Click on each image for a closer look!
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10 years ago, Mike Robin, an avid railroad photographer who lives and works in northern Ontario began sharing his “Picture of the Day” with those of us who are entranced by the Ontario Northland Railway, owned by we, the citizens of Ontario, and which provides transportation infrastructure to the far north of our province. Their Polar Bear Express which runs to Moosonee on James Bay is a world famous trip. I consider the paint schemes on their current locomotives to be “as good as it gets”. They are very dramatic and were designed by a gifted graphic artist. The railway also was and is a daily visitor to the Toronto Rail Lands and Union Station providing daily passenger service between Toronto and the far north.
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I visited their shops in North Bay several years ago and was blown away by the complex repair and overhaul operations that they undertook within their shops to keep their engines going long after they became extinct elsewhere. Until only a few years ago, they still ran F7 Diesels in normal operation. In order to do this, they even rebuilt and rewound the traction motors!
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Mike has over the past 10 years developed the ONR Gallery where the best of these pictures can be viewed. The pictures are vividly beautiful and capture the railways operations. Mike has not only focused on the majesty of the trains but he also celebrates the great people who are the backbone of the railway and tells their story as well. The pictures are all annotated so you can know what each picture is about! In this posting we show six examples of his work (without annotation .. go to the website for that!). Below we present their ONR Gallery video made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ONR Gallery. It truly celebrates the people who make the railway great!
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Posting by Russ Milland; Pictures and Video by Mike Robin
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