Grand
Trunk Manitoba Yard at Brockville
 
The above photo, taken in 1929 is looking east and shows the former Grand Trunk station and locomotive facilities. In the middle of the photo is the Canadian National station with a Canadian Pacific train ready to depart for Smiths Falls. Running from left to right at the top is the Canadian Pacific incline towards the Brockville tunnel with the curve coming off of the CP line from Smiths Falls. The long sweeping curve from the middle of the photo to the bottom middle is the start of CPR's loop line to the Brockville waterfront. A few thousand feet down this line is the start of the Brockville, Westport & Sault Ste Marie Railway. At the bottom right, just out of sight is the start of the Grand Trunk's/ Canadian National's Manitoba Yard. A few hundred feet to the west of the Grand Trunk locomotive facilities was the Grand Trunk's Manitoba Yard. The photo below, taken in 1929, is looking west down the main line. Note the coal trestle at the front bottom of the photo with a steam locomotive at the left. In the middle about one third of the way up is another steam locomotive. Also note the number of cabooses sitting in the yard.  At the
top of the photo almost out of sight are the remains of the fill for the
Brockville & Westport crossing of the GTR. The fill on the left
was still in place up until the late 1960' - early 1970's when it was used
for the expansion of the Brockville Country Club. The fill on the
right is still there. This fill came from the excavation for the
rock cut which is just out of sight of the photo.
The bridge crossing the western end of the GTR was removed after 1921 when Canadian National abandoned the B&W line from the Centre Street in Brockville to Lyn Junction. The B&W originally approached the GTR on a spidery trestle built in 1889 and crossed the Manitoba Yard on a steel bridge on two masonry piers. The trestle was rebuilt around 1899 and wasn't filled in until 1915 when it was under Canadian Northern Railway ownership. 
The western end of the Grand Trunk Manitoba yard can be seen in above 1929 aerial photo along the top right edge. Coming in from the midle right and curving off to the top left corner is the Brockville, Westport & Sault Ste Marie Railway line. However, the rails only go as far as Centre Street shown on the top left side of the photo as the line from Centre Street to Lyn Junction was abandoned in 1921 with the management takeover of the Grand Trunk by Canadian National. The large building in the middle of the photo is the Philips Cables plant built around 1922 with 3 sidings going into the plant. While Canadian National owned the tracks because of their takeover of the Canadian Northern in 1918, the plant was switched by Canadian Pacific as rail access had to come over their loop line. |