A Bounty of Magazines

Railway magazines

I feel fortunate that there are so many good train magazines available today. Here are four: CN Lines, CP Tracks, Branchline, and Railroad Heritage. All are worth subscribing to, and I do! I’ll give a brief overview of each so you can make your own decision. CN Lines As the name suggests, this magazine covers … Read more

Night Elevators

Grain elevator at night with aurora borealis

After seeing STEVE – and the rest of the aurora borealis – and the Milky Way – I still felt great, even at 1:30 AM. I decided to fulfill a long-held wish – photograph the Oberon grain elevator at night.

Trains of Newfoundland – Coming Soon!

Trains of Newfoundland book cover

I’m very excited to hear that Ken Pieroway’s new book, “Trains of Newfoundland“, is due for release this month! Ken has written several books on railways and trams in Newfoundland, and this one promises to be another great one. You can read my review of Streetcars of St. John’s to see what great work Ken … Read more

Nineteen Years

Three Trains

I buy slides and negatives on occasion. Mostly I am looking for places I have been, or locomotives that interest me – GMD1s, RS18s or VIA F units, for example. I recently acquired a slide of a westbound CN train at Lac Baker, New Brunswick dated September 30, 2000. I was interested in that one … Read more

Retracing Your Route

Map of CN railway passenger routes in 1974

I get railway-related inquiries every few weeks via email. They found my web site and have a technical question about trains, or a question about railway history, or just want to say “hi”. Most frequently, I get a question like the one from Diane below. Often people are doing genealogical research and want to know … Read more

Food on the VIA Rail Canadian

Breakfast on the train

I recently rode the VIA Rail “Canadian” from Winnipeg, MB to Sioux Lookout, ON and back. On that trip I had the opportunity to eat two meals aboard the train. I’ll share them here so you can get an idea of the meal experience, coach class. I need to emphasize that I was in coach … Read more

Consists

Train passing another train

Here are some details on the two Canadians I rode on July 4, 2022 between Winnipeg and Sioux Lookout, and the CN trains we met along the way. You may want to refer to the CN Redditt subdivision listing for locations. Even train numbers are going east, odd-numbered trains are going west. VIA 2 Locomotives … Read more

Print It!

Collection of printed photographs

I embraced digital photography as soon as I could. As a computer geek, I like digital things and I am comfortable working with image files and virtual folders and image editors. I never learned how to develop film. The downside of digital photography is that you hardly ever hold your images in your hands – … Read more

I’m Going to Ride the Canadian

VIA Rail's "Canadian" in a golden sunrise

For the first time in my life, I’m going to ride VIA Rail’s Canadian train! I’m not going to ride it very far, mind you – Winnipeg to Sioux Lookout, Ontario, and back – but I’ll be on it! This was one of the things I said I wanted to do in 2022 in my … Read more