GO Transit and More, Part 4

This is part 4 of 5 in the GO Transit and More series. You can read part 1 here.

I finally arrived at Bathurst Street and the steel bridge spanning the many tracks leading to Union Station in downtown Toronto. Now this is a railfan platform!

GOT 653 heading downtown
GOT 653 heading downtown

The view to the west shows the Garrison Point condos, among many other buildings, wedged in between the GO Lakeshore line on the left side of the image and the GO Weston line on the right.

This is a busy place on a weekday, with GO Transit trains flitting back and forth, UP Express trains cycling between Union Station and Pearson airport, and the occasional VIA Rail train making appearance.

VIA 901 on the point of the combined train
VIA 901 on the point of the combined train

I got to see my first “J” train, two VIA Rail trains combined end to end. I tried to photograph as many LRC cars as I could, knowing that they are not long for this world, since VIA is receiving its new Siemens equipment now.

LRC 3309 "l'avenir est a bord"
LRC 3309 “l’avenir est a bord”

I really like the VIA “love the way” branding. It’s bold.

VIA 6427 "love the way"
VIA 6427 “love the way”

I certainly got my fill of UP Express trains while I was downtown.

UPX 1008 heading downtown
UPX 1008 heading downtown

Union Pearson Express is a subsidiary of Metrolinx, like GO Transit. They have 18 diesel multiple-unit (DMU) cars manufatured in Japan by Nippon Sharyo and assembled in Rochelle, Illinois. These have diesel-hydraulic drives, with a six-speed automatic transmission and regenerative braking that helps them to meet EPA Tier 4 emission standards.

UPX heading to the airport
UPX heading to the airport

I rode them to and from Pearson several weeks later and the UP Express is pretty comfortable.

I think I’ve mentioned that this rail corridor is pretty busy during the weekday. At times there were two GO Transit trains in sight at once, and my camera was rarely idle.

GOT 615 leaving, GOT 605 coming
GOT 615 leaving, GOT 605 coming

The majority of the GO Transit trains were equipped with one of GO’s 67 MP40PH-3C locomotives at one end, pushing or pulling. These locomotives were built between 2007 and 2014 and usually operate “solo” on the train, with a cab car on the other end to allow the engineer to operate the train from either end.

GOT 611 heading downtown
GOT 611 heading downtown

Eventually my time at Bathurst Street was up, and it was time to walk east toward our hotel to meet up with my wife. Naturally I took photos along the way… like this shot of a GO train passing the North Bathurst yard.

GOT 644 heading downtown
GOT 644 heading downtown

In the fifth and final post of this series, I shared the trains I saw on the way back to Union Station as well as some observations about the best railfan spots I found along the way. READ ON!

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