Caption: The longest days of the year - and shooting a 143 at CN Robbins with north side light was my fain focus at the time. It's about two hours or so for 143 from Guelph Junction to CN Robbins (on most days, somehow the one with the CMQ barns took about four and a half), so anything 'late' enough to be at the junction around 4 a.m. or so this time of year is fair game for sunrise down in Niagara. And that's pretty much how most of my days started for a while - up early with a check of ATCS. On this Monday morning in June, this one evidently was in the right window around Campbellville so I hauled myself out of bed in Hamilton and ventured down to CN Robbins.

Watching the sun rise higher and shadows slowly disappearing, I was doing the same kind of calculations we all do: will the sun actually be high enough by the time they get here? The shadows from the trees at CN Robbins hadn't been overcome by the rising sun yet, and with 143 nearing Brookfield East to enter the CN Stamford Sub, I abandoned my aspirations for CN Robbins on this day and off to Fort Erie I went. Little did I know however that just five days later, I would pull off the shot at CN Robbins with the 143 heard 'round the world.