Canada Day 2023

Each year of Trackside Treasure's history, there are certain days that get special mention: this blog's birthday, Remembrance Day, Christmas, and of course, Canada Day! This year, Canada lost a prominent troubadour in his 85th year - Orillia's own Gordon Lightfoot.  I can well remember Lightfoot songs coursing through my crappy AM radio, many extolling Canadian virtues and history, like Kingston's own Tragically Hip a generation (or two!) later. For your humble blogger, Lightfoot's music was from a purer, less-commercial era, its roots nourished in the smoky folk venues of the 1960's. Commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Lightfoot's signature Canadian Railroad Trilogy kicked off Canada's Centennial year, then was re-recorded in 1975.

As we celebrate all that is great and glorious about Canada, it seemed timely to feature the Trilogy's lyrics, politely complented by a cascading cornucopia of cartographically captured cenes of Canada for our collective consideration...

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

Long before the white man and long before the wheel

When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

But time has no beginning and the history has no bound

As to this verdant country they came from all around

They sailed upon her waterways and they walked the forest tall

Built the mines, mills and the factories for the good of us all

And when the young man's fancy was turned into the spring

The railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring

Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day

And many a fortune lost and won and many a debt to pay

For they looked in the future and what did they see?

They saw an iron road runnin' from the sea to the sea

Bringin' the goods to a young growin' land

All up from the seaboards and into their hands

Look away, said they

Across this mighty land

From the eastern shore

To the western strand

Bring in the workers and bring up the rails

We're gonna lay down the tracks and tear up the trails

Open your heart, let the life blood flow

We got to get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declinin'

The stars they come stealin' at the close of the day

Across the wide prairies our loved ones lie sleeping

Beyond the dark ocean in a place far away

We are the navvies who work upon the railway

Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun

Livin' on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey

Bendin' our backs 'til the long days are done

We are the navvies who work upon the railway

Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun

Layin' down track and buildin' the bridges

Bendin' our backs 'til the railroad is done

So over the mountains and over the plains

Into the Muskeg and into the rain

Up to St. Lawrence on the way to Gaspé

Swingin' our hammers and drawin' our pay

Layin' 'em in and tyin' 'em down

Away to the bunkhouse and into the town

A dollar a day and a place for my head

A drink to the livin', a toast to the dead

Oh, the song of the future has been sung

All the battles have been won

On the mountaintops we stand

All the world at our command

We have opened up this soil

With our teardrops and our toil

Oh, there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

Long before the white man and long before the wheel

When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

And many are the dead men

Too silent to be real.

Photo locations from top - Emerald Lake, BC (3); McEwen Drive in Kingston; Ex-CNoR Yarker, ON; Lachute, QC; Gravenhurst, ON; Brockville, ON; Glenora, ON; Collins Bay, ON; Craigellachie, BC; VIA station in Kingston; Lake Ontario Park in Kingston; Harrowsmith cemetery, ON.

Happy Canada Day! 

From Carbonear to Comox, and from Cedar Springs to Cambridge Bay

and to those readers beyond our borders!

--Eric

Running extra...

Terry Muirhead kindly shared this photo of ex-Union Pacific VIA baggage car 8619 after deadheading to Vancouver on VIA No 1. Shown here on June 17 at the Vancouver Maintenance Centre:

In other VIA news, June 25th's VIA No 645 had an engine fire on unwrapped VIA 902 with no air conditioning on train joined to VIA No 55 and both four hours late to Toronto with mid-train VIA 6432 providing all the power!

Thanks to the anonymous - and I mean completely anonymous because there's no return address and no postmark - donor who sent me a shipment of valuable and no-longer-popular X2F couplers this past week! 

There were more than a couple!