Tillsonburg, Ontario, heart of tobacco country. Small but important town, home to no less than 4 independent railroad stations. CPR, CNR (GTR), Wabash, New York Central. Have pics of all them in a thread titled Tillsonburg here on Classic. ( my back still hurts when I hear that word, Tillsonburg)- Stompin' Tom Connors
So here on the left we have the abandoned CNR Burford Sub which connected to the busy Cayuga Sub. The track still extant is ex CPR, the Port Burwell Sub, home to legions of D10's meeting the PRR coal hauler Great Lake steamer Ashtabula in Port Burwell. Daily passenger service, roundhouse, steep grade out of the town. Most of the track is lifted but this partial portion exists yet for the Ontario Southland Rwy. Doing ok I hear.
Above both is the magnificently engineered high speed double track Canada Southern, Michigan Central, New York Central. 32 or so NYC Hudsons assigned in St. Thomas hauling portions of the great steel fleet and winning the war, between Detroit and Buffalo.
I saw them, was young, knew them briefly, heard them, coal smoke, was in awe of them. Shook the ground, power in the air.
Is there anything that represents the demise of the New York Central as well as the Michigan Central Station, the Buffalo Grand Central Terminal and the mighty CASO connecting the two. It's indescribable and not easy to understand.
It is not hard for me to see the Hudsons, and the D10's. Moguls and Consolidations on the CNR. The abandoned CNR Burford Sub. now a trail. CASO above, ex CPR from Port Burwell still in place, no longer to Port Burwell however.
Walter Pfefferle pic
See below. Here we go again.
"Ghosts" on an old railroad right-of-way?
Hard not to imagine the same, looking at a scene of near-desolation like the one in the photo.
Makes me think of the Shelley poem "Ozymandias"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias
My favorite TV show as a kid was Ozymandias and Harriet....or I am thinking of the guy who sang with Black Sabbath? Ozy Ozymandias?
wjstixMy favorite TV show as a kid was Ozymandias and Harriet....or I am thinking of the guy who sang with Black Sabbath? Ozy Ozymandias?
No, it was Ramses II. The British plundered his tomb in the early 1800s. Greeks often have trouble spelling other cultures' names.
Here's the other contest entry (many people don't know there were two):
In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows:— "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows "The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,— Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder,—and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
I can't literally translate 'Glirastes' on a family-friendly forum, anyway.
Well it is the ruins and remains of a powerful and important way of life who's time, suddenly, dramatically and shockingly ran out.
Now an 8 year old today can see this. Does the 8 year old instinctively sense something of the past and wonder. Easier maybe these days to find out things if a person wanted to.
Can you picture a Japanese style high speed rail service having evolved all along the timeline, say big breakthroughs in 1958-62. Improving ever since. Those original rail barons and empire builders sure as heck could have. Downtown Buffalo to downtown Detroit arriving in splendid spectacular stations. A snap of the finger and that could have happened and been the preferred choice for the great unwashed and the businessman.
but.. give my pointy little head a shake, nation building and serving the people was no longer the thing, everything had to be short short term thinking about $$$$$ and that only. Society doesn't count. Civilization neither.
It was all magnificient though and served us well and provided quite the show. By the time Ozzie and Harriet hit the boob tube the funeral arraignments had been made. By the time of Ozzie Osborne it was barely remembered by anyone, and no one cared.
Key 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' ( ok Zoroaster)
...Annnnnddd just in case this is getting a bit too heavy here's Stompin' Tom Connors downtown Tillsonburg signing something called 'Albums' at a real 'Record Store' with coverage by a 'Newspaper'. Got to luv all those goofy kids.
Welcome back Vince!
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Overmod wjstix My favorite TV show as a kid was Ozymandias and Harriet....or I am thinking of the guy who sang with Black Sabbath? Ozy Ozymandias? No, it was Ramses II. The British plundered his tomb in the early 1800s. Greeks often have trouble spelling other cultures' names. Here's the other contest entry (many people don't know there were two): In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows:— "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows "The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,— Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder,—and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place. I can't literally translate 'Glirastes' on a family-friendly forum, anyway.
wjstix My favorite TV show as a kid was Ozymandias and Harriet....or I am thinking of the guy who sang with Black Sabbath? Ozy Ozymandias?
