LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Hello William:

I wanted to congratulate you on your decision to begin offering paid subscriptions to Canadian Railway Observations. I think the time has finally arrived where digital media sites such as CRO can no longer afford to offer their services and information for free. I have struggled with competing with this issue for a number of years now as it pertains to print vs electronic. As it turns out, the sharing of information is not really 'free' after all - there is a cost to it. One day soon, you might need a subscription to Wikipedia, too!

I have always admired the work that you and your team of editors have accomplished over the years - CRO is a valued source for all those interested in train-related information. And you have a wonderful and dedicated contributor base. I began Railfan Canada magazine a few years ago with the same type of goal in mind, as another source for those interested in train-related information. I don't see a direct conflict between our two 'publications',  but rather a positive cross-over effect and complimentary relationship and goal of sharing information with readers. Our mandate at RFC is more toward presenting story line presentations where as CRO's presentation is geared toward offering readers more of the technical side of railways. There is room for both as I'm sure you will agree.

Should you be interested, William, we are able to offer CRO an advertising exchange whereas we would be happy to run a 1/6 page size ad in RFC for you to market to potential subscribers in exchange for a banner ad on CRO for us to do the same. With that exchange, a complimentary copy of Railfan Canada magazine would be issued.

Again, congratulations on your step forward and I will look forward to hearing from you, William.

Morgan Turney - Publisher

North Kildonan Publications - Railfan Canada magazine

Hi Will, Ryan Ho here from Toronto, Ontario.

I think some of your CRO`s members might be interested in the following:

On April 3rd, 2012 at approximately around 1400 hrs, I happened to catch the middle-end of a triplet of EMD SD40-2`s pulling a MOW Train out of CP Toronto Yard and heading westbound. I never seen these type of rollingstock, but not until this day which is kinda unique. I did some research and I think the train will be dropping off these MOW Bunkbed Cars in various places for MOW crews as living quarters.

Regards,

Ryan Ho

Toronto, ON

Timothy Organ emailed us the following former Canadian National and Canadian Pacific power he found on the web:    

FORMER CN SW1200RS 1344 

ANOTHER SHOT OF FORMER CN SW1200RS 1344

FORMER 7000 SERIES CN GP9RM  

FORMER CN SW1200RS 1369

FORMER CP SW1200RS 8153- THINK THIS UNIT SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN SUDBURY

FORMER CP SW1200RS 1270-NOTE WHITE STROBE LIGHT ON ROOF.

From The Editor William Baird – Canadian Railway Observations Editor

CLUB CRO Launches May 2012:

As you are now all aware, our CLUB CRO officially launched May 1^st, 2012. I battled with the decision to implement a subscription fee for many years, but as donations had dried up, we really had no choice. The good news is, the price is less than $2 an issue, and the previous issue will always be free! As one can imagine, paying for server storage, bandwidth, email server costs, and paying internet provider fees has always come out of pocket. When you factor in the hours per day that Mike Robin and I put into creating your monthly CRO issues, you can understand and appreciate why we had no choice. “CLUB CRO” has many benefits for you the reader, which will become apparent to you. One perk is: emailed updates with your new issue on the first of the month, and every month. Your “user name” will always be your email address and our “password” will open it. If you have not so, please take the time to sign up today.

If you have not so, please take the time to sign up today.

IF YOU HAVE A CLUB CRO PASSWORD ISSUE: 

Email to "CRO Editor" <editor@canadianrailwayobservations.com>

Please understand we will busy sending PASSWORD emails to all new subscribers over the next days, please be patient. We will get to you within 24 hours.   (William Baird)

Only CLUB CRO members will have access and will receive the new CRO issues. Everyone must sign up, and CRO will immediately refund all photo contributors, if their photos are used in May.

Are you a Hobby Shop, DVD distributor or Railway Museum or Tourist Railway?

Contact us for advertising opportunities in CRO. editor@canadianrailwayobservations.com

CRO would like to acknowledge our newest Advertisers (George’s Trains, Credit Valley Railway Co. Inc., RAILTIME DVD-R Railway Videos, Prototype Model Industries, EXPORAIL, MCM Rail Videos, CANRAIL Video Productions, the Huntsville & Lake of Bays Railway, Niagara Hobbies, and Southern Prairie Railway).

