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2017 Wrap-Up

Photo by Mark Perry

This is my year-end post, as 2017 draws rapidly to a close. Get ready for some photos, lots of statistics, and some rambling. So, nothing out of the ordinary! ;)

The Big Picture

2017 was a good year for me. I started out with some actual plans (gasp). I did some of what was on the list... Ontario Southland, and some guest posts... I got a bit distracted on the grain elevator front by the renewed grainelevators.ca site.

I did some traveling... although by past years' standards, I didn't travel that much.

• North Dakota - by night
• Tiny Piney, Manitoba - my third most popular post of all time, with 49 comments to date!
• Kamloops, BC
• Italy... haven't blogged about that yet!
• Rivers, MB (with rainbows!)
• Southern Ontario - VIA 78 and the Ontario Southland
• Alberta and British Columbia for my 50th birthday (start here)
• Kitchener, ON
• Halifax, NS (haven't blogged about that either)

We had some foreign power in Winnipeg via BNSF detours (at night, too), plus a few oddballs like a Kansas City Southern unit and ex Warbonnet leased power on CN.

Warbonnet on CN!?

The Canada 150 celebrations gave us some VIA wraps as well as the CP Canada 150 train. CN ran a special caboose train for their employees, and CP had their annual Holiday Train.

The Statistics

Adobe Lightroom says I took a little over 15,000 photos and videos in 2017, which is a bit ridiculous. Keep in mind that my wife and I went to Italy in May-June which accounts for a bit over 4,000 photos.

Blog-wise, I posted 59 times on Confessions of a Train Geek, which is a new low. I think I'm posting longer and more detailed content, so I'm OK with that lower post count.

Only 6 posts at Confessions of a Model Train Geek... which reflects my level of model train activity. I just haven't been really into it. That's OK - it's a hobby.

I've been really pounding it out at my new site, Grain Elevators of Canada. 231 pages online so far and more to come! I have a few more contributors sending photos to me so more and more elevators will be coming online shortly. I've been so impressed by how many people have stepped up and freely offered their photos for sharing. Thank you.

I had a huge spike in traffic in April when I posted the Piney train station post. It went viral - maybe my first - and for a couple of days I had over a thousand pageviews a day. After that - back to the usual. My 40 Mile Railway post was well shared but not on the "Piney scale".

Socializing

I spend most of my social networking time on Facebook and Instagram, and occasionally Twitter. My Traingeek Images Facebook page has been growing pretty rapidly over the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure why but it's been getting a lot of "likes" such that I'm at 1064 page likes and growing by about 20-25 a week. That many likes and $2.36 will buy you an extra large coffee at Tim's.

On Instagram I cut back to posting 3 images/week, at the same time as I post on Facebook and Twitter. Here are my "best nine" for 2017 aka #2017bestnine.

104,102 likes, and $2.36, will buy that coffee at Tim's. I'm rolling in the "likes". Cha-ching!

What's With the Sarcasm?

I'm being a bit sarcastic about the number of "likes" because I don't really think they are worth worrying too much about. People will like what they like, and if they like my photos, great! You're here reading because you like my stuff, and thanks for that!

I try not to obsess about how many likes my photos and posts get, because I share photos and my words because I want to. I'm just glad some people see them.

Please don't think I don't appreciate you reading my posts. I do. I really do. I just don't get upset when I don't get "enough" likes.

Next Year

So what's on the agenda for next year?

I'd still like to go to Assiniboia, SK. I've planted the idea in my wife's ear and hopefully I'll get out there in the spring. Churchill seems "right out" since the rail line is still broken and may never get fixed.

I've had a few people ask me to write a Manitoba grain elevator book. I haven't the slightest idea how to get a book published but I think I will look into that.

We're going to Edmonton and Jasper this summer, so there will be railfanning! I've been to Edmonton but not to Jasper, so I look forward to more mountain trains.

I'll be posting more grain elevators on Grain Elevators of Canada. Hopefully I'll photograph some more myself!