Ah, the Horace Smith poem. Not bad, not bad at all.
Shelley's is better.
Thanks Penny. Hope I get to stick around!
Another view but up close and with an oncoming Ontario Southland train approaching. Also I'm including a small description of the railroads that were and a link to see all the stations.
TillsonburgMile 15.2
Map 1957 ------ Map 1985
Tillsonburg is/was a maze of tracks of CNR, CPR and MCR. In addition to the CPR Port Burwell Sub. mainline and a small yard there is another smaller yard that connects to the CASO (Michigan Central) double track mainline between Buffalo and Detroit. Between these two yards was a CNR branchline (Burford Sub.) long abandoned which connected with the Cayuga Sub. Another CPR track branched off to reach the small CPR station. South of town the Port Burwell Sub. connects with the CNR Cayuga Sub. and a small CNR yard presently used by Future Transfer and expaned for their use. There were no less than four stations used by these railways. Two are preserved with the small CPR station relocated next to the old (1879) large brick GWR station (CN Tillsonburg North) on it original site. Presently these are used as Station Arts Centre and also Tillsonburg Farmers Market. These are located near the main business area. The ex NYC Tillsonburg station is in use as a commercial property also still on its orginal site. See all the stations here:
Tight squeeze! GP7 378 is southbound and about to go under the abandoned CASO mainline. Note the tell-tale to warn brakemen of low clearance. March 14, 2012 Tim Ball
SalfordMile 4.5
1594_182_6508 southbound with plenty of tonnage! May 18, 2017
M-420 644 and GP9 175 in fall colours scene at Mile 5.58 .
Aerial views
Flintlock76Ah, the Horace Smith poem. Not bad, not bad at all.
It's bloody awful.
Much better.
Thanks Vince, I DID enjoy it! As a matter of fact I'm gonna shoot it right over to the "Classic Toy Trains" Forum!
Shows just how addictive O gauge trains, Lionels or otherwise really are!
And not gender-specific either!
And that times may change, but people don't!
Perhaps Ozzie Nelson was a railfan?
Could have been, no way to know at this late date.
There's been quite a few celebrities who were toy train fans, Frank Sinatra, Gypsy Rose Lee, Yul Brynner, Roy Campanella, and in more recent times Mandy Patinkin, Neil Young, Tom Snyder, Rod Stewart, Tom Hanks, and Phil Collins, to name a few.
Ok Mind Blowing Time! This from Mike:
Lots of New Jersey stuff, that place Tenafly again, haunted model train set....lots of good easy reading.
More wonders from Mike! HOW does he come up with this stuff?
I didn't know Ozzie Nelson was from Ridgefield Park, much less that he and Harriet lived in Tenafly for a time. I wonder where? Maybe they were neighbors with Glenn Miller in "The Cotswold," a high-end apartment complex on Engle Avenue?
And that shot of the NYC Mohawk rolling though Ridgefield Park ties in nicely with that discussion we were having about the New York, West Shore & Buffalo, that's the trackage that locomotive's on. Still there, now CSX.
Thanks for the nostalgia you supply the New Jersey exiles like Overmod and myself with, Mike!
We NJ expats all leave for good reasons, and as a rule we're not sorry we left, but every once in a while we DO look back over our shoulders, if you get my meaning.
Getting back to the Mohawk shot, looking at the eave on the left side of the picture I'm guessing it was taken at the Ridgefield Park train station, which at the time served the NYC and the Susquehanna. The Susie-Q's trackage would be behind that piece of NYC equipment on the right of the photo.
If I've guessed right, this is what the site looks like now, more-or-less. The Susie-Q's tracks are still at the far right.
www.railfan.net/railpix/submit/johnedurant/.p.cgi?IMG_0723.jpg
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