From the Snowbank

Colour photograph taken in winter showing a sign marked "16" in the foreground, and an approaching train in the distance.

The tracks run pretty straight around here. The flat prairie lent itself to straight lines and easy grades for railway planners in the late 1800s and early 1900s, so there aren’t a lot of curves on the main lines in the prairies. The CN main line west of Winnipeg is no exception.

Visiting Uno

Colour photograph at dusk of a long freight train crossing the large steel bridge at Uno Manitoba

The largest and longest train bridge in Manitoba is the CN trestle at Uno on the Rivers subdivision. Today, the bridge at Uno is a 1533′ steel trestle bridge. I visited it in April 2017.

Public Transit in Cologne

Trams crossing the Rhine River in Cologne

Public transit in the German city of Köln (Cologne in English) is the responsibility of Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe AG, which is responsible for operating the light rail and bus system and the subway (U-Bahn). Collectively the public transit network is known as the Cologne Stadtbahn. When we were in Cologne in early December 2021, we used … Read more

Snowshoe Railfanning

Long freight train rolling across a winter landscape

I’ve been looking for something to do during the winter besides huddling inside waiting for warmer weather. Late last year I asked Santa for a pair of snowshoes and on Christmas morning this HRKING set was under the tree.

A Frosty Morning

In January we had several mornings where everything was coated in a beautiful and delicate frost. Everyone calls it hoar frost but I understand it was rime ice in most cases. Fog in winter leads to rime ice, usually. However it formed, it was beautiful.

Felix

Black and white cat staring at the camera

I’ve lost my buddy, Felix. He came into our lives in late November 2019 with his “sister” Millie, and he left us in the morning of February 9, 2023. From the start, he was my boy. I protected him early on when Millie was asserting her alpha cat status, and we developed our own routines. … Read more

Algoma Central Equipment

Collage of three black and white photographs of Algoma Central Railway equipment

Here are a few scans of black and white negatives I acquired on an online auction site. I don’t know who the photographer(s) were, unfortunately. The auction listings showed two dates – July 27, 1979 for the flatcar and the rules car, and August 3, 1979 for the observation car. Bulkhead flatcar AC 2372 is … Read more