Unbelievable that modern day GE CP 8745 shows up in your town for you to see, all by itself, just as I post a picture of CPR 8745 in the old maroon and grey back in the day, and with the Dayliner in the background that you used to ride fro Sherbrooke. Wow...how did that happen?
Athwart- great word!
Dilemma on route tonight. Will sleep on it and make decision in the am.
Either stateside or continue on to Sudbury and then Southern Ontario.
I'm going slow not pushing things at all.
Thank You.
CNR 0-6-0 # 7216- What a lovely little locomotive...real perky looking. Stephenson Gear and Slide Valves not withstanding I bet she could zip around pretty good. Simplicity too!
I live about 1 KM from my duties at the College, would love to be able to take that out every day to work. Wouldn't that be something!
Still am in awe of Hudsons, Niagaras, Mohawks, T1's, Q1& 2's, Selkirks and all but these little tea pots are the best and did the yeoman work day in and day out. 0-6-0's are really quite fascinating, ranging from huge and powerful to little fella's. Quite a diverse group considering a limited wheel arraignment as per Whyte.
We were lucky to have seen them in everyday duty right up to 1959, But still a pox on their scrappers.
So thanks for this NDG...wonderful engine.
Vay-Kay-Shun going fine, knee/joint trouble popped up and hobble around like a freight going down among the weeds on some seldom used branch line. Eating too much restaurant food, no choice really, ...I'm going to be in serious trouble with the cardiologist when I get back, that I know for sure. Don't know how you fellas can handle the urban life day in and day out. Too much of too much. Suppose I've turned into a frontier kind of guy.
Rural America is lovely. Beautiful. Was very impressed by the heartfelt honesty of the Governor of West Virginia with his speech.
Staying off the big highways, taking the long way, out of the way way.
I picture things as they were in the steam glory days. It's all good. No rush.
After Maryland, over to Rochelle, "THE" Illinois Museum, then Havre, then straight up to home. Pretty much in that order.
Thanks NDG- Over the counter Tylenol and a rubbed on lotion work good to eliminate the minute to minute pain but not the mechanical malfunction. Sleep with a pillow between the knees, works well. Might have to pick up a cane, stairs are a slow go. Probably arthritis.
A lot of that Potash is coming from the new K+S Mine in Southern Saskatchewan, in newly designed potash cars from Hamilton Steel Car.
They are a bit shorter than the usual standard design but can hold even more. I posted a video and essay on this just a while back...look up K+S Potash New Mine. Wanswheel added some interesting items as well.
Now then, a person can eat "healthy" while travelling, special low sodium and rabbit food but I'm on a vacation trip and it's summer and do not want to play the game of count and watch when everyone around me is enjoying gourmet burgers and fries, so to heck with it. Have to weigh myself every morning and if there is a certain amount of gain I have to double up on a pill...safe to say I've been doubling up pretty steadily so I know the Doc will threaten to kick me out of the Heart Function Clinic...again!
What? Me Worry?
Quads are a terror on the landscape, commandeered by adolescent dudes with zero brains. More trouble than they are worth in a true exploration environment. Drones are better if you have lots of outcrop.
Have no idea where the money comes from for fifth wheel, huge trailers and $120,000 RV's, most hauling a boat as well ...easy peasy payment plan I guess...repo man ever watchful and hopeful.
Am taking the low road everywhere I go, avoid the big interstates as much as possible. It's zig zag-ee at times and far slower but way more interesting and no rush. Be my last trip like this anyway, just can't do it anymore, that I am certain.
Know a couple of fella's at the Illinois Railway Museum since the late eighties. Been a while since I've been there and know it will be an eye opening experience and so much to see. Say hello to AT&SF 4-8-4 and Milwaukee Road 4-8-4, plus the first FM built in Beloit. So many new acquisitions since I've been there. Americans do it right!
Pennies....not Penny Trains!, pennies as in jingling in your pocket. What the heck, the more I get rid of them the more come back the next day. We don't use no stinkin' pennies any longer...not a penny to be found across the Dominion. Not used to this. Some folks behind the counter are real serious about their pennies. Kind of scary.
