THREE DAYS AT PORTAGE, 1982

Although it's now 44 years ago, from June 8 to June 26, 1982 I travelled from Kingston to Portage la Prairie, MB aboard VIA for what was becoming my annual summer visit to see my aunt and uncle. It seems I've only published one day of trains from my summer 1982 visit there. That's about to change! After two days touring the area, I spent three full sunny days at the tracks. In this post, I'm covering June 14, 15 and 16. Trains are shown by time, direction, railway, locomotive numbers, consist, caboose/van number and remarks. Trains that went unphotographed are shown with an asterisk (*).

DAY ONE - JUNE 14, 1982

I was at the tracks all day (except for lunch with my aunt and uncle) catching 22 trains. The first train of the day was a CP westbound (top photo) setting out a switcher to replace the assigned CP 6569, taken to Winnipeg for repairs the previous day. Backing into the yard across Third Street NW just east of the CP station.

0820 W CP 5792-5533-6599(set out at Portage) 102 bathtub gondolas i.e. 799729, van 434729. 

*0924 W CN 1055-1050 90 empty grain boxcars, 79537.

 

GMD-1s 1055-1050 are on the CN Gladstone Sub yard lead with a westbound train of grain empties. The head-end trainman climbing down from 1055 told me they were going on a three-day run to Gladstone, Neepawa and Russell to set out empties at elevators.

0953 E CN 5231-5170 96 grain loads from Dauphin, 79857 (below).

*1002 W CN 9470-9475-5119 97 cars, 79530.

Two units of a westbound CN freight (see 1120 listing, below) were in the CN yard lifting some work train cars when this F-led train rolled west. 

1105 W CN 9172-4124 98 cars, 79329.

1120 CN 5089-5240 (interestingly with CN 9580 mid-train) with Continuous Welded Rail cars from the yard being added to their train with cabooses 79860-79423:

While that was happening, two CN westbound rolled through within minutes. The coal empties led the way, with the grain empties pulling west slowly to follow behind that train.

1123 W CN 5268-5264 95 bathtub coal gondola empties (below - middle).

1130 W CN 5223-5233 97 grain empties, 79484 (below - left).

Twenty minutes later, the usual pre-lunchtime CP westbound pulled in, doing some switching before continuing west after lunch.

1155 W CP 5764-5545:

A previously-published post on these 'pike-sized passenger trains' is here. Downgraded service - apat chwork run as a result of the cancellation of VIA's Super Continental during the massive cuts in November, 1981.

1201 W VIA No 109 engines 6520-6521, 2 cars. 

I was at West Tower after lunch.

1337 E CN 9544 55 cars mostly CWR, 79529. CP-CN connecting track in foreground:

Thirty minutes later at 18th St NW crossing, this Rivers Sub hotshot flew through with intermodal, auto racks and some covered hoppers.

1408 E CN 5357-9588-5107 85 cars, 79538.

The same view in 2026...obscured (below). Tree growth around the stations and adjacent to the yards, plus the absence of all grain elevators in favour of larger plants established outside Portage radically changed the skyline and photo angles.

CN 5276 (see 1638 listing, below) was the first locomotive I encountered during my first visit to Portage. Here it is, six years later plying those same rails:

1451 W VIA No 1, engines 6501-6610-6603 with Portage Pool B as a backdrop. After the cancellation of the Super Continental in VIA's 1981 cuts, only the daily Canadian was still bound for Vancouver. Ex-CN power, mostly on CP Rail tracks:

None of the day's remaining trains were photographed. Perhaps I hadn't brought another film?

*1500 E CP 5985-5529-5547 from Minnedosa Sub grain loads 434389.

*1515 W CP 5918-5528-5559-5637 434692-434727.

*1542 E CP 5518-5932 131 grain loads, 434634.

*1608 E CP 5995 41 cars, 434430.

*1636 E VIA No 2, engines 6506-6604-6606.

*1638 W CN 5276-5288 potash empties, 79593-79405-79726.

*1650 E CN 5183-5273 103 cars, 79562.

