January 30 1968 Liverpool England

Starting in September 1967, I worked and lived in Birmingham England because one of Britain's largest computers was located there.  My company was using that computer to run Traffic Prediction Models to determine the future transportation needs of the urban environmens around Leeds and Liverpool.  Our UK headquarters were in Liverpool and I would regularly have to travel up from Birmingham to Liverpool to report in.

The year 1968 was the last year of regular steam in England.  Somehow I learned that the 9:00 train from Liverpool Exchange Street Station to Preston still had a steam locomotive.  On this day, instead of heading to the office to be on time, I headed to the station to get the attached picture.  A few months later, there were no steam locomotives pulling trains in England.

February 1967 Toronto Ontario

For two years. I worked in the vicinity of Canadian Pacific's former North Toronto station.  At the time, the station was not used for anything and the platforms and stair entrances to the tunnels under the tracks were still in evidence.  Sometimes at lunch hour, I would go out and take pictures of the freight trains heading east along the CP line towards the newly opened Agincourt Yard.  In recent times,  the station has been rebuilt into an upscale liquor store.

January 1966 Toronto Ontario

In 1960, I started at the University of Toronto.  I graduated in 1964 with a BA in mathematics. All the time that I was at the university I lived within easy walking distance of the Bloor-Danforth streetcar line.  As a result, I used it extensively.
Sadly there were some bad memories of trips.  One Saturday night, having taken a young lady home to her residence in the Jane-Bloor area, I had to ride the streetcar back to my residence on St. George Street.  Every few minutes, as I rode along, I vomitted out through an open window - something not possible with the sealed windows on the replacement subway.  Boy, did I feel badly the next day.
There was a station at Yonge Street to allow easy access from the Bloor cars to the Yonge subway.  A few months after the picture was taken, the Bloor subway opened and the station and streetcars were no longer needed.

September 8 1965 Chicago Illinois

For our honeymoon, Jan and I took her father's camper all the way out to Banff coming back through Montana to see the location of Custer's last stand.  It was a superb trip.  For some reason, on the way back, I decided that we should visit Chicago.  Can you imagine how difficult it is to find a place to camp with a camper in Chicago?
Still, we were able to get downtown and see the end of the Illinois Central railroad yards.  Soon, this area would be redeveloped and a beautiful park placed over the few tracks remaining. It was in this park where the faithful gathered to celebrate Obama's victory as president in 2008.
This picture was taken with a Kodak Brownie camera using Ektachrome roll film.

January 2 2012 Morrisburg Ontario
When the St. Lawrence Seaway was created in the late 1950s, the Canadian National main line from Montreal to Toronto was relocated for some distance between Cornwall and Cardinal.  In the process of creating Upper Canada Village, part of the old line was retained.  The old station from Aultsville (one of the lost villages drowned by the Seaway) was moved to the location and a memorable train was added.  Over the years, the elements have diminsihed the exhibit, but each Christmas season, the Christmas lights create a magical place.
Sadly on this night, wind and cold caused the focus to be less than sharp, but somehow that adds to the dream-like quality of the picture.

March 3 2011 Marietta Georgia USA
For many springs, I would take a train trip somewhere, but in March 2011, I instead flew to Atlanta to see the opera "Porgy and Bess".  On one beautiful spring day (look at that tree in blossom) my wife and I had lunch in Marietta besides the historic tracks.  This was the line where the famous "Great Locomotive Chase" of the American Civil War took place.
No steam locomotives this day.  Only a CSX freight; yet somehow, the whole experience was magical especially since snow still blanketed Ottawa.

January 16 2010 Chicago Illinois
My father worked for Canadian National railways for years.  As a result, he had a pass to ride free on CNR lines. He liked baseball and one of his favourite destinations was Chicago, which was only an overnight journey from Stratford where he lived.  As we kids got older he took us along.  As well as baseball stadiums, he took us to some of the fine museums of Chicago.  My favourite was the Museum of Science and Industry.

