Although this is slightly (greatly) off topic, I still thought it may make an interesting read. I was taking the train from Ottawa to Toronto on Tuesday and when I arrived in the Ottawa train station, I found four nice models of old trains. My Uncle George was a train mechanic back in the day. He loves trains and actually has a complete train set with a village in his basement. So I took a few pictures of these trains and sent it to him by e-mail. He responded…

My Uncle’s Response

“The steam locomotive “ 1201” was one of the few steam locomotives built in Angus shops in Montreal. I’m fairly certain it was the last one built in Angus.  When I was an apprentice at the Glen , my mechanic & I prepared that locomotive Friday afternoon for it’s evening run to the Laurentian. This was called “the ski train” The cars that the loco. pulled were the old wooden ones with woven straw material on the seats and backrests because the passengers were so rowdy, they would rip the seats with knives if cloth material was used. Just last week. I was talking to a women who used to take that ski train and she remembered how wild the passengers were.”