It is just past 11:00 p.m. I get off the Stafford Street trolley bus where the run terminates and where it turns around at Pembina Highway. I walk past Bobby Jo's Motel, the Salisbury House where I eat when I can afford it on my meagre salary, and past the A and W Drive-In.
I walk up the steps and into the large old two-story building which serves as the official yard office for the Fort Rouge CNR yard. It is the nerve centre of the yard. It is from here that all instructions and outdoor workers are dispersed, work asignments are made, and crews for trains are called. Trains are assembled from cars lining the 45 parallel sets of tracks running alongside the two main lines which are just outside the south wall of the building. These yard tracks vary in length from the mile long B1 track to the shortest D15 track of about 100 metres. Cars on these tracks are kept track of inside by means of waybills for each individual car. Checkers go out and record the numbers of each car on each track. Switchmen then use these checks to switch out particular cars and then assemble them in a particular order that will form a freight train heading out of the yard at a designated time for a designated destination. Clerks inside the office and at the loading yards at the Main Depot will have typed up the waybills describing the contents of each car. The yardmaster, armed with instructions from the general yardmaster, will relay instructions to the switching teams in the yard working with each particular switching engine. To an outsider it looks like mass confusion but everything is synchronized as all the working parts work to put the train together.
I am about 45 minutes early for my shift. I had taken the trolley bus early because the next regular one would have delivered me to Pembina and Stafford after midnight and that would have made me late for work. The person I am replacing is very happy to see me because with my consent and the chief clerk's approval, he can now leave early to get to his New Year's Eve party.
So why am I working here tonight! I could be at a party with my friends as I would not have been called for this shift in the first place. But I am here because another checker desperately wanted the night off as he had a very heavy date he could not pass up on. He asked me to take his shift which meant that I would be working on New Year's Day ( the 12 -8 shift ) and which also meant I would receive double pay for working the shift. The CNR paid its employees double wages for working on statutory holidays. I would also be working the afternoon shift which meant another shift at double pay. For a person off the spare board who had only been averaging one or two shifts a week this is a big boost for the pay check.
There are no trains leaving before the 4:00 a.m. grain train for Rainy River which will be made up of about 70 cars full of grain headed for the terminals at Ft. William/Port Arthur (now known as Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior. It will be a straight forward checking assignment which means at about 2:00 a.m. I shall have to go out into the night and check the cars on the train which is being assembled on B1. I will bring in the check. A clerk will pull the waybills and another one will put them in the order that they are on the train. At 3:00 the conductor and his crew will check into the yard office and go over the bills carefully.
At 3:15 the engine crew will report to the front end of the grain train where the engines, usually three in number, are idling. They have been brought in from the roundhouse by a hostler crew.They will tie on to the train and start building up the air pressure in the lines through the train.
Previously a group of "car knockers" from the car shop also located in the yard will have checked each journal box on each wheel on each car on the train to make sure the required felt packing was up to quality and they would add oil to each wheel so that the wheels would be well lubricated to handle the many tons of grain in the boxcar above the wheels. They also will have checked each wheel for any cracks which could lead to a wheel breaking apart under weight while traveling at a high rate of speed and thus cause a derailment and subsequent train wreck.They will also have connected the air hoses on each car to the car in front and to the one behind. Then when the air pressure is up to the required pressure, they will walk the length of the train once more to make sure all the couples are securely snug. No pressure in the air-brakes would mean the three diesels would have to start stopping the train many many miles before their destination because a train moving 90 kmph builds up a lot of mass from the thousands of tons of grain.
I am the junior checker in seniority so I will catch all the jobs, if there are any more than . But for now it looks like it will be a quiet night with only the grain train on the out-board and no trains coming in on the in-board. As the afternoon crew leaves and the midnight crew takes over there are many wishes for a happy and prosperous new year between the two groups. It will be a quiet night but a long and, for some, a lonely night. This is a night that should have been spent celebrating with family and friends.
