Today we take computer networking for granted. In fact, most people don’t even think of it at all. The fact that the device in your hand can load a web page halfway across the planet in a few seconds is taken for granted. It wasn’t always this easy. In fact, it was downright difficult.
The quiet town of Eastend, Saskatchewan has become the home of perhaps the largest collection of ex CN, ex VIA Rail equipment in the world. Gary Southgate, a farmer from North Battleford, SK, has been collecting railway equipment for a decade. He has purchased ex VIA Rail blue and yellow passenger equipment, and locomotives, and … Read more
I happened to see a quartet of Milanese tram slides for sale on an online auction site a few months ago. I submitted the minimum bid and, lo and behold, I won. I guess there isn’t much competition for this type of slide! All of the slides are dated 1973 but have no other markings. … Read more
I was recently asked for some advice on railfanning near the Trans-Canada Highway between Winnipeg, Manitoba and Regina, Saskatchewan. I’m sharing a portion of this route here. Feel free to chime in with your own suggestions in the comments. I’ll be describing it as if you are heading west from Winnipeg, and I am only … Read more
Back in the late 1980s, I was hired for my first commercial programming task. I wrote two programs for the Super Snapshot cartridge… a Sprite Monitor, and a Sprite Editor. What was a Super Snapshot cartridge? What’s a sprite? Why do you want to monitor or edit it? To tell that story, we have to … Read more
Public transit in the German city of Köln (Cologne in English) is the responsibility of Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe AG, which is responsible for operating the light rail and bus system and the subway (U-Bahn). Collectively the public transit network is known as the Cologne Stadtbahn. When we were in Cologne in early December 2021, we used … Read more
I’ve lost my buddy, Felix. He came into our lives in late November 2019 with his “sister” Millie, and he left us in the morning of February 9, 2023. From the start, he was my boy. I protected him early on when Millie was asserting her alpha cat status, and we developed our own routines. … Read more
Here are a few scans of black and white negatives I acquired on an online auction site. I don’t know who the photographer(s) were, unfortunately. The auction listings showed two dates – July 27, 1979 for the flatcar and the rules car, and August 3, 1979 for the observation car. Bulkhead flatcar AC 2372 is … Read more
Here’s a public timetable for the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador Railway effective October 17, 1968. It was printed on a two-sided piece of stiff cardboard / paper, roughly 8.5″ x 11″, with rounded corners. The cover shows a map of the railway, from Sept-Iles, Quebec north through Labrador to Schefferville, Quebec. In 1968 there … Read more
The following is a letter my dad wrote and filed at the Canadian embassy in Moscow to advise new residents about traveling to the resort city of Batumi (Georgia). I have reformatted it for the web and added some footnotes, but I kept the grammar and punctuation as it was. TRAVEL TO BATUMI To let … Read more