Don't Give Up, Especially On Old Friends

My good friend Dave Savage and I first met almost 15 years ago when I was busy with my efforts to save the York Street Station with Steve Boyko and the Fredericton Friends of the Railway. Dave called me from Ontario one day to talk about the station but we talked about everything from rails to politics to family.
We quickly became good friends.
I always loved it when we spoke and would always be at least an hour chatting.

I remember on one of my solo trips to Ontario I stopped in to see him and we drove all over the map to see Dave’s Grand Railway History tour.
My god, the knowledge he had. If you ask him anything about any area he had the history in his head. It was marvellous to behold.

You see, Dave used to look after a little publication called the Canadian Railway Station News. That’s why he initially called me in the first place. Railway stations had always been his passion. He had actually published a couple of books and picked my brain for details of New Brunswick stations. Of course I was only happy to help my friend in any way that I could.

Several years ago the York Street Station was saved and became an NB Liquor store. It was restored and looks beautiful today. I am proud to say that the efforts of the Fredericton Friends of the Railway and our friends and members were successful.

Over the years I switched careers and moved homes but that should not have affected Dave and I.

Yet we lost contact.

The phone number and information I had for him didn’t work any more. I tried sending a letter but never received a reply.
I was a member of numerous Railway Yahoo groups and tried reaching out to the other members if anyone had any information about him. Someone must know something. I had no luck at all. I feared for the worst.
Once in a while I would think of my friend and try another Google search for anything about him. To no avail.

Until about 6 months ago.

A Google search came up with a little paragraph in a little newsletter with his name. He had spoken to some people at a gathering about some local railway history in Cobourg, Ontario.
I sent an email to a contact in the newsletter.
She replied to me and copied another gentleman who knows Dave. He took my information and told me he would tell Dave that I had been in touch.

This gentleman gave me a brief update and I’m afraid that the story of Dave since we had last spoken was not a happy one.

Several years ago he suffered a stroke which confined him to a wheelchair. He had been living with his girlfriend in a house but she had decided that caring for Dave was not something she was up to doing. So she left.

As a result of his stroke his kidneys failed and he requires dialysis three times a week.
Dave entered a nursing home. All of his possessions from his house were placed into a storage locker where they remain to this day.
He lost my contact information among many other things. That explained why I had not heard from him.

A short while later I received a call from him. He had received my message.
It was just like old times. It was so nice to talk to my old friend again.
He sounded pretty good. Considering all that he has been through.

Our family decided to visit Ontario last week to visit family and some friends.
I was determined that I was going to visit Dave and see him for the first time in more than 10 years.
I dropped Cheryl and the boys off at her mother’s place and headed out to Cobourg.

When I arrived at the nursing home the residents were having lunch. I asked one of the nurses where Dave was and she pointed him out. His back was to me.

When he saw me his face lit up. We were so happy to see each other and we gave each other a big hug.
Dave didn’t look quite how he did 10 years ago but he was a sight for sore eyes.
Recently, Dave has developed a hearing problem and requires a device to help him. Between that and my deafness our conversation was not the easiest but we didn’t mind.

After lunch I took him in his wheelchair and we went for a pretty long walk.
Dave knew absolutely everyone we came across and said hello to all.
We went into his credit union so that he could do some banking. Every lady in the place knew him. I took him to the counter.
He didn’t need a bank card or bank book or anything. They know who he is and exactly what he needed. It was amazing.
The photo above was taken by one of the ladies at his credit union.

When we got back to the nursing home he asked me to do a favour and go to the storage unit office where his possessions are and pay his monthly charge.
I told the young lady that it was for Dave and she was disappointed that he had not come with me.
She told me how much she enjoys when he drops in.

She said that in the summer Dave will get dropped off and she wheels him back to his storage space where she will take out the same 2 boxes every time.
She takes him over to the rear of the property beside the train tracks where he watches the trains go by for a couple of hours while he goes through his boxes of memories.

When she told me this I visibly teared up and still do as I write this.

I wish that I lived closer to him so that I could sit with him and watch those trains.

When I returned to the home to give him his receipt I could see that he was looking tired.
It was time for me to get back to Cheryl and the boys.

I gave Dave a big hug and could see that he was sad that the visit was ending.
I promised him that every time I visit Ontario I will visit him.

Without fail.

I’m looking forward to the next time I will see my friend.

Picture This, My Friends

I was in Fredericton the other day at lunchtime and made a detour over to the York Street Train Station/New NB Liquor Store to have a visit.
I knew that not much would have changed since the last time that I was there but wanted to have a look regardless.
Plus, I realized that I had not posted recent photos in a while and felt that I should.

For my part and that of the Fredericton Friends of the Railway it appears that our work is done and we can all be proud of the wonderful newly spiffed-up landmark in the City of Fredericton.
Still, after all these years of driving by and taking thousands of pictures of the station's decay and feeling depressed I owe it to myself to take happy photos and feel good about the place now.

So I think that I'll probably continue this habit for a while longer.
I won't post thousands of happy photos but will store them somewhere with the others.

