A Geologist went on the Railway

Sometimes even non-railway stuff is interesting.  In February 2008 there was a forestry supplier convention at the Vancouver Convention Center.  Equipment dealers, suppliers and other companies and individuals associated with the industry descended on the Vancouver waterfront to display their wares. One of these companies was Coulson Aviation, based in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.  They supply helicopters and aircraft for firefighting and other forestry related work.  One of the coolest things they have in their fleet is the Martin Mars water bomber.  Coulson Aviation bought the last two of these aircraft in 2007, with the Hawaii Mars being the last operational aircraft.   It has nearly the wingspan of a 747 and is powered by 4 propeller engines.  It sounds like a B-17 when it is throttled up. It is awesome to see and hear in person.  In February 2008 Coulson had several demonstration flights of the plane in Vancouver harbour.  Larg...

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...

There are few better places to take in a sunset than at the beach in Mazatlan I visited Mazatlan Mexico on a couple of occasions, both for work and for a beach vacation.  Both times I managed to sneak down to the Ferromex shops and get access to the facility.  I even got to ride around with the hostler while he switched units around in the facility.   On my 1998 foray to the shops, one of the security guards was quite friendly, chatting with me and telling me what areas to avoid so I wouldn't get robbed.  Always good to heed local advice.  Another guard hassled me for a tip so he wouldn't arrest me.  I gave him 5 pesos to go away; he wasn't pleased that the gringo only had small amounts of cash.  Since I had permission from the Ferromex local manager he didn't press me for more.   On my second visit in 2000 myself and a coworker walked into the shops and wandered at our leisure with no questions from the security. The Ferromex workers we...