steveThe Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) railway is a pretty unique little railway. It was built to service the aqueduct supplying water from Shoal Lake to Winnipeg. The railway was completed in 1915 and has served the city since then. It used to carry passengers along the 102 mile route, but it has not done … Read more
I’ve completed my second book, “Passing a Half Century”! This details the trip my wife and I took through Alberta and British Columbia to celebrate turning 50. Buy paperback on Amazon.CA This book is a compilation of a blog post series that I wrote, plus reviews of the three railway museums I visited, plus additional … Read more
Back in May 2000, I was driving across half of Canada with my girlfriend (and future wife). She had been living in Regina, SK and was moving to Fredericton, NB to be with me. It was a long drive, spanning almost a week, and we were mostly just trying to get to New Brunswick as … Read more
Continuing my trend of reading old railway books, I recently read “Canadian Pacific Railway” by Patrick C. Dorin. This book was published in 1973, so it is more than a little dated. This 176 page book covers the Canadian Pacific Railway from the confederation of Canada and the tumultuous start of the CPR, through its … Read more
After more than a year, a train has reached Churchill, Manitoba. Three locomotives, a caboose and a flatcar arrived at the northern town just before 6:45 PM on October 31. This was the first train to visit the town since the rail line between Gillam and Churchill was washed out in late May 2017. Churchill … Read more
Golden slumbers fill your eyesSmiles await you when you rise – the Beatles Photographers talk about the quality of light. We talk about soft light, hard light, direct and indirect light. It’s not until you start making photographs seriously that you really notice the quality of light. I’m a huge fan of sunrise and sunsets because … Read more
I’ve been watching season 2 of the show Mighty Trains and so far it has been really enjoyable to watch. Episode 1 The first episode featured Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer cruise train. Host Teddy Wilson traveled on two of the “Rocky” trains – from Vancouver to Banff and from Jasper to Vancouver. The show did a … Read more
I had a tip that Canadian Pacific was running its business train east through Winnipeg. The story was that it was headed to Montreal, where it would then head into the US to tour one of CP’s subsidiaries, the Delaware and Hudson. A “business train”, often called an “officer’s special”, is a passenger train owned … Read more
Octobers in Winnipeg can be pretty cold. Season temperatures are a high of 10C (50F) and low of -2C (30F). So when it’s warm, everyone gets out and enjoys it while it lasts, before the cold winter sets in. On October 18, it reached a high of 23.6C (74.5F). Time to get out of the … Read more
The Arctic Gateway group and its subcontractors have been very hard at work fixing washouts and repairing track along the rail line between Gillam and Churchill, Manitoba. It has been a tale of triumph and tragedy so far. They have made tremendous progress since the line was purchased by Arctic Gateway in early September. The … Read more