Each new railway book by writer-photographer Greg McDonnell is cause for celebration in the North American railfan community. Rites of Passage, a look at over three decades of transition and changes along Canada's rail lines, is his most personal book to date. "For what it's worth," McDonnell writes in his introductory essay, "what follows on these pages is personal, a collection of images and essays drawn from a 35-year effort to capture and chronicle the magic of Canadian railroading, an effort that began with a young boy pointing a borrowed Brownie at a pair of olive-green GMD1's looming out of the early morning fog in Kitchener and quickly grew to be a lifetime avocation, if not a vocation." Rites of Passage is vintage McDonnell, a sensual feast of boiler steam and diesel smoke, high iron and midnight runs across the prairies, wistful memories and critical analysis.
