Memories of Ottawa to Sarnia in the late 1990s (Part III)

Note: Although my time right now is dominated by a move, I have found some time to blog. This is the final entry in my reminiscences of taking the train between Sarnia and Ottawa in the late 1990s. The route between these cities on opposite ends of Ontario is filled with memories and items of interest for me. - Michael

In the second post of this series, I focused on a few points of interest between Union Station and Kitchener. Once you pass Kitchener on a westbound train, you get into the smaller, more pastoral stops that speak to railroading from another era. 

St. Marys

One of these stops is found in the beautiful community of St. Marys. The town is located in Perth County, has a population of 7,200 and boasts a few historic curiosities. It is the resting place of Canada's ninth prime minister, Arthur Meighen. It is also home to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which I have visited. Finally, it is home to an historic stone railway station. The station is situated on a hill just beyond a large trestle crossing.

The station itself has been well maintained and still hosts daily Via Rail service. That additional platform you see is the Metrolinx platform that was used when GO Trains were run between Toronto and London in a pilot project. That service has since ended. Just beyond the station sits an impressive trestle that crosses a creek that wends its way over Rotary Park. This bridge shows you the impressive geography that had to be forded to operate railways through this terrain.

The last time I was in St. Marys, I made sure to walk beneath the bridge just to get some perspective as to how high it is over the valley. This view below gives you an idea of the size and height of this railway structure. This town is known for its limestone deposits, which explains the stone piers holding up the metal girders. Now you also know the origin of the St. Marys Cement company name. It's this town.

When I took the train between Sarnia and Ottawa in the late 1990s, I always made a mental note to look out my window when crossing this bridge. It was cool to see people from my perspective atop the bridge. It always filled me with a sense of comfort to see people going about their business in this small town when the train passed through. As a small town guy at heart, I have a soft spot for this town. Also, there's an ice cream store near the station that has a dairy free option, which makes me happy. 

Stratford

I won't dwell on Stratford too long, as I have blogged about this town many times. I now have family living here, so I have made many trips to this station, which is one of the nicest in Southwestern Ontario. It really does suit the town, which has one of the richest cultural scenes of any community in Canada. The impact of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival cannot be underestimated.

London

London is the big city in Southwestern Ontario. If you are from Sarnia, it's the easiest big city to get to, as it is only an hour east. My first-ever train trip was between Sarnia and London when my Dad had an appointment in London. I remember travelling on a classic blue coach to London when I was quite young. I could not have been much older than 4 or 5, but I remember the excitement I felt as a train obsessed little kid. When I travelled between Sarnia and Ottawa, London was either the last major stop before I came home or it was the first major stop as I settled in for a long day en route back to Carleton University. 

Via's station here has been well maintained. It was not always this way, before the station was renovated in the early 2000s. This is not the station I remember from my travels in the 1990s. You can just make out an HEP silver streamliner to the right of the picture. As London is at the junction between rail lines going to Sarnia and Windsor, this station continues to host both Toronto-Windsor and Toronto-Sarnia trains in both directions. 

London's station has a small yard, which at times has hosted some oddities over the years. Here's an undated shot shared with me of the old GM Diesel switcher at the old London station. The last I saw, this old unit resided at the Lambton Diesel shop in Sarnia yard.

Wyoming

Between London and Sarnia, Via makes two stops, although in the 1990s, it made three. Heading west, the Via corridor trains stop in Strathroy and Wyoming. Just east of Wyoming in the 1990s, Via also made a brief stop in Watford, but that service has since been discontinued.

The Wyoming stop is a throwback to earlier days in railroading, when railways served small towns. Wyoming's former CN train station is long gone, as are the rails of the old rail yard, but there is still a tiny station just off Broadway Avenue, Wyoming's main street.

When I took the train in the 1990s, there always seemed to be someone who either got off in Wyoming in the evening or boarded the train in the early morning. It's somewhat of an anomaly that this town has Via service still, but given the population growth in this part of the province, the station might see more activity in the coming years. In my time on the train in the 1990s, Wyoming again was one of those stops where I was either itching to get off the train after a long day or it was where I was settling in for a long trip east. I have visited this spot a number of times to train watch. It's a great spot to watch mainline freights roar by.

Here's one of my meets with a passing freight in 2022.

