Canadian Pacific Railway
Toronto Yard

by R. L. Kennedy

View from the hump looking east, General Yard Office (GYO). Canadian Pacific/Roger Robinson

Canadian Pacific Railway's Toronto Yard is often erroneously referred to as Agincourt Yard. The reason for this is its location in what was once Agincourt, Ontario, part of Scarborough Township, (later the Borough of Scarborough and finally the City of Scarborough before being amalgamated into the City of Toronto.) Since 1954 Scarborough was part of Metropolitan Toronto, which also disappeared with the amalgamation January 1, 1998. The post office continued to use the address of Agincourt, Ontario for the village for many years. Most of the yard was actually beyond the small village, except the far west end. The situation was further exasperated by the fact Agincourt remained a point in the timetable with a small station serving passengers particularly on the old O&Q main line through Havelock. So, it became an accurate expression to say a train was "going to Agincourt" even though Toronto Yard was its actual destination. Originally, the C.P.R. had called it the Agincourt Marshaling Yard, but changed this before its opening. The reason was simple; it was the main freight marshalling yard and terminal for Toronto and would be better identifiable across Canada. Lambton Yard, the existing freight yard actually used the station number (3190) of its first component, West Toronto Yard. Its telegraphic code was JU (Junction) and this carried over to teletype as well. The two names long interchangeable, but Lambton was a name not easily recognized at distant points. There was also Lambton Park, an industrial area in Calgary! To further confuse things there was also Toronto Coach Yard, although usually called John Street, only the Engine Terminal was officially so named. (Later, the piggyback terminal was also named John Street) The coach yard was also "Toronto" due to its downtown location, so the "other" Toronto was often referred to as Agincourt to distinguish between the two. Thoroughly confused? Good! Now, let's get on with the story.

The selection of its location in the far northeast of Metro Toronto, north of Sheppard Avenue East, west of Markham Road and south of Finch Avenue West, between the two Toronto-Montreal main lines was the culmination of decades of choices and delays. It was in a way an inferior location since the majority of local freight traffic was in the west end near Lambton Yard. There was also much additional local traffic in the downtown area served by Parkdale Yard, closer to West Toronto and Lambton than to Agincourt. Parkdale was to be closed immediately Toronto yard was opened. It didn't happen. Industry in Agincourt was practically non-existent, only Scarborough and Leaside had an appreciable amount of local traffic, but in total it represented a small fraction of what there was in the west end. For decades, this would require three transfers around the clock, seven days a week to move local traffic between the "Hump Yard" and other yards in the Toronto Terminals. This would continue until changing times resulted in the loss of most industry served by private sidings, bringing about the closing of Parkdale yard. There is still one transfer a day between Lambton and Toronto Yard, handling local traffic for as far west as Streetsville and Guelph Junction!

The need for a new yard had existed since World War II when Lambton and West Toronto had proven unable to handle the demands of greatly increased wartime traffic levels, which followed the large decline of the Great Depression. The yard was seriously congested and hampered by lack of capacity. It was common to hold trains out of the yard for many hours, wasting crews and engines. A Catch 22 situation developed whereby trains couldn't get into the yard until trains first got out. Trains couldn't get out until crews and engines were available. For some reason it was apparently beyond the ability of decision makers to leave the trains, send the road engine and crew to the shop and later call an extra yard to pull trains into the yard. Not in my budget, I guess.

Many times over the years locations for a new yard were considered, and in some cases land was bought. This included Obico, Emery, and Kleinburg not far from Vaughan, where years later hundreds of acres were bought for a major intermodal yard. Wexford, just west of Agincourt was also considered. One location selected on the Mac Tier Subdivision was discovered to be in a snow belt! There were also various proposals to expand Lambton Yard including one to convert West Toronto Yard into a hump yard.

