I’m sorry to report that noted railway historian James Arthur “Art” Clowes has died. Art worked for CN for more than 30 years. After he retired, he volunteered at the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad and was instrumental in creating the museum there. I met Art at the museum. He was one of the few people … Read more
I was reading this very thought provoking article by Levi Sim, Taking Street Photography Should Be Illegal, and it got me thinking about ethics with railway photography. Levi’s article touches on some of the ethics of street photography, and taking photos of people without their permission. One key paragraph in his article talks about taking … Read more
You may remember that I featured Nick Lafreniere’s LEGO® VIA Rail “Canadian” a while ago. He was trying to get 10,000 supporters in order to get the LEGO company to consider it for a kit. Well, he made it! It’s now being evaluated and hopefully they’ll give it the green light. Heck, even VIA Rail … Read more
I’m written before about how I was an “army brat” – my father was in the Canadian military – and we lived overseas twice when I was a child. On our second tour overseas, to Moscow, USSR (see Soviet Military Toys), I was apparently enrolled in the British Airways “Junior Jet Club”. This was a … Read more
I post a lot of videos on my YouTube channel (feel free to subscribe!) If you are on my mailing list, you’ve been getting a weekly summary of the video(s) I have posted that week. I thought I’d go back and look at the most popular train videos that I uploaded in 2020. I say … Read more
I saw a post by George Dutka on the excellent White River Division blog about ex Pillsbury covered hoppers. I’ll chime in with my own observations. These blue, often rusty, cylindrical grain hoppers can be seen with SOO reporting marks on Canadian Pacific’s lines. These are 263,000 lb cars built in 1979 for Pillsbury and … Read more
It’s time for the traditional year-end roundup post. So. 2020. How was that? Well, you know. We who survived the pandemic lived through it, so there’s no need to belabour the issue. Remember the fallen, honour the front line workers who fought for us, and move on to bigger and better things. I have high … Read more
I want to take a moment and wish you, Dear Readers, a merry Christmas and a happy new year. For those who don’t celebrate Christmas, happy holidays. I’m not religious but I still call it Christmas and in normal years our family gets together to share meals and exchange presents. I don’t want to talk … Read more
A recent incident prompted me to write about backing up your photos – and data – again (I wrote about this back in 2013). A friend of mine kept some of his photos on an external hard drive. Well, one day that hard drive started making ugly noises and it stopped working. The drive was … Read more
