July 2024
Railways have always been an important part of Canada. Besides the transportation of people and goods, they helped settle western Canada and unite the country from coast to coast. Just as important as the rails that carried the trains, maintenance buildings, like roundhouses and locomotive shops were essential to keeping the trains running.
Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was one of the railway companies founded in the early years of Canada’s history. Founded on 13 January 1899 by Sir William Mackenzie and Sir Donald Mann, branch line contractors in Manitoba who like other independent railway operators, were looking to break the monopoly held by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
In 1919, the CNoR built the Eastern Lines Locomotive Shop, located in the Town of Leaside, Ontario, at what is now 85 Laird Drive in Toronto. The Locomotive Shop, a large 300 foot by 150 foot building, was a 12 bay repair facility for steam locomotives, known as the Canadian Northern Leaside Terminal, along with an associated marshaling yard.
When Canadian National Railway (CNR) was formally incorporated on 23 January 1923, officially merging the CNoR and the Canadian Government Railways, CNR assumed control of of the Leaside Locomotive Shop. This would be short-lived, as CNR opened their Spadina Roundhouse on Toronto’s waterfront in 1928. By 1930, all maintenance operations were re-located to the Spadina facility and the Leaside Locomotive Shop closed.
The Leaside area became a manufacturing centre in the 1930s, and the former locomotive shop was bought by the British company E.S. & A. Robinson, which made packaging materials. E.S. & A. Robinson retained the property until 1954.
The building went through many different owners over the succeeding years, but was eventually fell into disuse. Surrounded by other industrial buildings, it eventually was forgotten by all but urban explorers and graffiti artists. Over 90 years after it was built, it was bought by the Longo’s grocery chain, who completely restored the historic building, saving a once-forgotten part of Toronto’s railway history.
On 22 August 2012, Longo’s opened a new 48, 000 square foot grocery store, a part of the new Leaside Village shopping complex.
Sources: Toronto’s railway history preserved in new grocery store – Toronto | Globalnews.ca, Canadian Northern Railway – Wikipedia, Leaside – Wikipedia, CNR Spadina Roundhouse – Wikipedia, Building Storeys – the Canadian Northern Railway Eastern Lines Locomotive Shop – Spacing Toronto | Spacing Toronto.
