Profile Page for Stephen C. Host


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About Stephen C. Host


I've been into photography since 2001 - but like many others grew up interested in all things railway from an early age. I reside in Guelph, Ontario, Canada and currently use two cameras: Nikon D800, and a Nikon D90 (Backup or videos only). Prior Nikon cameras include D60, D70 and D100, and a F65 for when I dabbled in Film (Kodachrome/Fuji Velvia and Provia). Lenses used tend to be either 70-200 F/2.8, 50mm/1.8, or 16-35 F4 (Until 2016) and a 18-35 F/4-5.6 (2016+). I acquired a 80-400 Nikkor which I've been playing with and after some trial and error and a free repair by Nikon it is producing nice sharp results. Professionally - I am an Engineer (P. Eng. - Computer) for a large automotive concern. I also freelance as a photographer with the Canadian Press and their affiliates (AP/etc.) since 2009.

Stephen C. Host's Railpictures.ca photo upload statistics


Number of images: 974
Total gold: 8928
Number of comments recieved : 3008
Number of comments posted : 4711
Total views: 1179410


Stephen C. Host has the #3 all time image on railpictures.ca!
Stephen C. Host has the #22 all time image on railpictures.ca!
* Note: Placement on the Top all time image list is subject to change. Taken from the 'Top Shots' page measured by number of favourites


Stephen C. Host has won Editors Choice 1 time




Stephen C. Host has 4 images in the Time Machine


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Stephen C. Host's 974 photos on Railpictures.ca:


A weekend extra local out of Wolverton or Hagey (I'm not sure which) is working Canwell Building Materials off Dumfries Rd in North Dumfries Ontario. The train has loaded autos out of Hagey Yard and had a single centrebeam to set off here. I've never seen a train work this spur over the last 15 years being in the area but it does get cars - just have to be there at the right time.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 6/2/2019
Location: Orrs Lake
Province: Ontario
4 Comments | 10 Favourites
<b>Streetcars return to service on King St after 73 years</b> on the first official day of the ION LRT Network. Passing the iconic Kaufman building, streetcars last operated in passenger service on December 27 1946 when the Kitchener-Waterloo Railways system was shut down due to an ice storm. This event prematurely ended service on the line which was planned to end December 31 of 1946 and be replaced with Trolly Busses. It was a long time coming for ION and the transformation of Kitchener and Waterloo because of it is already staggering. If you told me 15 years ago weed would be legal and streetcars would roam the streets of K-W I'd tell you you've been smoking too much reefer. Ultimately, now that it's here my only thought now is as follows: Hamilton - what are you waiting for? And Congrats to Waterloo Region for making it possible.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Transit
Date: 06/21/2019
Location: Kitchener
Province: Ontario
11 Comments | 9 Favourites
A pair of BC Rail (One in CN paint) Cowls on 331 passing the diminutive VIA station in Wyoming Ontario. Sarnia area isn't the best for photography but there are a few props in some towns between London and Sarnia.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: BC Rail
Date: 06/15/2019
Location: Wyoming
Province: Ontario
8 Comments | 12 Favourites
UP 4614, and UP 9241 rest in St. Thomas in better times, the building in the background, used for both NS and CN crews is now abandoned and boarded up, the sign long gone. As usual I wanted a pair of NS units.. but kept rolling UP. I don't mind this photo now.. both of these are probably endangered or gone now.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Union Pacific
Date: 12/23/2006
Location: St. Thomas
Province: Ontario
9 Comments | 11 Favourites
An odd scene as 6259 turns on the wye to bring a rail train east (was facing west). 9084 is the fire code for the CPR station/crew office at Guelph Junction that was built to replace the Guelph Junction station.Thank goodness those concrete barriers didn't go any further.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 09/12/2018
Location: Campbellville
Province: Ontario
3 Comments | 7 Favourites
Come on, there's nothing wrong with the former Raillink scheme.. give 1400 a lil' love. Soon it might get paint! Then we'll have three, but back in October, I was hoping for a matched pair but 6508 was taken out due to finding too much tin in the oil tests. After further work and re-testing, it was a false positive.... but can you really be dissapointed with a pair of F units hauling freight? Nope.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Ontario Southland
Date: 10/4/2018
Location: Ingersoll
Province: Ontario
5 Comments | 9 Favourites
O998 is in the hole at Pine Orchard waiting for a northbound to pass, and while sitting there the sun briefly comes out to the delight of a couple photographers. If this happens again buy a lottery ticket, this was worth every ounce of the chase with RP.CA contributor <a href=http://railpictures.ca/author/Ironhead target=_blank>Cityslicker</a>.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Algoma Central
Date: 04/24/2016
Location: King
Province: Ontario
3 Comments | 7 Favourites
In response to Dan's photo of #90 in better days, these were Dark days for Stelco - the recession is in full swing, blast furnaces are (almost) shut down permanently and nothing was really moving at the plant, just chemicals for coke making. You can see US steel is keeping the workers busy painting buildings that ugly sky blue... god.. and on March 20 2011 I chanced on #90 switching these tanks.. from a distance - using a telephoto plus a crop D90 at 300mm equivalent. Best I have. At least I managed all 3 active Hamilton units on the roster, but I was hoping to do better with #90 some day. Maybe it'll come back or they may opt to transfer a unit from Nanticoke some day if Hamilton picks up again. Big if.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Industrial
Date: 3/20/2011
Location: Hamilton
Province: Ontario
Comments | 10 Favourites
Protecting the approach to Puslinch siding, these signals were installed in the 1940's to aid in the war effort, and were removed by 2016. Refurbished only 3 years prior, CP 6228 former SOO 6028 splits these sentinels as they speed down the Galt mainline. The stretch between Puslinch and Killean is particularly well known to be a bit of a racetrack.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 04/25/2015
Location: Puslinch
Province: Ontario
2 Comments | 12 Favourites
FPON era: I shot this train at Wyoming at Noon with bnsf 4159/bnsf 4786/bnsf 6877 and 3 hours and change later it's worked Sarnia, set off BNSF 6877 and lifted BNSF 6334. As it passes the station a yard geep/slug set passes by making for a perfect shot. These were <a href=https://groups.io/g/FPON/message/2528?p=,,,20,0,0,0::Created,,bnsf+4159,20,2,0,15466455 target=_blank>the days (click to see)</a> folks... and to see how good they REALLY check out this OS by Rob Eull <a href=https://groups.io/g/FPON/message/2527?p=,,,20,0,0,0::Created,,bnsf+4159,20,2,0,15466453 target=_blank>here</a> where he saw 30 trains in 10 hours - 3 per hour in *daylight* at Bayview. Membership with groups.io required to see links - highly recommended.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: BNSF
Date: 11/18/2006
Location: Sarnia
Province: Ontario
Comments | 11 Favourites
Alas, "The Berm" aka CN Snake - a great spot for photos after 9 AM and before 11 AM but sadly overrun with Ticks - really do NOT recommend anyone visit this spot, it's so badly infested I wouldn't even try it anymore. Lemonville rd is much safer for now. Here's train 710? (trying to hearken back 5 years) a typical oil train with buffer and cans passing a nice summer scene in Burlington with two '8-s in the lead.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 06/26/2014
