The newest steam locomotive I saw on my travels this year, Ffestiniog Railway Double Fairlie Number 8, “James Spooner”, completed 2023 at Boston Lodge works on the railway. Seen here rounding the curve across the A4085 road having departed Penrhyn station bound for Blaenau Ffestiniog with the afternoon “Mountain Spirit”. The double fairlies are fascinating little locomotives, actually two locomotives in one, with two 0-4-0 locomotives joined by a central cab, it means the locomotive is always able to work forwards in a sense up and down the line, without needing to be turned. The pictures bel ..read more

The Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn on the mid-Wales coast has been a going concern since 1865, opened to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn. It was also the first narrow gauge railway authorized by an act of parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. The railroad operated as a private concern until 1951, when it was taken over by volunteers, becoming the first railway to be operated by volunteers, and launching an era that would eventually spread across the narrow gauge railways of Wales, and to standard gauge preservation across the UK. It all started at an unassuming 7 ..read more

Well, after what feels like forever, I finally got on a plane and went on Vacation again. Oh we’ve taken trips, and done things (like my Northern Ontario Rail adventures last year), but I haven’t been on a plane or out of Ontario since the end of 2019. Even then, I haven’t gone farther afield than New York City since we were last in the UK at New Years 2017/18. Obviously, a lot has happened since then, but with April 2024 being our 10th Wedding Anniversary, we planned our first big trip in many years. After looking at a variety of options, we decided to go to England and Wales. This meant a lo ..read more

Direct Rail Services 66431 leads train 4M07, the Tilbury2 Container to Daventry Drs (Tesco) container service seen passing through Willesden Junction in Northwest London. This is the first time in all the trips I’ve made to the UK where I’ve tried to get out and shoot a goods train. So success on the last full day of our vacation. 66431 is a Class 66/4 locomotive, built in 2008 by General Motors EMD in London Ontario, so a little bit of Canada in my English train chasing ..read more

Back in December when Rapido announced they would be producing Toronto’s first subway cars, I posted about how it was putting away another one of my long lingering projects in 3D printing the TTC”s first subway cars, the Gloucester Cars built in England that opened the subway 70 years ago in 1954. As I’ve said before, I am easily distracted some days. I’ll just leave this here, but I drew a sketch of another bookcase model that would accommodate not only the TTC Subway cars, but other equipment that would have overlapped with them in their lifetimes at Toronto’s Union Station ..read more

Ex-British Railways “West Country” pacific 34028 “Eddystone” steams north from Corfe Castle station, past the ruin of Corfe Castle toward Norden on the Swanage Railway in England. Not a bad way to start vacation! Droney didn’t like the winds though, was at “land me before I crash” warnings ..read more

When I paved my layouts roads, I used drywall filler for the asphalt. It was tinted grey with acrylic paint, so that if it got cut or damaged, it wouldn’t be bright white, it also meant, that I could defer actually painting the roads for a while. As with everything, all tasks eventually come due. Recently, I had the PanPastels out for something else, and decided to take a hack at the first bit of road to see how they adhered to my surface, and what they looked like. I have used PanPastels for road surfaces before, but never in the size and scope of the layout, and always with smoother starting ..read more

Time changes all, and the more things change, the more they stay the same. The image on the left was taken by the late Roger Puta in October 1980, showing VIA FPA-4 6760 heading west approaching the Newtonville Road bridge. On the right, is VIA Venture Cab Car 2310 being propelled west by Charger locomotive 2210 as Train 643 on April 1, 2024 in as close to the same place and angle as I could get. Gone are the blue and yellow, loco hauled coaches, jointed rail. In is a semi permanent coupled set, two tone gray, continuously welded rails, and almost 44 years of growth along the line side. The m ..read more

I have not been, if I am being honest, historically interested in riding trains just to say I have taken them somewhere, or ridden certain lines. I have many friends who do, and who have. I started doing it last year with trips to Sudbury for the Sudbury-White River VIA Rail and then Cochrane for the Cochrane-Moosonee Ontario Northland. There are lots of lines in and around Toronto I haven’t ridden. Many of them have GO Trains, but without two-way service, I’d have to drive to the suburbs early in the morning to get on, or take the train out in the evening and bus back, not overly attractive p ..read more

More Burlington Northern in the Canadian Countryside! The 2023 Southern Ontario Railfan hunt for BNSF GP38-2’s on loan to Canadian National continues in 2024. A pair of BNSF GP38-2’s is seen here headed west from Kitchener leading L568 to Stratford. The units 2090 in Orange & Green “Heritage 1” and 2926 in “white face” cascade green with a Burlington Northern logo still on the nose lead a positively boring CN unit 7521. Who knows how long these oddballs from another time and the other end of the continent will be here in Ontario, so catch them while you can ..read more