*1655 E CP 5779-5579-5504-5901 CP bathtub gondolas, 434368.

*1657 W CP 5740-5520-4510-5734 93 cars, 434314.

DAY TWO - JUNE 15, 1982

I was trackside from 0830-1200 and 1330-1715 but there were only 9 trains! Starting the day at West Tower, I walked the full length of Portage's yards - West Tower east to station during a two-hour morning lull, then East Tower west to station in the afternoon!

*0856 W CN 5191-5107 78 potash empties, 79428.

0933 E CN 9502-5197 101 cars 70% lumber, 79582.

Lull! Back to the station.

1127 W CP 5942 113 grain empties, 434457.

1159 W VIA 6519, 2 cars:

After lunch, with a rare MLW in the middle.

1344 W CP 3008-4228-5014 115 grain empties, 434546 and CP business car Strathcona.

1415 E CP 5914-5944 73 cars grain, 434650 (below).

None of these photographed:

*1455 W VIA No 1, engines 6507-6607-6611.

*1531 W CN 5186-5172 93 grain empties to Gladstone Sub, 79438.

*1531 E CP 5931-5757.

*1631 E VIA No 2, engines 6504-6602-6605.

*2107 W CP 5914-5944 120 grain empties, 434389 (same engines EB at 1415, clearly CP knows how to sweat the assets!)

DAY THREE - JUNE 16, 1982

Trackside all day, though again not as many trains. At West Tower first thing in the morning, all the trains were coming out of the sun, so the first four not photographed.

*0904 W CP 5726-5517-8697-8805-8835 to Minnedosa Sub, 434716.

*0928 W CN 5164-5188-5078 101 cars, 79635.

*1008 W CN 4322-4122-4228 93 cars, 79510.

*1036 W CN 9458-9627 41 ballast cars, 79332.

1052 E CP 6006-5537 from Minnedosa Sub 91 grain loads, 434592.

A few minutes later, this eastbound on the Rivers Sub stopped for a signal at West Tower.

1108 E CN 5226-5059 105 grain loads, 79620.

A scant nine minutes later, from the Gladstone Sub, approaching red-over-yellow signal.

1117 E CN 5212-4349-4327 103 cars, 79844.

*1159 W VIA 6514, 2 cars

CP 5958 had been dropped in the yard (see 1516 report, below).

1305 W CP 5597 116 grain empties, 434570 (below).

*1450 W VIA No 1 engines 6505-6606-6604.

A CP westbound arrived with  two locomotives, then lifted CP 5958 from the yard, departing at 1516. The operator is in the shade near the train order signal with train orders for the tail-end crew.

1516 W CP 5990-8801-5958 107 grain empties to Minnedosa Sub, 434430 (below).

none of these photographed:

*1625 W CN 4309-4277-4152 91 grain empties, 79301.

*1636 E VIA No 2 engines 6501-6610-6603.

*1658 E CN 9627-9458, 79332.

I stayed at the tracks until 1800 because the engineer on VIA No 109 said he would drop off some train orders for me. As the sun started to drop...

1742 W CP 5985-8496 105 grain empties to Minnedosa Sub, palindromic 434434 (below).

*1810 E VIA 6512, 2 cars.

*1859 W CP 6020-4723-3009 intermodal.

Running extra...

The End Times. Well, for VIA Rail Canada, anyway. I like the part where this YouTuber says "...the coaches we've been seeing on VIA Rail since...the dawn of man...are going to straight up disappear", well, according to GamingRailfanner on YouTube. (That means I pre-dated the dawn of man?) Here are two screenshots from his scary-graphicked VIA Rail's LRCs are Numbered video that attempts to answer the question 'what happens on January 31, 2027?'. Nobody knows. Not even VIA knows. But I know that picture shows Kingston station platform!

Originally posted on Trackside Treasure:

Someone posted the fate of the LRC fleet on social media (below), and it's what led to GamingRailfanner's post. Dude seems to know what he's talking about...