I have some ideas on eBooks and so forth. Pretty soon I'll send a survey out on my mailing list so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks

Thanks to commenters Jenn, George, Eric, BW, Jason, Doug, Michael, Tom, Mike, 5879East, Rick, Chris, André, David, James, Jim, DaveM, Karl, Patrice, Richard, Taylor, GP9Rm4108, Bryan, Carol, AJ, _Don, Bill, Sheldon, Brad, Red River Rail, Harry, Jeff, Cornergas Craig, Andrew, Brian, wainair, RCP, Doonhamer, Alexandre, jonovision_man, Heinz, Dale, myhydro, DaveM, Lee, Dash 8, Mark, Rory, craigpei, Carolina Caboose Captain, Shane, shnorth123, and of course, Anonymous.

Here's to a great 2018!

You can see my 2014, 2015 or 2016 year in review.

PS: hey, why not join my mailing list and get a weekly email filled with photos?

My 2017 Plans

First train of 2017 for me

I went out yesterday afternoon (January 1) to get my first train(s) of 2017. As I drove up to the CN Rivers subdivision, I saw headlights to the east, indicating a westbound train. I turned west and headed toward Diamond and started planning my shot. Where did I want to photograph the train? What angle? What lens?

Planning is what we do at this time of year. It's natural to plan when you start a new year. Out with the old, in with the new. Here are my plans for 2017:

• Range farther afield
• Finish my Manitoba grain elevator project
• Write, write, write
• Help others

Range Farther Afield

I've become pretty comfortable with zipping out to the CN main lines east and west of my house. They're quick, easy, but I have to say.. not challenging.. and there is not much of a variety. I love the open prairie but there are a distinct lack of props / background details to be had near Winnipeg. It's time to push the envelope and go a little farther.

I have two areas in Canada that I plan on visiting in 2017, and a couple of other "hopefuls".

Assiniboia

Photo by Ken McCutcheon

The area around Assiniboia, Saskatchewan has fascinated me for a while. Saskatchewan is blessed with many short lines and the Great Western Railway works in the Assiniboia area. Ken McCutcheon and others have shared many photos from the area and I'd like to visit Assiniboia and photograph a few trains. Those MLWs and ex BNSF units are calling me... as are the grain elevators!

I'm looking at late spring to visit Assiniboia. It'll be a multi-day trip, as it is a good 7 hour drive from Winnipeg to Assiniboia... plus I'll want to stop along the way to photograph grain elevators...

Ontario Southland Railway

The Ontario Southland Railway (OSR) is a shortline railway operating in southern Ontario. It operates over several subdivisions but its main draw is the fascinating array of older locomotive power it has. The OSR has FP9s, it has SW1200s, it has RS18s, GP7s and GP9s... working in freight service, no less! I've enjoyed the photos that Greg McDonnell and Walter Pfefferle and others have shared and I want to take my own.

I hope to visit the OSR in the fall, maybe when I'm in the Toronto area for my son's graduation from university.

UPDATE: I did this one!

The Hopefuls

I would love to visit Churchill, Manitoba. I want to see the polar bears and ride VIA Rail through the remote areas of Manitoba. However, it is expensive to tour Churchill, in the order of several thousand dollars per person. That's definitely a lot more than a few tanks of gas and a hotel night or two to visit Assiniboia!

I'd also like to photograph some trains over the Uno trestle in western Manitoba. When I visited Beulah as part of finishing my Manitoba grain elevator project, I was only 10 minutes away from the trestle. I knew it was there but I didn't have time in my schedule to visit it, and I'd like to correct that.

Finish My Manitoba Grain Elevator Project

I set out in 2014 to photograph all of Manitoba's grain elevators, and in the summer of 2016 I finished the job. However, there's more work to be done.

I have to finish putting them all on the web site, and maybe consider writing a book or eBook.

That's my big project for the first half of this year... put every grain elevator online.

Then I can look at Saskatchewan and beyond! :)

Write, Write, Write

In 2016 I wrote a few articles for Branchline magazine - I loved doing that.

In 2017 I plan on writing a couple of articles for The Trackside Photographer - an excellent web site I recommend you check out.

I also intend to write another eBook or two. I have some topics in mind but I welcome your suggestions.

Of course, I'll be writing here and on Confessions of a Model Train Geek.

Help Others

I want to help others. In many ways, really, but in the context of this blog, I want to help people improve their photography, answer the questions they have about trains, and just provide a little rail-related entertainment.

I'm not claiming to be the one source of answers - far from it - but I've learned a thing or two, and I'd like to share it.