Finally, on September 11th. 1959, the Board of Transport Commissioners handed down its decision approving the application of the Canadian Pacific Railway to construct a hump classification yard east of Agincourt in the Township of Scarborough. 432 acres of land was bought and the work began. It took 20 giant earth-moving machines five months to excavate 54,000,000 cubic feet of fill and was one of the largest such jobs ever attempted. Excavating and grading took an entire year. The following two years, 1961 and 1962, were used to lay the more than 90 miles of track and 311 switches. Buildings were started in 1962 and signals and communications installed in 1963. The yard opened in April 1964 at the change of time.

The yard under construction October 1960. R. L. Kennedy

Further construction work August 1961. R. L. Kennedy

Toronto Freight Yard booklet

Even here a cost cutting decision saw the land requirements reduced with the result tracks were curved to fit west of Markham Road instead of running straight east across it. Little room for expansion was another result of this smaller land acquisition. There was also minimal land for industrial expansion something recognized as being a problem as far back as the late 1920's! The lack of a buffer resulted in housing being built too close to the yard in later years which would result in noise complaints plaguing the railway.

By the time land was purchased prices had risen as the city built out making it more expensive. The budgeted cost was $15 million, a lot of money in the early1960's. By this time choices were fewer and it was pretty well the last location of a large amount of land next to a main line.

Aerial view looking northeast. Click to enlarge and read text.

The 1950 proposal for a new yard at either Kleinburg or Wexford included a by-pass across the north of Metro Toronto to avoid the grades up Wexford and to Bolton. A costly project, it would have greatly reduced traffic through the city and cut operating costs over the grades out of Toronto. It never came about.

When Canadian National also relocated out of the city to its new Toronto Yard it bit the bullet and built a long bypass to go with it in 1967. It was said the CPR was offered joint use of this bypass provided they paid for a third main track with each road having use of all tracks as traffic required. The CPR apparently wanted to use the two tracks for wheelage charges only. It didn't happen. When traffic problems grew after Toronto Yard opened, the CPR allegedly offered to pay for a third track, but the CNR was no longer interested having seen traffic growth of its own on the bypass and they decided to keep it for themselves. Another lost opportunity.

Toronto Yard was the most modern freight marshalling yard in Canada when it opened in April 1964. The first hump retarder yard in Canada was the C.P.R.'s St. Luc Yard, (Montreal) which when it opened early in 1950 was also the most modern freight marshalling yard in Canada. St.Luc also contained the second last roundhouse built in Canada. (The last was Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.) The only other retarder yard on the CPR is Alyth (Calgary), which was later converted from an existing flat yard.

The production line style of switching a retarder yard uses is completely different from the traditional method used in older yards, and has an advantage handling what has become known as "loose car" traffic. They were at a disadvantage handling unit trains or through trains. Built in an era largely before unit trains (except perhaps for grain) and before container and stack trains, the growth of these types of trains and the operation of more "through" trains has changed hump yards, even eliminating them. St.Luc was one such yard where the hump was removed.

In those older yards cars or cuts of cars are "flat switched" often by cutting the cars off in motion, allowing them to roll to a stop. Some yards, such as Lambton and West Toronto were designed with a very low hump, almost invisible, along with saucer shaped tracks that prevent cars from rolling out the other end. Parkdale, a small, local yard in downtown Toronto was a flat yard with a grade that required cars to be ridden and hand braked. Winnipeg is an old rider hump yard, with about a four-foot high hump.

Toronto Yard was based upon the Great Northern hump yard at Minot, North Dakota. This was because it was designed to handle 2500 cars per day, the same capacity as was needed in Toronto. A single-track hump can handle about 800 cars per shift. When the count gets up to about 835, damages begin occurring. There was however, one major difference between Minot and Toronto. Minot, "in the middle of nowhere", was strictly an east-west marshalling yard, with only the one main line, no branches or local jobs. Toronto was a major terminal, originating and terminating trains for five main lines, and more importantly, home to a large number of yard and local jobs serving local industries requiring transfers between several yards.

A modern diesel shop replaced obsolete outdoor facilities at Lambton where the roundhouse had been previously demolished (1960). Roundhouses were designed for steam locomotives and not easily adaptable to diesels, the turntable being a serious impediment to servicing multiple unit consists requiring them to be disconnected.

