Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Over the years I’ve accumulated thousands of historical images of railways from a number of different sources. When I became involved with the TRHA in 2001, I started collecting in earnest images that helped tell the story of Toronto’s railways. Recently I published the book Toronto’s Railway Heritage, a photographic record of the railway era in Toronto from 1853 to 1930. In the book I included just about all the 19th century images of Toronto’s railways that were available. The total was about 80, roughly one-and-a-half photographs for every year that railways operated in the city before 1900.
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There are significant gaps in the photographic record of Toronto’s railway history. There are no known photographs of the first five years of railway operation since photography was still in its infancy in the 1850s. There are no known images of the interiors of the first three Union Station headhouses, even though the station before the current one survived until 1927. I’ve never been able to locate a verifiable photograph of the Toronto Belt Line while it was in operation, nor of a Canadian Pacific passenger train at North Toronto Station. Even more modern structures seemed to have defied the photographic record. Only recently was I able to obtain a good image of the Canadian Pacific Express building at King and Simcoe streets that wasn’t demolished until the 1970s to make way for Roy Thomson Hall.

Toronto is fortunate in that many of the best railway images are available in the City of Toronto Archives. The TRHA’s relationship with the city has resulted in many of these images becoming part of our own archive. Unfortunately, sometimes there is no information about a photograph in the archival records or the information supplied is simply wrong.
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Image #1 is a view of the Great Western Railway station at the foot of Yonge Street. One well-researched book indicated that it dated from a short time after the station opened in 1866. Study the image for a while and see if you can determine why the date is wrong.
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The first and most obvious problem with that date is the couple on the left who are strolling along the sidewalk. The two are clearly in motion. We’ve all seen photographs from that era with people stiffly posed in order to minimize any motion that would blur the photograph. The reason for that is the speed of the glass plates (the “film”) was so slow that it was incapable of freezing motion.
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There are other clues as well, such as the boy on the bicycle to the right of the couple. Although cycling existed in the 1860s, it had not yet caught on with the general public and bikes in the photo that are similar to those we see today didn’t appear until the 1890s. There’s also the cobblestone paving on Yonge Street. I have other photographs showing it as dirt road until around the turn of the 20th century.
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If one was really dedicated to taking the time to date this photograph, an analysis of the clothing styles would provide further clues, as would examining city directories to determine when the McKinnon Store whose name is on the wagon was in business. It would seem that this photograph was taken in the first decade of the 20th century. The City Archives dates it as possibly 1908 but with a question mark.

Now the fun starts. The next two images I’m unsure about; the last one I am, but I’ll leave it you, our dear readers, to see if you can identify it. Write me at derekboles@rogers.com if you think you know and I’ll post the results.
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Image #2 is dated February 17, 1911. The location is along the Lakeshore near High Park and it shows the reconstruction of the Grand Trunk Railway, now Canadian National’s Oakville Sub. What is that contraption and what is it used for?
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Image #3 shows an “old locomotive on exhibit at waterfront 1908?” Where does this engine come from? Who owned it? Why was it on exhibit? The TRHC would never have something this decrepit on display at Roundhouse Park!
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Image #4 – Date? Location? Tracks on left? On right? Structure on horizon?
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Posting by Derek Boles, Toronto Railway Historical Association Historian
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