Real Rails 2025 - Speakers and Presentations*

*As of May 2025. Subject to change without notice.

Keynote Banquet Speaker:
Adam Meeks, Manager Heritage Services & Operations, CPKC

(Note: Extra Fare of $75 includes buffet banquet.)

Join us for our special buffet-style banquet on Saturday evening. Cocktails from 6-7pm followed by dinner until 8pm. followed by our special guest speaker.

This will be followed by our special guest speaker, Adam Meeks, CPKC Senior Manager of Heritage Services & Operations . While his name may not be recognizable to many, his promotional roles are. They include the management and operation of the three annual Holiday Trains which travel across the system in Canada and the U.S. every November and December.

His other responsibilities include the CPR historical passenger car collection located in Calgary as well as the care and operation of steam locomotive CPR 2816. Join us as Adam relates firsthand what it is like to organize and operate a steam locomotive on its unique marathon trip to Mexico and return in the twenty-first century!

Tentative schedule of presentations (PDF).

CPHA

Bill Linley - Smith's Falls circa 1960
Brian Schuff - George Harris: The Pioneer of Railway Photography in Manitoba
Dave Love - CPR Caboose Fleet
Doug Phillips - Lightweight Streamlined Cars of CPR
Doug Phillips - The Lake Louise tramway, 1912-1930
Don Thomas - Windsor Station: A History
Doug Welsh - CP mainline standards including comparisons with CN's mainline standards
Jeff Pinchbeck - CPHA Documents Library Contents & Update
Mark Wittrup - CPR MOW Equipment (C1978-80)
Mike Barone - CPR Snow Ploughs
Paul Clegg - Causes of double tracking west of Calgary
Peter Boyle - CPR and the Canadian Military
Peter Boyle - CPR and World War II
Ralph Beaumont - Heckman's Canadian Pacific: A Photographic Journey, 1898-1915
Ray Verdone - CPHA Steam Library - Genesis and Demo
Roger Chrysler - History of CPR's Ontario Electric Lines
Tom Parkin - Railroad Masonry Construction

TH&BHS

Angus Palmer - Lettering Fonts used on the TH&B and CPR
Dave Paterson - Passenger Trains and Early Consists of the 1950s
John Spring - TH&B Steam Locomotives, 1895-1955

CNRHA

Al Lill - Grain on CN — Then and Now
Andrew Elliott - An Introduction to the Canadian National Railways Co Archival Collection at Library & Archives Canada
Bill Linley - Canadian National on PEI from 1968 to 1971
Doug Fear / R.E. Wright - Design and Evolution of the F59PH locomotive
Ed Freeman - Ontario's Northland Railway — Why, How and When from Past to Present
Glenn Courtney - CN's GP38-2 Locomotives
John Eull - Three Generations of Change
Keith MacCauley - Procor
Larry Broadbent - Working at GMD London — The Unauthorized Photos
Mark Perry - Long Time Running: 45 Years being a Canadian Railroader
Marc Simpson - The Pas, Manitoba in the 70s and 80s
Michael Berry - Rails Around Montreal: 2005-2015
Peter MacCauley - Rail Videography with a Drone
Steve Host - Railways of Hamilton
Steve Lucas - CN's Maynooth Branch: History and Operations

VIA Historical Association

Chris Greenlaw - VIA History
Eric Gagnon - VIA Consists

Other Canadian

Chris Gagen - Railways of Brantford
Chris Gagen - Saving Mt. Pleasant Station
Gerald Harper - Anyox Mining Co. and its railroads
Richard McQuade - The Evolution of Cdn Pass Cars from wood to steel, 1860-1921
Ron Tuff - BC Rail
Steve Bradley - Cando Operations