CANADIANS

[Anonymous]

Are there any Canadian railfans out there ? I am in Vancouver B.C

[Anonymous]

Hi there! I am also a Canadian railfan! I live in Chester, Nova Scotia (45 min. south of Halifax)

[Anonymous]

Hello,good to know that there are some Canadians around,what gauge do you model in? are you running a layout now? I am still in the planning stages of my HO layout .

happy railroading

[Anonymous]

Hi! I am an HO scale modeler and I have two layouts running (one under major construction). My first layout has become a testing area for the smaller, more detailed one I am finishing up. On my new layout I wanted to combine great scenery and loads of switching action!!

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys!

I'm in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, Hi Ian, Chester is pretty close, I've not been able to do much railfanning here yet, so would love some advice about NS in particular. I also have a layout , benchwork complete, some track and wiring done and I'm doing some scenicking right now. Oh by the way, its N scale . 11x11

Have a good one

Graham

[Anonymous]

Hello Graham, it sounds like you have got a good start on your railroad.As I said I am still in my planning stages ,I am about to build my benchwork today in fact .good to hear from you take care .

Scott B.C

[Anonymous]

hello to chester, your layout sounds great ,i am starting my benchwork this afternoon but it is a sunny day and i feel guilty about being inside .take care from


scott

[Anonymous]

Graham! Good to hear from a person close to home! I have not found too many great spots to railfan in the area, but I love taking a trip to the Fairview yards and the yard near the container terminal in Halifax.

Ian

[Anonymous]

Hi there Scott!
One of my favorite parts of the model railroad hobby is the design and construction of benchwork! I spent a great deal of my planning on making sure things under the layout were up to par. I began to model my layout after the prairies but decided space was a bit of an issue and so I had to condense my ideas!! The set-up now is relvolved around prairie like industry in a small town (Lots of interesting switching)
-Ian

[Anonymous]

Hello I am from Big Creek B.C.(South west of Williams Lake). My question is are you guys modeling a real or made up rail line?

[Anonymous]

Hi there!!
I don't model any specific rail lines but I like to run everything under CN control. Being Canadian I wanted to railroad with a Canadian theme!
-Ian

[Anonymous]

Hello guys, I am going to model the Southern British Columbia railroad out here , In HO scale as I have found some great new covered auto carriers from Walthers.The SRY deals srctly with lumber products and auto carriers. Its good to hear from all of you as I am a proud Cannuck too.

Scott B.C

[edahrenhoerster]

Question for you guys from the southern provinces (Wisconsin, U.S.): If the Canadian National buy out of Wisconsin Central goes through one of the major train watching spots around here (Duplainville crossing--a mile or so from Kalmbach offices) will be CN and CP. UP has slashed traffic on the former CNW, so we will have almost exclusively Canadian roads for railfanning unless we want to drive a couple of hours to Chicago area or Rochelle. Does this qualify us for Canadian citizenship? (I sure hope so because it would be nice to be able to vote without holding your nose.)
By the way, I was having lunch the other day at a restaurant next to the CP (ex Soo, ex Milwaukee Road) main. Several trains came through while I was there, each with two or three egines and all but one with the dual flag paint scheme and all looking pretty fresh. I had heard that this raised a lot of compliants in Canada and that they were all being repainted. (Personally I always liked this paint scheme--it sure seems to describe the current nature of the railroad and it looks sharp.) Are they actually repainting these or have they just shipped them all to the U.S. to avoid criticism at home?
I did some railfanning around Hamilton, London & Sarnia in Ontario a few years ago and really enjoyed it. RRs up there don't seem to be as fan phobic as they are in much of the U.S. I hope this stays true as Wisconsin Central has long been one of the most fan friendly around, even staging an open house in their shops each summer. I would certainly hope that CN would continue this tradition.
Have fun.

[Anonymous]

Hello
Do you know what the status of the SRY line that runs through New Westminister towards Vancouver? Maps show it as a active line, but I saw that there was plants growing over the track. And it looked abandoned from my point of view on the Sky train.
Queston #2
I have seen railway maps for the Lower mainland and I was woundering where could I find one?

[Anonymous]

CP rail now paints it's locamotives with a gold coloured beaver.And I hated flags scheme, if I had control of the paints I would go back to the half dimond in a half circle idea.

