Hi all from Vancouver

[AnotherCanuck]

My old comp is acting up (video card) so all I can do is surf until i save my $ for a fix.
I've been a fan of RRT since day one and returned to it a year or so ago. I found this site
awhile ago and love the map section; so much work by all !!
I just read Hawk's notes about growing up by the tracks and it brought back some
memories that I had almost forgotten.
I was about 4 or 5 when my mom rented a small house next to the CNR mainline in a
small town in Saskatchewan. She was a schoolteacher and my dad was overseas during
WW2. We had the big transcontinental steamers then. We lived about 100 yards from the
large switchyard and I remember the huge icehouse when we would go on a hot summer day
to cool off. No electric refrigerator cars then ! On cold winter nite you could hear the
steam whistles at crossings 10 miles away !
It is hard to believe the changes in 60 years. The CNR now runs to the Pacific coast, the Atlantic,
the Arctic (at Churchill on the Hudson's Bay) to Alaska, to Slave Lake in the NWT and to the
Gulf of Mexico at Mobile and New Orleans.
Anyway - good to see that so many all over the world love and remember the trains
and how important they still are.

[BikerTim]

Glad to have you on board. I currently reside in Texas, but lived in Portland, OR for nine years. Made it up to Vancouver, BC a few times. Beautiful city. I would sure like to visit again.

Your writing about growing up near a railroad reminded me of when I was growing up. I liked to visit my grandparents who lived in a little town called Fairmont, Nebraska. It is right on the main line of the Burlington Railroad (now Burlington Northern). At nights, which were almost always very quiet there, I used to lie awake and listen for the sound of a distant train whistle, echoing across the prairie. I would keep listening as the whistle drew closer. Then the train would roar through town. Afterward, I could still hear the train whistle for miles afterward. It was always an experience that I enjoyed immensely, and would like to do it again. But I have not been to Fairmont since ten years ago, when my grandmother died.

[proudcanadian]

Aboard! Glad to have another fellow Canadian here! Enjoy the site!

[Hawk]

Howdy Canuck - Welcome aboard. Glad you enjoyed my mini-auto biography.

Make yourself at home. Feel free to ask questions and make comments. We're all a bunch of friendly folk here.

[nedfumpkin]

Welcome aboard. My early train memories are connected to the old CN commute trains that used to run from Lake of Two Mountains to downtown Montreal. I'm working on making an electric locomotive based on that era, with matching coaches. So you can expect to see a ton of Canadian mods for RT3 over time.

[Gandar]

You will enjoy this forum and site that's for sure, Hawk seems to have The Definitive RRT Site, when I joined a year or so ago I spent many happy hours reading all the old posts, Hawks bio, the picture gallery all good stuff, in fact I spent more time reading than I did playing, add to that all of the new scenarios and mods and it looks like we could be playing this game for a few more years yet.
Our fellow Canuck from across the bay is even making a new game out of it so who knows you may be building a bridge to Victoria in Trainmaster soon.

[AnotherCanuck]

Thanks for all the kind words :)
The politicos have been talking about a real bridge to the Island for years. It was supposed to go
from the Sunshine coast to Cambpell River. However I kind of like the ferries for a different kind of experience.
I also loved to take the Royal Hudson from North Van to Squamish. Too bad they had to mothball that beautiful old
train.