On September 2, 2021 I received an email from Richard Manicom that would lead to a lot of back-and-forth, some great knowledge exchanges, an article in CN Lines magazine, and the map above.
Richard aka “King Richard” aka “Dick Manicom” contacted me because he and Bill Linley were writing an article for CN Lines magazine. Bill and Richard were friends for a long time, and back in 1963, they rode a mixed train from Joffre to Monk, Quebec together with Dick’s younger brother Ernie. Apparently the CN crew was quite surprised that anyone wanted to actually ride the train.
He contacted me because, while searching for information on the CN Monk subdivision, he came across this blog post I wrote in 2014. It was about the VIA Rail Ocean train and its possible fate given that CN had announced their abandonment of the Newcastle subdivision (CN was persuaded to retain the subdivision with a big cash infusion, so the Ocean has continued on its usual route).
The post included a map I drew of New Brunswick and part of Quebec, basically the exact region that Richard and Bill were covering in their article. Richard asked if I would be willing to draw the map for their article, with more detail and focusing more on western New Brunswick and the area between NB and Quebec City.
We emailed back and forth a lot, and I kept sending revisions of the map for their review and comments. I drew the map in the Paint.NET program, which is a fine program for editing and drawing images. It’s no Photoshop but it is easy to use, and it is free for personal use.
The final version (rev 7) had 16 layers in it. It was a lot of work!
Here’s rev 2 to give you an example of how we started out.
The map was accepted by CN Lines editor Kevin Holland and the article was published in Volume 21, Number 1, which came out in May 2022. The ten page article “Mixed to Monk” featured two maps – a detailed map of the Monk subdivision in 1963 by Matthieu Lachance, and mine showing the Monk subdivision in the context of the overall region.
The article is excellent and well researched, and I’m proud of my contribution to the article. Several other people contributed to the article beyond Bill and Richard, and Matthieu and I, including Dave Knowles, Dave Stremes, Danny McCracken, Sean Robitaille and Ken Goslett.
Sadly, Richard died in August 2022, shortly after the article came out. He was 75. Read his obituary here.
I never met Richard, but I really enjoyed our virtual work together. I wish I could have met him in person.
His Zenfolio site is still online, so please go browse some of his excellent photography.
Steve, thank you very much for bringing back cherished memories of my last project with Dick. Our article gave us an important reason to talk and correspond many times through the latter half of 2021. Early on, when we allocated the necessary tasks, I encouraged Dick to lead the mapping project as he would have an opportunity to include you in a widening circle of railway friends.
We both learned a great deal as the article developed. It was a very enjoyable time in our lives. Little did we know that it would be our last opportunity to share our love for railways.
We were delighted with the prominence given to our article in CN Lines a few months before Dick passed. I remember how the Monk Sub brought us happily together almost 60 years after our trip with Dick’s brother Ernie.
Nice post Steve! I recall when we had to draw these maps back in the day. It was truly one of these moments you can’t fail and have to be like a scribe rendering in drawing the intentions of the authors. I really appreciate you take the time today to document that process that is never linear but done step by step. I think we are many who miss Richard’s presence and it’s great that he and Bill were able to transmit their knowledge of that les travelled line to younger generations before their memories vanished. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but this morning I read you post while I was sitting at my desk, working on model locomotives to replicate the Cabot train which used to travel over the Monk Subdivision!
Well done Steve! Your article also brought back many fond memories collaborating with both Bill and Richard on my own books. Each interaction with those true gentlemen was always pleasant and uplifting. The railfan community is a wonderful one to be a part of.
It was a pleasure to get to know Richard better through this project as we learned of our mutual interest in employee timetables. As a result, he had just started assisting me at the C. Robert Craig Memorial Library to digitize some of the employee timetables in our collection from the Maritimes. Sadly he passed away soon after.
Steve, our mutual friend Bill Linley brought this post to my attention earlier today. Thank you for creating that map and for writing this post. I can well imagine your back and forth communications with Richard; he liked to be sure that things were correct!
Yes, the crew were very surprised to see us, and they extended us a great deal of hospitality on that day. Now, more than sixty years later, I still have poignant memories of the journey. And of Richard, my brother; I miss him greatly.