CN MacMillan Yard
These photos were taken on a bicycle trip to the CN MacMillan Yard, one of the largest in Canada. It is located at roughly the intersection of Keele Street and Highway 407. My bike route north was mostly along bike 'paths' along city streets. While marked on the map, they were mostly just quieter through streets, rather than dedicated bike paths.
At the yard, I first cross the Highway 7 overpass on the south side of the bridge. The yard is a stub end at the north, and connects via a 'Y' to the CN's east-west mainline just south of the yard. There were three trains in motion: a mixed freight leaving the yard, and two trains shunting. To look north into the main part of the yard required a 0.5km ride off the bridge to the nearest light since there were 3 lanes in each direction with lots of trucks.
After watching the trains for a while, I left the bridge to the west and ate some lunch at a truck stop. I then crossed to the north side of Highway 7 and went back on to the bridge. The bulk of the yard stretched off to the north but it was hard to see the layout of the yard.
I left the bridge to the east and biked south along Keele Street to its over pass of the CN mainline. There was a intermodal train heading west along the two mainline bypass tracks. As it was slowing passing under the highway bridge, a mixed freight approached from the east and entered the yard along one of the three tracks entering the yard. For a while both trains there passing under the bridge at the same time. You the pictures you can see the heavy smoke from the fixed freight climbing the grade up into the yard.
After leaving the railyard, I biked through York University and found the 'other' law school. From the university, I followed 'Black Creek' and its parks through Downsview to the intersection of Jane and Wilson. From there, I travelled west about 2km, to the Humber River which I followed to its mouth on Lake Ontario.
From the mouth of the Humber, I biked along the pathways along the lake to the foot of Yonge Street and then north up Yonge to home. The view looking back towards the Humber was taken just west of Ontario Place.