In 2017 I plan on publishing more photography "how to" posts (like this one), a series of posts on Instagram (SO many railfans on Instagram across the world), and more "5 minute railfan" type posts (like this one).

I'd also like to publish more guest posts. I really appreciated that Ken McCutcheon and Jack Hykaway and Taylor Woolston guested this year.

I Need Your Help

I don't want to write things that nobody wants. That won't help people.

So... please, leave a comment or email me at steve@traingeek.ca. What do YOU want me to write in 2017?

2016 Year in Review

It's that time of year - the time for looking back on the year that is ending, and looking forward to the new year. Time for navel gazing... (though why would anyone stare at their navel? Mine is rather unremarkable. I'll spare you photos)

ANYway, I digress. Let's talk about railfanning, writing, and blogging in 2016.

Railfanning in 2016

I have to say I wasn't railfanning as much in 2016 as I have in the past few years. The last few months of 2016 were particularly idle. I was super busy at work and didn't have a lot of time nor energy to spend chasing trains. It was good for the pocketbook but not for the photography.

That being said, I did get out for a few good trips:

• I did some mountain railfanning in the Banff area, which was super fun.
• I finished my Manitoba grain elevator project with a marathon 21 hour tour.
• I railfanned at Dorval, Quebec.. briefly
• I photographed some trains in the Saint John, NB area (including CN 406 twice)
• We vacationed on Newfoundland and I photographed many static displays
• I railfanned in the Lethbridge, Alberta area and saw its bridge and some stored cars nearby
• I even railfanned on PEI twice

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I went out twice with other people, which is unusual for this "lone wolf" railfan:

• With Michael Berry (3 part series)
• With Tom Sajnovic

Beyond that, I saw a few special trains this year:

• The elusive CN RDC, CN 1501
• The CN Family Day train
• The CP Holiday Day train
• I was even on the UP Express train, briefly

Writing in 2016

I was happy to write an eBook in 2016, Diesels on Prince Edward Island. It was something I wanted to do, and it was pretty well received. It's a lot of work to write a book... and mine was considerably shorter than, say, Eric Gagnon's VIA Rail book series.

Did you know that Eric's writing a new book? Find out more!

I also wrote three articles for Branchline magazine.

• My Stewart Southern article was published in the March-April 2016 issue (based on this series)
• My "Trains and Grain Elevators" article was published in the May-June 2016 issue
• My two-part New Brunswick East Coast Railway article was published in the November-December 2016 issue and the second part will likely be published in the Jan-Feb 2017 issue

These articles were almost as much work as writing the eBook! I never realized how much research went into each article. I have an even greater respect for authors than I used to have.

Blogging in 2016

I wrote 98 posts in 2016, including this one, which is pretty average for the past few years. Back in my more prolific years from 2007-2011 I would crank out over 300 posts/year, which was crazy. Keep in mind that back then, some of those posts were pretty short, on the order of "I updated this part of my web site", whereas most of my recent posts are much longer and take a lot more time to research and write. I like to think they are better, too.

I published eight "10 questions" posts this year. These are always popular and I enjoy doing them. I'd like to say I interviewed from A to Z but I only interviewed from Berry to Zulkoskey so I missed a letter!

Two posts in particular have received quite a bit more than the average number of views:

1. Canadian Model Train Store Directory, 3,326 views
2. 40 Mile Rail Starts Up, 3,172 views

I think the model train one got a lot of views because people are searching for that. The 40 Mile Rail post got a lot of attention because people were intrigued by a new shortline railway in Alberta, and my post was shared a fair bit on social media.

My least popular posts are the news posts like More on Winnipeg's Waverley Street Overpass which obviously don't appeal to a wide audience.

Off Topic Posts

I wrote a few posts that were a bit off the beaten path, as it were. I was inspired by the retirement of HMCS Iroquois to write about my ship geek days and I wrote a few more personal posts about jealousy and my lack of patience. I'll probably write some more of those in the new year. I know they aren't as interesting for the readers, but to paraphrase Lesley Gore, "it's my blog and I'll write what I want to." ;)

Summary

2016 was a busy year. It was a year of finishing projects like my Manitoba grain elevator project and my eBook. Railfanning-wise (is that a word?) it was a slow year.

I'm collecting my thoughts for my 2017 plans and I'll write about them shortly.

