by War Baby » Tue Feb 21, 2017 1:46 pm
Just about the Mount Vernon area around Mount Vernon Avenue in the 1950's..... Coming from the Hamilton Road end of the avenue, the houses stopped at Woodend Road. From that point, if you looked to your left, you could see Wester Road on the other side of Mount Vernon Park. There was, and still is an angular pathway that begins at the Junction of Woodend Road and Mount Vernon Avenue and goes into Mount Vernon Park. That slanting path used to be a railway siding. It was a path in the fifties, still raised up, not as high as a railway embankment, but raised all the same.
Not sure if the girl Cook came along that path on her way to the bus stop that night. To get onto the path from Carrick Drive, she would have had to cross the railway line, which her parents had told her not to do. My theory is that she may have been coming along the north side of the railway line, and coming out at a double gate just by the railway bridge at the top of the hill. That double gate is still there, though much the worse for wear. If she came that way, she would be coming out at the top of the hill where the railway bridge was and she would likely meet Peter Manuel coming up.
Do you know that there used to be another Railway Station at Mount Vernon? It was at the back of Carrick Drive, but as I remember it, you got to it by going along Central Avenue, and up a side path, which may now be named Central Path. Unless you know about the old railway line, you may not have a true picture of what was going on.