Are 200 Photos Enough?

Well, it's crunch time.  Editing decisions being made amongst a sea of sticky-notes.  I'm making room for 200+ photos.  F's! F40's! P42's! Cars! RDC's! LRC's! Ren's! B&Y! S/S! IC3! Yikes! Even some VIA stuff I didn't know existed.

While this second book on VIA Rail is not primarily a 'picture book', it will be a book of pictures.  And text.  And data.  I've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, here are 200,000 words!

The people have spoken.  And I hope to meet your expectations by honouring your requests for more photos.

Speaking of meets, that's VIA No 3 Eng 6519 meeting our VIA No 4 at Uncas AB, May 1986.

Highball!

Eric

Great! It's Glenfraser!

Glenfraser came through town this week.  Fellow VIAphile Jakob Mueller happened to take a photo of this unique car on the tail end of a ten-car VIA No 57 hauled by two P42's during VIA's afternoon rush.

From CN to VIA to BC Rail to VIA again, Glenfraser is one-of-a-kind on VIA's roster.  I've been thinking about what will make Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium unique.  I want readers to be interested in it for the same reason Jakob photographed Glenfraser...it's absolutely different, it has a distinctive look, and it tells a very interesting story.  

This book may have too much content.  When I started out over a year ago, I was endeavouring to include everything from VIA factoids, consists from all eras, rosters and dispositions.  It seemed like an insurmountable challenge to find it all.

Now, with the binder of text full and the photo file bulging, something may have to give.  Sage advice from a contributor this past week...more photos, fewer consists.  And that's exactly the way the balance will tip.  Perhaps a supplement of consists will follow.

Highball!
Eric

Glenfraser photo by Jakob Mueller, Kingston ON August 2012

Houston...we have...a Title!

Until this morning, the working title of my second book on VIA has been 'V2'.  Now, I'm pleased to report that after much rumination, while sitting on my front porch, I am proud to announce that there is now a real title: Trackside with VIA : Cross-Canada Compendium.

I thought of giving up the 'Trackside with VIA' prefix, because now it sounds like the Lord of the Rings movie series, and they just keep adding suffixes.  However, this is very much a 'Trackside' book.  It's what an enthusiast or VIAphile would see passing by while trackside, and then be able to look up later.

'Cross-Canada' reflects the sea-to-sea information I've included.  From Prince Rupert and Vancouver, across the Prairies, through the wilds of northern Ontario and Quebec, to the mighty Atlantic.  If there's one thing I've heard loud and clear, it's that potential readers want all parts of Canada represented.  Check!  (The other thing I've heard loud and clear, is more pictures!  Check, too!)

'Compendium' describes the information to be contained herein, better than collection, collage, compilation, or any other alliterative 'C' words that I could have used.  This is a gathering-together, a concise compilation, a presentation of a body of knowledge from the delimited field of Canadian passenger train history. The Bible is a compendium, and it's done pretty well over the years.  Will this become the bible of VIA Rail?  It certainly has the potential.

So now you know...the rest of the story (Paul Harvey reference) and the title.

Highball!

Eric

VIA No 4 on CN's Ashcroft Sub, September 1985 (above)

Photos, anyone?

Oh boy, that was fun!  I just finished preparing a sheaf of photos for my upcoming book on VIA Rail.  As I've mentioned before, when I start looking at photos representing all eras of VIA's history, I forget there's work to do.  Easily distracted, I've included a very, very small sample here.  The one-of-a-kind blue-roof CP-painted 1418 (above) and stainless steel ex-CN sleeper waiting for disposition (below):

And here's E-series sleeper Ernestown (below).  The funny thing is, these are pictures that you won't be seeing in the book.  These are unassigned, waiting on the back burner so to speak, as extras.  I have so many photos to include that some very, very difficult decisions had to be made.  The photos in my book will directly support the text, instead of just being random, under-captioned photos to fill white space.  I've selected enough photos to produce complete photo pages matching the text.  Seriously considering some colour...

