THE CANADIAN TRACKSIDE GUIDE 2013

http://www.marksrrbooks.com/products/canadian-trackside-guide-2013

CRO BOOK / DVD REVIEWS

(Edited by Michael Berry)

When time allows as CRO Production Assistant, I am a voracious collector of railway books.  My "Off The Shelf" column will review books and DVDs that I feel would be to the appeal of our CRO readers.  I invite you to contact me directly with questions, and with any new publications or DVD’s that would be of interest to our CRO readers for “Off the Shelf”.  

Contact: Michael Berry

Greg McDonnell’s “Passing Trains – The Changing Face Of Canadian Railroading”,  is a book which makes a great introduction to the variety, drama, and scenery that Canadian railroading represents. The pictures in the book cover the period of roughly 1950-1990 with somewhat of an emphasis on the end of steam and first generation diesels. All areas of Canadian railroading are covered, from Newfoundland in the east to Vancouver Island in the west. Many of the photos are not by Greg McDonnell, but by other great photographers such as James A. Brown, Joe McMillan, Jim Shaughnessy, Bill Linley and many others. The chapter “Sleepless in Megantic” takes on a poignancy in light of the horrible accident that befell the town of Lac-Megantic recently, especially since the chapter refers to a band playing underneath a trackside hotel room, maybe the same location of the Musi-Café, where most of the victims of the Megantic accident perished. As a native Montreal Wester, the authour is particularly impressed by some of the dramatic Montreal West photos, in particular The Atlantic Limited pulling into Montreal West in drawbar-deep snow. The photos are nearly all in colour and are very well chosen.

COMING NEXT MONTH:  Michael will review Derek Hayes’ “Historical Atlas Of The North American Railroad”.

MARK’S BOOKS SECOND BANNER

In August, Green Frog Productions released a new DVD of passenger trains on  Toronto Terminals Railway during 1973 called Traintown Toronto. The 
footage was made by the well known railfan-photographer Emery Gulash, 
who used a 16-mm camera rather than the grainy 8-mm we usually see in 
these compilations.  When GFP acquired the footage, Gulash had compiled no notes to go with  it, so the company recruited some Toronto railfans to figure out which trains were shown on the films. Jason Shron, John Mellow and I spent a pleasant evening a couple of years ago using the raw footage that GFP had sent me to try and identify the trains. I believe someone else  as independently involved as well. The footage is terrific and mostly of passenger trains as one would expect along the TTR. The Canadian, Super Continental and Rapido are there, as well as ONR and GO Transit. A lot of it was taken around Cabin D. We were able to narrow down the date quite specifically since it was obviously summer and with Jason's knowledge of newly painted CN passenger cars... What also helped was a rotating billboard on top of the Union Station trainshed for CFTO that showed their current  prime-time TV stars.

Her is the 5-minute clip on their website, sadly with the usual 
American mispronunciations of Canadian locations (Like “Spadeena”),
http://www.greenfrog.com/TT_Toronto_DVD.shtml

Review by Derek Boles.  
GREEN FROG PRODUCTIONS ADVERT

© CRO September 2013