steve

I'm a photographer who specializes in trains and grain elevators. I like to tell stories.

Searching for the Maroon

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Canadian Pacific Railway has been sending its old EMD SD90MAC away for rebuilding to Progress Rail in the USA. These SD90MACs were unreliable when delivered to CP (and Union Pacific) and were stored for years, many here in Winnipeg. Progress has been remanufacturing them into “SD70ACU” units; Norfolk Southern purchased some from UP for the … Read more

Book Review: Locomotives of Western Canada

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The title of Mike Danneman’s new book, “Locomotives of Western Canada“, really caught my eye, since I live in western Canada! I was initially disappointed when I realized that by “western” he really meant “Alberta and British Columbia”. That disappointment faded page by page as I enjoyed every gorgeous photo of trains in beautiful mountain … Read more

First Trains of a New Decade

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Happy new year! And happy new decade*! I was taking my daughter to her work this morning, and as I have been doing over this holiday season, I did a bit of railfanning after I dropped her off. This resulted in the first trains of 2020 for me. A quick drive west along the CN … Read more

Tyler’s Year End Wrapup

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This is a guest post by Tyler Kowalski, a railfan from Manitoba. He has been posting his work on Instagram (follow tytytrainguy) and more recently on Facebook, and it is fantastic! I met Tyler at Manitoba Mega Train this year. He’s a nice young man and a talented photographer. He graciously agreed to share his … Read more

2019 Roundup

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Well, it’s that time again – time for the year-end roundup. 2019 is almost over. What went on in 2019 for me? Well – plenty! Grain Elevators The biggest news was the death of the Sanford, MB grain elevator, as seen above. I was there to document it – along with a lot of other … Read more

Revisiting the Maritimes

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I was in the Maritime provinces for a week in December 2019. Here are a few rail-related things I saw during my visit. Train Stations En route between Moncton, NB and Halifax, NS, I stopped at the train stations in Sackville, NB and Amherst, NS. They are not far from each other and are easily … Read more

Restoring David Othen’s Files

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Introduction My friend David Othen passed away in September 2016 after a short battle with lung cancer. He and his wife Pat were very kind to me when we were all volunteering at the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad, and David and I corresponded over the years with exchanges of information and photos. For your information, … Read more

Playing Leapfrog

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I had the good fortune to follow an empty grain train down the CP Glenboro subdivision recently. I mentioned at the end of a recent post, Chasing an Oil Train, that I found something more interesting to chase and this was it. Aside: We railfans often talk about “chasing” trains. In some cases we are … Read more

2 UP

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When I was younger, I used to drink 7 UP a lot. That lemon-lime flavoured drink was a favourite pop of mine. These days, when I drink pop (and I do, too much) I drink Diet Pepsi or Pepsi MAX. I find 7 UP too sweet now, plus I like caffeine. Anyway, I found two … Read more

Engage!

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Fellow blogger Eric Gagnon wrote an editorial on reader engagement and social media versus blogging. He was inspired by Chris and Connie’s Facebook post about declining engagement at BIGDoer’s web site and Facebook page. C&C have noted that their traffic is strong, in terms of page views, but the number of comments on their site … Read more