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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 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 recently acquired a 80-400 Nikon which I've been playing with with some results I'm happy with, but the jury is out if I am OK with the image quality :) 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: 719
Total gold: 5238
Number of comments recieved : 1828
Number of comments posted : 3105
Total views: 710508


Stephen C. Host has the #3 all time image on railpictures.ca!
Stephen C. Host has the #23 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 2 images in the Time Machine


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Stephen C. Host's 719 photos on Railpictures.ca:


I was a very spoiled Railfan in the early 2000's. Little did I know how good I had it. SD40-2's were on just about every other train, the GEVO invasion wasn't on the radar - EMD's were everywhere. We had annual visits from the Royal Canadian Pacific and/or CPR 2816, heck 2816 was in Toronto just one week later on June 12 2004 and I went for a ride from Aberdeen to Welland. However, the one thing I didn't have much of was photography skill. Most good photos I managed to take in this timeframe was mostly beginners luck. I had yet to find my footings, and while I knew what looked good, I just lacked the experience to find a great photo location and compose it properly. But sometimes, just sometimes I managed something good. This photo is surprising for many reasons, that I chose to shoot RAW - which meant I KNEW it was good - that I composed it without any weeds or other obstructions, and that it is in fact located in Guelph - what you see is the dolostone cap of an ancient seabed - in essence it's the same formation you'd find in the Niagara Escarpment but in an unusual location. With OSR Employee Brad Jolliffe piloting a CPR Crew, a dozen of us are standing on the ground, everyone except for me a patron of the train that day - for when the train backed up to pick up their passengers, I was the sole photographer left standing, no other local railfans were present, to my amazement. If this happened today... could you imagine the crowd? We were all spolied back then and I think this tells the story to why.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 06/06/2004
Location: Guelph
Province: Ontario
4 Comments | 18 Favourites
Kind of replicating <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=25441 target=_blank> Arnold Mooney's shot </a> but from the other side, here's GEXR 582 passing the Shakespeare Mills Inc. site with about 20 cars from the CP Interchange at Kitchener for Stratford. As of this date (the 4th) Kitchener Swing job 518 is abolished and 582 now handles these duties ex Kitchener using the Kitchener power set.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Goderich-Exeter
Date: 03/04/2017
Location: Shakespeare
Province: Ontario
8 Comments | 14 Favourites
Whoosh! A puff of exhaust and the groan of a baby 8 cylinder EMD 567 signals the Stelco beltpack operator's desire for a bit more speed. This engine has lived it's entire life within this compound, delivered new in 1964 from GMDD London. I decided to try something a little different, shooting at 1/40 to try and get some motion in the shot, 10 frames, only 1 turned out and that's all you need, right? SOR would lift these three coil cars produced by the "Z" Galvanizing line later that evening. It's nice to see activity at Stelco again as it's been a couple years since I've personally seen anything move in there.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Industrial
Date: 03/01/2017
Location: Hamilton
Province: Ontario
Comments | 13 Favourites
Having known this was coming ex Sarnia - I took a couple hours off work and found the best place I could think of to shoot this. I call this a juxtoposition - The Varnish of the Canadian National Railway passing the derelict Ingersoll station. Thanks to an overcast morning you can clearly see details in the sadly neglected structure including where the semaphores used to be located. There were efforts to preserve this structure about 10 years ago but it could not be done - too close to the bridge at the end of the driveway to safely turn it - without having to move it over the CNR mainline (and I suppose that's just not going to happen - railways don't like shutdowns anymore!). Given how much time has passed and how further neglected this structure is (the roof looks like it's made of paper now) any hope it had now rests in fate's hands. The fact it's still standing for this photo, let alone any in 2017 is nothing short of a miracle.<br><br> This train , being passenger, ran at Passenger speeds. Chasing was not an option. I just went to work after this photo, as much as I'd love to have shot it again. I seem to recall they re-crewed on the Halton sub somewhere and made it to Montreal arriving around Noon. This photo was taken not long after #70 had detrained passengers at Ingersoll.
