railfanning downtown Toronto?

[blw]

Due to the airline's pricing schedules, I will have most of a free day in downtown Toronto. Anything particularly interesting to railfan there? I don't see much of the Canadian rail scene, since I mostly frequent the mid-Atlantic and "northern" California areas.

[atsf sp]

Go to the Union Station. GO and VIA are there.

[Ken V]

If you are going to downtown Toronto then Union Station is the best place for any railfanning. At the west end of the station is the Skywalk (simply follow the signs) where an enclosed walkway with large windows goes over the tracks. At the other end of the Skywalk is the CN Tower from which, weather permitting, you can get great views for miles around. At Union Station there are frequent GO commuter trains (at least every 30 minutes off peak) and several VIA Rail intercity passenger trains, but very little freight activity. In the downtown area there are usually only about one or two local CN trains during the day and one CP switcher late in the evening.

On the other hand, assuming you are arriving and leaving from Toronto Pearson International Airport and will not have a lot of baggage to deal with, you might consider going to Brampton instead. Downtown Brampton is about an hour away from the airport by transit (see the Brampton Transit website for more info) and the downtown bus terminal is beside the VIA/GO station on the CN mainline. Here you could see plenty of large CN freight trains and possibly one of the Goderich & Exeter (Rail America) transfer jobs.