I'm still working in the meat industry, vacuuming things. After two years of work, I got to have holiday for the tween days from 27th - 30th. This is the lovely existence of a permatemp worker here as well.

High fuel prices and about 30% food inflation combined with a sudden surprise brake refit vaporized my hopes on having had a day trip to Stockholm to do some foaming there. Not that I'm sure I would have had 'enough spoons' to execute such endeavour if there would have been a chance. Everything has stood still. Maybe next year :/

This here is the only foamy photo that I've taken during the year. Yeard signal 404 without tracks, heh. In port of Turku. What can I say; freight is in decline, rail freight doubtly so. No more tracks on the east side of the basin and no yard tracks needed to serve them. If there will be tracks in the east side, they will be for the new passenger station. I'm pessimistic though, surely it will be further away from the terminal buildings compared to the current platforms that have been there since 1876. But the new alignment wouldn't interfere with the cars you see.

(I'm talking about mostly this area: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/60.4401/22.2203 )

All sorts of other little things nearby have happened that I haven't had energy to write proper prose anbout, specially as there are no good illustrations, stolen or otherwise.

I hope all of my /rail/ friends are safe, warm, happy, and healthy this year. Another year slaving away on the rails. Hopefully this is the last year in operations and I can finish my degree--the goal that led me into this life nearly 9 years ago.

Some of you have come and gone, but 1chan endures. Here's to another year of celebrating what is truly the grandest industry under God.

I've been pluggin' away at the railroad. I've been working the same job for ten months now, which seems odd considering my very low seniority, but the job does a 6.5 mile shove back to our main yard, so that may explain why I hold it. After sixteen years of (mostly) railroad work, the physical nature of the job is catching up to me. My knees hurt every time a low pressure front comes through, and my back aches every morning when I wake up. I'm getting too old for this shit, and I'm not even that old.

My wife, with whom I celebrated ten years of marriage with recently, has been trying to get me to join her in her workplace. I found a job in her office that I'm interested in, and applied for it. I have no clue what my chances are, but I'm hoping that I can get out of the railroad before I'm too deeply invested in Railroad Retirement. Life at my little shortline is pretty good for a railroad, and it still sucks so hard that I don't know if it's worth the physical and mental toll I put upon my body every day. Tex might just give hang up the lantern and go for a nine to five job, and I'm feeling really conflicted about that possibility.d

Have an F40PH to make up for my sob story.

CLC Guy's year in review: eat, work, sleep. Repeat. :-)

But seriously, nothing new on the train front except that one of three train shows in my region have been resurrected after two years of Covid insanity. Looking forward to the other two scheduled to return in 2023.

One neat thing is that I was travelling through a tiny little town in southern British Columbia when I stopped for two minutes to use the washroom. Parked next to me was a guy i've known since 1992 in another hobby that I am heavily involved in! I haven't seen him since 2010 and he too had just stopped for a minute to take a leak. He has a direct link with railroading history in southern British Columbia, an area which is my primary object of interest. (t3h_fuhr3r, there's a picture of him in the "Crow & The Kettle" book plowing snow in the Coquihalla with a CAT in the 1950's after the CPR got rid of their rotaries). Anyways, he's a widower and the son of a woman he has settled down with is an active model railroader with a decent sized layout. He dumped his multi-decade hobby and took up HO scale trains. Before this he had no interest in the subject. So it was neat to reconnect with him in one of the most random ways possible and also share a new mutual interest in another hobby.

Dunno what 2023 is going to bring.

>K-POW: "finish my degree"
Congrats. That's a long, concerted effort. I tip my glass of Crown Royal and Coke to you. Much respect.

------

Just a random CPR C-Liner pic. I must have a 1,000 of them.

Merry Christmas and happy new year 1chan
I wish I came around more often than I do, but I rarely have any valuable input on the few active topics that are alive at the time. I’m still wishing for a railroad job, but wishing and the occasional application apparently isn’t enough. My current job’s kept me too busy to go to any of the local train shows, and I’ve even been missing model club meets as well

In positive news, I took my first Amtrak trip this year. I can’t remember if I ever chronicled it here and it got nuked after a spam attack or if I just never mentioned it, but I took the Crescent from VA to NYC to visit my girlfriend in Mass. She had to meet me down there since there wasn’t a connecting train that went to Mass that left as late as 6, which I think was around when the Crescent rolled into Penn Station. Former aside, I think I can definitely recommend this as a way to travel if you have decent money. For it being a 9 hour ride, I elected to get a roomette, and I was so glad I did. The staff was friendly, I ended up with the same guy taking care of me on the return trip home, and it was a smooth and comfortable ride. Being able to see so much that you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise was one of the nicest parts about it. If I had driven, I wouldn’t have been able to pay much attention to the surroundings, and flying would have offered zero views. The food onboard was the one low spot, being that they’re prepackaged meals now instead of being made fresh on the train. If you know what to choose though, you can still get a good meal (I had the teriyaki smoked salmon for dinner and it was actually really good).

I lost my train of thought (no pun intended) since I started writing this at work and just finished after my shift ended, but I’ll say this: I’m taking Amtrak whenever possible from now on, should I be traveling domestic

Pictured: me, relaxing in the roomette. Had its own toilet, sink, place to stow your luggage. Comfortable fit for me, also works for two if you’re intimate. Sleeps two as well

>>5922
I don't know why it rotated, Apple just loves to do that when posting to imageboards

>>5915
Someday you've got to share what you have, for I merely have hundreds of photos of C-liners...
This past September I did the west coast trail on Vancouver Island, which was a pretty significant walk on the beach. 7 days' worth. From there I went straight to the first CP Historical Association/GNR Historical Society joint conference, got to see some dusty waybills that haven't seen the light of day since 1968, was asked by MULTIPLE people if I was a reporter (because I had a nice satchel and was significantly under the median age of 300) and then hiked into the Kokanee glacier wilderness, where Justin Trudeau's brother died 25 years ago.

