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Everything is covered in ice, the trees are white, the Dover flour mill (Now owned by P&H) continues to churn out product, and to the left is the former Grand River Railway head office building, now preserved and used by an advertising agency. T72 has 51 cars in tow and the motive power growls as they have accelerated into high notch for the 2.5% grade. It was  9 years ago I last did this shot..  and one can see it's growing in and getting difficult!
Copyright Notice: This image ©Stephen C. Host all rights reserved.



Caption: Winter has briefly returned, with an overnight ice storm the trees are white and drooping with the added weight.

What's in this scene? Top right is the rather tall Dover flour mill (Now owned by P&H) continuing to churn out product, and a former Rail customer (the siding went between the left of the mill and the office at left) - that office is the former Grand River Railway head office building, now preserved and used by an advertising agency. I would imagine many 'fans who wanted to get permission to shoot the Preston Shops (which were to left out of sight) and all the GRR power and motors would have had to go into this building to get permission. (Anyone remember for sure?)

Back to the train - T72 has 51 cars in tow and the motive power growls as the crew accelerates the RPM for the 2.5% grade. I have done this scene before, back in 2007.. and one can see it's growing in and getting difficult to pull off!

Photographer:
Stephen C. Host [1496] (more) (contact)
Date: 03/25/2016 (search)
Railway: Canadian Pacific (search)
Reporting Marks: CP 3042 (search)
Train Symbol: T72-25 (search)
Subdivision/SNS: Preston, CPR Waterloo Subdivision (search)
City/Town: Preston (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 22796

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

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11 Comments
  1. Really nice, dude.

  2. Thank you Arnold.

  3. Nice angle, didn’t know it was possible.

  4. Me too, Marcus. I was wondering if he was slipping someone a twenty, and then getting to climb something.

  5. Uhm I just want to say…. it’s not easy to do, and if you have a fear of heights…..don’t attempt it.

    But I let the cat out of the bag by posting my shot from 2007 a number of years back. :) But trees grow and grow.. and grow.. :)

  6. Might be a tad easier with a drone! ;)

  7. Absolutely. But the image quality will be garbage by comparison to what I took – 36 megapixels, great glass, tack sharp.

    Drones also have nasty wide angle distortion that has to be corrected and inferior sensor capabilities.

    While it doesn’t matter for the Internet I don’t shoot for the Internet, I shoot the best quality I can get my hands on for stills.

  8. And this image is ultra sharp. Put me down for NOT being a fan of drones. Would never consider one.

  9. Arnold can appreciate this as he is a regular shooter of Medium Format – but I liken my camera to that of a Medium Format camera in a 35mm sensor – I can zoom in on the ice pack on the front porch of the lead locomotive and almost read the fine details on it. But I have the same restrictions as medium format (higher shutter speeds required to freeze everything)

  10. Hi Stephen, great photo location, and great picture ! Where you are standing shows up in my movies , b&w Kodak 116 pictures of motors beginning to grind up “Preston Hill”. There was no problem when the interurban cars were running, to stand on the Preston Station platform which offered a good view of the GRR Shops, no permission required. There was (still there ?) a small road crossing the GRR track at the north end of the Speed River trestle leading to a park from which you could walk toward the Shops. I never remember ever having to visit the GRR head office for permission to take photos. Usually a request to whichever shop employee was wandering around did the trick, at least into the early ‘60’s, always with a growl of “watch yourself and stay off the equipment “.

  11. Thank you John – the GRR has fascinated me for some time, how I wish i could have seen them under the Juice!

    The grade crossing is still there, all fenced in though on both sides of the ROW, and the 1908 Powerhouse still stands too. The former GRR HQ was for sale last September too but it’s in really nice shape.

    Hard to believe there were so many stations around.. you can hardly imagine a station alongside King St.

    Interestingly enough I tried to do this photo this year, it’s very grown in and I could not find a suitable brush free angle. Harder and harder.. I need to even higher and I don’t have a means to without getting permission from someone who lives in the apartment building :)

    (or a Drone, but I don’t care for Drones)

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