WEBSITE INSPIRATION

     Have you ever wondered where I found the inspiration to document trackage in Niagara and Southwestern Ontario, to such a degree?

     The idea came from a page within this book written by W. Glen Curnoe.

     The title of the book is "The London & Port Stanley Railway 1915-1965 A Picture History", © 1976, No identifiable ISBN

     The book has a specific photo in it on page 61 of the former Port Stanley Terminal Railway mile 21 mile marker.

     This book was handed down to me from my grandfather, before he passed away, back in the mid 1990's .

     In September 1991, I found the inspiration to see how trains really operated in the real world. A CP 8200 GP9u locomotive was pulling up to the crossing from the east, on the CP Welland Industrial Lead. Though my grandfather had an HO model railway set when I was a kid, that wasn't really part of the influence to follow trains.

     Years later, after finishing College, I continued to photograph the railway operation in Welland, Port Robinson, Port Colborne and Wainfleet.

     It was when I went to a local high school to learn some other things above and beyond College. St the same time, I was involved with MacLean Hunter cable tv Community 10 in Welland for two years after college and that gave me more of a photographic mindset with a camera. Let be a still frame camera.

     It was in September 1995 that I signed up to learn the world of the Internet. We were taught the basics of beginners HTML code.

     By November 1995, we were told to write an HTML webpage. That's when it hit me. I chose to make a webpage about trains. Well, that webpage after a month of learning code and adding a few photographs fit on two 3.25" floppy disks.
     From that moment, I thought I knew I had to document the Niagara Region's trains in photographs.

     Originally, I never had any roster photos or any pages related to southwestern Ontario. I had travelled southwestern, Ontario to get to know what was outside of the Niagara Region.
     While photographing trains, I got to know all of the area CP crews and office clerks in the Niagara Region as they came and went between 1996 and the mid 2000s, when they started retiring. I got to know some of the Trillium crews. I didn't know many CN workers over the years.

     Over the years I continued to photograph the area's operations. I was everywhere in the area.

     Adding this webpage to my website in mid 2020, I have chosen to dedicate it to what I have learned about day-to-day operations on the railway and dedicate it to all those I used to know who are now retired and or since passed on.

Especially to those who have thought of thought of me a a brother on the railway calling me by my first name, while I watched and photographed them switch out trains. I sure miss the days when they used to tap the horn a few blasts to say hi, as they passed by. They are a generation that are no longer in the picture.