We round up and down. If it's 1 or 2 cents on the cash register it's in the purchasers favour, you pay nothing on it, if it's 3 or 4 cents it goes to the registers favour and you toss a nickel.
We still have nickels, although they are mostly steel and not nickel. There is talk of getting rid of them as well.
Of course our 1 dollar bill is long long gone now, as is our 2 dollar bill, which you fellas have but don't use. Have a couple of them back at home base laying in box in a drawer along with other oddball coins and paper bills.
I wish I could hold up my iPad at various track locations and see a virtual image from a selected year right where I am standing. Would that not be something! "Here comes an Erie Berkshire"...Maybe in the future.
Have my own Malt Vingear for my fries. It's just so much easier. A small spray bottle works good, atomizes it nice too.
2 more weeks.
Oh by the way, the small nest eggs I have left behind at your various casinos...you're welcome. Win some, lose some, mostly lose some, but generous comps help a wee bit and what the heck, only human and weak at that. I'm Mark Anthony to Cleopatra....just can't resist.
Well I'm grateful that no one told me what to do with the pennies.
Not used to the high temperatures and especially the humidity.
People back home have told me that the trees are starting to turn already. Yeesh. I believe it. News from home that maybe only NDG would find somewhat interesting...a lady I work with, well her husband left her, totally out of the blue ...and 4 other co-workers have left today for a 3 week canoe/portage serious wilderness trip in Northern Manitoba and will end up 50km from Churchill. This is the real deal. These guys are highly seasoned and know what they are doing. Courier de bois stuff. The leader runs our Trading Post ( Robertsons) up here.
I can fly in to camp or exploration site by float plane or helicopter and rough it for a while at camp but I cannot do what they are doing at that level any longer.
I've seen the main of many railroads from days gone by. Take the time and pictured the passage of steam, Diesel and passenger plus the great cars of the past. The magic is still around in some locations. I know.
A good general knowledge of who ran what and when gives the right perspective.
Got a "Make America Great Again" ball cap.
Love rural America, lots of pride around. Staying away from the cities, see the glow of them on the horizon. Can't do that anymore either.
I think the only exception would be Denver, but only by arriving at Denver Union Station.
Next 5 days filled with railroad stuff new and old.
NDGHad a talk with another Old Timer today and he mentioned how crappy it was on Steam and First Gen when the the brake stand exhausted rite into the cab. The noise and the oil mist. Had forgotten that for the nonce.
Lord, I'll never forget it. On my fourth birthday, my 'present' was a cab ride on a consist of CNJ six-motor Alcos ... origin in Wilkes-Barre, at a spot that has been utterly devoid of tracks for many years now; I never really knew the destination ... and while I had no trouble with most aspects of 'train handling' (including the proper use of the rear-facing horn) I did NOT get along with the very high force required to turn the air-brake handle, and the very loud noise of the blowdown into the cab. It was, in fact, worse to anticipate than it would have been if by accident, a bit like trying to fix a possibly-stuck horn relay on a car, and I can still remember the situation clearly to this day, as well as my response (which was less than it should have been ... I cried and didn't want to keep braking.
Glad to hear that the old heads thought it was extraordinarily unpleasant, too.
NDG, I do not remember when fifty cent pieces were last in circulation in this country. I do remember those with the Walking Liberty on the reverse side. There are dollar coins, but they are not in general circulation. We still have pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, though the "silver" coins are counterfeit, being sandwiches with a less valuable metal as the filling.
Johnny
The Carnival Vendors at the major exhibitions still use .50 cent coins and abundantly which makes for a terrific source, but the ones made today for general circulation are just a little bigger than a quarter. They order them in advance, probably a holdover practice from the pre-loony days. Still not widespread though. People keep them.
I have not been over the McKenzie bridge either...always had to queue up for the ferry, a barge really, a real hodgepodge of vehicles and people's heading to Yellowknife. Original Land Rovers and Jeeps, some with snorkels, guys on bicyles, European vacationers looking like they are climbing the Alps, local grizzled Native folk looking at everyone like their nuts, huge burly men that put beer on their cornflakes, gangly be -speckled geologists in their khakiis, open platform flatbed trucks with all sorts of weird things loaded for bear, VW buses with indeed genuine authentic hippies, ladies dressed for a picnic, Americans loaded to max with all their hunting gear.
