A Geologist went on the Railway

From early 1998 through 2002 I lived near the Granville Island area of Vancouver.  Vestiges of the former industrial nature of the area still survive the encroaching condominiums, townhouses and tourist traps in the area.  The condo building that I lived in was built on the site of an old sawmill.  One benefit of this location was that I was literally 2 blocks from the Molson brewery which was served by CP several times per week.  As well the Downtown Historic Railway operated former BC Electric interurban cars during the summer from a station across the street from my apartment. My apartment was just behind the CIBC sign, although it hadn't been built yet when this photo of BCH switching Granville Island was taken in 1974.  The tracks in the foreground are still there as a reminder of the historic industrial nature of what is now a prime tourist destination BC Hydro 904 has just come off the False Creek Bridge and is likely heading to the BN/CN interchange on t...

Hawthorne Nevada is a small town of around 2700 people that lies between Reno and Las Vegas south of Walker Lake.  The highway from Reno to the area I was working in near Tonopah (one of the last gold rush towns in the US) runs through Hawthorne.   Hawthorne was primarily a railway town from the arrival of the narrow gauge Carson and Colorado RR in 1881.  The Southern Pacific purchased the C&C in 1900, and there were hundreds of miles of SP narrow gauge in the area to serve the mining boom towns of Tonopah, Goldfield and elsewhere.  The SP converted the line to dual gauge and/or standard gauge in 1905.  Most of the narrow gauge was abandoned by the late 1940's.    The Army purchased most of the branchline from SP in 1991, with the SP (now UP) providing service on the line as the US Army is now the only customer on the branch.  Many years ago there was a bunch of slides of SP cab forward locomotives running freight trains along the sh...