Name: Stephen Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 05/13/2015
Location: Ingersoll
Province: Ontario
1 Comments | 10 Favourites
Here's an angle you can't do when it's sunny - well, not gracefully. A CN Remote control job is reversing down the Farm Track to work Imperial Oil and VIP's Sarnia yard - in the background is the sprawling Imperial Oil Refinery. Interesting to see a 4100 series GP9 in remote control service.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 02/11/2017
Location: Sarnia
Province: Ontario
5 Comments | 5 Favourites
And I don't always shoot electric traction - but here's one from the "I can't believe it's still here" department. Articulated LRV 4214 exits the Roncesvalles Carhouse (Built 1921) for the 301 Long Branch - the 312 and 516 will also exit within minutes in a constant parade of 'on borrowed time' LRV's typical of the Toronto Transit Commission's streetcar network. I'm not a huge fan of the TTC, or really transit in general unless it has freight motors, but the Sunnyside pedestrian bridge is just behind me and full of grimy and dirty diesel action :) Shoot it while you can, it's on borrowed time, including the Sunnyside bridge - soon the Oakville Sub is to be electrified and any photo angles you thought you had will be gone.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Toronto Transit Co…
Date: 02/18/2017
Location: Toronto
Province: Ontario
5 Comments | 7 Favourites
As winter quickly melts away, VIA Rail's flagship train "The Canadian" is only two hours from Toronto after a long three day journey from Vancouver. I'm lucky that the short winter trains fit entirely in the frame. Good luck in the summer!
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: VIA Rail
Date: 02/18/2017
Location: Mount Albert
Province: Ontario
7 Comments | 17 Favourites
In response to <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=28249 target=_blank>Dave Burroughs 1968 Photo </a> photo at the same location, which I promised to dig out. While not quite exactly in composition (won't make the Time Machine I don't think!) here's a matching pair of engines waiting for a crew to pull the train to Toronto in 2012. Now, the white SOO units are about to be eliminated as they are being sent for rebuild just like the rest of the CP 6200's in 2017. Further, using the Cemetary for a crew change is now the exception - used to be a daily occurence for the TH&B crews to change off.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 02/19/2012
Location: Hamilton
Province: Ontario
Comments | 10 Favourites
The melodic sound of a trio of turbocharged 645's... in notch 8 with 86 cars on the drawbar , cutting through a winter fog - priceless. General Electric? What's that? <br><br><b>BONUS Audio clip</b> of what you see pictured above. You could hear it coming for miles.</b> <a href=http://steve.hostovsky.com/431_edited.mp3 target=_blank>Click here for Audio - 2 minutes 3 seconds long. Warning: LOUD - at the 45 second mark. </a>
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Goderich-Exeter
Date: 01/21/2017
Location: Mosborough
Province: Ontario
Comments | 10 Favourites
Winter's been disappointing here in Southern Ontario - so I have to pull photos from past winters to show some action. Here's an eastbound at Sarnia passing under the westbound signal bridge protecting the tunnel. Show your winter shots folks! Let's remind mother nature it's snow, not rain that we want :)
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 02/22/2015
Location: Sarnia
Province: Ontario
1 Comments | 18 Favourites
In the shadow of many photographers, such as Arnold Mooney who seems to have been Dundas's #1 photographer in the 1970's - The dundas peak has been drawing photographers for many decades. There would have been a station smack dab in the middle of my shot.. too bad. At least I had a foreign leader to soothe my wounds, and the scenery is just fantastic.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: BNSF
Date: 07/01/2007
Location: Dundas
Province: Ontario
4 Comments | 13 Favourites
