Some final rough cuts from 2024

Well, the Christmas dust has settled. The decorations will be coming down soon and life will return to normal soon enough. I've had some great conversations and made some new connections through this blog this year. I've seen some interesting things trackside. There was a proliferation of Via Rail content, which was just a factor of what I saw for much of the year. I managed to see some more diverse railway scenes later in the year, which helped keep things interesting. But I cannot deny that it was a heavy Via Rail year.

So, as I close out 2024, here are a few rough cuts, photos with no home, B-sides, outtakes and other odds and ends that didn't quite fit in with other posts that still merit some consideration.

This shot was taken in November as I was waiting for an eastbound Via Rail train to cross Fallowfield Road on the northern edge of Barrhaven. I was returning home from a doctor's appointment and I saw the train making its way slowly toward the crossing. I had mentioned earlier in the year that this was the Year of ABC (Always Be Challenging), where I encouraged myself and everyone else to get out of the routine of taking the same old railway shots and try to get something new and interesting.

In this case, this shot was a matter of good timing, but it was also a chance for me to get a sidelong shot of a train near Fallowfield Road. I had never attempted to get a shot here before, so it was something a bit new. 

This shot was taken at Montreal's Central Station, as our train was about to head back west to Ottawa. As I mentioned, I tried to think of new images to get this year that were not the same old railway photos. I took a few shots in the limited lighting of the underground platforms in Montreal. This was one of the few that didn't have a reflection of my own car's interior, so I included it. It's the side of a Via Venture locomotive taking off. Again, nothing special, but I like it for some reason. It gives me the feeling of movement; of people going to or from some place; of the countless human stories that are waiting to be told once these trains get to where they are bound. There are many shades of grey here, just like with humanity.

Here's an interesting image from Tupperville, Ont., a tiny rural community of about 300 people in Chatham-Kent that is equidistant from Wallaceburg and Dresden. This is the site where the old CSX Sarnia Subdivision serviced the London Agricultural Commodities grain elevator on Centre Sideroad in Tupperville. The image doesn't show that the track over the road had been paved over, yet the rails remain in place through the elevator, awaiting the inevitable lifting up, whenever that happens. For years, efforts to get rail service restarted on this portion of the old CSX line were ongoing, but the end is definitely nigh. Interesting as well that the company's webpage for this elevator clearly shows the rails in place. Just a few metres from this spot, you can see the concrete abutments for the old rail bridge that once carried trains over the Sydenham River. A sad scene for someone who grew up watching trains on CSX rails through my hometown.

Here's a shot taken from the Hunt Club Road overpass as an evening eastbound glides toward Federal Junction en route to Ottawa's main train station. I tried to capture a shot that encompassed the beautiful evening sunset as well as the train. I don't know that I quite captured what I was seeking, but I like this shot nonetheless. It's the human stories aboard that train that are waiting to be told that fascinate me. You can even see the recently removed spur that once served Bentley Avenue customers. Those rails and the old switch stand still lie in the weeds trackside (in the bottom of the image). Here's a post with another photo I took the same night. The shot I used in that post did not include the evening sky to the same extent.

One final image from deep in CN's Sarnia rail yard. I dropped by the station one morning in early November when I was on the way to my sister's house. There appeared to be nothing happening when I arrived so I stuck around and took a few shots. There was a major surprise in store, which I will wait to share in a future post. But, when I first arrived, this was all I could see, other than the long line of diesels parked at the old Sarnia roundhouse.

Even though the fog made a clear picture almost impossible, I do like this shot, which is a bit eerie and wistful. 

So that is a wrap for 2024. Thank you everyone for stopping by. Lots more to come in 2025, I hope. Happy New Year!