Now, whenever I get a chance when I am in Chicago I revisit this great museum.  The wonderful O gauge model layout provided by Sante Fe has been replaced by a fabulous HO layout provided by the Burlington Northern Sante Fe.  But these changes do not take away from the wonderful older exhibits that I still remember.  One is good old 999 which set a speed record for its day.

March 20 2009 Brockville Ontario

For years my friend Michael and I travelled all over North America on trains.  As well, in his business, Michael often had to take Business Class to meetings.  As a result, he amassed thousands of VIA Preference points.
Sadly cancer came and took away many aspects of his life; however, on this one day, we had fun using up some VIA points doing a circle trip from Ottawa to Brockville to Montreal and then back to Ottawa. It was to be Michael's last train ride.

January 26 2008 Palmer Massachusetts
Each year in January one of the fun railfan events is a visit to the huge train show in Springfield Massachusetts.  One of the exhibitors is usually the Iron Horse Restaurant in nearby Palmer.  As a result, we are happy to go over and sample their food (basic pub grub) in the station that they have carefully refurbished.
The photomerged picture shows both the exterior and the interior.  As we ate, a giant CSX freight train went by outside the window.

February 22 2007 Colebrook BC

For years, I had a friend in Vancouver who liked me to visit.  Those visits also gave me an excuse to railfan,  On this particular day, I waited along the Burlington Northern Sante Fe track near White Rock for the Talgo train from Seattle.  The result was this very pleasant picture.

March 30 2006 Jasper Alberta

Since I retired, I have been able to do some great train trips using either the North American Rail Pass or a Canadian Rail Pass.  On this particular trip, I was heading west to try out AMTRAK south from Seattle.

For many years, CN steam locomotive 6060 was on display in Jasper.  When CN decided to bring 6060 back into service, CN 6015 was brought from the Canadian Rail Museum in Montreal.  It is obviously lovingly looked after as it still looks good decades after it is was "stuffed and mounted".

April 3 2005 LaSalle Quebec

The Canadian Pacific Railway has a beautiful bridge across the St. Lawerence River leaving the north shore at LaSalle.  On this day, there were other railfans taking pictures as well.  Still it was very interesting to see St. Lawrence and Hudson SD45 #5690 bring its train across the massive bridge.

January 29 2004 Uhrichsville Ohio


When a passionate railfan begets a very successful regional railroad, wonderful things can happen.  For a short time this occurred in central Ohio.  The successful railroad was the Ohio Central and the wonderful thing that happened was that the owner was able to build a modern shop where he could repair historic steam locomotives including very large ones like this Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4.  Furthermore, a video genius organized a photo charter for two days in the dead of winter.  Amazingly a snow storm dusted the landscape just before the trips making for truly beautiful photographs.  Even better, the sun came out.

March 18 2003 Cochrane Ontario
When I worked in northern Ontario in the 1960s, the line between Cochrane and Kapuskasing was run by the Canadian National Railways.  The line was originally part of the National Transcontinental line from Quebec City to Nakina Ontario.  Over the years the line west of Cochrane has been cut back so that now only the section between Hearst Ontario and Cochrane remains.  When CN disposed of their line east of Cochrane, they passed control of the line west of Cochrane to the Ontario Northland Railway.  As long as the resource industries in the Kapuskasing area continue, there will be freight for the line.  In this picture, the train from Kapuskasing is waiting to get into the Cochrane yard.  One wonders if the historic diesel in the lead is more comfortable for the crew than the newly painted unit trailing.