Always thought that was were Lucas got the idea of the "cantina" scene in the original Star Wars.
The Giant Yellowknife strike was a black mark on Mining and Unions.
I saw and was involved in terrible strikes in Sudbury. Mentioned before I was even shot at in a helicopter. The Union would pile tires 15 high and hundreds of feet long and set them on fire all over Sudbury in front of the mine sites, along the chain link fences so as to make "management", locked inside and securing the buildings, as uncomfortable as possible. Back then "management" included surveyors, engineers, geologists, receptionists, safety guys, anyone not involved in the actual physical labour of mining. Really stupid stuff. Different times. Tough times.
As for the braking..you could hear a loud noise even from city buses, so I can imagine the inside of an enclosed cab of a train. Did not know about the atomized oil though.
Arthritis can come and go...waiting for the go part.
Weather is beautiful beyond expectations.
DeggestyNDG, I do not remember when fifty cent pieces were last in circulation in this country. I do remember those with the Walking Liberty on the reverse side.
They are in circulation here (extreme southwest Tennessee and northwest Mississippi). A few years ago I made a practice of regularly stopping into a couple of local banks and buying all the Kennedy 50 cent pieces they had amassed (they would put them in the front of the cash-register drawer as there was no dedicated bin for them) because my daughter liked them.
I suspect they're relatively common because of the local casinos. But I have seen other places that 'have' a stock of Kennedy 50-cent and Eisenhower (cartwheel-size) dollars. There are also banks that feature individual pieces, not just rolls, of the new $1 coins that (after the Susan B. Anthony dollar fiasco) are gold-colored. There is a push from time to time to get the dollar coins adopted for general circulation; at one time some Coke machines were prominently labeled as able to take them (and would dispense only dollar coins in change for larger bills). Most of the arguments that apply to the 'loonie' would apply to a sensible dollar coin in the United States -- but the coins don't really substitute for a pocketful of paper ones if you care about the shape and heaviness of your pocket!
I used to buy stamps out of a stamp machine at the Post Office....they would return change in the dollar coins when necessary. Only place I ever got a dollar coin.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Had a great visit at the Illinois Railway Museum. They sure have a lot of stuff and have grown substantially since I was last there in the mid 90's. ...what an incredible collection. Top notch. Great memories.
Rochelle was more than I imagined. What a great railfan site.
Americans do it right. Thank you all for your passions and dedications.
Heading out in the am going West. Still no rush...taking it slow.
Eating like a King. Rockford Ice Hogs hockey jersey and one big pile of railroad memories T Shirts and Sweatshirts.
Milwaukee Road memories coming up. How on earth can the Milwaukee Road be gone? Don't want to start that argument all over again. It's just not right that's all...not right at all. I like finding old right of ways and where the stations were. Then envision. Humbling experience.
Slipped around "the pool" late this afternoon, something slimy, bare feet, did the rubber man thing and crashed into a metal covered unit thing-a-ma-jingy, bounced somewhat and then into a wall, which effectively ended the rubber man jive. Blam-O! Heck of a thing.
Layed there for 3 minutes or so admiring the sky.
Used to be a fish in the water, good swimmer, but these days I just tread water and float around from side to side, glide a wee bit under water but not too far. That is it! No Gold medals.
Got lucky, 2 fingers right hand next to the thumb took the brunt, they are all bruised and swollen. Hurts like the dickens.
Hoping for Southern Saskatchewan by Sunday then chase some trains around the Prairies. Definitely check out the new K+S Potash trains.
Man those fingers throb!
Lifting up a cup of coffee is a no go. Going lefty for a while. Knee is better though, not 100% but better.
Here and there one can find embedded rail, as is mentioned in the Concord thread, sometimes street running in very small sections and sometimes alongside what was something or an abandoned structure.
Everyone of them tells a story about the development of the town and has an important connection in history.