I've found a few of my pre-repair pictures from about 6 years ago that I'll post for comparison purposes with the new photos.

The difference is stunning.

Have a look. These are the the old photos.











Pretty sad, wasn't it?
Now have a look at this. As it appears today. This will cheer you up.

















Awesome isn't it?
As you see there is a little more work to be done and a few things to be tidied up.
I'm not certain what will be going on with the ground surrounding the structure but I'm sure that it will be quite nice.

If I'm not mistaken they may be realigning the City walking trail from the far side of the property closer to the station. At least that was the plan a few years ago.

One thing that I will be sure to do is to get inside at some point and take a multitude of photos. I'll post quite a few of those.
When I was there the other day the front section was locked.

Not to worry. I've waited this long. I can wait a little longer.

Stay well,
Tim

Okay, what do you think?

Here is that neat idea that I told you about yesterday. I did a whole lot of running around at lunch and took these pictures.
What I did was go to the provincial archives web site (one of my favourite spots on the internet) and downloaded a whole bunch of old photos from around Fredericton.

Some of them I have used many times over the years to show the York Street Station in it's former glory. In fact I used them in the other blog with the way it was then and the way it is now.

This is a variation on that idea. As I mentioned yesterday this was not my idea. I saw another person had done it on the internet and liked it so much I decided to try it myself.
I was thinking at first that I should do something to totally hide my hand from the shot but the other guy had his hand in there and it didn't take away from the effect at all in my opinion.

So off I went.

The quality of the shots isn't the best but I was working with old black and white photos from a web site.

I was disappointed in the one I did at Fredericton City Hall and didn't even bother putting it in here.

I should point out a few things of note.

In the photo showing the banner over the road "Fredericton Welcomes Canada's Premier" they are actually referring to Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. This was taken prior to his visit to Fredericton.

It's a little blurry but one of the photos shows a group of people playing croquet on a large lawn.
This is at on the back lawn of Old Government House and was taken around 1885.
Old Government House is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, as well as that in Fredericton of the Canadian monarch. It's a pretty amazing place. You should check out href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Government_House,_Fredericton"> to learn more about it.

The photo showing the old railway bridge shows the first train to cross the bridge when it was initially completed. I should know but I don't remember the date, sorry. All I know is that it was a long time ago. I'm sure someone reading this will be able to tell me. Steve? Are you there? :)

Those living here know that this has been a walking bridge since 1997 and is the world's longest walking bridge at 1905 feet long.
On June 07 2008 it was renamed the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge. As you know Bill Thorpe was a dear friend and was the first president of the Fredericton Friends of the Railway until his passing in 2006.

In one photo you can see Harvey Studio on the old sign. Look into the recent photograph and you'll see that Harvey Studios is still there. I thought that is pretty cool.

I won't bother going into the details of the York Street Station photos. You can see about them in my January 7 blog here. href="http://tim4nm.blogspot.com/2010/01/can-you-spot-difference.html">

In one of the old ones you see "Ross Drug United" on the building. Ross Drugs is still there and still has that historic look about it.
In fact, I believe they still have the old soda fountain in the back.

The parade photo was taken in 1937 on Queen Street and was, coincidentally, for Queen Elizabeth's Coronation Parade.

I don't know the details for all of them but I think that's good enough for these.
I had a whole lot of other photos of different spots but I think these were the most interesting. You tell me.




















I hope you like them. I had fun doing them.

Oh by the way, I have had a TON of people asking me when the work is going to continue on the York Street Station. I don't have a clue but I have put the question through to J. D. Irving. They will be getting back to me and I will let you know.
Don't worry.

Stay well,
Tim

Got you covered

Holy moly, does life ever get busy! I was shocked to see that it's already been 2 1/2 weeks since my last blog entry. It's a good thing I don't get paid for it or I would have been fired ages ago.
Even now I don't have time to say very much.
What I DO want to say is very important.
The lads from The Urban Farmer have been zipping along very well with their work at the York Street Station.
The front section has a new roof now and the rear portion will have its roof on very shortly as well.
Actually, you can see for yourself if you go here (I'm sorry that this isn't a hyperlink. I can't figure that out. Just copy this address and paste into your navigation bar.):

http://www.fred-ezone.ca/webcams/?cam=oldtrainstation

Pretty cool isn't it? It updates and refreshes every couple of seconds.
Instead of waiting to hear from me or someone else how the work is going you can just pop on the webcam.
Here is a picture from the webcam that I was able to save on my IPhone while I was standing at the site. That blob at the right beside the orange and white lift is yours truly.


It's funny that Big Brad mentioned a few months ago that he wanted this webcam done. But I thought it was going to be called the "Scamcam"? :D


One other thing of note.
The workers were able to cut away the old wooden floor to gain access to the full basement area. This photo shows as it was being cleaned out. I point out that there was originally at least 5 feet of water down here which was pumped out.





