It’s been a great summer, so far and it’s really only half over. We haven’t left the province of Ontario but the day and weekend trips have been coming steady and have been new and exciting.
I’ve covered a lot of what we’ve done in recent articles. Today, it’s all about some great photos that have been taken and are kind of misfits that don’t belong to a full article but should be seen.
Ingersoll is a town just east of London, Ontario. We had to pop in to do some last minute grocery shopping prior to a family event a few weeks ago. I noticed this rickety old building beside the railway tracks and just had to check it out.
It turns out, the Ingersoll Train Station was originally built in 1886 by the Great Western Railway. In 1920, it became part of Canadian National, by way of the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1979, the classic station’s doors were closed and have yet to be reopened.
Unfortunately, the building has fallen on some tough times. Apparently, it is inventoried as a historic building but not designated as a historic landmark (or some bureaucratic shit like that). This means that folks would like to see it preserved but the funding may never come.
The little white building past the original train station now serves as the VIA Rail station for passenger trains.
There was an article we did just recently about the image above. This is taken at the upper end of the Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Locks on the Trent Severn Waterway. We recently were blown away by a trip with Peterborough Liftlock Cruises and this was the view as we were re-entering the locks on our return trip.
Past that gate where the water stops is a 19.8 metre or 65 foot drop to the canal below. This is the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world and has been since it was finished 1904. This tour is a must if you live in or are visiting the Greater Toronto Area. This should be on every international traveler to Canada’s itinerary.
The mighty, controversial wind turbine. North of where I live, there are many, many of these clean energy structures. They mostly belong to Canadian Hydro Developers Inc., a company out of Calgary, Alberta.
I caught this one with slightly long exposure, despite no filters on a sunny day. They do make the most amazing sound when the arms are really turning in the wind. But, apparently the locals don’t like the noise so much.
After Planes: Fire and Rescue, I have a three year old that goes nuts over planes with pontoons. We happened to catch this Cessna A185F Skywagon 185 taking off from the Brampton Flight Centre, just north of Brampton, Ontario.
Believe it or not, something in the above shot is in focus. Stock image companies would reject it because of the blur but there’s something about the shot that I really liked. This is taken on the tracks of the Orangeville Brampton Railway, just outside of Orangeville. This is a 55 km run between Orangeville and Mississauga that dates back to the 1870’s.
We were on our way up to Bobcaygeon for a few days at the trailer on Pigeon Lake when we stopped at a McDonalds in Newmarket. This police chopper was running back and forth, basically directly above the McDonalds. We never saw anyone on the run and, oddly enough, never saw a single police car on the ground.
The helicopter belongs to York Regional Police and is a Eurocopter EC-120B (registration C-GYRP) built in 2000.
Not quite full, this was what I found when I turned the opposite direction to the sunset I was waiting to capture.
A simple Mallard Duck, yes. This was almost a throw away because of all the clutter. Just maybe I recovered by making the clutter an artsy border?
A Dot-Tailed Whiteface dragonfly posing on a lily pad. The mosquitos have been outrageous in Ontario this summer. Therefore, the dragonflies are numerous and healthy.
Out the back end of my father-in-law’s boat. There’s something that intrigues me about a boat motor wake frozen at 1/4000th of a second. However, I still haven’t quite found what I’m looking for.