Contributor Profiles #2, 3, and 4

No time for lengthy blogging about this. Too busy. Doesn't mean I'm not incredibly proud of the contributor team who will be adding so much GOOD STUFF to this book.

• Tim Hayman
• 'Diesel' Don McQueen
• Mark Perry

and previously announced:

• Mark Sampson

Great to have all aboard!

Highball!

Eric

Contributor Profile #1

I thought I'd do some biographical sketches of the contributor team for my upcoming fourth book on VIA Rail: Trackside with VIA: Research and Recollections. Each of my books has been graced with a great team of generous contributors. This one is no different.

But as soon as I started penning each profile, I figured anyone reading this would want to know more about just what the contributors were contributing. All this takes time and my time right now is being devoted to tying everything up with a big blue & yellow ribbon. So, in the interest of brevity, I'll just leave you with a name for the first contributor.

That name is...
Mark Sampson.

Highball!
Eric

Caption, my Caption

175 Photos! The good news is, I've chosen and grouped the photos for Trackside with VIA - Research and Recollections. The bad news is, now I have to write captions for them! Newsy captions. Content-filled captions. Correct captions. Accurate captions. Not-guessing captions. Not that it's not fun. It is.

Side question - how many dozen F40 and P42 nose photos can one possibly look at. Answer - not too many. Variety is the spice of life and the same is true of VIA photos. I call it VIAriety. Well over 100 are from the F-LRC-Turbo era. The remainder from the F40-P42 era.

And I'm expecting a vital addition from a valued contributor. A keystone of sorts.

Highball,
Eric

Ditch-liqht-equipped Super Connie at Saskatoon in 1979. D J Gagnon photo

Photos Matching Text

Dome

With LRC

Photos matching text

Lots of fun

Book

Haiku above! The blogging is suffering a bit as I immerse myself in the book creation process. Text pieces and spreadsheets of data are 99% complete. Storyboards started. Now scanning, editing and matching photos to each piece. 

The feeling of anticipation is palpable. Much as the arrival of a Skyline in Toronto for the Rapido product launch at Exporail must have been (photo).

Highball!

Eric

Why a Book?

Commenting on his book The Revenge of Analog - Real Things and Why They Matter, author David Sax said that writing a book was "a terrible business idea. But you do it because you have an idea you want to solidify into something." Something more than a social media post. Having just received a finished copy of his book, which he cradled affectionately, he said, "I can literally rub my hand over my name. That's worth however many g**d*** years I put into this thing!"

Now that sounds like a book I'd like to read!

Highball!
Eric

This Bud's for You. This Book's for Me.

Is it self-serving and indulgent to say that this fourth book is for me? Yes. Because it's really for you. My first book: Trackside with VIA: The First 35 Years (above) compiled and organized all my 2,700+ VIA consists garnered trackside from 1976-2011. My second book: Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium (below) is what others asked for. More of a national focus, more text, more photos, more colour - and it got so big it spawned my third book, the Consist Companion.

Yet this pending book's for me. It is VIA history, operations, consists, photos, data and text that matters to me. That interests you. That I want to share. It can still be national, text, photo, colour and all those good things. Yet it still explores those niche areas of VIA that no-one else writes about. That no-one else experienced and if they did, they didn't share it very widely. Who else would publish this material? And where else would you find it?

It's research. It's recollection. It's review. It's remembered.

It's for me. And it's for you. And it's coming down the track.
And I can't wait.

Highball!
Eric

Easter 1982

Permit me a dipsy-doodle digression during my data digestion. How was it possible that I:

• was trackside April 10, 11 and 12 in 1982 and not in high school?
• was able to document the consist of the eastbound Corridor Canadian each of those days?
• noted Club de la Garnison and three other cars each day?
• am surprised my Dad noted each day's club as 'Garrison Club'?
• that each consist is recorded in his handwriting?
• that each consist includes the notation 'Eric Amherstview'?
• that I have lost these consists until now?
• that I have found them?
• and I'm including them in my fourth book under the heading Discovered Consists?

Google tells me that those days were the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of Easter weekend that year, that's how!

Once again, thanks Dad!

Highball!

Eric