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( Right on" track The office " Polygon Design on,Young Street is modest to a fault. beiying its owner’s enormous artistic tlair. He has a passion for hockey, and is thoroughly eatiovinghis'seemtdgo-roundattttytortirtftte oldtimer ranks-yet plays down his skill level, noting ttisinittaiciatehatthebrassringuodedttimnomore. than a practice goalie role with the 1983-64 Gait Hor- nets. And he is a lover of trains-but forget the image of a balding, 47-year-old stealing downstairs after dinner each night, donning the ol' engineer cap, and wiling away the hours with his model train set. Simply hasn't got the time. Nor does he blindly subscribe to the romantic image of the rails. But let their be no doubt, George Roth is a train person. Prides himself on the fact, especially his love for, and knowledge of, the Canadian Pacific Electric Lines which opened locally in 1894 between Gait and Preston, and lasted until 1961 when the last electric motor hauled the last eiectricaiiyoperated train between Gait and Kitchener. _ The electrics are in his blood, have been since Roth was a youngster in Preston where the Grand River and CN rails bordered his father's lumberyard; now, thanks to a fortuitous set of happenstances. he has a collector’s treasury of those memories. Yes, George Roth, art designer, hockey goalie and train lover has coauthored Canadian Paciftc's Electric Lines with longtime friend William Clack of Cambridge. The result is a glossy 32-page account, dominated by historical photos from various sources, of one of Ontario's most unique and revolutionary rail systems. Growing up in Preston, a hub of Southern Ontario rail activity, gave Roth plenty of exposure to trains and rail activity. Saturdays, he would either accom- pany his father down to the lumberyard and watch the trains go by, or else hop on an electric himself to play hockey in Hespeler or travel to Kitchener with his aunt. It was a spontaneous love affair, one that grew to full tlame when he worked the rails summers from the Preston shop to help pay his way through the Ontario College of Art. "The train 'crews were always razzing me, calling me 'the why boy' because whenever they'd do Today, advocates of rail transport enthusiastically endorse electric railways " one of the most economical, reliable, and ecologically safe methods of transportation known to man. In Japan, England, and Europe, electric railways are replacing more traditional transportation systems to the approval of conservationists everywhere. How did this revolutionary system begin? Where did it orterntr? 1vhathappetetoe.tPseiPd.tytie? . . -. That's the topic of Canadian Pacific Electric Haas: Grand - Way and Lake Erie & Northern Railway by local railway historians, George Roth and William Clack. One of the first electric lines in Canada began service between Galt and Preston on at July 1894 - nearly a century ago. It extended from the Great Western Railway's depot in the southern part of Gait to what is today known as the Preston Springs Retirement Hotel and the Sherwood Inn, a distance of I 56 miles. Eventually known as the Gait, Preston and Hespeler Railway, it was later merged by the CPR with the Preston and Berlin Street Railway. and became known as the Grand River Railway. A __ - By an. eastructior, of the Lake Erie and Northern Railway linking Gait and Port Dover began. and the two ”new try 1’21 were worms Amt 1ntetetntyteat1iv. - By me, the can and the LEAN operated 15.01 miles of main line, carried more than 1.5 million passengers and hauled more than a half-million tone of freight - but its days were numbered by buses, truck transport. and the automobile. loll and Illa- two area residents who both worked on the railway. had the lomight to gather the detail and reeordit,andtheresultuthisdetniV geaecomt. Can-ea Facile Electric lbea: Greed - We, naoaigtrietheroathear,ttrGeoegertottonttBi1l Clack. BRMNA, Calgary. low. [SEN Him-214. Soft- bouad. " x " borne-tel. map. photograph. " pp. pine cover. $7 plu- " ”use. ' (Available at Worda Worth Boob. Waterloo). George Roth relives memories witfl book on electric lines 'Electrics’ still popular mode oogiietttinte with the mm. Pd say any are you doing It this way,' or "rVarr you_dol_n¢ Mix" __ _ . At the time. Moth had the best of both worlds, working the spare crew. and cultivating Ms graphic design skills at OCA. That led to his move to Waterloo where he was supervisor of design for uw publica- tions from 1063-70. He has since established his own company. Polygon Design Ltd. which deals in designing concepts, hooks, publications. promotions, corporate brochures and so on. It was during those college days that Roth met conductor Bill Clack, who served on the electric lines for ST yesrs in freight and passenger service. After he retired, Clack focused on collecting memorabilia on the line he had spent his life working for, and came across WLU post-grad history student Bill Schaefer of Smithville, who supplied Clack with a number of photos and other information. Roth, a member of the Four City Railway Historical group, was being wooed at the same time by Don Bain of British Railway Modellers of North America (BRMNA) Calgary group to write a book on CP electric lines; the resulting collaboration with Clack marks BRMNA's 33rd railway publication since April 1978. The works began with CP in the Rockies, and each edition effectively represents a chapter in Canadian railway history. Roth's role was to provide the technical data while Clack centered on historical, anecdotal-type text. Both authors are grateful for the aid they received not only from Schaefer, but also the publishers, railfan Bill Miller of Cambridge, and Ray Carley, John Mills and J .D. Fowles who aided with visual and factual contributions. Dominated by well-produced photos, the edition is a dream come true for railfans locally and across the country with its entertaining content and memory- tugging photos. Roth himself admits to having 300-400 shots of electric lines never printed, and over 3,000 negatives of various trains and locations since he began taking photos in the late I950s. Trains are not George Roth's only hobby, despite the fact he loves to get together with other railfans from all walks of life who "put on their grubbies and talk about railways, nothing else." Roth is probably better known locally as a founding NAM CM$tttott,t". “Y. at" tr, "or - I“ D lick Cam photo member of the University of Waterloo Worrier oldtimer hockey team; in 13 years with the club he has missed but two tournaments total. Around work and various other commitments, he now finds time for 4-5 tournaments a year, about eight exhibition games with the Worriers, and he also plays weekly in the oldtimer loop organized out of Kitchener. His book, Roth insists, is strictly a one-time venture, a labor of love for both him and Clack. But it was a thrill to document his passion, to rekindle past experiences, to renew friendships and to provide an account for others, who may now share his memories of "the electrics." But he just as quickly fires off anecdotes about his past joys with the electrics, about the tightly-knit railway fraternity, about the way things could have been--should have been-even now. And one gets a good feeling, that the opportunity came along for George Roth and Bill Clack, to record those joys, those times, the emotion of it all, for posterity. "My careisr's blossoming, it seems the older I get, the more I'm in demand," Roth joked. With regret in his voice, almost a tinge of anger, Roth bemoans the demise of the electrics, which he blames on an overshift in the balance of power between management and unions, “tunnel-thinking" within an industry unreasonably bound to tradition, and bureaucracy and lack of foresight on the part of the government which could threaten the entire railway system in this country. George Roth proudly displays a copy of Canadian Pacific's Electric Lines.