CSX Train D724 is seen working the huge (Words do not describe the size of this complex) W.G. Thompson and Sons elevator at Blenheim, Ontario on the former St. Thomas to Walkerville east/west mainline of the C&O. A nice feature of the Sarnia and Blenheim subs are concrete whistle posts and mile markers - they date to the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway, possibly even earlier. (And of interest, the LE&DRR Still owns the land and leases the rest of the line to CSX to this day). D724 was a Chatham -> Blenheim -> Sarnia turn two days a week (Tues/Thurs) and a Sarnia -> Sombra turn Mon/Wed/Fri. D724 still runs occasionally to Sombra, but Blenheim track is now under CN ownership with sporadic service at best from CN 511 based in Chatham. <br><br>And in the usual custom, I'd like to take you into the Wallaceburg RTC office with a track release as D724, Southbound for Blenheim, releases Chatham yard limits to the RTC and is given the OK to enter rule 105 at Blenheim 8 miles south.<a href=http://steve.hostovsky.com/2613_blenheim.mp3>Click here - 750kb mp3</a>
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: CSX Transportation
Date: 03/15/2005
Location: Blenheim
Province: Ontario
5 Comments | 9 Favourites
For generations there has been two constants at the Kitchener Station - the Krug furniture factory and a railway. The motive power continues to change, witness this reflection of SLA 3806 in nice, flared GP40X body with a matching paint calf 806. US and Canadian flags flapping in the background in a factory under significant pressure to turn into Condos, especially once the LRT Is up and running a block away. And snake, no, I did not use a case of water to create this pond :)
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: St. Lawrence and A…
Date: 12/11/2016
Location: Kitchener
Province: Ontario
5 Comments | 15 Favourites
Dave Young would remember this day - he was a young man at this point and I took him on an outing to the Ingersoll area on a beautiful day. The trip was to shoot NS 327/8, of course, but this train turned out to be a highlight that I only recognised years later. A pair of GP40-2W's leading on CN's Flagship Chicago-Toronto intermodal train? Seriously? Is this the 1980's?? Only the ratty paint gives away their age. Clearly this was an exception in the mid 2000's and now... forget about it.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian National
Date: 04/29/2006
Location: Beachville
Province: Ontario
9 Comments | 13 Favourites
While Trillium is waiting delivery of GMTX 223, I thought it was high time to see the Alco's in action while it's still a guarantee- this time getting lucky as I'd never shot 1859 before, not even on STER. In this photo the crew had just lifted 7 cars out of the yard by Riverland Agriculture (Robin Hood Flour) to deliver to Ingredion just up the line. With a bit of a grade and curve, 1859 is getting a good workout - a great spot for a bit of action on a mostly flat railway (except the Thorold grade, which will wait for another day!).
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Trillium Railway
Date: 12/30/2016
Location: Port Colborne
Province: Ontario
16 Comments | 19 Favourites
Even locals can yield surprises.. witness L559 seen with a strange leader for a local 'round these parts, GTW 4906. With the large Owens-Illinois plant in the background, and the familiar Brampton Apartment buildings I stared at from my Grandmas house for 32 years until she moved closer to Downtown, this is the Brampton (Bramalea!) I grew up to know.<br><br>L559 is seen here on the Glass Lead" with boxcars for Zochem. Normally you'd stick around with something like this, but I had <a href=http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=20690 target=_blank>Other plans on the Orangeville-Brampton Railway</a>
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Grand Trunk Wester…
Date: 02/15/2014
Location: Brampton
Province: Ontario
Comments | 11 Favourites
The railways in Tillsonburg seems to be defined by the bridges that cross the Big Otter Creek and the namesake valley. The St. Thomas and Eastern quit operating in 2013 mostly on account of the three large bridges in the area. But it's 2016, CN has decided to fix the Cayuga sub bridges, and it would seem that OSR is imminently to stop operating over their bridge in Tillsonburg in favour of going the other way around via St. Thomas. While this is good news as OSR re-activates a rail line from St. Thomas to Tillsonburg (and to Courtland) the CPR bridge in Tillsonburg will soon cease to have trains - for now. I wouldn't say it's done for good, chances are OSR will fix it up in due time, but probably not for a while. Anything is possible, get your photos while you still can.<br><br> History indicates this structure was built around 1897 when the CPR built a 'loop line' to reach the CASO. For a year or two prior, the Tillsonburg, Lake Erie and Pacific railway used 3 miles of the GTR plus their station to access Tillsonburg. Corrections always appreciated and welcome. Merry Christmas everyone!