This post comes at the end of a nine-hour work block.  It's been a good book day.  Photos are nearing readiness, and eastern Canada's VIA history is looking a lot more complete.  I've printed off and proof-read a lot of text, and this thing is really coming together!

Another dealer...my first book is now available through Flying Yankee Enterprises in Littleton, Massachusetts.

Highball!
Eric

Dispo. Firsto. Lasto.

In the previous post, I mentioned that VIA 6300 was the last unit in my list of VIA equipment dispositions.  While I continue to refine the list for my second VIA book, I thought I'd include the first and last of the nine pages here, to show how this list of information continues to grow.

I've included storage, retirement, sale, re-sale and scrapping dates to paint a picture of VIA's fleet on a chronological basis.  Through the various rounds of cuts and fleet rationalization, new equipment comes online and older equipment is disposed of, while smaller railways, tourist operations, museums and scrappers benefit.

As you can see here, disposition has been ongoing throughout VIA's history, though the rate has certainly slowed down recently.  The last eight years, 2004 to 2011 require a mere eight lines, while the first four years, 1981 to 1984 fill a page.

I hope book customers will find this information as engrossing as I do, and that you might find it a useful reference source while reading all about VIA, its trains and its routes over the past thirty-plus years.  Click to read all the fine print!

Highball!

Eric

Dispo Facto

FP9AU 6300 is wearing a new paint scheme.  That unit is fresh in my memory, since it's the last unit currently shown in my VIA disposition of equipment information that I'm including in my second book on VIA.  Used as a VMC shop switcher occasionally, then victim of a generator flashover, 6300 was recently donated to the NRHS BC Chapter.  Andy Cassidy kindly shared the photo above after the unit's repainting.

What happened to all those locomotives and cars after VIA was finished with them?  Well, many took on new lives, successfully serving tourist operators in the US and Canada, Canadian railways, and even foreign assignments.  Others were scrapped or stored.  I find this information fascinating, and while some disposition information is available in Bytown Railway Society's unparalleled Canadian Trackside Guide, it's not grouped together, nor available chronologically.

Now the facto part...once one starts looking into dispostion information, it's sometimes difficult to comb through data that is confusing, incomplete and sometimes contradictory. But I will present what I've gathered, secure in the knowledge that other VIAphiles will be able to add to what I've presented.

In the near future, I'll be providing some preliminary disposition information right here, as a book bonus.  Please feel free to give me your thoughts on its presentation and how you might find it useful.

More locations...you can now find copies of my book for sale through Ron's Books in Danbury, Connecticut and the Hobby Depot in Sudbury.

Highball!

Eric

It's a pre-VIA! It's a non-VIA! It's VIA!

What's one to do when one comes across train information from just before the VIA era or non-VIA trains?  (While not strictly speaking VIA trains, they either included equipment soon to be assimilated into VIA Rail, ran concurrently with VIA trains, or included ex-VIA equipment.)  The answer?  Keep track of them, and I did.  There will be a section in my second book including those trains...CN, CP, Amtrak, Rocky Mountaineer, heck even GO and ONR will be included.  These trains are relevant to VIA - the progression to VIA was a slow one, and the disposition of VIA cars was also a slow process.  In fact, when the cars from the 1981 cuts were disposed of, there was space for the cars from the 1990 cuts.

In other news, my first book will soon also be available at two more locations - Trains and Lattes in the ex-CN station in Jasper, Alberta and Hobby Vermont & Essex in Montreal.

More news...my printer is ready to fire up the (digital) press.  When required.  I had a nice email back from Bryan Babcock at Allan Graphics this week.  He still can't figure out why people are interested in the numbers and minutiae of passenger trains, but a second book is helping him understand.  In the days to come, he and I will be talking about page counts, photos, fonts, formatting and even a colour section.  

Highball!

Eric

Pre-VIA westbound Turbo, spring 1974 at Mi 182 Kingston Sub, L.C. Gagnon photo (above).