Continuing my trend of reading old railway books, I recently read “Canadian Pacific Railway” by Patrick C. Dorin. This book was published in 1973, so it is more than a little dated. This 176 page book covers the Canadian Pacific Railway from the confederation of Canada and the tumultuous start of the CPR, through its … Read more
After more than a year, a train has reached Churchill, Manitoba. Three locomotives, a caboose and a flatcar arrived at the northern town just before 6:45 PM on October 31. This was the first train to visit the town since the rail line between Gillam and Churchill was washed out in late May 2017. Churchill … Read more
Golden slumbers fill your eyesSmiles await you when you rise – the Beatles Photographers talk about the quality of light. We talk about soft light, hard light, direct and indirect light. It’s not until you start making photographs seriously that you really notice the quality of light. I’m a huge fan of sunrise and sunsets because … Read more
I’ve been watching season 2 of the show Mighty Trains and so far it has been really enjoyable to watch. Episode 1 The first episode featured Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer cruise train. Host Teddy Wilson traveled on two of the “Rocky” trains – from Vancouver to Banff and from Jasper to Vancouver. The show did a … Read more
I had a tip that Canadian Pacific was running its business train east through Winnipeg. The story was that it was headed to Montreal, where it would then head into the US to tour one of CP’s subsidiaries, the Delaware and Hudson. A “business train”, often called an “officer’s special”, is a passenger train owned … Read more
Octobers in Winnipeg can be pretty cold. Season temperatures are a high of 10C (50F) and low of -2C (30F). So when it’s warm, everyone gets out and enjoys it while it lasts, before the cold winter sets in. On October 18, it reached a high of 23.6C (74.5F). Time to get out of the … Read more
The Arctic Gateway group and its subcontractors have been very hard at work fixing washouts and repairing track along the rail line between Gillam and Churchill, Manitoba. It has been a tale of triumph and tragedy so far. They have made tremendous progress since the line was purchased by Arctic Gateway in early September. The … Read more
On August 7, I heard that the VIA Rail “Churchill” * train headed to Winnipeg had a 40th anniversary unit leading the train. With the current schedule, it would have come into Winnipeg at 13:45, during my working hours. After checking its forecast arrival time using the VIA Rail tracker site, I found it was … Read more
Every year, the Winnipeg Railway Museum hosts Railway Days, with admission by donation. I dropped by on Sunday, September 16 to see Railway Days 2018 and what was new with the museum. The big news is the new locomotive simulator, “CN 9633”. CN 9633 This simulator (OSCAR-4) taught many engineers at the CN training centre … Read more