Congratulations to GamingRailfanner for getting 3,800 views and 44 comments and counting in a day - you obviously have a loyal audience and your videos are very watchable! The kids used to call that 'clout'.

First past the post...

Once again, Canada rallies around its own. In the wake of the terrible training accident at CFB Wainwright, mutual aid from nearby communities raced to the scene. Code Orange was declared and other Alberta hospitals made ready. Flags at half-mast, prayers, expressions of support, condolences, and a million tiny actions showed that Canada not only supports its armed forces, we support each other.

MODEL CANADA STRONG! INTRODUCING THE CMRM

I've heard of CARM*, I've heard of CRM*, I've even heard of CRAM*, but now there's CMRM. An email plinged into my inbox to notify me of the CMRM's recent formation. It's a new coalition of manufacturers a mari  usque ad mare to help Canada's model railroad industry withstand a 50% U.S. tariff that has upended a market many of them spent decades building. 

[*CARM (Canadian Association of Railway Modellers); CRM (now-defunct Canadian Railway Modeller magazine); CRAM (what we did before a big test in school).]

Canadian Model Railroad Manufacturers (CMRM) brings together 10 companies that design, develop and manufacture products for model railroaders across the country, with a shared message for hobbyists: spend your hobby dollars in Canada.

The tariff has hit small manufacturers hard and fast. Many CMRM members are small businesses, building specialized products in workshops and studios across Canada. For companies that have spent years developing customers in the enormous U.S. model railroad market, a 50% tariff represents a significant new barrier to those sales. Model railway products had been exempt from Section 232 tariffs implemented last year, covered by the Canada-U.S. Mexico Agreement. But in the Section 338 round, such products were classified under HTS Code 9503, which includes toys, dolls, puzzles and scale models.

According to data from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB), more than 53,000 small and medium-sized businesses are directly impacted by the levies. Toronto-based miniprints is one example: approximately 85% of the company's sales over the past year went to U.S. customers, and the new tariff has dramatically changed the economics of serving that market. Rather than wait for the trade dispute to resolve, miniprints owner Bernard Hellen began reaching out to other Canadian manufacturers about working together - a conversation that grew into CMRM.

WHO, WHY, HOW?

The ten founding members span Canada from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, as well as a broad cross-section of the hobby: miniprints, ITLA Scale Models, Precision Design Co., Fast Tracks Hobbyworks, PDC Custom Decals, Inter-Action Hobbies, Ultimation Modeling Tools, Otter Valley Railroad, Sylvan Scale Models and Roomettes. Together they make miniature figures and details, structures and craftsman kits, track-building products, decals, rolling stock, lighting, tools and other specialized products. Though I must admit I'm waiting for one of the biggest to appear alongside those other fine Canadian companies. Google's AI Overview tells me so:

CMRM helps make these businesses more visible, encourages co-operation among participating companies, and helps Canadian hobbyists discover the remarkable range of model railroad products available from Canadian businesses. CMRM promotes its members through its website, social media, industry events, and co-operative marketing. Participating companies display a CMRM Member mark so hobbyists can identify them at shows, in stores and online. You'll see it high up in Trackside Treasure's sidebar with a proud maple leaf nearby:

   WHO, ME?

I immediately joined the CMRM as a Supporter. My 'Fifty Years Trackside' graphic now appears on the CMRM website along with nine other supporters, mostly model railway clubs, with links to their social media sites. Why? Because as a fiercely patriotic Canadian, there's only one thing I like as much as being fiercely patriotic. Free stuff! And being a Supporter is free. But really...why? What does this blogger - one who inhabits both the prototype railway world and the model railway world - care about Canadian model railway manufacturers? 

Well, for years we had no choice but to fill our layout rooms with Athearn blue box and Roundhouse products. Oh sure, we could order other model train stuff from The Walthers Catalogue, but it was almost all American-made. When C-D-S Lettering dry transfers came along, I purchased copious sets and actually used them. When Lionel HO launched its Canadian prototype line of HO rolling stock and locomotives, I purchased those.