[Anonymous]

I took the West Coast Express yesterday in Vancouver. And I was shocked about the amount of industries from Waterfront station and Port Hardy. Does anyone know where I can find info on the CP and BNSF industries along the waterfront, for possible modeling.

[cprted]

The SRY line through New West is active up to the point where it crosses Nelson Ave. about half a mile east of Metrotown Mall. It serves one factory devoted to rail transport =)

[cprted]

Beaver Sheild Maroon and Grey all the way. The action red scheme has never looked good.

[Soo2610]

Didn't realize the WC held an open house in their shops every summer. When is it this year?

[Anonymous]

Fellas, to tell you the truth I am a bigger fan of CN!!! I don't much care for CP!!
-Ian

[Anonymous]

hey guys
I'm curently posted out here in Brandon MB(home to a huge CP yard) and which is good for the view, its not so good when your alegance is to CN.
But in my job, I go everywhere, like Gagetown NB in July.
Any good watching in the Maratimes/NE states?
Cheers

[Anonymous]

Hey there Jim! I am from Nova Scotia and there is a fair bit of good train watching out here! I take it you are in the Armed Forces and that is why you are moving around! I am in the Naval Reserves out of Halifax. I am being sent to CFB Esquimalt this year so I hope to get some west coast railroading under my belt!!

[Anonymous]

Hi Ed - the dual flag scheme came about a few years ago out of our Marketing & Sales Dept. Unfortunately, it did put a few noses pout of joint up here, but not for the reason you may think. At that time, the Soo Line was being more completely absorbed by the CP and it was part of the integration process. Some of us on the CP felt like the tail was wagging the dog. I for one wanted to see a return to our road's traditions (historical acknowledgement, etc.). About 1997, the corporate image changed yet again and we now have a new (old) emblem on our engines (the beaver and shield).

I never felt as though this was a swipe at the US component of our road because I have a few friends down in the Twin Cities who worked for the Soo and the MILW - great guys who really know how to railroad. So if you see fewer of the dual flag engines, it's because the whole fleet is slowly being converted to the new livery.

I agree that the dual flags represent the true nature of the industry in North America today.

I don't know that I'm a railfan or not, but in my occupation at CP I have always made them feel welcome and enjoy talking to them. Their depth of knowledge astounds me! I've spent 28 years in the Car Dept at CP - if you need any freight car technical information, don't hesitate to drop me a line. I'll do whatever I can for you.

Best regards

Bob Dunn
Winnipeg, Canada

[Anonymous]

hey Ian
thanks for the kick-back!
Yeh,I'm with the forces, the Engineers
Going to Gagetown. Any ideas about train spotting
in N.B.?

[Anonymous]

Guys;
My two cents worth...Edson, Alberta (CN Country - the way it should be!), late of Chetwynd B.C. (only been here for 8 months). 15 years in the navy which ended in 1980. Modelling a freelanced layout more or less in west central Alberta or wherever it needs to be to accomodate my desires.
http://www.vennercs.com/users/aww

[Anonymous]

You Canooks have some strange ideas. If you want to be an American, you'd need to get over your innate squeemishness over gun ownership. We don't have a problem with dual-flagged locomotives; as long as Canadian companies don't siphon the cash and lifeblood out of the road and ship it back to Regina Land. Granted, most of this animosity between the countries seems to come from the French-Canadians.

[Anonymous]

Yes sir I spent 19 years as an engineer for C P Rail in Toronto i've been into model railroading for about 20 years and presently i work for the TTC as a route supervisor .Its funny to see all the small Branch line RR coming back inOntario. Recently i had both CP and CN rolling stock but Isaw a couple of SOO engines heading back to Windsor and i've started converting all my CN to SOO LINE might as well keep everything in CP System.

[Anonymous]

Hi I was a locomotive Enginer with CPRAIL for 19 Years .I remember the first time I saw The Twin Flags on our engines and since Sept 11 It seems so appropiate. everyone around Toronto has American flags on their cars .Toronto Fire Trucks have both CDN and AMERICAN flags I beleive as do alot of Canadians its just a mater of time we will all be one big country and think of the Railroading then I cant wait till we get real money up here Canadian Money doesn't go far in the STATES. recently I have both CP RAIL and CN HO rolling stock i'm converting all my CN to SOO to keep it all in the CP family. looks great .

[Anonymous]

Yep, I'm a Canadian Railfan. I'm in Sooke, BC.