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Ontario Southland
Date: 02/25/2015
Location: Tillsonburg
Province: Ontario
1 Comments | 22 Favourites
<u><b>Title: Jingle (Brass) Bells:</u></b><br><b><i>Dashing through the snow, 1800 Horspower sleigh, O'er rails covered in snow, laughing all the way!<br>Lights on handrails glow, making spirits bright, O what fun to laugh and sing a Railway song tonight! (Refrain) Jingle Bells..</i></b><br><Br></b> On New Years Eve 2005, courtesy of the Ontario Southland Railway a special surprise occurred for fans in the area. Upon arrival at Woodstock, the London Pickup was tasked with lifting two OSR locomotives for Guelph Junction. Well, Mr. President of the Ontario Southland Railway was the hogger on this days pickup.... and to commemorate the holidays the MLW's were put on the head end :) With Christmas lights on the nose of RS-18 182 it could very well be the OSR Christmas Train - to the photographers trackside, and there were many, it was. Thanks Jeff and the OSR Crew for the memories! I hope some of you young kids who were too young to see this in person can enjoy these. I was fortunate to shoot this at Ayr, Galt and Puslinch so more to come in the future.<br><br>And from my family to everyone on this site - wishing you a Merry Christmas and looking forward to a prosperous, lucky, and sun filled new year. May your 2017 be filled with joy and happiness!
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Ontario Southland
Date: 12/31/2005
Location: Puslinch
Province: Ontario
6 Comments | 14 Favourites
Sunset for Sentinels: While a few people were out photographing OSR's first run on the rest of the Cayuga - I was blissfully unaware instead focused on my final photographs of some Searchlights that I had been planning for months. With limited time in my schedule to 'get out' a final warm and sunny afternoon, a weekend, and 3 hours of free time put me on the 401 to mile 76.2 hoping, praying, that the gods of CP might send me a westbound. Imagine my dismay when I arrive and hear the EOT frequency blaring, then the detector at mile 83.4 going off - bollocks. I missed a westbound, or so I figured. Train 147 usually ran at that time of day. Not to be dismayed, I remembered the words I supplicated to the CP gods and stayed put. Sure enough, some horns out Blandford way briefly jolted my senses alert, rats, only an eastbound - and darn, this meant I'd have no westbound train! With 10 minutes of light left, I was certain that any possibility of a train at Wolverton meeting this eastbound, and making it to the Sentinels at 76.2 were slim to none. But out in the distance I saw the silhouette of a single unit wonder with oil tanks.. could it be? An oil train? They often have DPU... On cue, I set up my shot, just as the moon started rising on the horizon and watched as many dozens of black DOT111a's blast by me. Among the metallic squeals and bass of the empty tank cars I could hear the growing whine of an accelerating AC4400. As the tail end DPU passed my scene I snapped a few carefully planned frames to try and get as much as I could of this moment. It will be my last - OSR can wait.<br><br>The epilogue of this is PNR is rapidly replacing the signals all along the Galt sub and so far, all Searchlights are now replaced up to Coakley on the Galt sub, with exception to the '08 installs at Wolverton. Who knows how long the last few west of Coakley will last, it won't be long.
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Canadian Pacific
Date: 11/12/2016
Location: Blandford-Blenheim
Province: Ontario
6 Comments | 13 Favourites
And the reason I kept going back to Allanburg - this General Railway Signal (GRS) installation likely dates to the 1940's - little lights are lined up with all lettering as if they would light up the night sky when a train was approaching, let alone the now standard flashers. Sadly, the crossing protection is non operable and is essentially glorified - with a whole lot of class - crossbucks. But damn, there just isn't much of these around anymore. Resolute Forest Products 1305 is shoving a single boxcar into their 110 year old Allanburg paper plant. Any information as to dating this signal install is highly appreciated, as well, I hope the Niagara Railway Museum (<a href=http://www.nfrm.ca target=_blank> http://www.nfrm.ca</a> - Support your local museums folks!) has their eyes on these..
Name: Stephen C. Host
Railway: Trillium Railway
Date: 12/14/2016
Location: Allanburg
Province: Ontario
5 Comments | 20 Favourites
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