Okay, here's a shot of the power. A shot of an autorack seems like a bit of a rip-off, I'm sure.

Last stop: Sarnia

I've disembarked on the Sarnia platform many times, always late at night when my train pulled in at the end of its run. My clearest memory of this station was when I returned home in October 1996. It was the first time I had visited my family after moving away to attend journalism school at Carleton University in Ottawa. I was homesick, as my first year hadn't gone all that swimmingly to start. My roommate and I didn't mesh. He was a good guy but I couldn't live with him. When the train pulled into the station, I had a window seat overlooking the station platform. I had already gathered my bags and was beginning to stand up to stretch my legs, as I was eager to get home. I recall my brother on the platform, jumping up to see where I was in the train, as he was excited to see me. I have never forgotten that moment.

As brothers, we don't often need to say anything to each other. We know we are each other's best friend. My older brother has been a great influence on me all my life. I have always looked up to him. When I saw how excited he was to see me, it reminded me of what family is all about. When people ask me why I am so sentimental about trains, that moment in 1996 is one of the reasons. Trains have brought people together for generations. That is what keeps me fascinated.

Thank you to everyone who has sent along their best wishes as my family tries to navigate through the last portion of a very difficult year. We're close to being free of this situation. I can't guarantee when the next post will appear, but I'm hoping it will be soon. All positivity welcomed.

2022: The Year in Photos

Happy New Year, everyone.

I'd like to thank everyone for stopping by in 2022. I wasn't sure how long I could sustain this blog when I started it back up in August 2021. I did miss it, but the wear and tear of pandemic and my lack of time trackside made it a losing proposition. I couldn't do something half way. Luckily, in 2022, I was able to get out a fair bit to see some action along a number of rail lines. The results were surprising. I didn't see all that many mainline freights, but I did see some pretty cool things. Here is a brief summary of some of the highlights from 2022.

In March, I visited my family in Southwestern Ontario and was able to get some time along the rails, as my brother and nephew took me on a tour of their favourite haunts. I even was able to see some things on my own. While in Wyoming, I saw this fast moving freight roar through town. You can read about it here.

Those who are regular readers know that this catch in Wyoming was the second freight I caught in the span of half an hour on the Strathroy Subdivision. Just moments before this meet, I came across an eastbound train on a siding outside Watford. That train was clearly waiting for this one, which had the priority of movement. Here's a shot of the parked train, which was waiting in the howling wind in an area of barren farm fields. And, as an added bonus, this train had some guest power in the number two position, courtesy of BNSF.

But if there was a theme to this year, it was the year of the near miss. I did a lot of travelling this summer but somehow seemed to miss out when trackside along main lines. This has been a very unusual year for railfanning for me. I really had to strain my memory to think of the mainline freights I have witnessed from beginning to end. Notice I mention beginning to end. Every time I pass through Kingston on Highway 401, there is a stretch of road that parallels the CN Kingston Sub. I have had good luck on this stretch of road in the past, but this summer, not so much.

Whenever I catch a train mid-train like this, I always curse the fact that we didn't time our journey a little better! Granted the timing has to be perfect. But, when I at least had a chance to catch the mid-train DPU, this minivan's timing really hurt. Not going to lie.

So close.

I did get the chance to check out some areas of the province I haven't been to before, like Glencoe, a small town that had still hosts Via Toronto-Windsor trains. I always like to discover new stations, new stretches of track and new photo possibilities. The added bonus here was getting to spend time with my brother and nephew. The old Glencoe Grand Trunk station and caboose were also a cool site. Read the post in the link above, including the comments, to learn more about that old caboose.

As I mentioned, it was an unusual year for railfanning, as many of my highlights were not your usual train pictures. In the early summer, CN's Anrprior Turn briefly made use of an old Central Vermont caboose. While the caboose is still in Walkley Yard, as far as I can tell from the only publicly available view of the yard, its brief usage on the Renfrew Spur caused a flurry of excitement in Ottawa.

Here's another example of the unusual nature of my railfanning this year. As many locals know, Canadian Pacific sent a business train into Ottawa this year to coincide with the Women's Open golf championship at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. I was not able to get any conventional shots of this train when it was moving around the city like many other local rail guys, but I did manage to get this shot of it on the evening before it left town. This is the first shot I have taken of an old F unit in all my years of railfanning. I wish I could have gotten something better, but it's a start.