As a result, maybe you're thinking, "Well, what have you purchased from the CMRM's manufacturers?" There are different kinds of support - financial support, moral support and just plain support by communicating. That's what you're reading. I support this HOmegrown initiative and HOpe my support will help to the Nth degree. Or a little bit, at least. Together we can do much. My tiny corner of cyberspace can be worked - like a Victory Garden - small but useful.

Yes, it's by miniprints!

IT'S ABOUT MODEL TRAINS, NOT ABOUT POLITICS

As in most current events and trends, we trail the American hobby industry by over a year. Their Hobby Industry Coalition was formed to counter the U.S. stance – specifically the imposition of up to 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports - seen as endangering the American hobby industry.

This is not about turning away from the U.S., however. American customers remain important to many CMRM members. The current political climate will not persist forever, though it already feels like forever. The CMRM is all about building a more resilient Canadian industry by growing awareness and demand closer to home. Amazingly, Otter Valley and miniprints have previously been interviewed multiple times by the Financial Post and the CBC, appearing on the National and other newscasts.

I believe CMRM is a Canadian cause wholly worthy of our support.

Consider becoming a Supporter or championing this cause however you can.

--Eric

Running extra...

That door. Those handgrabs.VHA's CBL. Oh, and that Chris Greenlaw.

Highly recommended! Photos by the late Peter Mumby, thoughtfully assembled into this book created by Trackside Treasure prolific blog partner George Dutka. My copy is now secure in an undisclosed location waiting for an upcoming birthday!

Found on Maxsold: Napanee Industries builder's photos. (Now, is that builder's or builders' photos? Are there more than one builder? Or is that 'Is there more than one builder'? 'Is there more than one builder's photo?' Oh never mind.) Here's a link to a previously-published Napanee industrial post where all the photos up for auction are shown.

First past the post...

So often, as Canadians (hey, aren't we socialists because anyone can get a free cardiac surgery without paying off the bill for the rest of their earthly life?) (and hey comrade, aren't 'socialists' interchangeable 'Communists' and 'Marxists' we so often hear about from a certain world leader who's schooled in Political Studies about as much as my refrigerator is?) expect the government  to save us from all our perils. Here is an industry group that has banded together into a family, not necessarily waiting for a government who itself is stuck in an intractable arm-wrestle with a poorly-informed, reactionary former friend, now trade opponent. It's a very Canadian thing they've done, I believe - not able to change the weather, we do our best to adapt.

Of course it's by miniprints!

FIFTY YEARS TRACKSIDE ... 2016-2020 HERE AND THERE

Welcome aboard this year-long retrospective series celebrating my Fifty Years Trackside - watching trains and taking numbers. This is the Ninth in a year-long series celebrating those five decades - each month's post is a time capsule; a five-year slice of those fifty years. In the previous post, it was time trackside tracked from  2010 to 2015. This month, it's 2016-2020 with a little travelling, here and there.

Here's one of my favourite local trackside haunts - the Vista Drive Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot (below). I always hoped a railman-friendly building with an ample parking lot would be built here. And it was. But my similar optimistic hopes for a perpetual view east to Gardiners Road and Mi 178 Kingston Sub became overgrown with brush along CN's right-of way. The VIA view on July 30, 2017 was...upsetting.

I was making regular trips to Toronto - as I had since 2010 for IQMH committee meetings and slide assessments - and in June 2016, we finished our final day's work early. Unlike my colleagues who worked mere steps away from slogging back to their jobs on Toronto's Hospital Row, I had five hours before VIA No 48 would take me back to Kingston. Why not ride a GO train? I boarded the 1413 Lakeshore West departure, detraining at Aldershot, then catching the 1520 eastward departure back to Toronto Union in GO cab car 327.

On June 25, 2016 I had the rare pleasure of enjoying donuts' n' trains with my father-in-law in the new Country Style Donuts located in his apartment complex. Douglas could chop wood like a lumberjack, but he picked up a donut like it was made of crystal. We watched CN No 376 and two VIA trains during our 45-minute wait for Karen and my mother-in-law to return from an appointment. Their apartment had a perfect, fifth-floor westward view of the CN Kingston Sub near Mi 178.5 so I never passed up the chance to visit there. Douglas left us in August, 2017 but my mother-in-law still lives there at a spry 93!

