Walking the Urban K&P Trail from Binnington Court

After leaving Allan Graphics, having transferred all the files for my upcoming book, Stories on the Waterfront - A Curated Collection of Memories and Photos of Kingston Harbour, we joined the Urban K&P Trail. We went as far west as a wetlands section near Highway 401, approximately 3 km each way. Technically, the Binnington Court trailhead marks the demarcation line between the Urban K&P Trail and the K&P Trail proper. After a short connecting trail running from the end of Binnington to the former CP right-of-way and short bridge (below) near Highway 401, the trail runs straight and level toward Sydenham Road:

It's quite a challenge to get a good photo of the former Knight's Siding. This spur reached the bulk fuel tank farm at Sydenham Road and Highway 401. This time of year, before all the weeds and foliage take over, it's slightly more visible. This view looks north, and the culvert, just visible to the left of the tree at centre, is a giveaway for the embankment of the former spur. Otherwise, who would install a culvert in the middle of the trees?

There are very few vestiges of the CP left. After all, it's been 35 years since the line was finally abandoned, and nature is quick to reassert itself. This pole for a crossing signal relay box is east of Sydenham Road, behind houses on Brass Drive:

Your humble and hydrated (it's important to stay both) blogger with the pole just to the left, and the trail to the right:

Crossing Sydenham Road. In Toronto, it's Mind the Gap; in Kingston, it's Wait for Gap. The traffic does not slow down for ambling trailwalkers! The bulk fuel tank farm is behind the trees at right of photo. There used to be another set of tanks at left, across Sydenham Road, but these are now gone and only the Sydenham Road trailhead parking lot is there.

The informative signage at Sydenham Road (as always, click for larger version):

The original Kingston & Pembroke builders did not concern themselves with ornate culverts. In fact, many of the original, sturdy but cheaply-built stone culverts were only replaced and modernized once CP acquired the line around 1913. The CP upgraded culverts and right-of-way over several years in the 1920's and 1930's. This concrete box culvert, west of Sydenham Road near the 401, is dated 1928:

This one, located closer to Sydenham Road, is still doing its job 94 years later:

My wife, walking partner (and acknowledgee in my books) precedes me as we leave the right-of-way and walk the last few hundred feel on the connecting trail back to Binnington Court. Here, we encounter the only pine trees along this section of the trail, as it backs onto businesses at left (hence the fence). The trail is well used - we encountered cyclists, fellow trailwalkers, families with strollers and even noticed a few horses' hoof marks! But sadly, no iron horses. Only wistfulness would bring back the tolling CPR steam engine bell, the easy lope of the short train heading downhill to the Inner Harbour, and the imagined whoosh of air through open coach windows as southbound passengers prepared to disembark across from City Hall.