Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

Several years ago, our friend and occasional guest-blogger JetLaggedJaff made a visit to Toronto and the CN Tower , which he was kind enough to share with us.  Recently, we made the trip down to downtown Toronto to visit the Toronto Railway Museum ourselves, which is nestled in the heart of the former Railway Lands , adjacent to the aforementioned CN Tower. For any fan of railway history or urban development, this museum offers a fascinating glimpse into the city’s rich railroading past right in the heart of downtown.  FRRandP photo. Caption from the Toronto Railway Historical Association , "Cape Race was built for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1929 as the River Liard. The car was one of a series of 15 River cars fabricated at National Steel Car in Hamilton for $66,300 apiece. The opulent interiors were finished at CP’s Angus Shops in Montreal and featured individual ladies’s and gentlemen’s showers, leather-upholstered smoking rooms, ladies’ lounge and observation parlour ...

It's been almost eight years since I began tracing the tracks of railroad corridors across Illinois, the United States, and the rest of the world, after having first notices the  numerous rights of way  while not working and browsing aerial images on Google Maps. A lot has changed over that time, some things have been obvious; others, such as the development of artificial intelligence, have been less so. It may have been difficult to imagine my traces turning into a blog like this; it would have been impossible to think one of my guest bloggers  would be an AI itself ! It's safe to say these tracks have captivated me. I've also learned a lot about why  so many of these lines were abandoned, and how many lines were not built for purpose, but as a result of the cutthroat nature of rail tycoons, especially during the 19th century. And yet, it doesn't seem like we've learned a lot from these mistakes when you consider the absolute toll that AI takes on data usage, and ...