It looked like a beautiful Sunday morning, very nice for railfanning… sunny and blue skies galore. I hit the road and headed toward Symington Yard, intending to take a look and see if I could find the “heritage” CN 7600 that was at the shops earlier. Those plans were derailed replaced by a single red … Read more
As many railfans know, the Canadian Pacific Railway painted five of their refurbished SD70ACu locomotives to honour the armed services of Canada and the US. Each are painted differently to represent different branches of the militaries and/or time periods. The five are CP 6644 “D-Day”, CP 7020 “NATO green”, CP 7021 “Sand”, CP 7022 “Navy”, … Read more
In these trying times, it’s hard to stay positive. With the pandemic still raging – and here in Manitoba, worse than it ever has been – it’s difficult to see any silver lining. I’m generally a positive, “things will work out” kind of guy. I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on bad things … Read more
Thank you to all the men and women who have served our country. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice and all have been changed by the experience. Let us support, help and remember them. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the … Read more
Winnipeg is half encircled by the Red River Floodway, which can divert most of the Red River around the city during times of flooding. It was expanded after the 1997 “Flood of the Century”. I’ve included the handy map from Wikimedia above. Remember that the Red River flows from south to north, coming from Fargo … Read more
I had an hour to kill one June evening this year, so I headed over to the Osborne Village area of Winnipeg. My intent was to look for different photo angles in the area. I decided to visit the Osborne Station on Winnipeg’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line. Here’s a map I drew of the … Read more
Steam Echoes of Hamilton is a nostalgic look at mid-1950s railway action in and around Hamilton, Ontario. I have been aware of author Ian Wilson’s “Steam” series of books for some time. People have spoken very highly of his books, known as the Canadian Branchline series, but until now I haven’t read a single one. … Read more
In my review of In The Shadow of Giants by Norman Helm, I mentioned that when the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was absorbed into the CPR, some of the TH&B was kept by Canadian Pacific. The TH&B’s GP7 and GP9 locomotives had their short hoods chopped, and were repainted into red CP Rail colours. … Read more
I picked up “In The Shadow of Giants” by Norman Helm as part of a lot of train books I bought. I’d heard of the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway, of course, but I didn’t know a lot about it other than it served those three cities and was eventually absorbed into the Canadian Pacific … Read more
Back in May I posted about Nick Lafreniere’s “Lego Canadian” and “Lego Corridor” projects to get the LEGO Group to issue the VIA Rail “Canadian” and/or the “Corridor” train as LEGO kits. He needs 10,000 supporters for it to be considered, and he’s just over 75% there on the “Canadian”. Click the button below to … Read more