January 15 2002 La Junta Colorado
AMTRAK's train The Southwest Chief operates from Chicago to Los Angeles mostly on former Sante Fe trackage.  Through Colorado it avoids the main Burlington Northern Sante Fe freight route for a path through La Junta Colorado.  In La Junta, the servicing stop is long enough to get off and get some pictures.  On this day, I was on my way to Los Angeles.  There I would meet a friend who was there to help his mother with the recent death of his father.  Part of the task was to drive the father's car back to Toronto.  On the way, we would have a wonderful chance to railfan such interesting places as Dallas Texas and St. Louis Missouri.
One hour after this picture was taken, AMTRAK P42 number 180 slammed into a truck laden with manure - killing the driver of the truck.  Although some passengers on the train were hurt and one had to be evacuated in an ambulance, I was tightly wedged into the tiny toilet compartment on my sleeper when the impact occurred and was spared any injury.
The AMTRAK engine was a mess and had to be pushed into a siding.  The resulting delay allowed me to ride over Cajon Pass in daylight - something not normally achieved by the regular schedule.

February 19 2001 Montreal Quebec

The slide is labelled Windsor Station, but Montrealers know that when the new hockey rink (Molson Centre) was built, trains were evicted from historic Windsor Station.  Instead of the environs of a gorgeous building, the spartan platforms of Lucien-L'Allier now greet commuters.  On this weekend afternoon, an historic diesel is ready to haul decades old double deck coaches for an Agence métropolitaine de transport trip to Vaudreuil.

May 29 2000 Jonquiere Quebec
The VIA train from Montreal to Jonquiere in the Saguenay region of Quebec is largely a remote service train.  As well as joining the two regions of Quebec it supplies transportation into many beautiful lakes which are used as vacation spots.  It seldom carries a dome car.

On this particular trip (which I had taken as part of my goal to ride all VIA passenger routes), Evangeline Park had been chartered to take a business group to a lodge.  After the group got off, normal passengers were allowed to enjoy the treat of watching the beautiful scenery along Lac St Jean from the comfort of the dome.

May 23 1999 Blenheim Ontario

Sometimes it is difficult to see industrial locomotives, but this GE 44 ton locomotive working the feed mill complex in Blenheim was very visible.  Research showed that it had begun life working for the Greater Winnipeg Water District in Manitoba after it was built in 1946.  At the time of the picture, it was owned by the Ontario Southland Railway.

March 20 1998 North Bay Ontario

For years I have wondered how long the Ontario Northland passenger train service from Toronto to Cochrane would continue.  So far it has successfully managed to survive through both equipment and timetable changes.

Boldly on this trip, I had taken the overnight train from Toronto to Cochrane returning almost immediately to Toronto on the day schedule.  It was a great trip.  Cochrane was still in deep winter whereas it was a warm spring day in Toronto.

May 17 1997 Buffalo New York
Buffalo used to be a major transportation centre starting as a break of bulk port at the end of the Erie canal.  Later railways had their terminals there.  Such railways were the Lackawanna and the Lehigh Valley.  As well, there were great number of industrial railways in the area.  Changing industrial and transport patterns had seen Buffalo fall on hard times, but still they were able to press forward with an innovative streetcar program.  This picture shows part of the revitalized downtown on a quiet but cloudy weekend day.

June 14 1996 Owen Sound Ontario
One of the more interesting branchlines that I never got to ride on was the Canadian Pacific route from Streetsville Ontario to Owen Sound.  By the time I got back to Owen Sound for a retirement party for my best friend in high school, all service to Owen Sound on both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific was finished.  The CNR station has been turned into a museum with lots of marine material as befitting a port.  At the time the picture was taken, the city of Owen Sound had not decided what to do with the boarded up modernistic CPR Station.

July 20 1995 Hantsport Nova Scotia
For years the Dominion Atlantic Railway, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific, obtained much revenue from the shipment of gypsum from mines near Windsor NS to the port of Hantsport.  After the DAR closed, a new company, the Windsor and Hantsport Railway Company took over this important operation using former CPR locomotives.  Here we see a loaded gypsum train approaching the Hantsport Station.

May 22 1994 St. Thomas Ontario
For years Pinafore Park had a delightful operating railway exhibit using equipment from the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway.  My friend who loved streetcars was especially intrigued by the "coach" which was rebuilt from a streetcar.
All of this equipment has now moved to Huntsville Heritage Village where it is much closer to its original home of Portage.

