Old and New Toronto - Bayview Extension

Here's another 'old and new' comparison, looking at an old (1939) picture of the Royal Train (actually, the Royal pilot train) coming down the Don Valley. It would doubtless have gone right through the old Don Valley Station (recently updated blog entry - for those of you who follow this blog closely:-) ).

Lots of info in the fine print (you can click on the picture to see it much larger). For those who love trains, feel free to add info in the comments!

The reason this caught my eye was actually not the train, but the McColl Frontenac Oil Co. Limited building in the background on the left. I used to work for Imperial Oil, and when they bought Texaco Canada (formerly McColl Frontenac) it was always referred to as McColl Frontenac in any documents - some legal reasoning behind it I guess.

Anyway, now there is nothing much I could recognize except for the tracks and the Dundas Street bridge in the background at the far right. (Update from sharp-eyed reader - the pylons supporting the high-voltage lines also look to be the same).  Perhaps I should have waited until there was a streetcar on the bridge to have another similarity.

Some fun facts about McColl Frontenac:

• Seems like Billy Bishop was once a vice-president at McColl Frontenac (given the position by an old friend after Bishop lost his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash).
• They bought the old Hotel Elliot at Church and Shuter in 1930
• And they even helped cause the Don River to catch fire