Hanging Out at the Yard

There was a time when it was much easier to visit a railway yard. No fences, and no signs warning against trespassing.

Back in the late 1960s, when I was a kid, I remember going to the CN yard in Merritton, Ont. and even getting a ride on the locomotives and caboose with a crew.

(I also hitched a ride up in the operator’s cabin on the lift bridge over the Welland Canal at Glendale Road with the kindly operator. It was a different era back then.)

Those kinds of experiences and invitations are unavailable today, disappeared into concerns about safety and post 9/11 fears.

Which is understandable, but too bad for railfans, who only want to admire things closer up.

Fortunately, I’m close friends with the crew that looks after the locomotive facility on the Manitoba & Minnesota Sub., so I can come and go as I please—as these photos attest. They even let me fly my drone overhead as much as I want!