See you at Copetown!

For the twelfth straight year, we'll have a table this Sunday at the Copetown Train Show. You will be able to pick up a flyer for the upcoming Hamilton book, and purchase any of the other seven titles at a significant discount. Looking forward to re-connecting with loyal readers! For anyone attending the informal gathering at the hall tonight, I will be doing a talk entitled
"Humourous tales of CNR railway operations in Ontario during the 1940s and 1950s". See you there!

Hats off to Andy

In these cold, snowy days of early February, I am getting back to a little S scale modeling. My thoughts have rambled back to a Sunday morning five years ago (Feb. 2/03 to be exact), when I picked up the telephone to chat with my friend Andy Malette.

On that Sunday morning, with the family out and some modeling time on my hands, I pondered the recent experience of building a couple of PRR GLa hopper cars in HO scale (from Westerfield kits). They were too doggone small, and I was looking for an alternative. I decided to devote a couple of hours to investigating the possibility of working in a larger size--either 1:64 or 1:48. After some quick research on the 'Net, I picked up the telephone to chat with Andy, as he would be able to fill me in on the state of what was available in S scale, what was coming soon, etc.

Half an hour later, the decision to model in S scale had been made, and I put it down to the conversation with Andy. I didn't, and haven't, foresaken modeling in other scales, including HO, but that morning I gave the green light to become an S scale modeler. I give the credit to a friend who was generous with his time and thoughts, and one who has been working hard to benefit other Canadian modelers in 1/64 scale. Check out his offerings at M.L.W. Services.

Web page re-design

I've spent the past few days re-designing our company web page (see a screen shot of a portion here). It incorporates actual CNR steam era colours and herald designs. I'd be pleased to hear any comments about the "new look" (click on "comments" icon below).

About that Wabash line...

From the snail mail bag, a missive from Peter Mitchell of Sidney, BC requests that St. Thomas, Ont. be featured in an upcoming publication. Indeed, St. Thomas is technically on a CNR line (keep in mind when I say "is", my mind is in 1954). Operationally, however, it is Wabash territory. There is a CNR element in the form of the local trains (Fort Erie-St. Thomas mixed train and way freight, St. Thomas-Windsor way freight).

Mr. Mitchell also requests a treatment of the Aylmer, Port Rowan and associated territory. Well, the Hamilton book will cover the section of Wabash line between Jarvis and Simcoe Junction, inasmuch as the mixed train from Hamilton traversed that portion of the line. Further, there will be heavy treatment of the towns of Simcoe, Port Rowan and Port Dover. Of course, Steam Through London covered Wabash traffic between Windsor and Glencoe, and Steam to the Niagara Frontier dealt with the same traffic between Welland Junction, Fort Erie and Niagara Falls. So we're dealing with the line in a piecemeal fashion.

As for a separate treatment on the Wabash, I'll make this standing offer: you Wabash guys put the photographic resources into my hands and I'll produce the book. I'm okay for time tables and track maps. I need photos, and lots of them. To produce any book in the series, I need to start with a minimum of 500 photos, all from the 1940s and 1950s. I'm not just talking about leads for pictures... I mean put them in my hands, either hard copy or digital.

Steam Echoes of Hamilton

Here is the cover for our eighth publication. This book is well underway, and will be released in November 2008. If you are on our mailing list, we will be sending you a copy of this flyer later this month. You may also pre-order this volume online or with our mail order form. As with previous publications, we'll mail out the books in the same order as the orders are received.