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Leaside and its Aerodrome

Goldie said:
Additional evidence of Aerodrome hangar locations:

aerodromemap1918.jpg


1922aerial.jpg
Click to expand...

Great find Goldie!! Now all we need are shovel's and Mustapha's metal detector/toxic waste detector , a few hasmat suits and we will be good to go. We will talk in the spring , I'm in if you guy's are.
 
brewster said:
Great find Goldie!! Now all we need are shovel's and Mustapha's metal detector/toxic waste detector , a few hasmat suits and we will be good to go. We will talk in the spring , I'm in if you guy's are.
Click to expand...

In hindsight, I wish I'd known enough to explore this area 50 years ago when I often visited a colour-film processing lab at 49 Research Rd.
That lab is now gone - like most of the evidence of the aerodrome.
The potential of buried treasures call for a major archeological dig.
 
brewster said:
Great find Goldie!! Now all we need are shovel's and Mustapha's metal detector/toxic waste detector , a few hasmat suits and we will be good to go. We will talk in the spring , I'm in if you guy's are.
Click to expand...

I'm in for the dig so long as there is a shade tree nearby.
 
mattelderca said:
As I remember, there's not much shade round there. I do remember a photo lab building. I'm in for a "dig". I have a car that can take 5 passengers.
Click to expand...

lots of shade just fifty feet north of the intersection of leslie and vanderhoof, and some very promising hillsides east from there to the railway bridge, portions still being used as a "tip" even today

i can walk over
 
Re Leslie: remember that it was a N/S concession allowance. And as for the contemporary arterial only being built as far as Eglinton: remember that it was intended to be extended further south from the beginning, across the Don and then veering SW, parallelling the tracks until it hit the Bayview Extension--and that plan remained "active" until the NIMBYs killed it for good in the 90s if not more recently. (A fringe benefit of the killed Leslie extension: the consolidation of Crothers Woods.)
 
mattelderca said:
As I remember, there's not much shade round there. I do remember a photo lab building. I'm in for a "dig". I have a car that can take 5 passengers.
Click to expand...

I think I'd like to make a documentary film of this proposed archeological "dig" - seems like a probable (and profitable) TV series to me!
Everyone will be signing releases in order to receive their appropriate royalty.
 
Goldie said:
I think I'd like to make a documentary film of this proposed archeological "dig" - seems like a probable (and profitable) TV series to me!
Everyone will be signing releases in order to receive their appropriate royalty.
Click to expand...
I'm in. No waiver.
A recall, at the level crossing on Wicksteed and Leslie, there was a metal (aluminium) recycling plant. There would be flat bed trailers leaving the building.
Each trailer would have two large red hot cupolas of molten metal. You could see and feel the heat as the trailer passed by.
South side of Wicksteed right on the west side of the tracks.
Check the hand drawn map, there was a railroad round hose and loco yard on the north side of Leaside station.
 
mattelderca said:
at the level crossing on Wicksteed and Leslie, there was a metal (aluminium) recycling plant. There would be flat bed trailers leaving the building.
Each trailer would have two large red hot cupolas of molten metal. You could see and feel the heat as the trailer passed by.
South side of Wicksteed right on the west side of the tracks.
Click to expand...

That may be the very location where I saw a scrap yard full of WW2 aircraft in 1947.
A wonderful spot to search for remnants.
 
mattelderca said:
I'm in. No waiver.
A recall, at the level crossing on Wicksteed and Leslie, there was a metal (aluminium) recycling plant. There would be flat bed trailers leaving the building.
Each trailer would have two large red hot cupolas of molten metal. You could see and feel the heat as the trailer passed by.
South side of Wicksteed right on the west side of the tracks.
Check the hand drawn map, there was a railroad round hose and loco yard on the north side of Leaside station.
Click to expand...

Until 2007 there was a cold storage plant there. About 6 months after the fire, there was an odour of rotten meat in the area. All vacant now, so just take your shovel.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/177090


And another aerial photo - this one from the south - showing the roundhouse and loco shop which is currently being redeveloped into a plaza:confused:
http://spacingtoronto.ca/2010/01/28...rthern-railway-eastern-lines-locomotive-shop/

f1244_it7296.jpg
 
Last edited:
much thanks for that, anna

i had seen the spacing article about the rail shed, but the story about the cold storage fire is completely new to me

the exact location relative to leslie and wicksteed isn't given, but it's likely not the northeast corner, as there's a building there in regular use on top of goldie's aircraft graveyard

this is looking southeast from leslie and research towards wicksteed -- the tree in the foreground is growing between two ties of an abandoned rail line (the rails themselves are gone)

a-tree-grows-in-railbed.jpg


same building, at night, smiley faces on the garage doors

smiley-garage-doors.jpg
 

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The fire was here - southeast corner of Wicksteed & railway tracks.
http://www.toronto.ca/fire/annual_report/pdf/tfs_2007_annual_report.pdf - page 12

Note the bit of rail line that crosses Wicksteed here. I think it connected to where your tree is.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=212+Wi...=fKggm7gvDFkyDF8Ou0EbKg&cbp=12,136.91,,0,0.15

Another bit of rail siding in front of Atlas-Apex roofing was torn out last summer, IIRC.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=176+Wi...d=8QrQegJ0Za9X9FWurR5gJw&cbp=12,40.13,,0,9.01
 
Anna said:
The fire was here - southeast corner of Wicksteed & railway tracks.
http://www.toronto.ca/fire/annual_report/pdf/tfs_2007_annual_report.pdf - page 12

Note the bit of rail line that crosses Wicksteed here. I think it connected to where your tree is.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=212+Wi...=fKggm7gvDFkyDF8Ou0EbKg&cbp=12,136.91,,0,0.15

Another bit of rail siding in front of Atlas-Apex roofing was torn out last summer, IIRC.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=176+Wi...d=8QrQegJ0Za9X9FWurR5gJw&cbp=12,40.13,,0,9.01
Click to expand...

The cold storage was Lake Simcoe ice and it was right on the rail line. There are orange shipping containers there in the above link. The abandoned rail siding that crosses Leslie went into the recycling plant, which IIRC also had a fire around the same time as the LS Ice plant.
 
Goldie said:
I think I'd like to make a documentary film of this proposed archeological "dig" - seems like a probable (and profitable) TV series to me!
Everyone will be signing releases in order to receive their appropriate royalty.
Click to expand...
I could be in, it sounds like you guys need some "young" muscle to help (I will be 43 by that time) ;)
 
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