Reporting on Real Rails 2025

Congratulations to the organizers and volunteers of Real Rails 2025 on a job well done! The best endorsement I can give is to note that everyone was wondering when the next one will be.

Real Rails 2025 was billed as “the largest railway convention of the millennium in Canada”. I don’t know about that – there’s TRACCS, for example – but it was an awesome convention nevertheless. I’m glad I went.

The event featured two very full days of presentations (Friday and Saturday), a banquet on Saturday night featuring Adam Meeks from CPKC Heritage, and a public train show on Sunday.

During the three days, one large room featured displays from the major sponsors as well as railway manufacturers, vendors, individuals and local museums and organizations. The CPHA is shown above, with Rapido in the background and a stepstool from the VHA on the right. The TH&B Historical Society is visible just above the stepstool.

Attendees could choose to go on up to five outings to area railway attractions (GO Transit, VIA Rail, Halton County Radial Railway Museum, Ontario Steam Heritage Museum, or the Ontario Southland Railway) during the three days, for a small additional fee. I went to the OSR, which will be its own post.

Real Rails was sponsored by several Canadian railway history organizations:

• The Canadian Pacific Historical Association (CPHA)
• The Canadian National Railway Historical Association (CNRHA)
• The Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway Historical Society
• The VIA Historical Association (VHA)

I’m a member of all of them (!) and I helped staff the VHA and CNRHA tables. We had some good conversations about the VHA and its mission, I met a few donors, sold a few magazines for the CNRHA, and had some “face time” with people I normally see only on Zoom meetings.

Presentations were given simultaneously in four different rooms, lasting between 45 minutes and an hour. It was a real challenge deciding which presentation to see, as there were so many interesting presentations that ran at the same time. For example, I would have loved to see Christopher Greenlaw’s “A Brief History of VIA Rail” but it was opposite Brian Schuff’s “George Harris Story” presentation, and I had to go with Schuff. Difficult choices.

I gave one and a half presentations. I had volunteered to speak about the New Brunswick East Coast Railway, as I mentioned back in August, and former CNRHA president Al Lill asked me to co-present “Grain on CN: Then & Now” with him.

Al wrote most of the presentation, and I put some grain elevator content in the middle. The presentation was based on his multi-part article in CN Lines magazine, to which I had contributed some photos and information. He did the first part (evolution of grain cars), I did the middle (evolution of grain elevators and trains), and he finished it off with the fascinating grain terminals in Vancouver.

My own presentation, “The New Brunswick East Coast Railway“, was given bright and early at 8 AM on Saturday morning. Surprisingly, there were a lot of people there and they were awake… at the start of the presentation and also at the end!

Thanks to David McCormack for recording my presentation!

More than 200 people attended the Saturday evening banquet. It was a buffet featuring roast beef, mashed potatoes, risotto, vegetables, and so on. It could have used more gluten-free content, but I didn’t starve, so it’s all good.

I think a highlight for everyone at the banquet, and perhaps the entire weekend, was Adam Meeks’ presentation. Adam is the Director of Heritage Services & Operations for CPKC, and as such is responsible for the 2816 steam engine and the rest of the heritage railcar / engine fleet.

Adam spoke at length about CP 2816, its acquisition by CP and initial runs, its near-extinction at the hands of Hunter Harrison, and its revival under CPKC President & CEO Keith Creel. The locomotive was earmarked for a historic three-country tour – Canada, the USA and Mexico – to celebrate the formation of CPKC.

The journey was long and at times harrowing – the crowds in Mexico were unreal – but they got the job done. Adam’s presentation was fascinating and we were spellbound.

After his presentation, he showed the short film “Pulse of the Continent”, not yet generally available. You can watch the trailer here.

You may remember that I photographed CP 2816 shortly after it returned to Canada.

The conference wasn’t perfect, but it was great, and I am glad I went. I regret that I couldn’t be in two or three places at once but I saw some great presentations, and people seemed to like my presentation and my co-presentation with Al Lill.

I am especially grateful for the chance to make new friends, finally meet some friends in person, and reunite with old friends, like Bill Linley here. I should have taken more photographs like this.

On to the next one, in two or three years!