January 3 1993 Capreol Ontario
In September 1992, my daughter was awarded a four year scholarship by INCO to study science at Laurentian University in Sudbury Ontario.  After Christmas 1992, we drove her back to start her second term of first year.  As part of that trip, I stopped in at the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum in Capreol.  It was closed, but its major exhibits were able to be photographed.  Although I have never returned, I have often wondered what the rest of the museum is like.
By the way, we were almost killed on the way back to Ottawa when an approaching car spun out on the icy roads and narrowly missed hitting us.  After that, daughter used Bearskin Airlines to get to and from Sudbury in the winter since by this time there was no rail service.

February 24 1992 Cairo Egypt
This slide is labelled Cairo Streetcar, Miden TAHRIR, Cairo.  In these days of unrest in Egypt, the news is often full of the name Tahrir Square.  On this cool day in 1992, the only item of interest for me was this decrepit streetcar.
A good friend had talked me into this trip to Egypt.  Things did not work out as expected, but I now have a much better appreciation of Egypt and its transportation system.
Although I was gently escorted out of a railway yard, I found most Egyptians very welcoming.

February 8 1991 Penzance England
Penzance is very close to England's most south-westerly point at Lands End. It even has palm trees.  On this particular day, it had been hit with severe cold and a bad snow storm.  The trains were not designed for this.  Toilets were frozen and locomotives did not operate properly.  Delays were everywhere.
Just a few days before, I had been in northern Scotland on a spring-like day.  British weather is never predictable.
Why was I in England in February?  Well, I was supposed to be on a trip behind steam locomotives in Kenya, but the promoter went bankrupt without any travel agency insurance.  I lost quite a bit of money, but decided to salvage the trip by getting a Britrail Pass and doing many of the lines in the United Kingdom that I had not been on before since I already a non-refundable airline ticket to London..

April 13 1990 Douglastown Quebec
One of the prettiest train rides in Canada is along the north shore of the Bay de Chaleur.  On this Easter weekend, VIA was coming to the end of its use of the "blue" cars that it got from Canadian National.  My wife and I had a drawing room going out to Gaspe much to the sadness of the crew who thought it was unbooked.  On the way back, we had two roomettes whose sanitary systems were obviously life-expired.  Still it was a memorable trip.  The little town of Gaspe is always a pleasure to spend a few hours or days in.

January 14 1989 Toronto Ontario
How the Toronto skyline and trainyards have changed since I went to university there in the early sixties!  On the final night before I finished my exams, I actually had the courage to go to the Spadina Roundhouse and ask for a ride up to Union Station on the locomotive consist that was to pull the overnight train to Montreal.  My request was granted and I was amazed at how rough-riding a 6700 diesel was as it went through the slip switches.

In this picture an underpass has been created to allow more GO trains to operate without conflict. Instead of Spadina roundhouse there is the baseball stadium whose name goes to the highest bidder.  In the picture is AMTRAK's Maple Leaf at the start of its journey to New York City.

March 14 1988 Newtonville Ontario
One of the most beautiful places to take pictures of trains on the Montreal to Toronto route is the area just south of Newtonville.  There, one bridge spans the Canadian Pacific mainline while another is over the Canadian National double track.  Views of the sweeping curves and open country to the east towards Port Hope can be enhanced with telephoto techniques.
 
In this picture, interest is added by the VIA J train (J standing for Joined).  The front section (probably from Montreal as VIA 61) is led by an LRC type locomotive which fits in with the profile of the LRC coaches.  The second part from Ottawa (VIA 41) is powered by an FP40 locomotive which towers over the cars.

January 24 1987 Truckee River Nevada
Telesat often sent me to courses in Silicon Valley California as computers progressed.  In early 1987, we were very interested in HP3000 computers and I had a series of courses over two weeks.  As a result, I had a weekend in California.  I had a long term dream to see Donner Pass.  Little did I know that there is some considerable distance between Palo Alto and Donner Pass.  Nor did I know that Donner Pass in January sometimes receives great falls of wet soggy snow.  Anyhow, I proceeded, lying my way past the constables requesting chains on my rent-a-car.  Because of the snowfall, I never did see Donner Pass, but I was able to see a freight in the Truckee River valley near Reno Nevada.