Now that would make for an interesting book.
Embedded rail? I do not doubt that you can find such in many cities. Three years ago, KCS Fan (now deceased, sad to say) took me on a tour of Shreveport, La., showing me not only what was then in service but also much that was no longer in service.
There's a fair amount of embedded rail located in some of the side streets in the Clearing Industrial District.
Loading dock doors on buildings are another clue as to where rail spurs used to be, they are often still recognizeable decades after the track was lifted.
Locally, at one time downtown Edmonton had rail spurs down practically every back alley to serve various warehouses, freight sheds and department stores, all branching off from CN and CP's downtown yards. The last of the freight rails were lifted in 1990 after declining ever since WWII (passenger access lasted another 10 years), but many old buildings retain their distinctive doors, spaced about 50 feet apart and 5 feet off the ground. Most have been bricked up or otherwise sealed, but are still visible to the discerning eye.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
NDG- The above photo you provided is a stunningly beautiful car. I'm sure it has its flaws up close and personal but she is a beauty.
You have to ask yourself and question WHY did we rid ourselves of these systems. Perfectly good, perfectly reasonable and a fun experience, bringing a sense of community to neighbourhoods and people. Perhaps it does not translate well into todays societies with bad attitudes, hoodies, weirdos, and overall the way things are.
TTC in Toronto has kept some their streetcar routes, Queen and King cars and other routes being somewhat famous but the complaints are numerous and the charms are somewhat lost.
Still...I cannot help but think this picture depicts a lot of sense.
Shame that it is lost as an everyday conveyance in the city.
The street railways were converted to bus for a variety of reasons. Ridership went down after WW2, fares were not allowed to be raised enough to cover costs, the expense of new equipment and rebuilding and upgrading the tracks all had a lot to do with it. Franchise renewals were another factor. The alleged "GM/NCL conspiracy did not exist except in the minds of those who couldn't deal with the social changes aftwe WW2.
I would opine that after WW2, and with the explosion of private car ownership, many municipalities were more concerned with having their streets ready for those cars. Having to pave around the streetcar tracks would be a nuisance for them. Along with the other factors already mentioned.
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...
CSSHEGEWISCHThe alleged "GM/NCL conspiracy did not exist except in the minds of those who couldn't deal with the social changes aftwe WW2.
Well, it existed insofar as there were 'secret deals' or overt pressure for the NCL companies to buy only GM buses and GM parts/tech support for them. That, at any rate, is what the 'guilty' verdict at trial was, and to my knowledge GM didn't contest that verdict.
The sad thing about it, to me, was that even in the early Fifties the technical superiority of the monocoque angle-drive GM bus was superior to much of the 'competition', and GM's financial arrangements to secure buses probably superior to any other legitimate manufacturer ... connivance in procurement was about as necessary as sending 'plumbers' to reconnoiter McGovern's excuse for a campaign strategy.
NDGF Unit Demo Set.
Dad hooped it on its' return trip to Montreal when he was an Operator at Stephen, BC, the top of the Continental Divide.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
NDG- You obviously have a real soft spot for the CLC FM units, especially the C Liners. The Kettle Valley line was a real paradise for the opposed piston. An ominous sign at the time, but no one knew that yet.
In the picture you provided it is easy to see why...they are stunning at the head end of passenger service. As you stated "the way and what it was designed for". This must be the Vancouver-Calgary train along the Kettle Valley, assume it was.
The new train, inaugurated by the CPR did not last long as a full service train with diners, parlour and sleepers. Replaced by a truncated RDC service then ended altogether. Of course you know this but others on the forum may not. The C Liners moved into freight service, getting pretty beat up looking near the end of their all too short careers. Even the huge reinvestment in the Kettle Valley upgrades was for nothing and the line was quickly abandoned and lifted "salami" style, in slices, until nothing was left.
The whole episode is reminiscent of Niagaras and T1's, all of that, and the hopes for renewed interest by the public in trains. The CPR sure gave it shot, but sort of threw in the towel as soon as 1960 rolled around.
