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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Lucky charms


I snapped this picture because I was intrigued by the long metal hook suspended from the steel girder.  What I got was a Leprechaun with a jaunty looking pipe.

UPDATE - it's not for mail or bags or anything of the sort. Answer here.

7 comments:

George said...

I wonder if all leprechauns put their canes up their noses?

George said...

Oops I meant pipe..

Michael Suddard said...

My best guess is the hook is from yesteryear.

Back in the day (even before our parents walked uphill through 6 feet of snow to school both ways) mail used to be shipped via train into the city and out. Perhaps this is the spot where one of the trains would pick up the mailbag (off the hook) and take it with them to wherever in the Toronto area.

Otherwise, perhaps there's another thing that GO Transit or Metrolinx could fill us in on.

C.J. Smith said...

I didn't say he was smoking it!
As for the mail theory... The answer will come.

George said...

Those hooks are relics from long ago when they hung track number and destinations signs on them. They had to be hung by hand so they came down and then backup again using a crank mechanism. Of course they worked in pairs.

I checked as much as I could after finding out what they are but this was the only one found. It'll soon be gone too.

The mail was loaded into carts that went into elevators (still exist but unusable) the went down to what is now the ACC concourse. Then they went onto small narrow-gauge rails that took them into the mail building for processing. Of course all exits from the mail elevators are all gone now.

Thos seemingly out of place sheds on the platforms are the old mail elevators. They are being removed once the roof is complete.

deepfish said...

I worked rail out west - mail used to be hooked off trains by the station master on a long pole. Messages and paperwork from the cab to caboose were passed the same way. These hooks don't look like the same.

George said...

Oh well my source was wrong, but plausible.

I shall administer the appropriate punishment forthwith.