The British Invasion of the Leetown Division
#1
The Leetown Division recently celebrated a historical event to recognize the retirement of the road's most senior employee---engineer John Ramsay.John was born in Stirling Scotland, joined the Royal Navy during WW2 and after the war worked as a fireman on the steam locomotives of the London Midlands and Scotland RR. until he immigrated to Canada and settled in Leetown where he quickly found employment on the CNR Leetown Division.It wasn't long before he qualified as a locomotive engineer and never missed a day in his 55 years of dedicated service.Reluctantly and with regrets John decided it was time to pack in his beloved career so he can spend time with his extended family.
Management on the Division wanted to do something special to mark this occasion and when they learned that there was a special tour of British locomotives in Canada to celebrate Canada's connection to the British Empire arrangements were made to have these locomotives visit Leetown at the same time as John's retirement.John's last runs were at the controls of the famous "Flying Scotsman" and LMS #5112 which he actually fired back in Britain.

[Image: 52127264186_af34df0102_k.jpg]P1470091 by Ed Creechan, on Flickr

[Image: 52126241207_53288a7cbc_k.jpg]P1470095 by Ed Creechan, on Flickr
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#2
Ed,

Very nicely done narrative and photos.  Applause Applause

Bruce
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#3
Those are beautiful locomotives but the 5112 is vantage. 
Charlie
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#4
Nice. I have been on the footplate of 4472 in Toronto.
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#5
I created this thread as a "thank you " to my friend Ian Ramsay and to honour his late Father John.Not long ago Ian contacted me regarding offering me his Dad's collection of railroad memorabilia which included books,timetables and a few models of British steam locomotives---I have since donated (with Ian's approval) many of these items to a local museum but kept the models.Ian's Father is now a legend on the Leetown Division.
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#6
A couple more of John Ramsay's British models

       
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#7
Nice tribute! Applause Worship Thumbsup
Mike

Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
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