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
When I heard that CP 119 was coming into Winnipeg with the CP military “navy” locomotive CP 7022, and a Union Pacific locomotive as well, I decided to try to catch them coming into the city. Although it had been blustery and rainy all day, there were some glimmers of sun. As I drove east … Read more
I’ve been contemplating offering one or two 2021 calendars, featuring trains and/or grain elevators. I polled my mailing list and blog readers, and the results are here. People were most interested in large train calendars, but there was enough interest in any case for me to proceed. I ordered one large grain elevator calendar. After … Read more
Along with trains and grain elevators, I like bridges. Back in the days when Google+ was still a thing, I ran the “Bridges Over Tuesday” circle where people posted photos of bridges on that day. I have a lot of photos tagged “bridge” in my Adobe Lightroom catalog. Manitoba doesn’t have a lot of significant … Read more
Well, going, anyway… I received a hot tip that there was a CN train in Symington Yard in Winnipeg, waiting to go east, with a string of military equipment on flatcars. I gulped down my supper, grabbed my ready-to-go camera bag, and hit the road. I had to drive a quarter of the way around … Read more
Back in August 2007, I traveled the length of the Gaspé Peninsula with my friend and fellow railfan David Morris, chasing the VIA Rail train. I wrote about it long ago in Steve and Dave’s Excellent Gaspe Adventure, but I thought I’d write about a piece of it here. Also, I think the links in … Read more
I got up early on my birthday to do some trackside night photography. I wanted to take some long exposures and maybe include a train or two in them. My alarm went off at 04:30 and I was out the door shortly after 5 AM. I had decided to visit the CN Rivers subdivision, as … Read more