Two modern car shops were also built. One, a new type of repair shop called a "one spot" was where light repairs were performed. Here, a car was left in one place with all tools and equipment available next to it. It replaced an open-air facility in West Toronto. Also, a heavy repair shop replaced similar indoor shops at West Toronto, although some major work had to be sent to Angus Shops.

A major feature left out of the original plans was a turntable. It was felt this was a holdover from the steam era and un-necessary in the diesel era, the few units needing to be turned could be turned on the wye. Fortunately, this decision was changed and the shop track layout altered to accommodate a relocated 110' turntable from???

Train-Yard Co-ordinator Al "Chrome Dome" Smith in GYO Tower. Canadian Pacific

7403-7404 on crest of the hump. Note special signals, hump shack for yard foreman and GYO.
Sunday, February 1, 1970 David M. More

Initially, yard switching was supervised by a Train-Yard Co-ordinator (Co-ordinator), who controlled movements in and out of the yard in conjunction with train Dispatchers and the Operator, as well as co-ordinating work by the Hump Yardmaster, Retarder Operator, and Pulldown Supervisor. The TYC and Hump Yardmaster worked in a tower attached to the General Yard Office (GYO) and located right at the hump. The retarder operator worked in a separate smaller tower part way down the hump nearer the classification (class) yard. A third tower known as the Pulldown, near the far northeast end of the yard was where the Pulldown Supervisor worked. The Pulldown Supervisor was a promotion for Yard Foremen with the Company selecting the man. The job was higher paid than a Yard Master, but less than a Co-Ordinator. Eventually, the Supervisor was eliminated with the work being handled at the GYO tower with the aid of remote cameras.

The yard in June 1972. R. L. Kennedy

Aerial view circa 1982

A major $12-million (almost as much as the original cost!) modernization occurred in late 1982 when the hump retarder was rebuilt into an automatic one, computer controlled using General Railway Signal (GRS) Class-Matic Mark III Automatic Classification Control. Included was a weigh-in-motion scale that could be used for legal (customer) purposes rather than using a standard type of track scale located at the Pulldown, which required additional switching and consequent delays. This modernization eliminated the need for a Retarder Operator to control the retarding function resulting in better production. This position had required special training with the Company selecting the men qualified to work it. It was a higher paid position than a Yard Foreman but lower than a Yardmaster.

This new system was designed to interface with YARDS, Yard Activity and Reporting System, a central computer system for the clerical inventory of each individual freight car which was scheduled for start-up in 1984.

Yard jobs were located at the hump and the pulldown. Normally, two hump jobs worked each shift with a Yard Foreman and Helper (plus an engineer) using two yard units in m.u. Later, a third unit would be added to one job. These units were equipped with a cab signal system as well as a slow speed rheostat to control speed down to 2 ½ mph. The pulldown was normally assigned two jobs per shift each with two m.u. yard units.

Pulldown tower c.1987 Hans Boldt

The pulldown initially had normal three-man ground crews (switchmen/yardmen). It soon became common practice for the men to take turns with one man staying inside the lunchroom much of the time. One particular yardman gained the nickname "Horizontal Joe" for his frequent relaxing in the lunchroom! This finally resulted in the elimination of one position and the 2-man yard crew began. In 1967 it became standard everywhere.

The hump jobs initially also had normal three-man crews with the Foreman spending his time in the shelter transferring information to/from the Retarder Operator. These jobs also became two-man crews and eventually, with the coming of remote control, one man, without even an engineer! Remote control eliminated the engineer on yard jobs with two yardmen (one, a foreman) using the "Pitch and Catch" system made by Canac.

Changes to the track layout occurred over the years. Yard B was built with crossovers mid-way to handle short local trains. Yard C, the Classification yard, which has a total of 72 tracks, had one group of nine tracks (46-54) in the bowl left un-built for future expansion. These were eventually added when a futile attempt was made to close Lambton Yard.

Original track map of Toronto Yard

Track Map 2000

A Yard west departure and receiving yard.

Tracks A-1 to A-4 capacity 150 cars. future expansion. ADDED
Tracks A-5 to A-10 capacity 102-112 cars.

