It was quite a ten day period; I rode VIA's Canadian, operated on Grant Eastman's SAR, talked to thousands of my closest rail buddies at Supertrain and railfanned the CPR and CN Calgary yards..... and turned fifty.....
let's get busy shall we ?
The Cameron Manor woud be our home for three nights; VIA's Number One, the Canadian pulled out of Toronto Union Staion at 2200 hrs Tuesday April 8th and we were aboard;
The Kokanee Park was our second home; drinks in the Mural lounge, music in the Bullet lounge and railfanning from the dome.....
This is the view out the read of the Park dome.... is there a better view for a railfan ?
The trip was great; travelling with "Rapido Dan" and our buddy Matt we also took "Littl' Puddy" with us wherever we went....
Check out Matt and my veal chops..... yummy !
The rail scenery in Winnipeg; at the Winnipeg museum and along the line was outstanding..... We hooked up with Moragn Turney; editor and pubisher of Canadian Railway Modeller for a tour of the museum on the four hour layover....
Just sitting in the middle of nowhere....
um..... hello, paint shop.....
A long freakin way down.................
Old piles from a former right of way.... I wonder what kind of stories they could tell.....
We made it to Edmonton and drove to Calgary; the Supertrain show was great - over 12K in two days, and I think I spoke to each and every one of them.....
I am "livin the model railroaders dream gang !!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The biggest treat was getting to operate on Grant Eastman's N scale SAR - it ain't a model railroad, it's a railroad model.... It took two hours for my conductor and I to lift our 45 plus grain train over 17 scale miles of track; constantly in touch with the RTC, cutting in and out a four pack of SD40-2 helpers, using our rear train DPU and navigating grades, passes and meets - unbelieveable.....
... and guess who got to play too.......?
On our last day we took a few hours to raifan both the CPR and CN yards...massive...... and what a railfan's dream....
New GP9 rebuilds......
Close.... but no closer.....
I coud have cried... all three units were there.... just out of reach !
Still earning a day's pay..................
It was a great trip; the show was amazing, the railfanning fantastic, the SAR is beyond my abiity to describe it and well; if ya have to turn fifty, this is the best place I know to do it................