Thank You

Most of all, I'd like to thank you for reading and commenting and emailing. Your support has encouraged me to continue blogging as I have for the past 11.5 years. I'd especially like to thank fellow bloggers and frequent commenters Eric, Chris and Connie, Michael, John, Chris, Dave, David, BW, Karl, Jimbaux, Jason and Glen. You encourage, educate and inspire me.

Read More

• 2015 year in review
• 2014 year in review
• Favourites of 2011

See you in 2017!

2015 Year End Wrapup

Rocky Mountaineer in Kamloops, BC

Here we are at the end of 2015. I hope you had a great year. My 2015 was good, no complaints!

I travelled to a few places this year:

• Grand Forks, ND
• Kamloops, BC (6 part series)
• Lethbridge and area, AB
• Newfoundland (for the first time)
• Prince Edward Island
• Regina, SK (my Stewart Southern Railway series)
• Thompson, MB
• Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic
• Vancouver Island

I didn't blog about PEI or Newfoundland or Vancouver Island - yet. Shocking, I know!

McCreary, MB

I did another grain elevator loop, this time a bit further north in Manitoba. I finished writing about my southwest Manitoba elevator-hunting trip early in the year.

One very popular series I started was the 10 Questions series where I ask railfans, modellers, etc. 10 questions. I recently started this back up again and I have questions out to a few more people right now. If you have any suggestions on who you'd like to see answer the questions, please contact me.

Confessions of a Train Geek had more than 75,000 page views this year, with the most popular posts being Instagram for Railfans followed by my first impressions of Lightroom 6's facial recognition.

I took the advertising off the blog in May - not sure if you noticed - but I felt they were a distraction and it was only bringing in around $10/month anyway. I have not ruled out advertising, and if I bring it back I will talk about it in the blog.

Me in Salzburg, Austria

I wrote 102 posts this year, which is an increase over the 82 in 2014 and the 66 in 2013. I like to think I have been emphasizing quality over quantity in the past few years.

Outside of this blog, I've been writing at:

• Confessions of a Model Train Geek
• Manitoba Grain Elevators

I recently started another blog but I've only written a few posts to date and I'm not ready to make it public yet. Soon.

I published four train calendars this year as well as a Manitoba grain elevator calendar. If Santa didn't bring you a calendar, it's not too late to order your own now!

I'll write about what I plan to do in 2016 in the next few days. Expect more of the same, plus more! ;)

I hope you have a safe and happy new year, and thanks for reading!

The First Decade, in Statistics

We were vacationing on Vancouver Island when Confessions of a Train Geek turned 10. I totally missed it. I guess that's good, focusing on vacation instead of on my blog...

My first post was on July 9, 2005. As my wife just pointed out, we were on vacation then, too, returning from visiting Quebec and Montreal. I guess I made my first post in a hotel room in Edmundston, NB!

I celebrated post #2500 just two months ago and reminisced then, so it seems redundant to go over it again. Instead, I'll provide statistics! Whee!

I only have statistics from May 2010 to now in Blogger, so my statistics are really only for the last 5 years.

In the last 5 years, this blog had 851,460 page views. I'd like to double that to account for lifetime page views but I'm sure it was less than that in the first 5!

My most popular post by far is January 2015's Instagram for Railfans, with a distant second being a post about Thomas the Tank Engine coming to Canada in 2013.

Google and my own Traingeek.ca account for the majority of referrals, with Eric Gagnon's Trackside Treasure providing the top blog referrals. Google eclipses Bing and Yahoo! in referrals by more than 10 to 1! Let's not talk about AltaVista...

Several variants of "train" and "geek" are the top search terms, with "via derailment", "grain elevator", "winnipeg" and "CN train" rounding out the top 10.

Canada is obviously the top traffic source, but the US is not far behind; France, China and Germany fill out the top 5 countries visiting this blog. I honestly would have expected the UK to rank higher but it's #6 on the list.

Internet Explorer is the top browser, followed by Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. Mobile and search browsers follow. Recent stats show that IE has fallen way behind so I think the Internet Explorer hits were from a few years ago before the rise of Chrome.

This one is not a surprise - most visitors use Windows, with Mac users a distant second. However, if you look at the last month, mobile devices are used by a pretty significant percentage of my readers.

I have 1817 comments on my blog. The oldest is a comment on this post. Who knows - maybe Chris McMahon was my first reader! ;)

For those of you who read to the end, I salute you! Thanks for reading, as always.

Post #2500

It's hard to believe it, but this is my 2500th post here on Confessions of a Train Geek.

From my first post on July 9, 2005 to now, a lot of writing. I think this is the longest running train blog in the world. I could be wrong.

You can see from the number of posts per year in the list to the right that I used to post like crazy. It was only in 2012 that my pace slowed. I think that was coincident with my involvement with Google+ and writing there. I like to tell stories but I have a limited amount of time to write, and an apparently finite amount of stuff to write about, and G+ got the bulk of it.

I'm spread a bit thin between this blog, social networks, email and projects like my Chaleur video and the NB Southern eBook I'm working on. I don't think I'll ever get back to posting an average of once/day but I think I've settled into a decent pace. Like the inestimable Eric Gagnon over at Trackside Treasure, I'm aiming more for quality than quantity in my posting these days.

2002 volunteering for the Salem & Hillsborough RR

I don't know what your favourite blog posts have been, but here are a few of mine off the top of my head.

• Touring the VIA Rail Winnipeg Maintenance Centre
• The VIA Rail Veteran Train and War Brides Train
• The first chase I blogged, NBSR 2318 West in July 2005
• CN's detour through northern NB, May 2008

2006 in McAdam

It's been a good run so far.

I still have a lot to write about. What really keeps me going is seeing that people actually read this, and I love getting comments to show that people have read my post and spare a minute or two of their time to comment. I've been trying to comment on others' blogs for a while now, to show that they are being read and appreciated. Thank you for reading, and if you keep coming back, I'll keep writing.

May 2015, Kamloops

Greatest Hits, Volume One

I was poking around through the blog archives recently and found a few posts that you might not have seen, especially if you're a relatively new subscriber to my blog. Here's a list of "trip reports" / stories that I wrote that you might like. I've gone through them and fixed any broken links that I found.

• VIA Rail's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre (6 parts)
• Diesels on Prince Edward Island (6 parts)
• Ontar-eye-O (southern Ontario, July 2012, 4 parts)
• Chicago Sightings (May 2007, 2 parts)
• A Tight Fit (dimensional move on NBSR, May 2007, 2 parts)
• Steve and Dave's Excellent Gaspe Adventure (August 2007, 4 parts)
• Down to UP (Arizona, November 2009, 2 parts)

I hope you like them!

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.

The Mailing List

NBSR 9801 at Hoyt, NB 2007/08/04

As I mentioned in the results of the recent survey, many of you would like to subscribe to an email list to be notified of new posts for this blog, as well as occasional notifications of other content that I've uploaded.

The subscription page is here.

If you have trouble signing up that way, you can just email me directly at steve@theboykos.com and I will add you.

Please note that I will not be adding anyone to the list before they ask, even if you have corresponded with me in the past. That's against Canadian law and also just bad manners. The two ways you will get added to the list are if you subscribe yourself, or email me at the address above and ask to be added.

Thanks for subscribing! And please do not feel you must subscribe to the list.. it's totally optional. I may send out occasional content that is only available to list members but the majority of my work will continue to be public.

Survey Says

Anyone remember Richard Dawson and Family Feud? Anyone? crickets

Hey, thanks for filling out my survey. 44 people responded (wow!) and here are the results.

Question 1: How do you find out about my new blog posts?

This confirms what I had thought - most people just check in now and then.

Question 2: Would you be interested in signing up for an email list, where you would get an email for each new blog post, as well as another email once or twice a week featuring other content that I write?

There was definitely a split response here, and I totally get it. We get a lot of email as it is (you should see how much spam I am getting every day) and not everyone wants more email. Understood.

Question 3: Do you have any comments about my blog, or anything you'd like me to write about?

This was my favourite one to read. I really appreciate the responses you gave.

