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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 2010, 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 only truly
active portion of the line is from Detroit/Windsor to Fargo and even
that is barely in use, nothing like it was many years ago. The Canada
Southern is no longer one continuous line.
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 11 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.
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. I've already paid the web hosting until February 2012 - so
the site will likely remain until then in some form,
though I do not guarantee this.
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've also been
running into a issue with some of the folks supplying photos as some
items have been appearing on other websites without permission. The
problem primarily deals with photos. There is no problem with anyone
downloading stuff from the site for their own personal use, whether
it be for historical or modelling purposes - but please do not copy
and repost stuff on other websites without checking with me to see if
the owner of the material will let you do so ( NOTE: direct links to
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 of excellent quality and would be a great
addition to the site - but without permission - I will not be putting this
material up.
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.
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CANADA
SOUTHERN RAILWAY