A Window in Thrums

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A window in Thrums By Steven Duff Thrums is a name that somehow resonates above most others, a name, as we say these days, that has Attitude. It is a Scottish word, immortalized in Sir James Barrie’s novel, A Window in Thrums, and is perpetuated in Canada by a small town in British Columbia. In […]

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BC Rail: Wilderness railfanning

BC Rail

A BC Rail freight rolls along the shore of Seton Lake, south of Lillooet, B.C. Dale Sanders In 1952, British Columbia pinned its future on a frontier railway. But the traffic didn’t follow, leaving the province to look for ways of rescuing its traffic-starved and cash-starved railway. A white knight came in the form of […]

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Hamilton, Ont. (Bayview Jct.)

CN at Bayview Jct., Ont.

A CN intermodal hotshot heads east on the Dundas Subdivision at Bayview Junction in Hamilton, Ontario, on July 2, 1989. Howard Ande For a first-hand look at Canada’s major railways, there are few places better than Bayview Junction in Hamilton, Ontario, where two of Canadian National’s busiest lines converge at a wye. Canadian Pacific comes […]

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Agence Métropolitaine de Transport (AMT)

AMT commuter

AMT F59PHI 1325 coasts through the Montreal West, Quebec, station with a train from Blainville bound for Windsor Station in downtown Montreal on November 24, 2000. John Godfrey AMT, an acronym for Agence Métropolitaine de Transport (Metropolitan Transportation Agency), coordinates Montreal’s commuter rail service, a 112-mile system comprised of five lines and 45 stations. The […]

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West Coast Express

West Coast Express

West Coast Express train laying over in downtown Vancouver, B.C., in 1999. John Godfrey West Coast Express commuter trains operate on a 40-mile segment of Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental main line between Mission City and Vancouver’s Waterfront Station, serving 8 stations. The name for the commuter operation was selected by a panel of judges from over […]

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Canadian Pacific merger family tree

Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway Canadian Pacific, like its American counterpart Union Pacific, has the “right” name, one that endures, though CP is younger, having been incorporated in 1881 to build from near North Bay, Ontario, to the Pacific Coast at what is now Vancouver, B.C. Post-World War II subsidiaries that maintained some identity included Esquimalt & […]

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