A day later I was off to Brockville to meet CN hogger Chris de Vries trackside in his home town of Brockville. We caught VIA Nos 47, 64 and another westbound, and the CN local. A trip to Gravenhurst area to visit distant in-law cousins gave me a couple of hours trackside at Torrance, ON catching two CN freights - and a surprise lone Geep!

Karen was still a loyal customer of Ecstasy Crafts in Shannonville. I got in at least four visits to Belleville that summer and fall (top photo - trackside and out standing in my field on July 22, 2016). However, my railfanning style had changed. I rarely had or took the opportunity to sit by the tracks for hours, as I had in years past. Instead, I transitioned to PSR: Precision trackSide Railfanning, when I got wind of something special passing through town, such as:

• Potash unit trains to New Brunswick in February and March
• RDC testing on VIA No 66 (just missed it) in June
• Wind turbine trains in December - the special trains operated until 2022.

During a trip to Toronto on October 28, 2016, I had time after our IQMH meeting concluded to ride the UP Express to Pearson in UP 1002, after which I still spent 1530-1730 at the Skywalk: GO 46 trains, 5 VIA, 12 UP so 63 total movements - an average of one every two minutes. GO passengers at Union Station are absolutely absorbed by whatever is on their smartphones:

Black Friday was spent in Canada, watching CN No 377 (175 cars!), 373 and 369 and two VIAs. 

Now produced by Rapido, unique and modern AZER (ex-SP) 40-foot hi-cube boxcars could be seen in ingot service, like AZER 77025 on CN No 376 on May 7 and AZER 77023-77060 and others on December 4.

CN trains were longer and fewer. VIA trains were many, but most were LRC consists. VIA started wrapping cars and locomotives for CANADA 150 (apparently selected for wrapping due to their worst-of-the-bunch paint). I went to see VIA 916, the first P42 (using white cab side numbers!) on February 4, but the unit had been assigned to VIA No 71 instead. I was fortunate to see wrapped Glenfraser through Belleville on February 11, 2017 during a day trip seeing five VIA and 4 CN. On the 90th anniversary of my Dad's birth I was at the Collins Bay marina to see CN No 121, 371, 368 and 305. I observed my first wrapped LRC cars on VIA No 41 on February 20, 2017. VIA 906 leads No 64 in May, 2017:

A family ski trip to Batawa ski hill (I don't ski, but I do apres-ski and I can watch trains) found me at Trenton Junction on February 22 photographing the Tri-County Agro Mart and VIA Nos 52/62, 51, 63, 64, 45 and 42 in the area and at Morningstar Road west of Trenton. I finally caught up to VIA 916 on No 655 at 0645 on March 4, 2017:

Around this time, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) held a free information session at a downtown hotel here. The first half of the evening was a synopsis of how wealthy and secure HOOPP was, while the second half described the rarity and benefits of having a defined-benefit pension plan, and its payments. Whaddya mean, I'm fully paid into my pension plan therefore I can retire at age 55 in two years? Sign. Me. Up. 

On an IQMH trip to Toronto, another 1330 early wrap-up found me on an impromptu trip on GO's 1413 departure to Willowbrook. Upon detraining, I was off and walking miles around the perimeter of GO's Willowbrook maintenance facility and VIA's TMC on a sunny April afternoon. Returning eastward to Toronto aboard GO's 1621 eastward departure, I observed 22 movements on the Skywalk in 30 minutes: 16 GO, 4 UP and 2 VIA.

With the release of my fourth book on VIA (proof copy - above). Research and Recollections was an update published five years after my previous two volumes, I had the pleasure of making onboard deliveries - to uberVIAphile Tim Hayman on No 65 on April 15 and subsequent onboard deliveries to Tom Box, Mark Fidelak and Jordan McCallum.

