN Halton and York Subdivisions, or the CP North Toronto and Galt Subdivisions, you can't avoid seeing a train before very long. For planning purposes, count on better than a train per hour. This is an average, there are lulls and there are periods of congestion on these lines.
- CN's
Lakeshore subdivisions - the Kingston and Oakville - will give you
frequent VIA runs, with weekday GO trains hourly in off hours and
constantly at rush hour. GO service is hourly on weekends... but
these routes are quiet in the wee hours.
- CP's
Mactier Subdivision sees 8-12 trains per day
- CN's Weston
Subdivision sees 6 VIA runs daily, frequent GO service at rush hours,
and bi-hourly daytime GO service on weekdays
- CN's
Uxbridge, Newmarket, Weston Subs see GO trains at rush hour but only
one or two daily roadswitchers
- CN's Bala Subdivision sees moderately heavy freight traffic north of Doncaster, but only a few daily freights south of Doncaster, plus rush-hour GO and 2-3 daily passenger trains.
Here's some information about
Safety and Security - Can I take pictures here?
The two most frequent questions the author gets from people thinking about visiting Toronto are, "Is Toronto a safe place to railfan?" and "Will I get hassled by the police if I am taking pictures of trains?"
First, about crime - Toronto is a very safe city, but no big city is perfectly safe.
-
Use common sense, especially if alone, at night, or in secluded areas.
- Keep
expensive cameras and electronic devices out of sight whenever possible.
- The public transit system is especially safe, and there aren't many "bad neighbourhoods". North Etobicoke and North Scarborough are the most troubled areas, but even these places aren't particularly dangerous for visitors.
Now, about Homeland Security - Railfanning is not grounds for paranoia in Toronto.
-
I have never heard of a railfan getting the "potential terrorist" treatment in Toronto.
- VIA
and GO Transit are becoming more security conscious. Shooting in GO
stations is technically against the rules. Lately, security in
Toronto Union Station has been tightened. But no one has been getting
the third degree over casual photography.
- If
you hang around one spot for long periods, you may be checked out by
the city cops, but their interest is mostly about whether you are a
drug dealer or whatever. Just be polite and friendly and answer their
questions directly. They are really nice once they know you're just
shooting trains.
- Relations between railway police and railfans are good, provided you stay off railway property. But they will write trespassing tickets readily (the fine is about $100) if you are found on the tracks. Don't count on getting off with a warning.
Railfan Amateur Radio in Toronto
There are
plenty of railfan hams (or is it ham railfans?) in the Toronto area.
Some repeaters
to try if you're a visiting ham are:
-
VE3 WOO 145.110 (-) PL 82.5
- VE3 CTV
145.370 (-)
- VE3 YYZ 145.350 (-) King City
Don't forget the favourite railfan simplex channel - 146.490
Upper Canada Railway Society
The UCRS is a
long-standing railway club with chapters in Toronto and Hamilton.
Until recently, the UCRS published the monthly publication Rail
and Transit. The
publication is dormant at the moment. The UCRS still holds meetings
in the Toronto and Hamilton areas.
The UCRS'
address is:
P.O. Box 122,
Station 'A',
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5W 1A2
(This is not an
official ad, just useful information)
Despite the
pause in its newsletter, the UCRS still maintains its UCRS
Home Page
The ultimate information source....
....The Canadian Trackside Guide.
Again, this is
not an official ad...but it's my humble opinion that the Trackside
Guide is the best, most valuable, source of information on railways
in Canada. It's published annually by the Bytown Railway Society. It
has locomtive and equipment rosters for mainline and industrial rail
operations, guides to preserved equipment, passenger schedules,
mileage and siding data for all Canadian rail lines, etc, etc, etc!
If you can't
find a copy in local hobby stores, the Bytown Railway Society's
snailmail address is:
P.O. Box 141,
Station 'A'
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 8V1
The BRS also publishes the monthly newsletter Branchline
Click here to contact Bytown by email or access the Bytown Web Site
Hotels, Motels, and Campgrounds for Railfans
I haven't done much research yet, but here are a couple of suggestions:
-
Royal York Hotel, Skydome Hotels...pricey high-class hotels with good views of Union Station
- There is a
large hotel next to Hiway 401 at McCowan with a good view of the CP
Toronto Yard throat. It is regularly bought and sold so I won't name
its current owners. Hace a nice indoor pool area for the family. Look
for a tall red brick tower just north of the highway.
- Indian
Line Campground...Finch Avenue West near Derry Road...right
beside the Halton Sub
- Darlington
Provincial Park...Camping by the Kingston Sub
- Albion Hills Conservation Area....by the Mactier Subdivision, north of Bolton
Be sure to
write me with your own favourites!
A nice quiet place to curl up with a book....
If you are
looking for places with railway reading:
The Metro
Reference Library,
789 Yonge Street north of Bloor, has a good collection of
periodicals including the CRHA's newsletter.
The Metro
Urban Affairs Library,
in the new City Hall building at 55 John Street, just two blocks
north of the John Street Interlocking Tower, has a great collection
of old UCRS Newsletters, Railway Age magazines, urban planning and
historical/heritage documents about Toronto's railways. You'll also
find lots of material on urban transportation, including the TTC and
GO Transit.
Metro
Toronto Library Information
Toronto's Transit Heritage
Toronto has a rich history of streetcars and electric interurbans - and an excellent modern-day public transit system. Check out William E. Miller's TTC page for all sorts of good stuff about the Toronto Transportation Commission.
Scanner Radios and Antennas (My other obsession)
Railway Radio frequencies in use around Toronto are:
|
CN |
Road - Channel 1 |
161.415 |
All trains monitor this channel |
|
RTC - Channel 2 |
161.205 |
Kingston Sub RTC |
|
|
RTC - Channel 3 |
160.935 |
Uxbridge/Newmarket
RTC |
|
|
RTC - Channel 4 |
160.665 |
Bala, Weston, York, Halton RTC |
|
|
RTC - Channel 8 |
161.025 |
Oakville, Halton RTC |
|
|
Police |
161.235 |
||
|
MOW |
160.215 |
||
|
CP |
Road Channel 1 |
161.475 |
Galt Canpa Havelock |
|
Road Channel 4 |
161.115 |
Mactier North Toronto Belleville |
|
|
Road Channel 5 |
161.325 |
Galt |
|
|
Road Channel 7 |
161.535 |
Mactier |
|
|
Road |
160.815 |
Hamilton |
|
|
Police |
159.885 |
||
|
MOW |
160.845 |
||
|
GO Transit |
Area-wide |
413.9375 |
|
|
Willowbrook Shops |
419.4375 |
||
|
VIA Rail |
TMC Operations |
463.9625 |
Yard and train servicing operations |
|
On Board Service |
160.200 |
Loco to train communication |
A local fan and ham enthusiast,
Bryan Passifiume', maintains an excellent web site about
Toronto Area Rail Scanning with all sorts of good scoop!
Our e-mail address: pcordingley(insert "at")rogers.com
Copyright © 1996, Paul Cordingley
Revised - February 17, 2005
url:http://www.trainweb.us/railsintoronto/othrinfo.html