January 11 1986 Kahnawake Quebec
For years the AMTRAK Montreal to New York train left Windsor Station and then used the Canadian Pacific route to Delson Quebec before proceeding south on the Napierville Junction and Delaware and Hudson.
After January 1985, the "Adirondack" was rerouted into Central Station.  On Saturday January 10, a group of us took the train as far as Plattsburgh where we had dinner in the restaurant in the former station.  On the Sunday we returned in perfect weather to get this gorgeous shot of the train crossing the massive Seaway bridge.

June 1 1985 Ottawa Ontario
VIA tried several schemes for trains between Ottawa and Sudbury.  This slide is labelled "First Revived Canadian".  It is negotiating the detour (known in railway parlance as a "shoe fly") which was needed in order to build a bridge for the newly aligned Industrial Avenue into Hurdman Station.  The consist of the train is quite interesting.  There are in order - a combine car for baggage and some sleeping car passengers, a coach, a Skyline car acting as the food service car, and two Montreal to Vancouver sleepers.

February 17 1984 Marrakesh Morocco
Most tourists to Marrakech are seldom interested in the modern railway line that runs from Marrakesh to Casablanca.  Of course my transportation consultant friend and I were.  We were fortunate to take the line from Marrakesh to Casablanca.  The trip took a few hours.  We took a detour on the way back using buses and finally arrived back at our hotel in Marrakesh 36 hours after leaving.

The influence of France is very visible.

January 15 1983 Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Although most of the transportation network of Rio was very modern, when we visited in 1983, this quaint tram operation went from the very modern Petrobras building to the favella of San Teresa.  We were warned that it was unsafe for tourists to ride the tram.  Fortunately, our
visit to Rio went without incident when we did use public transit. However, we were swarmed on Copacabana Beach, but were aware enough to pay sufficient attention to the young men that they were unable to grab our bags.

April 30 1982 Altoona Pennsylvania

For years, Horseshoe Curve near Altoona has been a "mecca" for train enthusiasts.  Although the number of trains over the steep grade has decreased over the years, it is still a beautiful sight to see - especially since there are now many tourist facilities at the site.

On this day, a group of us were on our way to a Railfans' Weekend at the East Broad Top Railroad.  Some of us boldly decided to get shots from the opposite side of the track - a tactic that since "911" we would never attempt.  This image is the result.  A former Penn Central unit barely repainted to its new owner CONRAIL struggles to get its freight train up the grade.

May 16 1981 St Pascal Quebec
Even though the weather was terrible with a snow squall at one point, a trip to Gaspe on the long weekend in May was a memorable experience.  It was my first experience seeing the railways of this area of Quebec.  Our leader, Doug Smith, set up some wonderful stops for photos along the way.  The historic buildings add to the scene as a Halifax-bound freight passes.

January 27 1980 Izmal Mexico
Most tourists go to the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico for the resorts such as Cancun or to see the amazing pyramids of Chichen Itza.  Our group of two couples certainly did those two things, but we also were interested in the obscure narrow gauge line of the Unidos del Sureste railway which ran to the standard gauge line in Merida.

I was really keen to ride from Izmal to Merida behind the chain-drive diesel, but when I saw the crowd of passengers and the old coaches, I decided that our rental car would be much more comfortable and safer.

January 1 1979 Lithgow NSW Australia
"The Lithgow Zig Zag was a zig zag railway built near Lithgow on the Great Western Railway of New South Wales in Australia which operated between 1870 and 1910, to overcome an otherwise insurmountable climb up the western side of the Blue Mountains. It is now used by the Zig Zag Railway, a narrow gauge tourist railway." (Wikipedia)

Australia has many similarities to Canada. One of them is that a transcontinental railway has some difficult mountains to traverse.  The Lithgow Zig Zag (switchbacks in North American terms) was equivalent to the Field Big Hill on the Canadian Pacific Railway.  As soon as technology and money permitted, a tunnel replaced the difficult operations of both.
In the picture can be seen both the tourist train which in 1979 used locomotives just out of commuter service in Brisbane and the later electrified line which uses the tunnel to move large amounts of coal.

