Turcot and the VilleMarie: Nov 2011

This past weekend I took a quick trip through Turcot and the along the Ville-Marie and then through the TA Wall and Factory. My main mission was to catch a big Jays roller along the Ville-Marie facing into Turcot yards but I caught a few more hits along the way. It was nice to get back into and around Turcot again, as I had not been through the yards in over a year since they locked it all up and began enforcing more stringent security measures to keep people out.  Walking along the side spot next to the Ville-Marie still drummed up some nostalgia though and I found myself chilling out a bit to take it all in again. Sadly, although there was some new and old hits along the wall leading to Decarie, Turcot in general is pretty dead, buffed, and washed out.

Looking over the yards from the vantage point of where the roller was, I sat back and watched as construction workers buzzed about repairing and maintaining the dilapidated and aged body of Turcot Interchange. I got into Turcot only around 2004, but man was it nice back then. All the way up to a couple of years ago you could walk through the yards and check out plenty of new pieces by just about any local writer. I spent hours covering Turcot every time I went in, whatever the season, day or night (I still kick myself over never having got any big spanning shots of the yards when they were in full effect). It's a shame that it's a dead spot now, but hey, not like it's the safest spot to be stomping about anymore considering the condition of the structure as of late. It was nice to see that the upper wall in the back is still active to some degree though and probably will be for some time to come.

I like big rollers, like the one I caught some flicks of  in NDG the week before that Gesa and Raskoe (see below) put up not too long ago. And this was a pretty big one for sure, whole wall, top to bottom, and in a prime spot. I took plenty of pics, but here are a few of the best ones I think I got. I like the Turcot roller more than the one I caught in NDG, though it was in a pretty prime spot too, but this one has 'the spot' for this area and was a nice ode to Jays style too. I also tossed in a couple of pics of a Sake and Aper spot along the Ville-Marie I snapped at some point along the way too, great spot, but a SUPER pain in the ass to get a shot of being where it was.

TA was pretty busy when I passed through, lots of kids running about the wall area and factory mucking about. Bank and Castro were just finishing up a Jays tribute on the lower wall so I decided to chill out a bit. It was nice to catch up with them and always a pleasure to watch a couple of solid Montreal writers do their work. Besides that I took a trip through the factory and exited through the upper wall area. Besides a weird paste in the factory and a sweet production on the way out there wasn't much too new there.

All-in-all a productive mission for sure. Good to see some folks along the way too. Stay posted as Vanhorne pics coming soon, and tonnes from the streets.

Turcot February 2010

As promised, I'm continuing the thread from that monster trek or two I took in mid February. My first post from last September spoke of the death of Turcot and how the MTQ had not only effectively buffed most of the yards but had fenced off the area and had security patrolling the perimeter and policing the grounds. My most recent visit to the yards didn't convince me that this was letting up anytime soon, however, I was able to get in and around the area to catch some new graff along the train tunnel  and even some older stuff along one of the hidden walls alongside the Hwy 20. Here are my pics including some pans of older stuff from that hidden wall and some other stuff from the walk in along the tracks from St. Henri.

After cutting in through an old fence gate overgrown with vines and frozen vegetation I made my way through the desolate remains of the heart of Turcot`s open and snowy interior. Not much in there at all except for snowy dunes carved by an unforgiving wind.

I walked along a make shift road and then crossed through to the service road that runs along the long stretch of the yards. It was a 3 km hike to the Raphael Motel which was my next destination and there wasn`t much to see. I did, however, come across this gem by Quidam in the middle of this frozen wasteland:

You got to hand it to him, in the middle of nowhere, he gets up. I also came across this old power station hollowed out and left to rot:

(The inscription reads: "Dedicated to Truth & Love R.I.P.")

Nothing else of interest was found until I got to the Raphael Motel a little ways off. You can check pics of that fine and abandoned spot here. I`ll have some more quick flics from the yards soon as Sake and a few others have been busy causing more trouble than they already have been. I`ll have more on CBR and my more recent trek along the tracks through Pt. St. Charles.