In the summer, I spent some time with family and was able to visit the Oil Museum of Canada, a rural community museum celebrating the birth of the North American oil industry. That museum has an extensive amount of railway pieces, including the old Oil Springs train station, once served by the Canada Southern Railway. I will be sharing lots of pictures and tidbits about this in the coming year. It's one of the many posts that are backlogged and waiting to be edited and shared. Here's a glimpse of what I saw.

Also this summer, I spent some time in Kitchener-Waterloo, where I used to live. I was able to watch the region's Ion light rail system in action. Unlike the system in Ottawa, the Ion system seems to work fairly well, even though much of its system interacts with vehicle traffic. The region is also home to the Waterloo Central Railway in St. Jacobs, where many pieces of historic equipment can be seen from nearby streets. I will have more about my time in Waterloo next year as well. Here's another glimpse of what I saw this summer. It's hard to tell from this angle, but this old RDC unit is clad with CP-inspired maroon stripes, with Waterloo Central written on the side. Much of the equipment in this small yard has been maintained really well and painted in a handsome Waterloo Central script.

I would like to finish with another scene from Eastern Ontario, as that is where I had my last major rail adventure. In November, I spent the better part of a day at the Kingston Via Rail station, as my daughters were in the city for a music camp and I was free to do my own thing. I saw a number of interesting meets between Via's corridor trains connecting Toronto and Ottawa and Montreal. I even managed to see one CN mainline freight, which was what I really wanted to see. I will share all of this material early in the new year. There are probably two posts worth of images to go through, which is a great problem to have This shot below was one of my favourites, as a Via employee gives an westbound locomotive crew a friendly wave in the morning as an eastbound J-train awaits clearance to depart.

There were more moments and images, but these are the ones that stick out in my head. My thanks to everyone who helped contribute to this blog this year, either directly or indirectly, including Eric from Trackside Treasure, Steve from Traingeek.ca, Keith Boardman, my eyes and ears in east Ottawa, and everyone else who passed along tips and information. 

Moving forward, I'm hoping to share more posts next year, possibly in the form of occasional pop-up posts with more newsy, topical items. You will notice I shared a pop-up post about the unusually wrapped engines that have been sent to Ottawa recently, most likely to the NRC. There are many theories as to what these trains might be. For my part, I was just happy to have stumbled across something newsworthy to share.

It's hard to be first out of the gate with news these days, as more active rail watchers share their intel on Facebook almost immediately. That's great for all of us, but it tends to hurt my cause on this blog at times. Either way, I am going to try and step up the pace in the coming year. 

I enjoyed continuing to share my passion for railways with everyone this year. Thanks for your continued support. 

Happy New Year.

Last blast of winter (Part II)

This past March Break, I was lucky enough to be able to visit my family in Southwestern Ontario for a few days, which also meant some time spent trackside doing a little bit of railfanning. In my first post about this trip, I shared some photos of an eastbound CN mixed freight that was waiting in the siding for another train to pass. The weather conditions were less than ideal, as a snow squall off Lake Huron was pelting parts of Lambton County at the time I was finishing up my drive from Ottawa. But it did allow me to get a few winter railroading pictures, which is always a good thing, since I have not been active trackside this winter in Ottawa. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I caught a freight train waiting on a siding outside of Watford (at Kingscourt Road) for another train, or so I thought. When I made my way down the Confederation Line, I made sure to make a quick detour down Wyoming's main street, called Broadway Avenue, to see if I was right.

Sure enough, I could see lights coming from Sarnia, which meant there was another eastbound train that was scheduled to overtake the eastbound on the siding near Watford. I quickly made my way to Wyoming's Via Rail station, where I could get some shots of this fast moving train as it hustled east to Toronto. I tried to fit the Wanstead Farmers Co-op grain elevator in the shot, but I didn't get the entire communications tower, as I figured it would not add much to the image.

This shot was actually taken from behind the Via Rail station platform, as that platform was a little too close to the tracks and didn't offer a terribly flattering angle for the train. I decided to pull back. I did get the Via Rail marker in the shot, which was a bonus. In this vantage point, the eastbound is just about to cross Wyoming's main street, Broadway, at speed. The speed restrictions through this town are pretty liberal, as the trains whiz through the downtown at what appears to my eye to be somewhere near 80 km/h. It's a well maintained track with heavy continuous welded rail on a very flat, straight right of way. Perfect for fast freight, in other words.

