2014 in Review

In this post I'm going to review 2014 using my blog posts as reference.

2014 started off on a very bad note with Jay Underwood's passing. He is missed.

There was a lot of uncertainty about the northern New Brunswick rail route. There was talk of detouring the Ocean but fortunately the provincial and federal governments came through and saved the route. VIA Rail ran a few extra (stainless!) trains over the Christmas holidays and there are rumours flying around about changes to come with the Ocean and possible new routes. We shall see.

I tracked the sale of the MMA and its rebirth as the Central Maine and Quebec Railway. The new railway has been pretty quiet.

You probably noticed that I wasn't blogging much in the first nine months or so of 2014. I find I have a finite amount of writing energy and for much of 2014 I spent that on Google+. In the fall I came back to the blog and began blogging more frequently.

I took a few trips in 2014 and documented them:

• Grand Forks, ND (most viewed post of 2014)
• Napa Valley, CA
• Prince George, BC
• Kamloops, BC
• Saint John, NB

There were a few derailments in 2014 that I reported on:

• CN, Plaster Rock, NB, January
• CN, St. Norbert, MB, April
• Hudson Bay Railway, June

Of course the biggest blogging topic for me was my Manitoba grain elevator project. I spent a lot of time driving around southern Manitoba photographing elevators.

I didn't get all of the elevators in 2014 but I have the majority of them, and I'll get the rest in 2015.

Here are some grain elevator posts to look for:

• Grain Elevators of the Letellier subdivision
• In Search of Grain Elevators part 1 and part 2
• A Wee Grain Elevator Trip
• A Grain Elevator Loop part 1 and part 2
• Grain Elevators of the Glenboro subdivision
• Elevators and Trains on the Bredenbury Sub
• Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip (up to 7 parts so far!)

I was fortunate to be able to see both the CP Holiday Train (also the combined US-Canadian CP Holiday train) and the CN Christmas Train.

Oddly the CN Christmas Train video was my most-watched video of 2014, by far. I guess it was passed on to a few people.


I started www.ManitobaGrainElevators.ca and moved my model train blog to www.modeltraingeek.com and started blogging again there too. I sure hope I don't start a 4th blog...

What's in store for 2015? Well, more grain elevators, of course... a few business trips that might involve trains... and a summer vacation on the west coast. That's all I know so far! Thanks for being along for the ride, and I wish you all the best in 2015 and beyond.