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.

February 1967 - near Bradford Ontario

For Christmas 1966, I received a Yashica 35mm camera.  It was really exciting to chase Canadian National 6218, a 4-8-4 Northern, north from Toronto as it headed an Upper Canada Railway Society Excursion to Barrie and Orillia.

This is one of the few pan shots that have worked and I think it was actually shot by my wife Jan while I paced the locomotive.

January 1966 - Wilmington MA

My first railway slide was taken using a Kodak Brownie and an eight picture roll of Ektachrome film.

Kudos to Adobe Photoshop for restoring the original colours.

Why a Blog?

A friend started a blog to demonstrate photographic techniques.  Intrigued, I decided to create a blog showing some of the railroad pictures that I've taken since 1966.

But my first picture is the photographer at 6 months in his mother's arms.