Track Work on Ontario Street, 1963

It would not be surprising if you think the title of this post doesn't ring a bell. One might think Ontario Street is just a street, but it used to have a surprising amount of track on it. These photos show a surprisingly large track gang working on rails and a switch along Ontario. Seeing the Tete du Pont barracks/Fort Frontenac outer wall in the background, and the Public Utilities Commission building at left (above), it was clear that the location would be Ontario at Barrack Streets.

But what was the story behind the photos? Why such a large gang, why here, and why in July 1963? Especially considering the waterfront trackage was gone by 1970.

Some other interesting details 

• gang members came from as far west as Ernestown and as far east as Findley and Gananoque
• the trackage was being converted from 85 pounds per yard to 100
• the gang comprised 40 men
• the work started at 0400 and 11 rails were put in place
• being from the steam era, each section man could hammer a spike into the tie with five or six hammer swings
• asphalt had to be dug out to reach the ties

A 1951 aerial view of the worksite: 

There was a time constraint, because though CN owned the track, CP used it to reach their yard across from City Hall, and a switchman's shanty was located near here, guarding the joint trackage. The CP (formerly Kingston & Pembroke) trackage diverges from the joint section at right, CN at left:

The newspaper photo is adequate, but the cropped newsprint image in the Whig clipping (above) makes the photo look like pointillism. There's nothing like the original negatives, from the Queen's University Archives, to bring out the detail: