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Thanks to
the many people who took the time to take photographs along the
Canada Southern division of the New York Central over the years, we
can offer this large selection of photos taking us back in time when
the CASO was a vibrant fast paced railroad serving Southern Ontario.
Through the years, very little of the equipment was lettered for the
Canada Southern, instead, equipment was lettered for it's largest
shareholder of the day. The Michigan Central, then the New York
Central, which later on became Penn Central and finally passed onto Conrail.
The glory
years of this once great line definitely was under the New York
Central oval. However, the long slow decline started in 1960 when the
NYC started to divert freight traffic south of Lake Erie and
continued under Penn Central and Conrail control. Unfortunately for
many of us, the end was clearly in sight when the line was sold to
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific in 1985. We all knew that
neither railroad wanted it or even had any real intent on continued
usage, so it declined further into it's current state of near non-existence.
Now, in the
year 2011, there is little left in operation. 2001 saw the removal of
the last remaining branch from Comber to Leamington. At the end of
2001 saw the removal of the mainline through downtown Niagara Falls.
In 2003 CN removed the trackage from E&O to St.Thomas. Effective
March 28, 2006 at 23:59, the St. Thomas to Fargo section was
Embargoed and the rail has since been removed and it's possible most
of what remains may disappear as well. The line from Windsor to Fargo may
be seeing it's last year of service as CN has moved traffic to Via's
Chatham subdivision.
Last train may was on May
17th, 2011. The
Canada Southern is no longer one continuous line. Even
the
Niagara River bridge may come down in 2012.
Though
originally this site dealt with the Canada Southern only, it has
evolved into much more with tons of New York Central photos and
factual information. Connecting railroads such as the L&PS,
TH&B, PM/C&O/Chessie, Wabash, Essex Terminal are also
represented with some photos. Look in the "Other
Stuff"
section for various items including New York Central accident
reports, system public timetables, the employee magazine
"Headlight", fairly complete NYC freight and passenger car
rosters, freight schedules and much more. There is currently over 15.4
gigabytes
of timetables, maps, paper items and photos on the site and I'm
adding more items as they become available and as time permits. If
you are primarily looking for NYC related items - I suggest that you
visit the "NEW
YORK CENTRAL RESOURCE PAGE"
to search out the items that interest you.
NOTICE
TO BOTH NEW AND FREQUENT VISITORS
The main
reason this site exists is to form a repository for quality
information so that you, the visitor, can explore and develop your
knowledge of these fascinating railroads. Not every visitor to this
site is already an expert on the Canada Southern, the Michigan
Central, or the New York Central System. I have tried to organize a
very broad range of information in a way that will be both accessible
and immediately understandable to you, the visitor.
One major issue I've been
running into lately is with some of the folks supplying photos as
some items have been appearing on other websites without permission.
The problem primarily deals with photos, but
documents have also been copied
and posted on other websites, forums and email groups. There is no
problem with anyone downloading or printing material
from the site for their own personal use, whether it be for
historical or modelling purposes - but please DO
NOT COPY OR REPOST stuff
onto other websites without checking with me to see if the owner of
the material will let you do so ( NOTE: direct links to pages on this
site are fine as you are not actually copying the material ). I
already have one valuable source for photos inform me that I can't
use any new material that he may have because of this issue and some
of this material is extremely rare and of excellent quality and would
be a great addition to the site - but without permission - I will not
be putting this
material up,
so the people who have been copying material from this site and
posted it on our sites as their own have blocked the inclusion
of additional material.
If you have posted material onto another website - PLEASE
REMOVE IT.
For the
frequent repeat visitor, it seems reasonable to assume you are
returning over and over because you find this site both informative
and useful to you. The information on the site allows you to delve
ever deeper in to detailed aspects of operation and equipment.
Whether you are just starting on your journey of discovery, or
especially if you are a frequent visitor continuously using it to
hone an already well-developed passion for these railroads, I am
asking for your assistance.
If you have
information, photos, or other New York Central / Canada Southern
related items that can be used on this site, please assist me in
making this site a better one for all visitors, by sending them to me
to be included and shared for all to learn from and enjoy. Please
email me if you have any such materials that may be included in the
site. Any comments or questions you may have concerning this site,
the email address is caso1@canadasouthern.com. Please note that
replies are made as time permits, which can mean a week or two.
If, as will
be the case with most visitors to the site, you have no materials
available to share, then there is still a very valuable and necessary
action you can take to help out.
I am
constantly being told by a wide range of people that this site is
seen as a valuable resource by the Canada Southern / New York Central
historical and modelling communities. While this is very gratifying
to me, unfortunately, the cost of maintaining this site has reached a
point where I can no longer support it myself. The cost of obtaining
the various materials found on the site ( photos, timetables,
documents, etc. ) is not getting any cheaper. Outside of a minimal
number of donations of scanned and/or loaned material over the years
- everything on this site has at one point been the result of
something I purchased, such as photos, timetables or the documents
used to create the rosters.
For a while
now, I have been wrestling with a number of options - including
freezing the site ( no further additions or updates of any kind ),
making the site a pay site and even going as far as completely
shutting it down due to cost and the copying to other websites. The
web hosting is paid until February 14th, 2012 - after which I may or
may not renew.
For the
time being, the option I've decided to try out is to see if some of
my out of pocket expenses in obtaining the materials on the site can
be covered by soliciting your support by making a donation. All
monies donated will be used to cover the cost of obtaining materials
used on the site. The greatest expense is the purchasing of the
photos and timetables as well as NYC documents. Any donation of any
size is greatly appreciated and will go to preserve the history of
the Canada Southern, Michigan Central and the New York Central.
For those who wish to mail
a donation ( material or monetary ). Please send to: Terry Link, Box
136, Malton, Ontario, Canada L4T 3B5. NOTE: I cannot accept a USPS
domestic ( green ) money order as these cannot be cashed outside of
the US ( Cash, Cheques and international Money Orders are fine ) . If
you are sending a material donation or a loan of material - please
make sure you indicate if you are sending it as a permanent donation
or only sending it for scanning purposes. If providing only for
scanning purposes - please make sure you provide a CLEAR return
address. Items will be scanned as quickly as possible and returned.
I am therefore requesting
that if you are not in a position to help out by either sharing
materials for use on the site, or making a donation to help defray
the costs of maintaining and expanding the site, that you at least
refrain from copying and reposting stuff
on to other websites without permission, as this actually hurts the
further development of this site if more of the photo suppliers
decide to withdraw
their support.
In short, if you can't
help this site, at least don't hurt it.
Thanks to all of you who
have either donated new material or made a monetary donation.
Terry.
LAST
SITE UPDATE: NOVEMBER
27,
2011 |
CANADA
SOUTHERN RAILWAY