NDG- Did you edit your post? The body of the text is gone.
Almost all folks that came from the "old country" were as you described....they worked very hard, never getting far up the ladder at work, maybe a foreman late in life but always blue collar, no complaining, looked after their homes and gardens and paid off their mortgages. That generation is disappearing rapidly. There was no "PTSD" in those days, no help, just community and strong will to do it right.
Using the "Classic Trains" theme, I refer to us older dudes that loved our trains and remembered railroads as something astonishing and magical, powerful, permanent and beautiful as the "Classic Guys".
Classic guys were at the tail end of it...Pullmans, heavyweights, steam, trains to everywhere and anywhere, china and linens, passenger trains run by free enterprise, not government.
We are also disappearing. I watched, from hillside, as the rails were lifted from the magnificient NYC CASO line through famous quaint Waterford, the connection with doodlebugs of the TH&B.
For some time before that I would go trackside and walk along the now never used rails and remember. I try to understand why and how. Never could figure it out. Now it is never coming back.
Same story a million times from California to Newfoundland.
How do we know if one of us Classic Guys "departs" and is never coming back. Just by the absence of posting? That seems a bit thin.
Thank You.
OK thanks NDG..take good care and get some antibiotics asap.
Miningman OK thanks NDG..take good care and get some antibiotics asap.
Thank You, too! Sir.
NDG - I think we all know someone like that.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
NDG- Well I'm relieved to read something from you. We may not know each other to see each other, or have ever met, but our postings and dispatches builds up a familiarity, and respect and concern.
We all met loudmouths and boorish people. The Union "back in the day" encouraged a certain behaviour. It was us vs them all the time, regardless. It was bad in the mines at Sudbury. I was even shot at in a helicopter from a picket line when the company tried to get me out to see my new born daughter and visit with my wife in the hospital. No one did anything, the Union never faced anything from anybody. Too what end? I had to wait six weeks. Can you imagine that today?
I think today there is more help, professional and just people around us. And for that I am grateful. We have seen many changes in society as time goes by. Some folks deal with loss of control very badly. Others embrace it, most of us go along the best we can and are grateful for what we have and where we have been.
You still have Starbucks, The Cat, and us, here at the Forum, where we certainly look forward to your keen insight and notice of things we all seem to overlook, or don't know about. You are also a well traveled fella, having gone everywhere West and East to witness railroading for yourself and those stories have brought us great things...example Willamette.
Rumours around town, all abuzz, that we are getting a Tim Horton's.
Something most take for granted, maybe have 5 of them, or at least 2, but for us it's a big deal. Hard winter now gone, sunsets are incredible. Days getting long, soon down to one hour of darkness, thats it. Its weird but for some reason it happens every year!
We, the "Classic Guys" look forward to each other's postings and we certainly find fun in doing so.
Hope you got some antibiotics for that abscess tooth. Need a good story with pictures soon!
For our American friends CM&S, Consolidated Mining and Smelting started it's corporate life as a grouping of mines in BC owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It has a long and storied history. Today it is Teck Corporation, Canadian Pacific having sold it's interest off. Easy to find all the history on the internet.
Other big big multinational Mining Companies in Canada, with smelting and refining capability are International Nickel (INCO) in Sudbury, Ontario, now the Brazilian owned Vale' ; Xstrada, which formed with the merger of Falconbridge, Sudbury and Timmins, and Noranda Mines, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec and now all of it controlled by Glencore out of Switzerland; Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, Flin Flon, Manitoba, still "one hunnert" percent Canadian owned.
The big thing about owning your smelting and refining is that you get the actual real metal price for the commodity, as opposed to a concentrate. You also can exert control, to a degree anyway, over the price of metals, - Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Lead, Iron, Cobalt and all things found in massive sulphides. The largest Gold producer in terms of ounces, for years was always INCO and they were not even a gold mine...it just came along in the ore and for many years the gold paid all the up front costs of the many mines and extensive operations and 33,000 employees. Everything else, which they really mined, was "gravy".
Canada signed onto the Kyoto Accord and vastly reduced it's ability for Smelting and Refining. Bad move. It has now expired so we will see where things go. HBM&S is a very old facility and cannot currently meet environmental standards as it is. Also commodity prices remain very low across the board.
