ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

Stunning photos, thanks Tom! It was an absolutely beautiful sunrise this morning.

It definitely was -- the combination of the sun and the dark clouds looked great.  And thanks for the kudos!

[chutten]

Man, that grass looks great... but they couldn't have planted it in worse weather for it. They need regular watering if they want them to not turn into brown mini wastelands.

[panamaniac]

Man, that grass looks great... but they couldn't have planted it in worse weather for it. They need regular watering if they want them to not turn into brown mini wastelands.

I'm surprised - someone has clearly been making sure that its getting water.

[KevinL]

I'm sure a water truck must have been coming through daily. It's very healthy turf.

[tvot]

I happened to be walking by the Waterloo Park station when they were building the actual centre wall portion. I asked the workers and they said this is the first one going up.

   

   

[Canard]

TOO FAST!!! O m g !!!!!

I totally did not expect to see these going up until next year!!!!!

[tomh009]

Hey, is that one of the workers snapping a photo of the wall, in the second pic?

[KevinL]

Whaaaaat... that's awesome.

[chutten]

Hey, is that one of the workers snapping a photo of the wall, in the second pic?

It certainly is. Now we just need someone posting a picture of tvot taking a picture of the worker taking a picture...

[Canard]

No taking pictures of people taking pictures of workers!

[Pheidippides]

That is an exciting development!

I had thought that Victoria Park station might be the first to get an anchor wall when the update a month or so ago referred to "Construction of the Victoria Park stop will begin in mid-June" when the platform itself had long since been poured.

[Canard]

1/1 - Tuesday, July 19, 2016

   
Looks like they're starting to flush out the future pathway to the station platform at Waterloo Park/Laurier/Seagram.

   
The first anchor wall base weldment is up!

   
I can't wait to see how the ion logo looks up here - especially with it's intensity-based train proximity feature, ala Washington DC Metro!

Tom Galloway even got in on the anchor-wall action!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Had to see for myself <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain">@Canardiain</a> Laurier Waterloo Park station infrastructure <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WRlrt?src=hash">#WRlrt</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qs4EZotdNA">pic.twitter.com/Qs4EZotdNA</a></p>&mdash; Tom Galloway (@tomjgalloway14) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomjgalloway14/status/755544944945790976">July 19, 2016</a></blockquote>

[BuildingScout]

Today they were doing very fine adjustments in the height of the catenary between Bearinger and University. I wonder if they are getting ready to start running some test vehicle.

Just as I suspected. From the Record article:

"He said the company plans to supply the first pilot vehicle next month"-- [Lefevre, Bombardier spokesperson]

Observe they call it "pilot vehicle", which means it will not necessarily look anything like the final rail car that will be running on the track.

[Canard]

Hang on a minute!

Metrolinx has been using the term "Pilot Vehicle" to describe the (2) FLEXITY Freedom LFLRV's they have on order for Eglinton Crosstown. The third FLEXITY Freedom is ion's first train. For most people, the "Pilot vehicle" will be indistinguishable from the finished train. Maybe the interior in all the modules won't be totally fitted out. Or the paint job may not be finished. Or a few exterior panels might be missing. I could maybe believe they'd build an A-B-C consist (not a full A-B-C-D-E set) since the first three modules make up the minimum articulated element of the train, with the end of module C capped off. But it's not like it's going to be a rectangular cart with 4 wheels for clearance checkling or something. It's much, much better than that!

Is this the article you're referring to? http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6774...-vehicles/

Our first train arrives at the end of this year, after stretching it's legs in Millhaven. Our trains 1-5 will be built in Thunder Bay, with trains 6-14 being built in Millhaven.

What I don't fully understand is what/where Metrolinx is planing to play with their 2 Pilot trains. They have no trackwork that they can do so on anywhere in Toronto. All of their streetcar lines are built to 1495 mm gauge (1435 mm is standard) so they're incompatible.

It'd be nice if the Region and Metrolinx could come to an agreement to let them play with their trains here this fall. I'd personally be very happy with that.

[Viewfromthe42]

The anchor wall at Charles and Gaukel is going up as we speak.

Two guys have been outfitting the lubricator this morning for the Francis-to-King turn this morning. The frame of the boxes that open to the surface are sitting in midair, with some PVC-looking pipe running under the tracks from them to some other location.