I don’t know where or how but I’ve misplaced my Algoma Central Railway engineer’s cap. How could I do such a thing? With my banged up ankle I hardly go anywhere. Maybe on one of the few occasions I’ve been out and about I left it behind.

Maybe it’s here in the house somewhere, behind something or under something, and I’ll be pleasantly surprised when it turns up again. Who knows. This hat is a souvenir of an adventure, a canoe trip I took several years ago with my good friend East Texas Red. We took the ACR up to Sand Lake and we canoed and camped and fly fished our way back.

I’ve always loved trains, and there is some family history there too, as my grandpa ran the Queens City Leatherworks for many years, making gloves for the railwaymen in the West Toronto Junction back where there really were a concentration of railwaymen in the area.

The ACR or the Algoma Central Railway runs from Sault Ste Marie to Hurst Ontario. It’s a scenic rail line, and many people have enjoyed autumn Agawa Canyon train tours to enjoy the spectacular fall colour. Stompin’ Tom Connors wrote a song about the ACR, starting with a great first line, “She’s on a bar-hoppin’ spree back in Sault Ste Marie…” This tune was featured in the 1973 film Catch the Sun, which I recall seeing at the Ontario Place Cinesphere as a young teen. Here it is, Algoma Central 69.