Throwback Thursday - CN London Office Tower.

A Pandrol  Jackson rail grinding train was passing the CN London office tower on January 28, 1995.

By Peter Mumby.

The railway action in today's photo features a Pandrol Jackson rail grinding train piloted by unit RMS 13.  Prominent in the background to the left of this train is the 9-storey CN London office tower.  Over the years I have taken many railfan photos with this structure as a backdrop.  According to our friend Chris, who used to work in this building, the top floor was occupied by a Business Development bank, three floors were taken up by Bell Canada, and the rest was devoted to offices belonging to various CN departments.  Chris worked in the Engineering Department which shared the eighth floor with Freight Sales.  The CN passenger station and restaurant (later taken over by Via Rail Canada) shared the main floor with the employees' Credit Union and the office of the London "K" dispatcher.  CTC electrical equipment and paper storage took up much of the basement.  The CN employees who worked out of this tower were responsible for Southwestern Ontario operations between Niagara Falls and Windsor, north to Owen Sound, and east to Milton.  As conditions changed and technological advances permitted employees to work remotely,  more and more offices in the building were closed.  As can be seen in this 1995-vintage photo, several of the floors appear to be unused.  Within the next couple of years the decision was made to dismantle the structure.  After a fair bit of preliminary work the building was brought down by an implosion which was triggered at 09:20 on February 04, 2001.  I suspect that clean-up crews had to deal with a fair amount of asbestos.  The site of the former tower is now occupied by a modern Via train station.