Location: Burlington
Province: Ontario
3 Comments | 8 Favourites
I'm certain this very rail train ran up the Branchlines north of here to rip them out a few decades ago. Perhaps even ran the Fergus sub to rip it out in the 80's! Here, it's back, and it's actually putting rail back on a Branchline - W968 ran to Guelph to drop rail on the Guelph N spur, who would have thought? Also, this leader CN 4138 was a regular in the CN Kitchener terminal in the 1990's and.. it's back. Two for two for CN. The last rail train that visited this area was in 2005 to add welded rail between what's now Hanlon, and Kitchener, previously it was jointed rail.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 05/23/2019
Location: Guelph
Province: Ontario
7 Comments | 14 Favourites
Here's a shot of Trillium switching WP Warehousing with a little smoke from the 251 powered S-13 #108 back in 2016.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Trillium Railway
Date: 05/18/2016
Location: St. Catharines
Province: Ontario
3 Comments | 15 Favourites
CN may have some really ugly units. We've seen a few posts of them - and feel free to post your findings. But let's be brutally honest - CN has the best roster of any Class 1 in North America right now. Period. Despite implementing (and Pioneering) PSR on a Class 1 we still have a lot of good stuff in both the six axle and four axle worlds. Generations of power. Some of it is also really UGLY. I don't like ugly stuff, I never have.. but I enjoy what is here and shoot things as they lie (Like in Golf).<br><br> So what's this then? CN 4726. It's a Zebra. It's Noodle. Zoodle perhaps? Really needs a lick of paint is all I know but for now, it wears both schemes. <br><br> Discussion for the locals - this was parked in Guelph on 542.. which is happening regularly now - they didn't make it to Cambridge three times this week and parked in Guelph! Also 542 is going to nights starting this weekend I'm told. Get your shots.. oops, too late, it's a night train now. We'll see how long that lasts.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 04/17/2019
Location: Guelph
Province: Ontario
4 Comments | 12 Favourites
I alluded to CN completely re-decking this bridge not long after takeover in <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=37043 target=_blank>This photo</a> and this may demonstrate why it was done. In this photo, Wooden timbers groan and creak as a loaded GEXR southbound crosses the speed river. Look at how many of the members are higher than others - there was quite the amount of deflection as the train crossed and led me to take notice with a telephoto close up. The outside rails all dated to 1902 G.T.R Barrow Steel 80 lb and the inside guard rails as old as 1870's - inside rails all gone now when bridge re-decked - according to local sources the first re-decking since 1959. Rumours that new rail is coming to the spurs in the not too distant future..
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Goderich-Exeter
Date: 11/29/2016
Location: Hespeler
Province: Ontario
1 Comments | 5 Favourites
Around Goderich, the locals tell tales of a dark monster that appears in the worst of winter, most famously at Wards Cut. They also say it lives off of, and devours snow, only appearing when drifting is over 10 feet high. I bear photographic evidence of the dark monster above: roaring past an unprotected crossing, appearing out of a sea of snow like a whale breaching the surface, hungry to dive into the next drift just behind me where the monster disappears again.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Goderich-Exeter
Date: 1/11/2015
Location: Near Goderich
Province: Ontario
4 Comments | 12 Favourites
A nice pair of SD40-2w's framed in the CNR Ingersoll station. Is this thing still standing?<br><br> In the good 'ol days, lots of EMD power on many trains and this was no surprise, just a regular run of the mill train that I was in the hood for , probably a single train or two before I kept going to Sarnia for an in-laws visit.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 05/23/2007
Location: Ingersoll
Province: Ontario
2 Comments | 13 Favourites
A typical shot at Hamilton West with an a-typical train. Turns out this was the CN 100 train en-route to Montreal and Quebec along with the usual intermodal cars found on 148. At least the weather turned out nice, but I have mixed feelings about this 'celebration' - certainly feels like it's done on a shoestring budget.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 5/5/2019
Location: Hamilton
Province: Ontario
7 Comments | 15 Favourites
Orange daylilies match the G&W livery as GEXR 582 heads for home crossing the Speed River at Hespeler on a warm, humid summer day. The mother/slug set was assigned to the train for a while during this time period. Really enjoyed the flared radiators of the 3806.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Goderich-Exeter
Date: 07/11/2017
Location: Hespeler
Province: Ontario
6 Comments | 19 Favourites
Tracks everywhere - where I'm standing I'm surrounded by railways you almost think you can't go wrong in Hamilton, but once you dig the locals in this part of town a bit deeper you realise it's not exactly the best place to be for any extended period of time. So explain why I keep going back? Along the former TH&B Belt line, for an industrial Branchline it's kind of neat - how many spurs that weren't part of a mainline have telegraph lines like this one does? Rounding Dofasco's Operating Services building the boys are heading back to Kinnear with their switching work completed in North Hamilton. A nice Kodachrome sky, a light dusting of snow to cover Hamilton's grime and low winter sun to complete the scene. <br><br>p.S - what's that thing to the right facing the tracks? Any relevance to railways?
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 3/9/2019
Location: Hamilton
Province: Ontario
6 Comments | 9 Favourites
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