Ian and Bill Visit the West, Part 2

CN #314 on the Battle River trestle

Ian and Bill visited the CN Wainwright subdivision. They stopped at CN’s Battle River Trestle, an impressive structure to be sure. It’s 2,775 feet long and the deck is 195 feet above the river. It was completed at the end of 1908.

Ian and Bill Visit the West, Part 1

CP train outside Regina Saskatchewan

Long-time reader Ian Walker and his railfan partner Bill Hall visited the Prairie provinces early this summer, and sent along some photos. I’m sharing them here in a series with Ian’s notes.

Dances and Daydreams – My New Book

Dances and Daydreams cover image

I’m pleased to announce that Dances and Daydreams, my fifth book, is now available as an eBook on Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited. Dances and Daydreams is a selection of my poetry, written between 1986 and 2022. It’s a little different than my other books, naturally… although there is one poem about trains. I will … Read more

Trains En Passant

CN locomotive and canola

I’ve always loved playing chess. When I was in school, I joined the chess club. I used to check chess books out of the library and study them. Spassky, Fischer, Lasker, Kasparov… names I knew well.

Book Review: M Train

It would be easy to dismiss the book “M Train” by Patti Smith as the ramblings of a sad older woman. It’s true that this memoir rambles – oh, how it rambles – and I believe it’s true that she was sad.

A Long Sprint

Two odometers

I recently had to made a quick road trip to Toronto. I’m not going to go into the reason for the trip, but I wanted to share a few observations and images from the run. It took me 36 hours and 30 minutes to drive to Toronto, and 35 hours and 25 minutes to drive … Read more

Food on the VIA Rail Canadian

Breakfast on the train

I recently rode the VIA Rail “Canadian” from Winnipeg, MB to Sioux Lookout, ON and back. On that trip I had the opportunity to eat two meals aboard the train. I’ll share them here so you can get an idea of the meal experience, coach class. I need to emphasize that I was in coach … Read more

Consists

Train passing another train

Here are some details on the two Canadians I rode on July 4, 2022 between Winnipeg and Sioux Lookout, and the CN trains we met along the way. You may want to refer to the CN Redditt subdivision listing for locations. Even train numbers are going east, odd-numbered trains are going west. VIA 2 Locomotives … Read more

Out and Back on the Canadian

VIA Rail Train in Sioux Lookout Ontario

Well, I did it – I rode the VIA Rail Canadian to Sioux Lookout, Ontario and back to Winnipeg. It was a good trip and I’m glad I did it. The trip wasn’t without its anxiety-inducing moments, due to late trains… read on.

Print It!

Collection of printed photographs

I embraced digital photography as soon as I could. As a computer geek, I like digital things and I am comfortable working with image files and virtual folders and image editors. I never learned how to develop film. The downside of digital photography is that you hardly ever hold your images in your hands – … Read more