The 'official' book launch was held at the Kingston VIA station on April 22, 2017, with special guests Steve Taylor of Gananoque, fellow Kingston railfans Logan Cadue (both, below) and Paul Hunter, and one of my brothers-in-law. Impressed that Dennis appeared in an apropos blue VIA T-shirt, I marvelled at the appropriateness of his sartorial selection, realizing only later that it was my own, long-lost one that had been included in a bag of 'lightly-'used' shirts we'd sent him. So that's where it went! There were seven VIA and one CN train to entertain us, plus six wrapped CANADA 150 LRC coaches.

I got serious about the choice of a scribbler to record trackside observations. A coil-bound 200-page one that lasted from May 5, 2017 to March 8, 2025!

A July 21, 2017 IQMH meeting allowed time to leave on the Lakeshore East GO 1343 departure to Oshawa, returning on the 1520 westward departure.

We drove to the Highway 41 crossing of CP's Belleville Sub on August 12, 2017 to catch the CP CANADA 150 train eastbound. An eclectic collection of heavyweights comprising CP's executive train fleet for Canada's 150th!

August 18 was a poignant time trackside, arriving at my in-laws' apartment with Country Style donuts (donuts again!) to find them perched like pigeons at the window. We caught the morning eastbound J-train with five CANADA 150 wraps as we waited for the transfer ambulance to take him to palliative care - his second-last day after 86 years. The next day I returned to the apartment to man it during preparations. VIA Nos 64, 65, 42, 47, 644, 645, 44 and CN No 518 and intermodal in three hours. Better days observing a Vista Drive/Bath Road traffic collision (but not necessarily the passing train!) in June, 2016 (above).

A short trip to the Pennsylvania's Lancaster County included a trackside stop to see the Strasburg Railroad excursion train - video taken October 4, 2017.

October 30, 2017 found me aboard GO cab car 307 on the 1443 departure to Oshawa, returning at 1611 after a cold rainy visit, three VIA dnd two CN freights switching Oshawa. No 65 arrives in this YouTube video. This is one colourful ATM in Union Station, photographed on the way to the GO concourse.

VIA and GO trains under the always-under-construction Union Station trainshed. Each time I arrived in Toronto was a different route through the steps and concourse through plywood hoarding. A true rat race!

On December 28, 2017 I had a nice visit from Carberry, Manitoba's Matt Tolton. We were trackside 1345-1530. Afternoon VIA trains were running 45-60 minutes late. There were six, plus one CN freight. VIA was removing the CANADA 150 wraps and replacing them with 'the Future is on Board' green bands on LRC cars (below - March 28, 2018), and red and white 40 Ans/Years logos.

Railfanning trips now included deciding, denoting and designating - while still trackside - which digital photos would go for posting to various social media groups, videos to YouTube, to an upcoming blog post on time spent trackside, or for header photos for Trackside Treasure.

My in-laws held a girls' night (not as exciting as it sounds - card games) on April 23, 2018 over at my in-laws' apartment. I was off to the VIA station (!) from 1730-2030 during which time there were 10 VIA trains before one CN freight capped off the visit. Two days later, I heard a northbound CN No 518 when leaving the house to visit my Mom at Arbour Heights. Setting up there at Tanner Drive, I could see the approaching wayfreight behind Frontenac Mall, then hearing a 'whooosh'! Locos CN 4728-7025 left their train in the sag and entered the tream track ahead to run around and lift boxcar CNIS 413507, bad-ordered and sitting there in ignominy for months, remedied in 15 minutes. 

Another girls' night on May 15, another trip to the station. There were 13 VIA and 3 CN freights, including CN 4728-7023 slowly coasting 28 cars of new ties into Queens track 4 before returning to Belleville light power.

Our first grandchild was born on May 24, 2018. Shortly thereafter I was lucky to babysit him one afternoon while Andrew and Caitie were at a wedding. The bus went by on its usual route past our house, and singing 'Wheels on the Bus' to him, I know he became a transit fan! On May 25, my grinning graphic designer delivered the very first copies of my fifth and sixth books, containing my Western Canadian railfanning and grain elevator photos and research. It was a pleasure to create these books on my laptop during my breaks at work! I wondered if one volume would outsell the other but their uptake was one-to-one.

