1960s west Ottawa home-video train footage - super rare!

[@irvinmartin9259]

This was fascinating! My family moved to Ottawa in 68, but from 69 on we lived out in Orleans. So I didn't see much of downtown until I got my first car in '78. Ottawa changed so much in the 60's. While watching the eastbound footage I tried to follow along on google maps satellite view. Aside from some of the south side of Scott st. nothing is recognizable. I particularly enjoyed the long panorama shot of the Bayview area. About the only familiar land mark that I could use to orient myself was the City Centre building. (Mostly because I worked there the winter of '79/'80.) Thank you so much for posting this.

[@pennsylvanianrrfoamer]

I would rather live in Ottawa 50 years ago compared to today...

[@garfieldstephensonwu142]

Well said, and same here. We went from having "too many" railways (According to Jacques Gerber) to having not enough railways here in Ottawa. If things were up to me, this scene will still be what we see today, only with the rail tracks in a trench like the current Transitway is and is electrified with at least four tracks in the trench (Two for the O-Train Confederation Line LRT, the other two for VIA Rail, MOOSE Rail (The latter is a planned consortium that intends to bring commuter rail to Ottawa-Hull) and the occasional CP Rail freight train), on top of maintaining the use of streetcars in Ottawa.

[@bentdrum]

Excellent! Thanks for posting this. Oh the irony that we're putting tracks back along here after tearing these up fifty years ago...

[@garylabonte1622]

When I walk with my sister and her dog west of woodroffe I tell her there was trains running asking the foot path, and that I remember seeing a stream engine when I was a little kid, she says"really"like I'm talking about dinosaurs!

[@A_Canadian_In_Poland]

2:40 That appears to be what is now known as the Parkway Towers apartment building, not the Ambleside Complex, considering that condominiums were still not yet legalized in Ontario at the time this railway was active.

[@JohnnyForehead]

This is the line that would have taken the life of one of my childhood friend's little brother, only further west down near Woodroffe ave thou but before Ambleside. Unfortunately it would have happened just prior to them discontinuing and tearing up the lines. So sad.

[@heathermcdermid3673]

This is so cool, thank you so very much for posting this. I grew up at Welllington and Bayswater so to see some of this footage is amazing, it was long gone by the time I started going to Devonshire but always wondered about the tracks we used to play on.

[@andredionne1262]

This is great. Lived in Mechanicsville when I was young and still remember the train going to the Beach Foundry. Back in 77, I was I saw the queen on the back of the Steam train getting ready to leave. I was to young to notice who it was at the time, until I told my mom and she told me who it was. Believe it or not, but I was all alone at the track at Bayview when I saw her.

[@DINESHGADA]

Nice

[@stevenevraire1227]

Thanks Dave! We grew up on Smirle Ave until '64 when we moved a few blocks west to Daniel Ave. Used to cross through the fence and go over the tracks into Tunney' Pasture, and (of course) put pennies on the tracks! I remember waving to steam engines from Smirle and Scott. Loving the brief look at Grange Park too. Now we live in Barrhaven and I still get to see trains every day!

[@blthetube1]

All the reel changes reminds of home movie night with the family...

[@lisawilder7626]

Great footage but I wish it had the woodroffe ave crossing

[@neinschlomo]

I lived beside grange park and remember staring out the window to see the trains go by......

[@martinlavoie4002]

Wow I never realized that the tracks were above ground and not like today where it’s underground in a trench. My grand father in law used to work for Canadian Pacific. He lived up on Robin lane and used to walk down to those tracks and get on a train to go work. I grew up on Armstrong street anyhow awesome

[@jimtripp7796]

Wow this video ends at Parkway towers Where i was nearly hit by the Canadian while I was delivering Papers for the Ottawa Journal it was so close that i could have touched the train as it went by. Went home and announced at the super table that you don't get sucked in if you stand too close to the train as it passes as my older brother had Professed

[@Steve-xf4uv]

Very cool. At 8:46 we see a city transit OTC bus in the old colours, now OC Transpo red/white. These buses ended up in Granby Quebec transit service.

[@christianinkster1729]

Makes me think of the Ottawa sequence in the Buster Keaton movie "The Railrodder" as lovely, colour film archives of Ottawa's railroad days.

[@dannagoulden]

This is just fantastic! Some of those buildings still exist to this day!

[@daveyboy_]

Ottawa, always has and always will be ; a one horse town

[@cloroxbleach7262]

wow, this was rail, then it was the transit way, now it’s back to rail

[@stevem4945]

Wow ! Yup walk them tracks along Scott St.going to Hilson school. I remember the odd train lurching close to Island Park Drive, but I believe the tracks ended there in 1969. then they were cut back to NorthWestern and were that way for Beach Foundry.

[@DianePicard-e3n]

Wow the year we moved to Ottawa we lived on Walkley Rd.

[@pennsylvanianrrfoamer]

slide 6 8:26 looks a lot like your typical mid-west USA town

[@kooktocook]

2:36 Is the back of TOP's Car Wash.

[@EpiphoneMIKE]

Thank you very much for posting this. Please post more if you have any. I grew up on Manchester just across the street from this railway. I don't know how many times I jumped the fence and crossed over from Hintonburg to Mechanicsville to go play baseball or whatever at Laroche Park and how many times I walked on them and played in some of the box cars just for the fun of it. Truly miss that train line.

[@Condorcounter]

Brings back memories! Fascinating that later in 2018 the Ottawa LRT Confederation Line will ride exactly the same route from Bayview to Holland/Parkdale/ Tunney’s. And Stage 2 will go even further west past Churchill. Note the shot around 6’10” is from almost exactly where Bayview transfer Station is and the terminus of the Trillium Line O-Train.

[@aidanmcgregor8789]

I don't even have words for this video. I'm an Ottawa local and this is amazing to see! I love 5:00 where there is diesel and steam power! Great video!

[@jwc3o2]

wow! i only moved to Ottawa in late '96, seeing the last usage of the corridor that's now the O-Train line &, after that'd been shut down, the QGRY turn-around on the north end of the Prince Of Wales bridge, so all my "experience" of working railroads here is of it being destroyed & replaced by commuter toytrains (not even much happening at Walkley anymore). nice to see evidence that stuff actually got MADE here at one time (other than reams of ridiculous rules)!

[@AwesGamingSuBScriBe417]

NQS7 yeah same