All these big big outfits relied heavily on industrial type railroading and they all had steam, extensive electric and diesel locomotives.
Plenty of biggies stateside as well. Long history of hard rock metal mining in both countries. These companies in both our countries are multinational and operate all over the world. Halls of power!
VAEX 2004 same unit as above photo. VALE-Inco has been renamed in 2010 simply VALE. Diesel Electric Services shop Sudbury October 4/10 Chris Wilson
As a kid, I reember our family driving through Sudbury while traveling from Saut Saint Marie to Ottowa - thought we were driving of the face of the Moon for 20 or so miles either side of the town.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Miningman Other big big multinational Mining Companies in Canada, with smelting and refining capability are International Nickel (INCO) in Sudbury, Ontario, now the Brazilian owned Vale' ; . . . . . . The largest Gold producer in terms of ounces, for years was always INCO and they were not even a gold mine...it just came along in the ore and for many years the gold paid all the up front costs of the many mines and extensive operations and 33,000 employees. Everything else, which they really mined, was "gravy". . . . All these big big outfits relied heavily on industrial type railroading and they all had steam, extensive electric and diesel locomotives. . . .
Other big big multinational Mining Companies in Canada, with smelting and refining capability are International Nickel (INCO) in Sudbury, Ontario, now the Brazilian owned Vale' ; . . .
. . . The largest Gold producer in terms of ounces, for years was always INCO and they were not even a gold mine...it just came along in the ore and for many years the gold paid all the up front costs of the many mines and extensive operations and 33,000 employees. Everything else, which they really mined, was "gravy". . . .
All these big big outfits relied heavily on industrial type railroading and they all had steam, extensive electric and diesel locomotives. . . .
- PDN.
Indeed, and thanks for the VALE shot! Familiar with their Brazilian heavy-haul operations but had no idea they had anything in the same paint in North America.
Thanks guys. There were over a hundred miles of electrified operations by Vale/Inco in Sudbury. Sadly the wires came down mid 2000's but three of the electrics are preserved.
Two are in nearby Capreol at the railway museum there, along with CNR Bullet Nose Betty 6077 4-8-2 Mountain and an Ontario Northland 4-6-0.
Another is at the Fort Erie Museum along with famous celebrity status CNR 4-8-4 6218, which last time I saw her looked shabby as heck and I hope this has been rectified.
INCO 117 has just interchanged loads of nickle ore with Canadian Pacificand is heading back to the mines with emptys, at Lavack, ONT. 9/16/1993.Jack D. Kuiphoff
That's quite the bridge...steel girder and trusses, and the stonework is beautiful on the supports. Very nice for a modelling scene.
Is that you on the bridge standing? Doubt it, looks earlier in time by the way he is dressed. Also appears to be a younger person, perhaps a boy, sitting on the edge...pretty dangerous location, what if a train came along?
I did not terribly mind the multimark, especially when it first arrived on the scene...it was co-ordinated nicely with the Ships, Trucks, Hotels and Airline.
"Orange is beautiful"...great theme tune for CP Air.
The Grey and Maroon was nice and I did like the script lettering when it came. It really did not "wear" well and looked like heck if it was oily and dirty. It required a clean locomotive, but unmatched in striking appearance when it was so.
In time I favoured back to the Grey and Maroon. Sure do miss the maroon passenger cars with the gold lettering..that spoke of places even just sitting there. Still have them on the executive train but it used to be for us plebians.
The new logo, much like the first new logo will not wear well on the loco's either. Not excited about it at all. Meh.
Whatever, it's their money.
FWIW- UP did it right, minimal screwing around, stuck with Armour Yellow and the Shield. Just rolled over everyone with all the mergers, D&RGW, SP, C&NW and so on. Timeless.
Personal Note
2 big days upcoming starting tomorrow am. Grand opening of the newly constructed "Mine School"..ribbon cutting and unveiling of the big bronze logo over the main entrance..lots of hoopla, government folks, probably Brad Wall ( he's the Premier of Saskatchewan), Federal Ministers and all that stuff. My "home" classroom, the Geology Lab, all set up with numerous displays manned by my senior students.
Big Fish Fry! For all, come one come all.