Matt Tolton visited again, albeit during warmer weather on July 13, 2018 from 1730 to 2030, watching eight VIA (including non-stop Nos 646 and 68) and three CN freights with your humble blogger. 

July 22, 2018 found me delayed in Parham, ON by a passing CP freight on our way to O'Reilly Lake campground to visit in-laws. Desperate to have us join them with our own (unpurchased!) trailer, three generations worked on me, saying I could drive back to Parham from the campground sometimes to watch trains. Do the math: six CP freights daily spread over 24 hours. That's one train every four hours? The trailer remained unpurchased.

Fellow blogger Chris Mears visited on Friday, October 5. That saved Chris from a few hours' time spent in Cornwall for work. We closed down Panera Bread before heading for more coffee at McDonald's. A great visit discussing all things photo, model, and of course blogging. Wot? No photos were taken?

At the end of 2018, after my final IQMH committee meeting, a penultimate (for me) slide assessment was also scheduled. Being done early on Tuesday, December 11, I decided to travel to north to check our CN's MacMillan Yard. Riding the extended TTC subway to Vaughan, it was a one-mile walk west along a drifty, busy Highway 7 to the overpass over the yard. Six freights bracketed a warmup stop at a nearby Coffee Time I'd passed while walking there. That was after an earlier visit to Tim Hortons!

I made use of Kingston's new Railfan Walking Trail in 2019: January 17, February 23*, March 23, April 16 and August 16. Hey, we paid for it! And nobody likes an ungrateful taxpayer-railfan. The destination was always Collins Bay's Tim Hortons. The view of Lake Ontario over a chest-level wooden railing coffee rest was hard to beat.

Also along the trail, these invigorating, coffee-sipping, cup-clutching billboards that have since faded and fallen into the brush, while the suburb advertised had land cleared but is now grown up with brush.

Fellow documentarian Dave and I at the retirement party hosted by Erika and Dustin on March 23, 2019. Freedom 55 had happened just days earlier. I was enjoying two-day weeks at work when each day was either a Monday or a Friday!

March 27, 2019 was my first day as a newly-minted retiree! How to celebrate the occasion? By driving to the VIA station and picking up our printed tickets for our trip west, catching two VIA and one CN train while doing so! We made the trip to Edmonton aboard VIA Rail in June, 2019. All the trips I've made to western Canada aboard VIA Rail were missing one thing - a travelling companion! In 2019, Karen and I had been married for 32 years, and I was planning to retire, so it seemed to make sense to plan a trip together. My reading told me that retirees did most of their travelling in the first five years of retirement, after all. Karen wanted to see more of the mountains and I just wanted to ride in a sleeper again. We settled on a trip to visit relatives in Edmonton and Vernon BC, combined with seeing the mountains. I'd been gradually accumulating VIA Preference points while travelling between Kingston and Toronto. This sweet sojourn would be even sweeter if it could be made using points! Though there weren't enough to cover fare and accommodation for two all the way, the savvy VIA reservation agent broke the trip into four legs. With that bit of creativity, the points covered all but one of our legs. Success! Skyline Selfie:

Dining our way west:

No station? No problem. During our driving stop to a real horse-ridin' ranch in Valemount, BC:

A final IQMH slide assessment was scheduled to begin on my 'official' retirement date. April Fool's! With the hotel booked already, I had time on April 3 to ride the TTC. For hours. All day. I sampled 17 segments on four modes.

I was still making book deliveries - to CN's Chris Furman and VIA's Chris Diddy. That summer of 2019 VIA was debuting its latest bright yellow marketing brand: la vie qu'on aime/love the way. CN was celebrating its 100th with less imagined red cigar-band on longhand CN 100. 

