Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Head End of 2016

What does the coming year hold? Like the head end of a train, what follows behind is not known until it comes to pass. the same is true of 2016. Here are three things I can tell you about my life as a VIAphile in 2016:
The January-February 2016 issue of Bytown Railway Society's Branchline newsmagazine will feature an article on Operation Axle, the little-known four-month period in 1992 when the LRC car fleet was pulled from service due to axle problems. My main Canadian railway blog Trackside Treasure will host a three-part series on Op Axle including photos, consists and mock-ups. 
I continue to amass consists, locomotive and rolling stock data, and operational details from throughout VIA's various eras. What this will become is as yet unknown. A potential future project? For the time being, I've contented myself with some night photography at VIA's Kingston station, included in this post. I was positively channelling photographer Jim Shaughnessy as I converted these in-camera images to black & white. VIA No 55 on January 1 (top 2 photos) and VIA No 66 on January 2 with bonus baggage car (these two photos).
My thinning and subsequent organization of my VIA Rail collection went very well, with other VIAphiles adding to their VIA paper collections while I downsized mine, in what I called VIA Paper by the Pound! A few surplus items remain - email me if interested. Of course, I'm keeping these vintage VIA transcon hat-checks!
Hoping 2016 will be great for all of us, as always...
Highball!
Eric

2 comments:

  1. Looking forward to reading your article! You were indeed channeling Jim's work, especially the over-the-engineer's shoulder view.

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  2. Thanks for your comment, Steve. Of course Shaughnessy figured more figures into his photos, some semi-posed I'm sure, to minimize motion which would have blurred my ISO 800 views.

    I think you'll learn much about Op Axle in my article series, but I'm sure there's also much more for me to learn, too!

    Enjoy!
    Eric

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