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Jackson Alexander
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Heaven is a Place Called Englehart
Heaven is a Place Called Englehart

Throughout these short few years of running around the United States and Canadian rail network, I have never come across a place with an aura as powerful than that of Englehart, Ontario. You don't find many towns like this left in the world that I'm used to experiencing on a daily basis. The town is on the North/South Highway number 11 and if you weren't paying attention you'd be in and out of it in about a minute or two. Empty gas stations with the signs still lit, an empty subway and no real sense of humanity on the main route almost asks you to keep your eyes forward and keep on driving. For a guy like me however, the moment you approach the place you know you're in for a treat. The tiny dot on the map that is this town supports a massive paper and wood products facility that can be recognized from miles away. The Georgia Pacific location in town plumes clouds into the air day and night and supports the majority of the town financially. It was not uncommon over my few days here with Liam to see men and women emerging from their homes in town at all hours of the day to head off to work their shift at the plant. Other than the occasional pedestrian and their dog roaming the grids of residential streets, the downtown here is entirely vacated outside of business hours, although the LCBO would tell you otherwise if you believed the sign set perpetually to "open" out front. The thing is, the real joy of this town is for the railroading man, where you immediately come across the resting power when you drive up to the yard. Rarely do many companies trust sticking power this close to the road, right along town streets filled with kids. It's just another element of the remoteness out here, because who the hell really wants to go graffiti an SD40 when you can just go fishing with your friends. The yard sports a station and a Teskaming and Northern Ontario locomotive on display, and can be seen from multiple points in town. From here, you listen and watch yard jobs switch, follow a train north or south, or just sit back and enjoy the banter from the employees on the radio, far from prying eyes in suits.

Other than a gas station in town for travellers to stop at, there really isn't much else to Englehart. It's a self-sufficient town in the middle of absolutely nowhere that has somehow managed to survive on its near-extinct ways of living. A guy like me? He appreciates that.

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Taken on: March 19, 2023
Sets appears in:   • SD75    • ONR   
Groups appears in:   • Shortlines    • EMD    more » • EMD SD70s    • Ontario Northland    • Your Favorite Regionals/Short Lines Shot!    • EMD Group    • TRAINS IN ALL 50 STATES AND CANADA    • Shortlines & Regional Railroads of America    • Steel Rails of Canada and America    « less
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Heaven is a Place Called Englehart

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