Ride The Rails With Benny Plant

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If you look carefully at the picture (click on it to see it full size) to the left, you will see an older Bradford Station sign from CN days gone by. Originally called Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad, it opened for travel all the way from Toronto on June 13, 1853. The Aurora Station had just opened on January 7, 1853. Look closer and you will see to distance mileage on either side of the word “Bradford”. Toronto 42 miles and North Bay 186 miles. Then see the Bradford GO sign on the light pole. Talk about the old and the new! Not sure when North Bay opened up but it must have been a while after Bradford. I think it’s great that they kept the old sign

Chasing trains, taking pictures and shooting videos is lots of fun. Telling stories of things that happen by chance makes it even more fun. If you like our stories and enjoy seeing our pics and videos, please let us know. If you like something or don’t like something about our site please comment. The little comment button is there at the end of each story and all you have to do is click the button. There is also a forum that we have opened for anyone who wishes to discuss anything that interests you. You will see the forum link on the right side of the page and down a bit.

We would love to hear from you! Please comment!

We have been to Pine Orchard many, many times since we first started going there in the spring and only one time was anyone else ever there. We decided to go there Sunday around noon and set up camp in our usual spot. We had been sitting for about 45 minutes when a York region cop car pulled in and very slowly came towards us. I was very nervous and thought we were going to be in big trouble. He pulled up right beside us on my dad’s side of the car.

It was all good and he was great. He was an Englishman and thought what we were doing was a lot like fishing…sit and wait for things to happen. He talked about trains in London and how there are so many more trains in all directions there all the time every day. He was just making sure that we were “good guys” and weren’t doing anything we shouldn’t or taking something that didn’t belong to us. Other than that, he was nice to us, wished us a fun time and off he went.

We thanked him for checking up on things.

Since there wasn’t any hockey for me this weekend we decided to head down to the Doncaster diamond in Thornhill. There is usually lots of action there as there are trains coming and going in all directions so we are never shut out when we go there. One of the benefits of going there is the great reception we get on the scanner since we are that much closer to the MacMillan yard. We weren’t disappointed, although we had to wait a little while for things to get rolling. 302 came thundering down the Bala Sub heading toward the Mac yard and I got the whole thing on tape.The funniest thing that happened was CN 368 heading east to the Kingston Sub from the Mac yard and was yapping away to the dispatcher at which time he saw us there with scanner and camera in hand. All of a sudden on the scanner we heard “Take my picture!” My dad and I looked at each other in amazement and started laughing. I think my dad got his pic but it’s on a film camera. The film is in for developing so stay tuned to see those pics!! The loco engineer was waving crazy at us out of his cab window laughing all over the place. It was so much fun!

These are the dark days after we go back to standard time and before the big snows come. Sitting at sidings in muddy areas is not such a fun thing for my dad but he does it anyway. He is very fussy about his car. Lots of rain lately makes for dirty, muddy back roads and sidings. I suppose things will get better once everything freezes.

Since there is no hockey this next weekend for me, I hope we can go somewhere where there is lots of action to get some great shots and videos. Might check out the Bradford Barrie Go Line or head off to the Doncaster diamond. Probably best to go early since it gets dark so early now.

Keep checking cause we should have new stuff on the weekend!

Today I am thinking about all of the men and women who gave their lives in all the wars so that we could have such great freedom in our lives.

Thank you

Early in the summer we criss-crossed the Newmarket Sub north of Bradford many times to watch the refurbishing of the tracks and rail bed between Bradford and Barrie for the Go Train expansion to Barrie. We had a chance to speak with Dave Wilfong of PNR a few times who is the supervisor of contruction about the whole process. 1,600 foot sections of rail were brought up from Pittsburg Pennsylvania on big fat cars with special machinery which would feed the rails onto the ground.

Each load brought up from the US had 40 pieces of rail 1,600 feet in length. There were two loads brought up over the summer so if I do the math correctly it’s about 12 miles of brand new track. The pictures above show how the track is carried and pulled off the racks. It was really something to see.

Test trains have recently been put through their paces in preparation for the line opening this winter!

Stay tuned!

Late in September my dad and I were able to spend a weekend at Kahshe Lake with idea of checking out a siding at Sparrow Lake. Our friend Steve Johnson had shown us where this siding was earlier in the summer so we decided to check it out with scanners, cameras and everything. The leaves were changing and the northbound trains appear out of this long chute of trees. It was really something to see. We had great luck as there were trains coming from both directions and both tracks were used tying up car traffic as well but I didn’t care about that!

It has been quite a while since we added anything to our web site and we apologize for this. Since our last update, my dad and I have been lots of places and taken a few pics and made few new videos. Lots of school work has kept me busy and hockey started about a month ago. Now that routines have been established, we can find time to update our blog.