Next day is all industry reps for something we call "Core Days"...special presentations and seminars, all day event. Many have been sponsors and contributors to the building of the new school. More Fish Fry!
Our enrolment is 95% Native students from all over Northern Saskatchewan and elsewhere across Northern regions.
Bugs are out!
Regarding last personal note:
Best part was the very start which 99.9% missed. At 4:05 am along the shores of the lake at the College, just before dawn, a native Cree, who holds title to things spiritual, performed what is known as a Whistle Ceremony. I am not native at all, but this was moving and made total sense to me. Inherently understood. No brainer. Very good. He is one of our co-ordinators.
Survived Day 1 of the festivities and ceremonies. 6 speeches of acknowledgements and congratulating each other, and how great the future will be. Always about the money. Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. Politicians and CEO. Cut a ceremonial chain ( it was plastic!) with bolt cutters. Applause. Photos, ...head for the fish fry.
Amazing how much posturing goes on. Fascinating to observe.
Continues on tomorrow with "Core Days", lots of industry, seminars and presentations on mining and exploration here in the North. Mostly geologists this time, real eggheads, half of which couldn't find sand if they fell off a camel, but that's ok. The other half can!
It is my students that will set up and man the core, being a library and representation of every major find here in the North. High grade Uranium with high grade shielding! Play with the instruments for the great unwashed. Always a hit. Gold, base metals, rare earths. Hope no one develops an eye in the back of the head a month latter. That's a joke, there are plenty of myths and misconceptions when it comes to the mining industry and more so with Uranium.
The fish fry was and will be yet again what everyone is really thinking about. Then mingling and more posturing, this time in the name of science, however, still all about the money.
Now...If we could only get a switch put in at Prince Albert directing a new line and traffic straight shot up to the North, I can confidently state we can supply sustained loads from our resources until the cows come home.
MiningmanRegarding last personal note:
Where are the pictures???
RME- Was reluctant to include pictures because folks would howl " what has this got to do with trains". Will put some, a sampling, up here today at the conclusion.
MiningmanWas reluctant to include pictures because folks would howl " what has this got to do with trains".
This is the famous String Lining thread, known long ago as 'the NDG reminiscence channel'. No one will complain when you flesh out your images with some pictures - it's part of the story that, indirectly or directly, affects the flavor of Canadian railroading experience.
Well here I go again with trying to post pics from apple devices. Need some time, but will post some pics. Still at the Core Day event ...fish fry was great but presentations too long! My students did me super proud..did an excellent job. Lordy I'm tired.
NDG- Looking forward to your Hamilton stories, I also ran on the last of the HSR and well remember the tracks being ripped up.
NDGFor those that might be interested.
Definitely included me!
I will get some pics posted likely tomorrow...can't go direct to this site, have to wait until I get to my desk at work. Crapple indeed.
In the meantime, here is. Hamilton Street Railway Brill.
Most of the tracks were encased by brick. They made one heck of a mess when they tore up the rails throughout the city.
Brick pavers between and alongside the rails were a fairly common practice. In some cities, the rails were just paved over some time after abandonment or bus conversion. It resulted in a higher crown on the street.
Got the great blizzard of '88 again.
I have many pictures of the big 2 days of events here at the school and received more from our marketing department today. I have them on my iPad in "Photos" and in an email from marketing.
Cannot "copy and paste" to this forum.
If you would like to see the pics private message me and I will forward them by email to any email address.
..or, suggest exactly the steps I need to do to get this resolved.
Miningman... suggest exactly the steps I need to do to get this resolved.
The pictures have to have their own Internet URLs ("Universal Resource Locators") and the tools on the forum link to your pictures on the Web just as they do when you paste images you find from other sites.
However, if you're not running your own Web server or similar tool, your pictures only have filenames and reside in local storage. You have to fix this by posting them to "the Internet".
There are many 'free' photo hosting services. Join one, and then upload the pictures you want to link to the forum to the account you set up. You can then open one of these pictures, copy the address that shows in the browser for it (which is the URL referenced above), paste it into the window in the "image" button tool above the window you type posts into, and confirm. You should see a representative image appear at the point you're typing.
I think the people that are right-clicking and pasting images on this forum are doing so from a hosting site, not their own computers. But I would be fascinated to see that Kalmbach is supporting inline files.
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