• Keep it up :)
• Love your blog Steve. Its great to see what is happening on the other side of the country in terms of railroading.
• I like your tips about photography and your articles on railroads.
• Really enjoy your trips out and about catching such a variety of equipment and especially love your shots of grain elevators. Thanks.
• Found out about your blog through someone i follow on twitter.. I'm based in the UK so its fantastic to get to see and read about CN, CP, VIA etc...keep up the good work! :)
• Keep the good stuff coming Steve. Love the trains and grain elevators, camera info etc....
• I love your blog! I really enjoy the topical posts - your blog is a good news site for casual rail observers, and it's a great window into your own personal railfan interests which I find quite interesting. It's also my main gateway to other rail blogs via your blogroll.
• Steve, always look forward to checking out your site. Always had a special fondness for the MLW diesel locos. Articles these units would be of interest to me
• Keep up with more comments pictures and postings about Canadian rail!
• I'd like more photography tips, otherwise you have a good thing going, keep it up!

Thanks, everyone! Thanks so much for taking the time to fill out this survey.

Expect a posting about an email list shortly!

A Wee Survey

If you have two minutes, would you mind filling out this brief survey? I'm exploring whether setting up an email list would be useful to my readers, and I'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks so much, and thanks for reading my blog!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

My Railfan Five Challenge

Eric Gagnon over at the excellent Trackside Treasure blog threw down the gauntlet and challenged myself and three other bloggers to share five photos from our railfan journeys.

Unlike Eric, I haven't been a railfan for most of my life. Eric said he started in early 1976. At that time I was living in Moscow, USSR and riding trains but paying no more attention to them than I would to a bus or a car.

It wasn't until late 1998 or early 1999 that I really became a railfan. It started after I visited the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad in New Brunswick. Something clicked and I started paying attention to trains.

ONE

The first photo I'm sharing with you was taken in what was then Chatham, NB and is now part of Miramichi. I was driving north to Belledune or Dalhousie when I spotted a pair of red locomotives across the river. I actually turned around and drove back to cross the river to see these engines - you could tell I was a railfan by that action. I was a bit confused because they looked like CP Rail engines to my new railfan eyes but I was 75% sure that CP didn't have any track in New Brunswick any more*.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this "NBEC Rail" thing. It was NBEC 1866 and NBEC 1867 working the Loggieville Subdivision, but I didn't know anything about them. This was the first railfan photo I ever took. I had a Minolta Maxxum 5000i film camera at the time and I'm surprised I actually had it with me.

* actually, CP still had a small section of track near Edmundston.

TWO

This one was taken in the fall of 2007. Until that time my railfan photos were usually roster photos, or generally unplanned photos taken whenever I saw a train. To me, this photo marks the start of when I began to intentionally seek out photogenic locations for trains. I credit David Morris for this. I went on a few railfan trips with him and he had a set of locations that he liked to use, and I could see why one would want to step away from the yards and photograph trains in a nice scene.

I took this photo with the intention of photographing the VIA Rail Ocean with fall colours. I went to this location at the west end of one of the Miramichi River bridges, hoping to get some foliage. I had never been to this location before but fortunately it delivered the goods.

(buy this print)

THREE

After my Minolta Maxxum broke (the mirror jammed, photographing an Ontario Northland engine in Saint John), I bought a Canon S3 and used it for several productive years. The VIA Rail photo was taken with that. I still have the S3 and use it for video now. It's not HD but it works.

In 2010 I decided it was time to move to an SLR. You may remember on my blog that I talked about my decision. In the end I went with a Canon T1i DSLR. The following photo is the first ralifan photo I took with that camera, unedited.

I was delighted with that camera, and I still am... although I'm hungry to get the Canon 7D Mark II. I'm going to have to save my pennies!

FOUR

I decided in 2012 that I should try to sell my photos online to make a few $$$ toward more camera purchases. The following, "Bridge Over Tranquil Waters", was my first sale, three packs of postcards for a decent amount of money.

Since then I have sold a few prints here and there, made a few commercial sales, and I look forward to more.

FIVE

This last one is just a favourite of mine. I like the Rocky Mountaineer and whenever I'm in Banff* I look for it. I first photographed the Rocky in 2010 and I managed to catch it again in 2013. This photograph was taken at Muleshoe between Banff and Lake Louise. I left Banff ahead of the train, intending to shoot it at this location, and got there about 5 minutes ahead of the train. After scrambling down a hill and firing off a few test shots to adjust for exposure, I was ready. The Rocky didn't disappoint.

(buy this print) (see the video)

* I say "whenever I'm in Banff" like I go there a lot. I think I've been there five times in my life, but we're on schedule to go back in 2016!