Given the light dusting of snow and the steady gusts of winds, the train was kicking up quite a cloud, which you can see in the first image. This consist was a straight line of empty autoracks heading back toward Toronto.

This might be my best conventional shot of my first day in Southwestern Ontario. In this shot, a pair of CN SD70M-2s 8896 and 8845 are approaching the Wyoming Via Rail station platform with a full string of empty autoracks in tow. This was the train that necessitated the mixed freight in Watford to take the siding near Watford.

Given the snow cloud that this train was kicking up, the going away shot was a complete wash, but here it is anyway. At least you can see the Via Rail signage.

Given the difficulties the snow presented, I decided to see if I could come up with some compelling images that illustrate the speed of this train. This shot below was my favourite. I took it from a ground level point of view.

After that shot, I decided to see if I could catch a few fallen flag emblems or interesting autoracks. As I have mentioned many times on this blog, railfanning can't just be about catching the engines or the front end of the train. There has to be more to it than that. That's my outlook, anyway.

We'll start with Grand Trunk. It's a personal favourite of mine, given it was the railway across the river from Sarnia for many years prior to CN swallowing its identity whole.

 How about the just purchased KCS?

Or some Mexican railways?

This was another car of interest. I haven't seen many of these in person. Note the shared truck in between what looks like two cars, but is one unit. No railway logos on it either. It does carry the COER reporting mark, which belongs to the Illinois-based Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad, although this might be a case of a smaller carrier lending out its reporting marks. The railway itself connects to both UP and BNSF and is owned by Progressive Rail.

So those were the noteworthy items on this seemingly mundane empty autorack train. I was quite happy to have captured the COER cars, as it led me down a path of discovering this tiny railway in Illinois, which just so happens to have its reporting marks on a newer autorack in Ontario.

After that happy meeting with two trains in less than 10 minutes, I completed my journey and spent the day with my sister and her family. Later that day, as I was making my way to my brother's house to close out my day, I happened across more trains. All in all, it was a great day to capture the last few breaths of winter in Ontario.

Some rare sightings in Wyoming

My brother was taking his son to soccer back in May when he had a few minutes to spare in Wyoming. They decided to park trackside in the tiny parking lot near the Wyoming Via Rail station. They were lucky enough to catch a westbound passing freight with some interesting elements worth discussing a bit. Fortunately for me, he sent along the pictures he took.

Before we get into it, a little context. Wyoming is one of my favourite spots to catch railroading action in Southwestern Ontario. The CN Strathoy Sub goes through the heart of the downtown. Around the Broadway Street crossing, there are multiple spots along a gravel access road where you can set up and shoot passing freight trains. Closer to the station, you can see the remnants of CN's old freight loading ramp, which is now mainly covered over in weeds.

You can read about my meets with trains in these posts:

The warbonnet in Wyoming (2018)
Perfect afternoon in Wyoming (2017)

On the west side of the crossing, you can see a large feed mill, complete with trackside elevators, that could easily be incorporated into trackside photos, if you can find the right vantage point on public property.

In short, there is lots for a railfan to see in this town.

The train my brother caught was led by 3807, a GE ES44AC unit with a special decal on its hood that appears to be honouring Canada's Indigenous Peoples. The inuksuk is a symbol of the Inuit in Canada's north (CN operates as far north as the Northwest Territories, which boasts a large Inuit and Dene population). The infinity symbol (sideways eight) is the symbol of the Metis while the feather is a more broad symbol of the various First Nations spread all across Canada.

I have seen images of this logo on other sites and am happy to share my brother's photo of this unit on this blog.

My brother made a few notes in the message he sent to me. He took a shot of an old Cotton Belt hopper, which he tells me he rarely sees in Sarnia.

He also pointed out that he doesn't seen many Potash hoppers, although I was equally intrigued by the Agrium Hopper behind the Potash hopper. I think the Potash cars are likely a more common sight, however I also tend to only see them up here in Ottawa only at certain times as well.

I like this shot of this tiny Wisconsin Central hopper as well. But once again, I am intrigued by the car following, as it appears to have some heavy items strapped down to it. I wondered if it was some sort of prefab concrete product.