B Yard local yard departure and receiving.
Tracks B-1 to B-5 future expansion 54-67 car capacity
Tracks B-6 to B-10 west and east (10 tracks) 24-53 car capacity

C Yard Classification Yard 8 groups of 9 tracks each.
Tracks C-1 to C-18
Tracks C-19 to C-36
Tracks C-37 to C-45
Tracks C-46 to C-54 future expansion ADDED
Tracks C-55 to C-63
Tracks C-64 to C-72

ADDED C-16A, scrapping wrecked cars.
C-17A, C-18A cleanout tracks (Lauderdale car cleaners, contractor).

F Yard West Receiving and East Departure Yard
Tracks F-1 to F-5 and F-8 to F-10
Tracks F-6 to F-7 and F-11 to F-14 future expansion ADDED F-11 F-12 F-13
NOTE: F-2 and F-4 removed to allow motorized car inspection of through trains.

G Yard East Receiving Yard
Tracks G-1 to G-3
Tracks G-4 to G-6 future expansion ADDED F-4

ADDED GYO Spur

ADDED Both hump leads extended westward. Later, both dead-ended for remote controlled locomotive use.

Shove lights were added in July 1995 to tracks A1 to A10, B1 to B10, F1, F3, F5, F7 to F13 and L4. These lights were used to indicate when a cut of cars reached the end of a track without the need for a yardman to ride the point. They white light would extinguish when the end reached it, the crew would then reverse and pull the cut back slightly until the light relit. Air connection could then be made by carmen.

Piggyback yard A small two-track facility (with provision for 6 more tracks that were never added), was located at the edge of the yard just off Markham Road (Highway 48) near Finch Avenue East. It was closed in 1970 and dismantled in June 1972.

Cows rest in the field at Browns Corners while hundreds of VW's rest in the new Compound.
June 1972 R. L. Kennedy

Auto Compound used to unload new imported automobiles from multi-level flatcars. This facility was first located off Markham Road on the south side of Oshawa Sub. mainline with a wye into it. (A massive freight shed was later built on this site.) A small amount of used automobiles were also loaded here for shipment to western Canada. The Old compound was abandoned January 1972 following the opening in 1971 on the north side of Finch Avenue just west of Markham Road of the new much larger compound needed to handle the big increase in automobiles (especially Volkswagen and Toyota but also Mazda and Volvo) being moved by rail. It was located on newly-acquired adjacent land on the north side of Finch Avenue just west of Markham Road. This corner was where there once was a small shelter on the Peterboro Subdivision named Browns Corners.

Originally budgeted at $15 million Toronto Yard came in at $17 ½ million even with shortcuts. It eventually became too valuable for a railway yard. By the 1980's real estate boom it was worth $500 million! The value declined by 1998 to $250 Million. Yet the cost to remediate the land for residential use would be astronomical. Otherwise, it would be possible to build a new yard "for free" by relocating far out of Toronto, possibly on the Pickering Airport land reserve. NOTE: 20 acres on the north side of the yard near the pulldown were sold c.1990 for $22 Million, more than the entire yard cost in 1964!

SHOPS

Diesel shop A five-track enclosed structure of 34,000 square feet to provide for running repairs to over 200 units was first built. Expansion of the shop resulted in the following (north to south): 2 long through tracks into shop; 1short dead end track that does not enter the building; 3 long through tracks into the shop; 4 long tracks outside the building; 1 short dead end track towards the turntable.

Stores Department built onto the west end of the diesel shop it has a depressed track for unloading cars.

Car shop A 49,200 sq.ft. eight track structure built for 40,000 major and minor repairs annually. Adjacent is a building containing (east to west) the General Car Foreman's office, Car Dept. office, time clock area, and the ancilliary shops which included; electricians, upholstery, plumbers, painters, tinsmith, a 2 bay garage, air brake shop and finally the dope room (for journal lubrication pads). A three track heavy repair shop was later added to the north side of the one-spot. More recently (1999.) the one-spot had its walls removed and the facility changed to service diesel units. Car repairs once again being done in the open as in the last century at West Toronto.

