My favourite video

Here is a video that I made a while back on a road trip with my dad. I couldn't believe the luck of being right beside a fast moving CP freight train let alone seeing one, this video made the trip!

log chute downtown ottawa

near downtown Ottawa there lies rusted and forgotten a piece of Ottawa's, if not Canada's once booming lumber industry. this piece of Ottawa's history is a Log Chute. there was a time when this would have been a common sight in some parts of the Ottawa Valley but now it is no more than a faded memory. in early 1990 the last logs passed down this log chute. unfortunately I have no picture of the log chute, I do however have a picture of the "gate" of the log chute

when I took this picture the channel had been drained for repairing the retaining walls and this is what I saw at the bottom of it.

according to a website that has a lot of information about the history of the Chaudiere falls, the "channel" covered in wood is likely an engineering artifact to direct water toward the turbines at the dam. for more information about history of Chaudiere Falls here is the website   http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~weinberg/chaudier.html      

Walkley yard winter of 2008

during what I believe was the last three months of 2008 I did a Co-op Placement  at what was then headquarters of the Ottawa Central railway. as well as being the location of their locomotive shops, where they serviced their fleet of chop nosed ex CP RS18's. I was given the job of assisting the two mechanics in servicing the locomotives in the shop, I had no idea the experience this Co-op placement would have on me. while I was working there,  I would learn how to change brake shoes, learn how diesel locomotives actually work, and even learn what a "vice grip" was! as the weeks wore on. news that CN had  purchased the Quebec Railway corporations railway and ferry operations, this including the OCR and was currently dissolving it into their own management. this also slowed down work in the shop, as CN was slowly replacing the shortlines ALCO's with its own locomotives. as there was no work in the shop, I was sent out to help the Track Crew clean the switches of snow and ice, gotta tell ya nothing warms you up like cleaning out some switches! during the transition between OCR's ALCO's and CNs locomotives I documented the changes. the following are pictures I took of the transition: the first are pictures from around the shop and in the shop.

the next series of pictures show CN switching cars to be taken on the Alexandria Sub

before going onto the Alexandria sub however they had to first take two ex OCR ALCO's but later had to change it to one because of a policy that CN had of pulling "dead" locomotives. I also took pictures of the OCR's fleet awaiting there fate. the last picture is of a rail break that occured while switching, probally due to the weight of the CN locomotives to that of the ALCO's!

and to think that after Christmas break I would come back only to find out the CN had kicked me off there property most likley due to the liability of having a young inexperienced high school student on their property. so as one last farewell, me and the other two machanics took me out to Local Hero's for lunch and then dropped me off in front of my high school. I can safely say that was the best place I ever worked at!

railway equipment at Sharbot lake, Ontario

about this time last year I was going through Sharbot lake on the way to my cottage with my grandmother, my mum and my sister. having heard about a Caboose being brought to Sharbot lake as part of a future railway collection and museum. I persuaded my grandmother to drive by (but not stop) to see the caboose. there are lots of Cabooses left in canada, and in the world, but this one has a specail connection to me. in 2008 I did a co-op placement at Ottawa's Walkley railyard, at that time home of the Ottawa Central railway. while I was there I helped work on some of there Locomotives in the shop, and every once in a while we would go out to Vankleek Hill to service some of the locomotives there. besides locomotives (RS18's) there was a caboose there as well. this Caboose CN 79717 ex AMXX 79717, was saved by the Central Frontenac railway heritage society after CN bought the Ottawa Central Railway. here's what it looked like before painting:                                                                        

Heres another picture of it freshly painted this summer

 

pacing a westbound frieght train near Ignace Ontario

Amtrak at Bayview Junction, Hamilton, Ontario

in spring of 2010 I was finishing a volunteer program by the name of Katimavik. the last community I was volunteering/ living in was Hamilton, Ontario the waterfall capital of Canada! or as I would soon find out, home of one of the biggest railway junctions in Canada if not North America! this video is the second Amtrak train to Toronto I saw while I was there. enjoy!

first post!

this blog will be on the subject of railfanning, railways, and history specifically that of Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. I hope enjoy my postings!