But ...Dang! Those units looked good. (Not as good as the grey jacketed Pacifics, Hudsons and Selkirks but thats another story).
Have not travelled that far really since the slipping by the pool thing, maybe 150-200 miles a day. One day I just stayed where I was and napped a lot. Today I did much better. Hoping for Saskatchewan on Monday now, not Sunday. Fingers are fine really, sore thats all.
Hope you fellas caught that picture of the day on the Classic site with the D&H Challenger passing by a milk plant at Otego, NY. Oct '51.
I stared at that for 20 minutes and kept going back. Everything looked so right, a society well put together, such a sense of purpose with beauty and such permanence! The rails look like the high iron for sure and very well maintained. No garbage and junk. A quintessential upper NY State/New England bucolic scene for sure.
1951...not much time left for the Challenger, probably the milk plant as well, definitely any milk trains. I believe this scene was gone in short order, impossible to re-create. The dichotomy is striking, here it is and soon here it isn't. Something that was for more than century has gone for good. The D&H stuck around for a while yet, the Diesels came of course and the D&H did a fine job with the railfan community for many years to come.
I get it, but I don't get it.
Smithsonian channel did a show on Lake Erie last night, starting at the St. Clair river and Detroit river then along into the Canadian North Shore. Drones have really changed everything when it comes to video.
They skipped by Leamington and the NYC Branch down to there, ditto Port Burwell and the CPR, Port Rowan and the CNR, but they spent a considerable amount of time in Port Dover. They did not touch on the railroads so I will fill in the blanks.
CPR Electric Lines down from Galt/Guelph/Brantford terminated there. Lake Erie and Northern and the Grand River Railway. CNR branch down from Brantford terminated there...domain of 2 digit 4-6-0"s, such as a #89, or #86. CPR Electric Lines and CNR crossing at 90 deg. the Wabash, Pere Marquette and New York Central rails about 6 miles to the North. Also yet another CNR branch coming in from the East from Hamilton, terminating at that Wabash trackage mentioned 6 miles North. Quite a busy place. The CNR station, moved up from the beach to the bridge over the Lynn River, was sold and moved ( not the first time!) and is now a gift shop near the beach, actually closer to its original location. They call it the Grand Trunk Station gift shop. Stuff for the beach goers and tourists. The CPR station is history.
ALL, all of it, all the rails are gone from all of the mentioned above. ....and Port Rowan, and Port Burwell, and Leamington. That is insane and it is wrong. The fabric and very meaning and core of these places have been destroyed. It shows. Empty meaningless destruction on many levels. Empty buildings, empty people. The railroad built these towns, it is why they were.
Port Dover has the worlds largest inland fishing fleet..they did not miss that point. It will be Ok but it too has serious problems.
Way back in the day, to "just" after WWII the CNR station was moved for the first time. It was originally located very close to the beach, along with a roundhouse and turntable with tracks that went all the way out to the end of the pier ( they remained embedded in place well into the 60's). These tracks received coal shipments from the Bessemer and Lake Erie and the New York Central. Those stopped in the late 30's but here and there shipments would arrive. It got busy in the war with all kinds of things. The real big deal was Passenger service from Erie, PA and Conneaught, Ohio. Those I remember. Lasted into the late 50's.
Breathing easier out West. Air, elbow room and sky more agreeable. See UP and BNSF trains, lots of them. Highball thats all.
Back in my own time zone but still an hour out because Saskatchewan does not do Daylight Savings Time. Received an email today that my new students books have all arrived. It is a big big stack for incoming !st Year students.
I always hold one up after handing them out and ask them if they know how to turn them on.
Also been asked to take a group of up to 15 U of S Gelogical Engineering students on a 2 day visit to Cigar Lake Mine in November. Any of you fellas want to pretend you are an U of S student? Sneak you in no problem!
My regular class does 3 Mine trips, 2 Uranium, 1 Gold, plus 10 days at a mill "job shadowing" and 2 major Geological Field Schools, plus 2 conferences in Saskatoon. This is the first time I've been asked to take U of S students.
Friends in Havre, Montana tomorrow.
Milwaukee Road ghosts.
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