'love the way/la vie qu'on aime' September 14, 2019 (above) and CN100 September 1, 2019:

Refurbished VIA HEP2 cars were emerging from CAD in Lachine with an aqua window band for Economy and grey for Business Class. I christened this the D&H scheme. An unusual cargo - a former Canadian Army Centurion tank - made its way from the CFB Cornwallis museum in Nova Scotia to Langley BC. Tankfully, I was able to catch the special load on CN No 305 on November 3, 2019.

My mother-in-law spent several days in hospital from Nov. 6-10, 2019. While on standby, I headed trackside. We once again celebrated Black Friday in Syracuse no November 29, 2019 catching only two Amtrak trains.

It was suggested that I bring three sets of outdoor clothing to Belleville on December 2, 2019. All my notoriety had landed me a panelist role on The Platforum Podcast with luminaries Jason 'Train In His Basement' Shron, Jordan 'Hollywood' McCallum, host Bob 'The Effect' Fallowfield and talented video producer Barry Silverthorn. Split into three YouTube videos, this was a great opportunity to talk trains trackside in the Great White North. Thirteen VIA and four CN freights based us as we blabbed from 1040-1550. Passing by the outdoor 'set' aboard VIA back on April 1, 2019

I was able to catch two leased CN 'Bluebirds' on the Cataraqui Spur on a snowy January 8, 2020. Bluebirds seen switching Invista during a return from Kingston historical research at Queen's University Archives from the bus on August 12, 2019 (below). Though always wanting to visit the Archives, and having worked right across the street for three decades and only visiting once, I made a point of combining my continuing sunroom-patient-piano-playin' volunteer time with archival research thereafter. I was able to amass digital images of photo prints, negatives and documents for my Kingston's Hanley Spur blog and subsequent two books on Kingston history.

CN's suboptimal Cat Spur trackage claimed No 518 on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 as it backed its train to the lakeside Invest plant, derailing three MGRX loaded covered hoppers at the Bath Road crossing. Three weeks later, three empty bathtub scrap gondolas did the same thing. Both notifications came to my via my son and his cellphone!

In the middle of March, Karen and I spent some time at a secluded, wintry cabin. We watched YouTube videos that showed the world slowly shutting down. The pandemic would even affect trains, most notably VIA Rail and a sudden paucity of passengers!

Thanks for being aboard this year-long train of thought as we retrace, remember, and yes, wallow in nostalgia these fifty years trackside. Watch for an upcoming final instalment covering time trackside from 2021-2026.

Running extra...

If you have any photos of the rather obscure, hidden Calgary VIA station, please contact Calgary railway historian Alec Hamilton. Alec's Calgary rail history website is chock-full of interesting Cowtown material, and Alec's Palliser Square Photo Archive just went live a few days ago. I remember venturing into the station during my trips aboard VIA in 1980 and 1981. It's hard to believe a city Calgary's size has no intercity rail service today! 

Alec's inquiry got me going to the ol' dusty archives where I found two photos taken in the subterranean station by my Uncle Wilf Schellenberg. I was preparing to depart (near midnight!) Calgary on a two-plus hours-late No 2 for Toronto thence Kingston on September 3, 1981. These photos are decidedly candid, undocumentary shots but they show the yellow-and-white plastic waiting-room seating quite well. My Aunt Rosemary engagingly entitled the back of the prints "The Well Organized Traveller" (above) and, "Please be good, Eric" (below). That's my orange Popsicle Pete premium free backpack that only took collecting 700 Popsicle wrappers to receive! Imagine a 17 year-old kid taking a train solo from Kingston to Winnipeg, then this kind pair staying up until midnight to make sure I got pointed the right direction home, again crossing our vast country on one's own!

First past the post...

We hear a lot about 'passion' and 'passion projects', especially in a society and online world where are a lot of people viewing and commenting, but perhaps not so many passionate doers actually executing! When we discover a treasure trove of material that someone has carefully curated (think Alec Hamilton!) we enter the world that person has meticulously created. But that person didn't just create it for themselves. Equal parts passion and generosity - sharing with others what they have found and not just hiding it under their own bushel. A very positive thing to do!