RailRoad Week

Kate was sorting through some documents her parents had saved (they are deceased and lived in Belleville), She ran into this original ticket. It's 5inches long, 3 inches wide. We'll send it off to the museum there and keep just this scan. It's an interesting bit of historical trivia. The Ticket reads:

RAILROAD WEEK
BELLEVILLE, ONT.
JUNE 22-28, 1964

A SOUVENIR TICKET OF YOUR TRIP ON ONE OF THE LAST STEAM TRAINS COMMEMORATING THE REMOVAL OF TRACKS ON PINNACLE STREET, BELLE-VILLE. THESE TRACKS WERE LAID IN 1876 AS PART OF THE GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY AND IN RECENT YEARS HAVE BECOME A TRAFFIC BOTTLENECK. CANADIAN NATIONAL JOINS BELLEVILLE IN CELEBRATING THE BOTTLENECK'S DEMISE.

On the back it has "ANSON JCT, ONT." Odd as Anson Junction is not in Belleville. Nearby yes, but not in Belleville. Kate would have been coming up to her 15th birthday that year and may have some recollection of this event. She does remember the train on the Pinnacle Street. The tracks remained for some time.

Our friend Dave, who is a bit of a train nut, tells me:

At that time, it would probably have been 6218 as the steam engine on the train in Belleville. That was the last of the running CNR steam engines. I remember seeing it once, around 67/68 just north of Toronto. Don't know anything about the tracks in the Belleville area as I only worked this side and north of Toronto. 

On my side, by comparison, I recall my mother taking Dale, Paul (maybe?) and me on a train from Markdale to visit my sister Ellen in Toronto. She wanted us to ride one of the last passenger trains on that line as the service was being phased out. It was one of those self propelled glorified street-cars — not a steam train! I can't recall the year but it must have been around the same time. Google AI tells me the last passenger train to Owen Sound (Markdale was on that same line) was 1970 but I'm sure it was much earlier when I was about 12 (that would have been 1964). Not only are those trains gone, so to are the train tracks. What remains is a hiking/biking trail.

Wrt the "glorified street-car" Dave tells me

In your blog you mention being on a train with a glorified street car....that would have been a Budd car (that's what we call them, built by Budd) and they used to run them regularly from London to Toronto via St Marys. They did that because there were less passengers on that route.  Some of those Budd cars are still running in Northern ON, and they've gotta be at least 70 years old! 

Many thanks for the extra information!