THE CHALLENGE

I'm going to challenge four other bloggers to come forth and share their own Railfan Five.

• Jim at Jimbaux's Journal
• Gene at Rusted Rail Images
• Michael at The Beachburg Sub
• Robert at Oil-Electric

Go have a look at their blogs! Thanks again to Eric for the challenge. I'll be donating to the Winnipeg Railway Museum.

Favourites of 2011

Here's the traditional year-end review that many blogs do.

I reviewed all 323 blog entries from 2011, looking for my favourite entries and photos.

Favourite Entries
This has to be a tie between the Coors Light train and my visit to VIA Rail's Winnipeg Maintenance Centre. Both were very fun to do and write about, and both had good response from you, Dear Reader.

For Coors Light, there was my post on the actual sighting, as well as the design of the wraps and sightings by other people (and more). I'm honestly surprised that both VIA 6408 and VIA 6445 still have the Coors Light decals on. I guess they will be refurbished last! The post about the Coors Light train itself (Number 1 With A Bullet) was my most read post ever.

I did a six-part series on the Winnipeg Maintenance Centre (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), including a tour of the F40PH-2,  as well as a glimpse of the Northern Spirit cars stored outside. That was so much fun to write!

Runners-up include my two-parter on the Prairie Dog Central steam engine (1, 2), the St. Stephen railway station, Evraz in Regina, a CN 111-CN 304 meet, and of course the CPR Holiday Train.

Favourite Photos

These are my favourites from 2011, in no particular order. Some many not be my technical best but I like them for sentimental reasons.
















Conclusion

It's been a great year for blogging... my fifth full calendar year of blogging. See you in 2012!

Random Statistics

Every now and then I like to check out the statistics on my web site and this blog. Here are some random things I notice:

• My blog gets 400-500 page views a day.
• My web site gets about 1300 visits/day with over 4000 page views/day. The blog is not included in that. Probably a lot of those are search engines. Googlebot alone was responsible for over 50,000 hits in October.
• I have no idea how many total page views this blog has had. Since May 2009 it has had over 200,000 page views. From May 2005 to May 2009 I hosted it myself, so the page views were not tracked by Blogger.
• My photo gallery passed half a million views a little while ago, and currently contains 2271 items in 121 albums.
• My blog got 724 hits from a Reddit posting (about CN 6534). You never know where the traffic is going to come from. For example, I had 42 hits from people searching for handlebar mustaches.
• I get substantial referrals from fellow bloggers like Eric at Trackside Treasure, Robert at Oil-Electric and Adam at The Walker Express.
• Blogger says I have 95 followers, which is awesome. Even creaky old Feedburner says I have 23 subscribers.

Truly I have no idea how many people actually read this, except to say I'm always surprised by who reads it. I appreciate you all. Thanks for reading.

Calgary Track Work

Jason Chamberlain took a series of detailed photos of track maintenance equipment, packaged them up with some great commentary, and posted them on his blog, Dust on the Tracks, East of the Rockies. He posts from the Calgary, Alberta area and his blog is definitely worth a read.

I'm on Twitter

I started a train-related Twitter account a few days ago to record quick sightings and such. In some ways it will duplicate this blog but there will be details in the Twitter feed that won't make it to the blog.

If you wish, you can follow me using the link to the right. I'm stevetraingeek. There is a "traingeek" on Twitter, but he's not me. He operates traingeek.com and, um, let's say he has a different lifestyle than I do. NTTAWWT (Seinfeld episode). More power to him.

Five Years of Blogging

Here we are, 5 years after my first post on July 9, 2005.

More than 1600 posts later, I still enjoy blogging and I intend to continue doing it for as long as I have fun at it. Having this blog has led to meeting some interesting people, seeing my photographs used for things like Operation Lifesaver and the Wall Street Journal, being interviewed by a few news organizations, and just sharing my experiences with the world.

It's a hobby to write this blog, and I'm honoured that you read it. Thank you.

Tag Cloud, Round 2

Last May, I used a service called Wordle to create a cloud of words that were found in my blog. I ran the same thing yesterday to get this cloud.

Clearly I have Canon and cameras on the mind!

Blog of Note

Hey, my blog made the Blog of Note for today. I'm honoured - thank you!

(read a history of Blogger's Blogs of Note)