The smell of diesel in the morning

In mid-July, after my family visited the Sarnia area, we paid a visit to Stratford to spend some time with my in-laws and catch a play at the Stratford Festival. My family ended up seeing Anne of Green Gables, which was an interesting, modern take on the classic story that I have read to both of my daughters numerous times.

While in Stratford, I was able to make it to the CN yard a number of times, but I was also in luck since our AirBnB was close to the Goderich Subdivision; in essence the main line of what it left of the Goderich Exeter Railway. 

Our place was near the Birmingham Street level crossing. Also, we were lucky that St. David Street also parallels the GEXR tracks for a long stretch, which means you are able to both hear the trains coming, when they come, and have the opportunity to scout out a spot to capture them. I was lucky enough to have run into a train twice. Once was on purpose, as I knew the train was outbound for Goderich so I waited. The second time was a fluke, as my daughter and I were stretching our legs during a walk when she heard the rumble to two GP38-2s coming toward us long before I did (my hearing is awful).

I had my iPhone with me so I ventured into the green space beside the tracks and found a small window to capture this shot. As always, with an iPhone, I never use the zoom function as it instantly pixelates your image. Always get as close as you can, safely and legally. Leave the rest of the work to your photo software.

 

I like this shot more than most of the images I captured this summer, because there's the human element. I was a a little hesitant about sharing it, because I didn't want to identify the crew capturing a bit of fresh air, but it was too good of an image to keep to myself. You can see the GEXR still has an old Southern Ontario Railway unit permanently assigned to Stratford, along with a GEXR unit as its mate. 

 

It was a blazing hot morning when I got this shot, so I'm not surprised the crew wanted a moment for some fresh air as the short train made its way northwest toward Goderich. I'm sure he was wondering who I was and why I was taking shots of the train. How to explain that I'm a train-starved railfan from Ottawa? I didn't come across any railfans around the Stratford CN yard, so possibly they're a rare breed in that area. I don't know for sure.

 

 

The train was clearly a run to the railway's agricultural customers between Stratford and Goderich, as there are many farm clients along this stretch of railway. This Potash Corp. hopper car added a bit of colour to a largely grey consists. Modern rolling stock has become very bland, sadly. 

 

 

The train ended up with a few tank cars on the rear as it made its way out of town. I was happy to catch this train by surprise, as it just added another set of photos among the many I took in Stratford during the week that I was there. I have a number of other photographs to share from around the town during my time there. 

 

My New Book 

 

Those who have followed this blog from the beginning know that I am also an independent author of (now) four books. I don't really have any expectations for these books. I put them out there because someone once told me, "Until you release them, they will never be art. They're just files cluttering up your hard drive." I appreciate the sentiment, but I know these books are not art. Even if they were, it would not be for me to say. 

 

 

My latest book is titled 1999. It's a story of that final lousy summer job you have before you graduate and join the real world. That was the genesis of this story, anyway. I had way too many surreal experiences in my summer of landscaping and working for a property management company for it not to fuel a story. 

 

Truthfully, my story about the real Trailer Park Boys (that's what I called them, for good reason) ended up being about much more.  

 

I am very proud of this book, which has been twenty years in the making. I originally began writing it in 2005 and have worked on its periodically since then. It never seemed like the right moment to release it, until my daughter convinced me to take up my writing again. So there it is. If you are interested in it, you can find all my novels listed on this page of my author's website. There are links to all my books, except for the first one, which was legitimately published by a real publisher, but is now out of print. 

Or you can skip right to the Amazon.ca page to find out about this book.