VIA Rail’s service across Canada was brought to a standstill due to the railway blockades in support of the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protest. The blockades started on February 6 in response to an RCMP attempt to enforce a court injunction. The blockades popped up in numerous locations across the country. This forced the cancellation of numerous … Read more
The waiting is the hardest partEvery day you see one more trainYou shoot it on film, you take it black and whiteThe waiting is the hardest part“The Waiting”, Tom Petty, more or less It was a bitterly cold afternoon when I went out to photograph along the CN main line on February 15th (2020). IC … Read more
There have been a few occasions when an Ontario Northland Railway locomotive has wandered into New Brunswick. I think they may have been repaying “horsepower hours” to CN and I was fortunate to see two of these locomotives in the 10 years I was railfanning in New Brunswick. ONR 2105 ONR 2105 visited the Maritimes … Read more
The book “The Ontario Northland Railway” by Patrick C. Dorin is an excellent snapshot of the ONR in the mid 1980s. Written by the prolific Dr. Dorin, this book is an affectionate look at the railway that runs from Toronto to Moosonee. The book is divided into four major sections: History of the ONR and … Read more
In early 2011 a prototype electric bus project was launched to run a single electric bus in Winnipeg. The project was financed by the province, Manitoba Hydro and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). At the time, MHI was in the business of manufacturing lithium-ion batteries but exited that business in 2014. The study was conducted in … Read more
I caught my second* CP heritage unit on February 11th – and my first “on the road” – thanks to some Facebook tips in the great RailsMBSK railfan group. (I posted about my first heritage unit sighting – CP 7013 – as one of my Railfan Five) Tim B posted that he saw CP 7016 … Read more
I had the good fortune of seeing one of the Central Manitoba Railway’s GMD1 locomotives for the first time. Cando Contracting acquired three GMD1 locomotives from CN – CN 1401, 1434 and 1435. Two of those locomotives were rebuilt and are now in service, and CN 1434 has been used for parts. CCGX 1009 CN … Read more
I was a little hesitant to try another railfan e-book. I bought one a few years ago from a different author that was… poor. However, this one was great! Author Byron Babbish has 44 books on Amazon at the moment, mostly train books but a few on car ferries and even one or two on … Read more
Back in the fall of 2014, Eric Gagnon challenged several railfan bloggers to share their Railfan Five, a selection of five of our images from our own “railfan journey”. Mine is here. Recently, Eric and Chris Mears and I decided to do the challenge again, and I believe Michael from The Beachburg Sub is in … Read more