This is how it looks now. The entire basement has been filled with stone.
I was again impressed with the fact that as they were adding the stone in layers and compacting it a technician was on site with a nuclear densometer measuring the level of compaction that was being obtained.
If he determined the material was not compacted enough the workers continued tamping it down until it was acceptable. I'm impressed.




I have to go.
I promise that I will have another decent blog done in the near future when I have a few minutes.

Stay well,
Tim

Can you spot the difference?

During lunch today I dropped in at the York Street Station to see how the work was progressing and to take another multitude of photos.
One thing that I am aware of doing is taking a bunch of pictures in areas where absolutely nothing has changed since my last visit. I still do it though in case of the slim chance that something tiny may have changed since I was there last.
Why not? These are digital photos after all. I can just delete repetitions as I find them.
But I don't. It's the pack rat in me that will save every single one JUST IN CASE it may prove to be important one day.


After I had uploaded the pictures to the computer and was looking through them an idea struck me that I thought may be interesting.
I believe that I have seen almost every photo that exists of the York Street Station from the past. I'll admit that there are probably thousands of historical station photos in old family photo albums gathering dust in attics and basements throughout Fredericton and the surrounding area.
Sadly we will likely probably never see most of those pictures. What a shame that is.


Fortunately there exist many excellent online archives that contain a wealth of photos from the past.

When I first joined up with the Fredericton Friends of the Railway I spent hours scouring the internet for anything I could find of the York Street Station.
One of the best sources I discovered was the Provincial Archives.


As I was looking at today's pictures it struck me that several of the views in my photos were similar or the same as views I had seen in the historical photos.


I set out to locate some of the historical photos I had in mind. Fortunately for me I had posted many of them in the Yahoo! group page that I had created for the Fredericton Friends of the Railway http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/friendsoftherailway/ so I was able to find them easily to use in this blog.


How cool would it be to see photos of the station from the past along with recent photos as it appears today?
That sounded pretty darn cool to me.
Luckily for me I also happen to have this great place of my blog to do this.



This is only a sampling of the thousands of pictures I have on CD's, hard drives, DVD's but it's enough to have the cool effect I was looking for.
I hope you feel that too.



This first one is of an announcer or reporter type atop the front canopy of the station during the Royal visit to Fredericton of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1951. I found it in the Provincial Archive collection.
The second is my photo showing the same general area.





This next one is a group of men standing on the platform. It also came from the Provincial Archives. I don't recall where I read that they are railway company executives but I did read that somewhere.
The station looked pretty snappy and impressive, didn't it?





This next one I took today facing the same general direction. Our little station isn't quite as snappy and impressive as the last photo but give it a little time.
You'll see.



These next two views are two of my favourites. I don't recall where I found them but believe it was in a Canadian Pacific resource somewhere.
They are interior shots. I am totally in awe of how shiny and pristine the station looked at that time. It certainly was something for Fredericton to be proud of. Not to worry, it will be again very soon.




Missing a little bit of that shine right now. This is facing the exact same direction towards the same windows. The floor isn't shiny because it's only dirt at present.




This next pair are facing the same direction but somewhat different. In the old photo we see a large part of the very well maintained waiting area with the station master's office in the background. My present photo has this office area as the center focus. You get the idea.
One thing that always struck me about the beauty of the York Street station was all of the wood in there. I love that. It's a shame that one of wood's worst enemies is water. The same water that's been whooshing through the non-roof of the station for several years now destroying and rotting all of that beautiful wood.





The last one here is from the Provincial Archives and was taken in 1935 of Canada's Governor-General Lord Bessborough and his party on the platform during their visit to Fredericton.
I love those top hats and dressy outfits. I'm not being sarcastic, I really do love what these guys are wearing. They look about as formal as formal can ever get and I'll bet they felt like a million bucks too.
I know I would.




Speaking of a million bucks, here is another photo of the repairs to the front canopy shown behind the folks in the photo above.





I'll end this by restating that I am excited and thrilled with what is happening here.
Many believed that there could never again exist any hope of survival for the York Street Station. I confess that I shared this thinking.
But the little piece of hope in me never really died.
It merely hid itself in the far back corner of my brain hoping for the chance to fight its way to the surface one more time some day.
That day came last fall with the announcement of what was to come.
If there is anyone that follows me or reads this blog that has been thinking to themselves "What could possibly be the benefit of restoring this place?"
The photos above answer that question.

Royalty came to town and stood in this very spot.
Athletes departed from here to represent every one of us in Olympic Games, tournaments and matches of every kind.
When the games were done and the athletes returned to us, this is where we cheered for them and welcomed them home with open arms whether they won or not.
The saddest of all are the soldiers who waved goodbye to loved ones as they stepped up onto the trains from this station to fight for Canada in far away places.
Many of them never returned to the loved ones and this place is the last memory of them at home.
The other side are the ones who did return home. This station is the place where the strongest feeling of happiness imaginable occurred when we saw them again and breathed again with the realization that they were home with us again.

This sad little building that fought so hard against time and the elements to remain standing will show itself to be the beautiful source of civic pride that it once was.


I trust that you will agree.


Stay well,
Tim