CRO is seeking articles for our “Special Report” series.

Over the last 6 years, several readers have submitted Special Reports for CRO that have been overwhelming well received. RAILFANNING MONTREAL by Guy Pascal Arcouette and myself, The BC RAIL STORY by Mark Forseille and Claude Prutton, and A VISIT TO CADRAIL by Marc Chouinard and myself.

CAN YOU DO THIS? We want to know!

Check out “RAILFANING HAMILTON” by Dan Tweedle

http://www.canadianrailwayobservations.com/docs/CRO-Railfanning-Hamilton.pdf

CRO Facebook continues to grow with almost 3000 fans! Thanks you for your support! We invite you to visit our new CRO Facebook page and post news photos at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canadian-Railway-Observations-CRO/287488550757

Cheers,

William H. Baird

CRO Editor

Guy-Pascal Arcouette, Michael Berry (CRO), Christopher Bodkin, J-P Cadieux, Ian Campbell, Guilio Capuano, Andy Cassidy, Bruce Chapman, Warren Calloway,  Michael Da Costa, Michel Daoust (TSH), Jeremy Davy (WCRA),  Daniel Dell’Unto (GO News), Paul Donovan, Kevin Dunk, Joe Ferguson, Mark Forseille, Mike Garza, Chris Gertz, Herb Hall, Tim Hayman (VIA News), Bruce Harvey, Bob Heathorn, Chris van der Heide, Clifford Holder,  Frank Jolin, Kim Kafura, Wayne Koch, Ken Lanovich (CRO), Roman Litarchuk (CRO), Doug MacKenzie, Warren Mayhew, Conor Megaffin, Glen Mounk, Mike Mastin, Phillip Mason, Rob McCormack, Chris McMahon, Don McQueen (Froth), Bruce Mercer, Aivo Merimets, Jody Moore (Green Locomotive News), Robert Mungenast, Terry Muirhead (VIA News), Peter Murphy (CRHA), Cody Newman, Jason Noe (Railpace), Tim Organ, Mark Perry, Mike Pebesma (CRO), Donna Peters (CRO), Alex Pallo Jr., Tim Quetton,  Brian Rackley, John Read “GR17f”, Earl Roberts (Branchline), Mike Robin (CRO), George Redmond, Wayne D. Shaw, Wilco van Schoonhoven, Cor van Steenis, Avrom Shtern, Chuck Schwesinger, Paul Smith, Patrick Taillon, Jean-François Turcotte (AMT News),  Stephen Vallis, Ron Visockis, Dennis Weber, Ed Weisensel (CRO), Stew Winstandley, Trevor Wiley, Randy Zarowny and David Zulkoskey, and Mark Zulkoskey.  My thanks to our many CRO Facebook contributors, the Bridge Line Historical Society, Tempo Jr. and the Canadian Trackside Guide.  Merci Marc, Peter, Mike, James, John, Michel, Tony, Denis, Richard, Mohammed, et tous mes amis à la St-Luc Diesel Shop.

New issues of CRO are posted each month on our website. News stories pertaining to Canadian railways, photos, comments, favourite links, and questions are always welcome. Please send us your photos, newsworthy sightings and railway stories and if used, will be placed in the CRO newsletter.  Please indicate if you wish your name to be withheld. If your own website pertains to Canadian railways, please contact us.

Submissions should be sent to  News & Photo Submission

 We encourage our readers to forward current pertinent news photos, and historical material. Please include the unit no’s, train no. or direction, date, location, etc, and send to  Photo Submissions

DO NOT send entries for the monthly contest but only those for the newsletter. Use the submit link on the photo contest page.

Note: Photos submitted to CRO should be 1000 pixels wide max and no bigger than 500 K in size.

Please follow these  photo submission guidelines  to make sure your photos are accepted.

As you can appreciate we receive hundreds of photos each month so must limit the sizes we receive.

We look forward to your submissions.

CRO

We invite you to visit the  Canadian Railway Observations  website to access past issues.