My thanks to my brother for sharing shots of his meeting in Wyoming. If you are ever in Southwestern Ontario, this town offers a great trackside experience, especially on a busy mainline. Highly recommended.

And speaking of Southwestern Ontario, I will be heading down there to visit family in the next week and a half. So I will be parking the Beachburg Sub on the siding for a week or two. I hope to have lots to share with everyone when I get back, because I plan to do some railfanning when I am there.

Looking back and looking ahead

I'm hoping that 2018 was an anomaly for the blog, since I didn't quite follow the usual script. There were quite a number of things I wanted to do, but it didn't work out the way I planned. Since my railfanning was severely curtailed due to life, I had to switch gears quite a number of times and start focusing on issue-based posts, history-based posts and thematic posts more so than I have before.

But in the end, I was happy that I was able to explore new space in the previous year, although I'm not sure I want to neglect my trackside adventures like I was forced to do last year. That said, there were a few moments from the previous year that I really enjoyed sharing with you. The biggest highlight was meeting this CN train in Wyoming in the summer.

I was really happy to catch some CN leased power on this train. And it was an old ATSF warbonnet to boot, which was particularly cool.

Speaking of CN, I did catch up with the Arnprior Turn.

As usual, in Ottawa, one has to often content themselves with Via Rail corridor trains if they want to survive. Even with this plentiful supply of corridor trains, I didn't get out to see much in the preceding year, but I did catch a few things that I was happy to share.

This was a shot from July. This train was bringing my wife home from Montreal after a few days away from the family. You can see a piece of the new Ottawa platforms in the shot.

Speaking of platforms...

And very early last year, I had some fun on the Belfast Road overpass near Ottawa's main railway station. This was my meet with a Via 40-clad P42.

I was also thrilled with this shot of a F40PH-2 pulling a string of renaissance cars toward Montreal. This might be the best going away shot I have taken.

I would mention something about the city's ongoing O-Train Confederation Line drama, but I don't know that there's much to share other than the planned handover of the new east-west line has yet to happen. That means the trains are not running yet. So, instead of sharing photos of the yet-to-be-finished Confederation Line, I thought I'd share this shot of the Trillium Line, with two trainsets about to pass each other near Bayview. I was really happy with how this shot turned out.

Looking ahead, I have resolved to get out there a little more. But I have been working on a number of posts that will explore some fascinating rail history from the Ottawa area. Given how much has happened with Ottawa railways even since this blog has started, I think examining rail history is even more important now.

Stay tuned for some posts regarding the history of the Renfrew Subdivision and a multi-part account of the final days of the Northern Transcon. I've been working on these posts for a while and hope to be able to share them soon.

And, much to my surprise, I found out today that this post is my 275th post for this blog. Thus begins the countdown to 300. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and I wish you the best for 2019!

Cheers,

Michael

hammond.michael77 AT gmail.com

The warbonnet in Wyoming

This year has been a tough one for my trackside adventures. In short, I haven’t been trackside nearly enough, due to many factors. However, recently, I went back to the Sarnia area to visit family for a large family reunion, spanning three generations of my family. It was a great event. I managed to get away when the festivities were over to sit trackside in Wyoming, along the Strathroy Subdivision.

You will recall that I saw something pretty special last year in Wyoming, when I saw this freight train (below) rolling west with five CN units. It reminded me of my younger days watching trains when long freights were usually led by more than two units.

When I arrived at the Broadway Street level crossing area in Wyoming, the signal controlling eastbound traffic was flashing yellow while the westbound signal was solid red. The signal for eastbound traffic is easily visible from the Broadway level crossing in Wyoming, although I had to use the zoom on my camera to see what the westbound signal showed.

After a few minutes, the signals changed. The eastbound signals went solid red while the westbound signals changed to solid green. This gave me a hint that something was coming from the east.

The train I saw wasn’t quite what I expected, but it did result in a first. 

My first decision was where to set up. There’s a gravel access road behind the Lions Hall in Wyoming, which is a public road, since I saw cars parked there. I got some great shots from an area around the Via Rail station last time I caught a train here, but I wanted to try something different this time. So, instead, I set up west of the station, closer to Broadway Street.

