Gribblenation

Over the last month or so I've been driving by a mysterious red building at Clovis Avenue and Lincoln Avenue near California State Route 99 in Fresno County.  The building greatly resembled a rail depot and I noticed it displayed the name of the City of Fowler.  It turns out that the building is the 1882 Fowler Rail Depot which was moved northwest out of downtown Fowler to it's present location.  The Fowler Rail Depot appears to have once been a business as it has a large security fence is surrounding it and there is handicap parking zones.  The sign on the Depot shows San Francisco 216 miles to the west and New Orleans 2,271 miles to the east. Rail service dates back to 1872 when the Central Pacific Line through San Joaquin Valley was completed.  At the time the Central Pacific line was completed there was a rail switch also built to the ranches of State Senator Thomas Fowler known as Fowler's Switch.  There is a small monument about Fowler's...

Recently, I had found out about a neat tunnel called the Brockville Railway Tunnel that was used for trains in Brockville, Ontario, located in the Thousand Islands region of the province. By chance, I decided to visit the tunnel on my way to Ottawa this past weekend. An engineering marvel at 1730 feet in length, the Brockville Railway Tunnel happens to be the first railroad tunnel constructed in present-day Canada. The tunnel was built between 1854 and 1860 for the Brockville and Ottawa Railway to connect the Brockville waterfront on the nearby St. Lawrence River with the Ottawa River near Arnprior, Ontario to the north. Part of the tunnel is lined with brick, whereas natural stone forms the walls of the tunnel around its center portion. It should be noted that the plans to construct the tunnel was not without some public disagreement, as a number of people felt that it would be easier and more cost effective to build the rail line along the riverfront instead of building the tunne...