February 11 1978 Ottawa Ontario

The Barry's Bay Ski Train moves from the line from Ottawa to Brent to the line towards Arnprior and Barry's Bay.  It is a very cold Saturday.  This picture is one of the few pictures that I ever got at Nepean Junction.  The line between Barry's Bay and Arnprior is no more.  The line as far as Arnprior is owned by the City of Ottawa and is used for delivery of raw chemical materials.

January 10 1977 Ottawa Ontario

On this day, a vicious snow storm will dump many inches of snow on the capital.  Passenger trains are struggling to get through. Canadian National 6526 has struggled in to Ottawa from Toronto.  It is wearing the new VIA logo.

April 10 1976 Limoges Ontario

Canadian National # 2 "The Super Continmental" ran from Vancouver to Toronto and Montreal.  In the picture can be seen the Capreol to Montreal section of the train.  The picture was taken on one of the first nice spring days on the Alexandria Subdivision which runs between Ottawa and Coteau.  This line is now owned by VIA Rail and still sees several passenger trains a day.

April 12 1975 Burlington Vermont


To celebrate the 200th year of the United States, a group of industries created the American Freedom Train.  Early in its tour, it came to Vermont which looked like the closest it would get to Ottawa.  As a result, a group of us rushed over to Burlington.  Sadly the crowds were so large that we never got in to see the displays, but it was exciting to see the steam locomotive which hauled the train.

March 17 1974  Havelock Ontario

The CP Rail Diesel Car awaits a return trip to Toronto on St. Patrick's Day.  Havelock was the division point on the original CPR line from Toronto to Smiths Falls.  In 1970, the through line was abandoned for most of the route east of Havelock although the right-of-way was retained for installing and servicing heavy duty communications cables and later fibre optic links.

January 8 1973 - Ladysmith BC

Two historic Baldwin locomotives pass the depot in Ladysmith with only a caboose having dropped their train of logs.  CP dieselized Vancouver Island using the Baldwins.  A non-frequent snowfall and low winter light add to the photo.

April 16, 1972 - San Diego California

Soon Passenger trains will be run by AMTRAK and not Sante Fe; however, on this Sunday all the glory of the historic Sante Fe passenger service is on display. My employer, Telesat, bought its first Anik satellites from Hughes in Santa Monica California.  Sometimes I'd have to go to work in California.  These trips gave me an opportunity to ride trains that I would normally not be anywhere close to.

April 10 1971 Streetsville Ontario

Canadian Pacific 8143 Class DRS12b leads a train across the Credit River bridge.  Pictures like this show the transition between colour schemes of Canadian Pacific.  This area is now no longer rural but is covered with Mississauga subdivisions.

April 4 1970 Sydney Australia

The harbour rail yards in Sydney in 1970 were grim grey places where ancient locomotives worked.  This whole scene has been replaced by a modern tourist area and the grime is gone.
The New South Wales Government Railway Class 19 0-6-0 in the picture was built in 1877.

April 1 1969 Myrdal Norway

One of the most spectacular railway journeys in the world is the Flamsbanen (the railway to Flam).  Starting high in the mountains at Myrdal on the Bergen to Oslo line, the Flamsbanen descends a steep grade requiring special locomotives to get the fjord side at Flam.  More modern locomotives have replaced the Norges Stat Bahn E9 pictured.

March 8, 1968 Valencia Spain

Just before Christmas 1967, I had been in Valencia and caught a glimpse of a Garrett Locomotive.  Luck had us return to Valencia in 1968 and capture this photo just before the engines were taken out of service.