Caboose shop A 9,900 sq.ft. structure with two tracks was added to handle local and run-through cabooses. This shop was later shut down with the end of the use of cabooses (vans) on most freight trains.

Radio shop This building was added, located right at the hump between the GYO and the Dormitory building, this building houses the radio repair facility as well as the Signals Dept. facilities for signals and crossing protection lights and gates etc.

Dormitory and Cafeteria a.k.a. the "beanery"

This facility was used by London and Smiths Falls train crews as their away from home facility. Tail end crews no longer slept in their vans. Originally, by Agreement there was one daily hot meal special at 75 cents! It was later raised and finally eliminated, however prices remained low and vending machine pop and snacks were low priced because the CPR did not take any commission on the sales. In the early years there was not much in the area and the good hot food and low prices attracted a lot of outsiders (although the 75 cent special was not available to them,) Bell Telephone repairmen, even CFTO TV people! Gradually, things declined and it was finally closed in the early 1990's sometime after the dorm part was closed November 1, 1992 due to its deteriorated condition, with crews being taken by crew bus to a hotel (originally Relax Inn, now Travelodge) on Markham Road at Highway 401. Another form of contracting out.

Shop track, February 3, 1974 David M. More

Empress of Agincourt is the unofficial name for this one-of-a-kind unit long used on the Transfer, a three shift yard job between Toronto Yard-Parkdale Yard-West Toronto/Lambton Yard. 8921 is a MLW RSD-17
DL-624 2400 hp unit. (#81603 5/57) Rated at 69,800 t.e. compared to 46,500 for an RS-18. It was later given a chop nose in December 1988. Retired 5-30-95, its uniqueness was recognized and it has been preserved (minus its prime mover). Intended for the proposed Toronto Railway Museum which never materialized, it went instead to St.Thomas at the Elgin County Railway Museum. Demonstrator photographs.

Employee Shuttle

Second car laying over near the shops. March 1965. D. Hately

Due to its remote location and the lack of public transportation an employee shuttle passenger train using RDC's was operated between Keele Street (West Toronto Yard) and Toronto Yard with a flag stop at Leaside. At shift changes the 2 car train ran through the yard to the Car and Diesel Shops and to the Pulldown. At other times 1 car stopped at the GYO. Tickets were sold in strips of 8 for $1 and could be purchased only at West Toronto, Leaside and Agincourt Stations. Scheduled for a 40 minute trip, trains arriving at shift change did so on time, but when taking off-duty employees home it frequently ran into dispatching problems and delays.

9060 leaving Keele Street (West Toronto) June 1965
Collection of Derek Boles

Declining ridership and improved public transit caused the CPR to end this service effective October 29, 1972 with the last run from Toronto Yard at 2335 on the 28th. (An attempt had been made to end it November 28, 1971 but this was put off.) Since February 1971 the TTC had been operating a bus from the Warden subway station and looping off McCowan at the yard entrance. A yard crew bus service was instituted to meet these buses and move employees to their place of work. A five hour gap between 1.15 a.m. and 6.25 a.m. was filled by use of taxi (East End Taxi) service from Main Subway Station. Only train crews normally had to use this service.

At one time the second car used at shift changes was a lightweight coach used to save an RDC. The eastbound stop at Leaside at the foot a helper grade finally did in the RDC and the unpowered coach was replaced with a second RDC.

Locomotive Gallery Part 1

Locomotive Gallery Part 2

Locomotive Gallery Other Hump Yards

Train Gallery

Wanted: Photos and Info

Photographs for locomotive galleries: "Rockets" (RS-23 8000's) for pulldown also any yard units nose-to-nose working the pulldown. RDC's on employee shuttle arriving/departing or loading/unloading and especially two car train. Also, trains arriving/departing over the years.

Diesel and car shops, shed, dorm, radio building, old compound, pig yard.

Information: Dates; 3 track heavy repair addition to car shop? Expansion of diesel shop? Construction of van shop? Radio building? Cafeteria "beanery" closed?

Your contribution is solicited Please contact me