September 21-27 is Rail Safety Week in Canada. Rail safety organizations, like Operation Lifesaver, will be working to raise awareness of rail safety and hopefully decrease the number of rail incidents and fatalities. Unfortunately this week is especially needed this year, as 5 people died at railway crossings in Manitoba in the past 5 weeks, … Read more
Thank you to the 43 who took the time to complete my survey about calendars for 2021. I appreciate it! I asked three questions: Are you interested in purchasing a calendar featuring grain elevators in Manitoba? Are you interested in purchasing a calendar featuring Canadian trains? If you are interested in purchasing a calendar, would … Read more
The Cranbrook History Centre, home of the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel / Trains Deluxe, recently announced that they are releasing nine cars from their collection of passenger rail cars. It might be a bit shocking but these things happen. Organizations have limits on funds and volunteer time… especially time. Restoring and preserving century-old railway … Read more
I had some photographs that I purchased on eBay that I wanted to scan. Unfortunately, I am currently “between scanners” so I had no good way to scan a photo. I did a bit of thinking and ended up using my DSLR camera on a tripod to do the job. Here are a few I … Read more
The Waterloo Central Railway is a tourist railway that runs between St. Jacobs and Elmira, Ontario. The WC is owned by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society (SOLRS), a charitable organization dedicated to preserving and operating vintage railway equipment. Because of COVID-19, they haven’t run any excursions this year and the status of the rest … Read more
On August 1, I visited the site of the CN derailment from two days previous. I knew the line was open, having been reopened approximately 24 hours after the derailment. Crews were working to process the remaining rail cars. I’m not sure if the plan is to scrap them on site or take them away. … Read more
Why does one critical comment have more impact than a dozen complimentary ones? I’m going to share three stories of recent negative comments. Some details have been omitted because I want to share examples, not publicly shame people. Ouch I share my photos on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. I use Later.com to schedule posts … Read more
When you’re trackside, watching a train roll by, sometimes a car will catch your eye. Sometimes it’s a fallen flag like the Rock Island. Here in Canada – or the US – sometimes you will see a “census car”. The 2001 Census of Agriculture A census is an official count of population or other measures. … Read more
(clipart from http://clipart-library.com/free/female-symbol-transparent.html over my image) I’m on a few social networks. On Facebook I’m there for friends and family and trains, and on Instagram I’m mostly there just for trains. Over the past few months, I’ve heard of a lot of “men” being pigs toward female railfans. We need to be better than that. … Read more
I hope all Canadians enjoyed their Canada Day in this unprecedented year. Between the coronavirus, the Black Lives Matter protests, the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protests and allied rail blockades… it’s been turbulent. I don’t think the latter half of the year will be all sunshine and rainbows, either. But we’ll get through it. We are Canadians, … Read more