About 10 minutes after the signals changed, fast-moving and surprisingly short train came barrelling through town, led by a CN unit and an old Santa Fe warbonnet-painted unit, now owned by a leasing company. I was pretty happy to finally catch a glimpse of one of the many leased units prowling the CN network this year. 

Here's a closer look. This unit is ex-BNSF, ex-AT&SF  PRLX SD75M 205. Looking online, there are a few photos of this leased unit making the rounds through Ontario this year. I was pretty happy to catch it.

Shooting trains in Wyoming is not all that easy, even though the frequency seems to be pretty solid. The biggest challenge is the speed of the trains coming through town. Since the crossing is protected by highway guard gates, the trains seem to be coming through town at around 80 km/h (just a guess). That means you have to pick your subject of interest and get as many frames as possible. After I snapped photos of the engines, there wasn’t much to see except about 20 tank cars and a few covered hoppers. I snapped a shot of this hopper, mainly because it seems someone made the effort to cover over a fair bit of graffiti. Other than that, there wasn’t much to see in terms of rolling stock.

Back in April, I had a trackside day planned that was cancelled at the last minute, but I am hoping to finally reschedule that day and make up for lost time.

A year of firsts

I didn't get around to putting together a post about the best moments from 2017, although I did devote one post to the Via Rail highlights (and there were many!). So, although it's nearly February, I wanted to take a look back at some cool moments trackside from 2017. Although my time trackside was miniscule last year, I was happy to have some incredible luck this year.

The first instance of some good luck happened in May when my family made a trip to Southwestern Ontario to visit family and attend a family reunion over the Mother's Day weekend. I made my way to Wyoming and camped out at the town's tiny Via Rail station, hoping to catch a freight train on the Strathroy Subdivision.

After sitting for an hour, I was just about to return back my Dad's house in Petrolia when I saw something far off in the distance making its way west. The best part of this freight train was that it had five (count 'em) engines leading the way. This is a rare site in modern railroading, as most modern diesels are matched in pairs or trios on the head end of a freight train. This lash-up reminded me of watching trains when I was younger when four to five engines on the head end of a train wasn't all that uncommon. So, mark it down as the first time I have seen this type of locomotive line-up in many years.

Later in the summer, I was again visiting family in the Sarnia area when I caught my first train on the St. Clair River Industrial Spur near the Rokeby Line, south of Corunna. I lived near this spur when I was growing up, but I was never able to get a shot of any trains on this line. I managed to catch this rain switching near the Suncor ethanol plant. Check out the old motive power and the giant power lines. This might be my favourite shot from last year.

During the same week in late July/early August, I was able to stay at my sister's house south of Corunna. Her property backs onto the CSX Sarnia Subdivision, which is a pretty quiet line these days. I was hanging around my sister's backyard, as my daughters were enjoying an afternoon siesta when I heard a train approaching the nearby Rokeby Line. I was able to position myself near the tracks and get this shot of a short train heading back to Sarnia.

Later in August, I was in London for a family wedding when I was able to break away from the family events to get some trackside time in. I saw a number of cool things during my time at the CN London East yard and the CP Quebec Street yard. At the CP yard, I was able to watch a local doing some switching, which included my first golden rodent-clad unit.

At the London East CN yard, I saw a lot of interesting things, which you can see in this post, but the highlight was a CN container train rumbling through. I don't see these trains at all, since Ottawa had no mainline action of consequence, so it was cool to see my first container trains in years, especially from the Highbury overpass.

In October, I came across an idling mixed freight that was parked in between Wyoming and Camlachie Road. You can read about this meet here. This was a surprising meet for me, since it was the first time I have seen two cowl units on a freight train. It's always cool to come across these relatively rare units, but having two on the same train was especially cool.

And as you may have read from this recent post, I was quite happy to catch my first Goderich Exeter Railway action shots in Kitchener in November. You can read about my adventures in Kitchener in this post. For those who missed it, I caught a duo of GEXR units tying up at the Kitchener railway station, including this unit, LLPX 2236. I didn't share this photo in my original post.

There were a number of other firsts last year, but these are the ones that I feel are most significant. Last year was a year where much of my trackside time was condensed into a few jam-packed weekends. I'm hoping to get going on some photography this year. If I can check off half as many items from my to-do list as I did last year, I'll be quite happy.