Had a few op sessions, most importantly added a bar to my railway with a menu (and prices) directly taken from the CPR Mural Lounge ca 1967 (plus a house cocktail called The Canadian). Turns out model railroaders don't drink much, but if you get your nerdy friends over and teach them how to run trains with TT&TO and switch lists, the rye and scotch will fucking VANISH. I've also stockpiled a substantial collection of spirits and 2022 was the year I learned how to make a good cocktail or 20. Now including both a train- and cello-themed house cocktail!
Work is much the same, though I now officially have a tenured position at my orchestra. Which is cool I guess? Pay's the same.

Goal for 2023 is I have successfully annexed the next bedroom, and intend to add more space between Nelson and Castlegar to my railway, plus wider aisles, and less importantly some of the grasslands between Christina Lake and Grand Forks. That's literally like the only major goal for the year besides keep paying the mortgage and not sucking at cello. Hopefully see Thaddy and some other train friends on the west coast. Maybe I should have more art-related goals, idk. Thinking of changing my username here, but not my trip, so once I can think of a better one...

I'm happy to see some of you hitting or getting close to your own goals, especially K-POW, that's awesome.

Cheers to a good 2023 for all!

>>5939
>Drunken ops sessions on a model railroad

Well I guess I'm hauling ass up to Canuckistan

>>5940
...is there any other way

>>5943
Aww yeah. I recall many fond memories of casual op sessions on my then-roommates layout with a couple of friends. Choice of drink was usually Crown Royal polluted with coke, or Kootenay Ale back when it was still being made in Creston (late-80s).
So glad there is no Rule G for layout operations. :^) At least there wasn't on this one.

Kokanee Park is on my short list of must-do backcountry trips. In 2013 I almost went. At the time I was considering Kokanee, Mt. Revelstoke, and Kootenay Natl Park and ended up chosing Rock Wall trail in Kootenay Natl Park.

I do want to resurrect the CLC webpage as I may have located the CD ROM with the back up files for it. I'm just not sure what host I should go with. Most of the images i've collected from various online sources since 1999, numerous others were given to me when the webpage was up. A quick check: my unsort CLC folder has 500 images and my sorted one has 389. The CD-ROM has around 850 irc in various sizes and image quality.

The attached image may be of interest, it's 1 of about 40 or so I obtained a few months ago. Unfortunately I am not sure who the photographer is and that is something I do try to record. I suspect it's a Doug Phillips photo.

>>5951
You have a backup of that page? That's incredible! It's one of the mythical lost pages of the internet at this point. I haven't been collecting photos (outside of books) for anywhere near as long, and my organization of digital images at the beginning was bad, but my Kootenay reference folder is over a thousand images now. No clue how many of them have CLCs in them, probably a third. I have that photo already, since it doesn't have any further information in my files I wouldn't be surprised if you posted it here.

Ironically, one thing I've wanted to do is find out what kind of beer they were putting out of Creston in the 70s. It's a stupid idea, but I think it would be hilarious to get one of our local breweries to do a batch of a knockoff that I could do an op session with, if there aren't copyright issues. Or even if there are!

>>5952
>1970s beer
Well, that means stubbies. Ahh the memories of fetching dad an ice cold Labatts Blue hoping he'd let me have a sip (he would when Mom wasn't looking. :^) ).

If I have my history correct, Columbia Brewing Co was formed in 1972 from Inland Brewing which built the bottling plant in Creston in 1959. If you go here -> http://www.stubby.ca/index.php you'll see 8 or 9 examples. It's in alphabetical order by brewery so hover your mouse over them until you see "Columbia Brewing".

In 1994 I had a local microbrewer make a batch of a Kokanee knock-off and put it into 48 stubbie bottles. The guy printed up labels too. Great conversation starter at get-togethers which invariably brings up drinking memories of years past. lol.

All I got for the season was a shot of a standard 'guineapig' in standard angle :(

Should I have checked the timetables, I would have know that the daily freight to the other direction would be coming after this and I would have gotten a better shot of a Dr20 ('blue whale'), but I was just haunting the old haunts on a whim.

Yeah, there's something wonky with the board at the moment, Mike has been notified.

I rickrolled my wedding at the Trolley Museum.
https://youtu.be/Ht3QxvABU_k?feature=shared

Does CP still run the Christmas holiday train?

>>6438
I don't think anyone has since THE GREAT PANDEMIC.

It's a real shame.

>>6439

CP and KC both ran their holiday trains this year, as did CSX (both the ex-Clinchfield Santa Train and an OCS run up to DC for a special dinner with bigwigs and government folk) as well as Susquehanna's "Operation Toy Train", what's left of Conrail had a Santa train, so did Chicago's L, NY transit museum ran their museum pieces for the holidays... the list goes on.

2023 was pretty quiet for me. On the train front I have nothing too much to report. Took in 2 of the 3 train shows in my region and caught up with some long-time train buddies. Most of them have moved onto FB pages which I absolutely will not do. I did locate a box of CD-R/W discs that I lost about 13 years ago. One had a ton of Canadian train pix and web files on them. Guess which disc won't read... argh! :-( Still working on a way to recover the files. Other than that, pretty quiet.

Attached pic taken near MP5 of CP Rail's Windermere Subdivision. Top was taken 1973 if I remember correctly, bottom is 2014. Greg McDonnell photograph I snagged online four years ago.

>>6437
Congrats to the both of you.