I know some of the staff may have sneaked in some mickeys which they will share surreptitiously with friends in the lunchroom or on the sly in the toilet area. As long as they don't over-imbibe and as long as they aren't obvious, the chief clerk will say nothing. But if the general yardmaster should suddenly show up, all bets are off, and anyone caught drinking would be sent home and then have brownie points or demerits assessed against their record. A certain number of those assessed would get you fired!
At about 7:45 a.m. in the morning, the day staff start showing up. Again greetings and well-wishes are exchanged. Some of the staff are obviously hung-over and it will be a long day for them because there will probably be only one or two freight trains scheduled. I head to the bus loop after my relief shows up. I will sleep on the 20 minute ride home and then when I get home, I will wish my mom and dad a Happy New Year and head for bed. My parents and I have pooled our rent money and we share a two bedroom suite on the third flooor of a house on Maryland Street near the Misericordia Hospital. My mom will wake me at 2:00p.m. and I will get ready for the afternoon shift which starts at 4:00p.m. It will be much busier at work as the railway starts to normalize its daily operations.
And thus the start of a New Year in Winnipeg, one year removed from the farm!
I walk up the steps and into the large old two-story building which serves as the official yard office for the Fort Rouge CNR yard. It is the nerve centre of the yard. It is from here that all instructions and outdoor workers are dispersed, work asignments are made, and crews for trains are called. Trains are assembled from cars lining the 45 parallel sets of tracks running alongside the two main lines which are just outside the south wall of the building. These yard tracks vary in length from the mile long B1 track to the shortest D15 track of about 100 metres. Cars on these tracks are kept track of inside by means of waybills for each individual car. Checkers go out and record the numbers of each car on each track. Switchmen then use these checks to switch out particular cars and then assemble them in a particular order that will form a freight train heading out of the yard at a designated time for a designated destination. Clerks inside the office and at the loading yards at the Main Depot will have typed up the waybills describing the contents of each car. The yardmaster, armed with instructions from the general yardmaster, will relay instructions to the switching teams in the yard working with each particular switching engine. To an outsider it looks like mass confusion but everything is synchronized as all the working parts work to put the train together.
I am about 45 minutes early for my shift. I had taken the trolley bus early because the next regular one would have delivered me to Pembina and Stafford after midnight and that would have made me late for work. The person I am replacing is very happy to see me because with my consent and the chief clerk's approval, he can now leave early to get to his New Year's Eve party.
So why am I working here tonight! I could be at a party with my friends as I would not have been called for this shift in the first place. But I am here because another checker desperately wanted the night off as he had a very heavy date he could not pass up on. He asked me to take his shift which meant that I would be working on New Year's Day ( the 12 -8 shift ) and which also meant I would receive double pay for working the shift. The CNR paid its employees double wages for working on statutory holidays. I would also be working the afternoon shift which meant another shift at double pay. For a person off the spare board who had only been averaging one or two shifts a week this is a big boost for the pay check.
There are no trains leaving before the 4:00 a.m. grain train for Rainy River which will be made up of about 70 cars full of grain headed for the terminals at Ft. William/Port Arthur (now known as Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior. It will be a straight forward checking assignment which means at about 2:00 a.m. I shall have to go out into the night and check the cars on the train which is being assembled on B1. I will bring in the check. A clerk will pull the waybills and another one will put them in the order that they are on the train. At 3:00 the conductor and his crew will check into the yard office and go over the bills carefully.
At 3:15 the engine crew will report to the front end of the grain train where the engines, usually three in number, are idling. They have been brought in from the roundhouse by a hostler crew.They will tie on to the train and start building up the air pressure in the lines through the train.
Previously a group of "car knockers" from the car shop also located in the yard will have checked each journal box on each wheel on each car on the train to make sure the required felt packing was up to quality and they would add oil to each wheel so that the wheels would be well lubricated to handle the many tons of grain in the boxcar above the wheels. They also will have checked each wheel for any cracks which could lead to a wheel breaking apart under weight while traveling at a high rate of speed and thus cause a derailment and subsequent train wreck.They will also have connected the air hoses on each car to the car in front and to the one behind. Then when the air pressure is up to the required pressure, they will walk the length of the train once more to make sure all the couples are securely snug. No pressure in the air-brakes would mean the three diesels would have to start stopping the train many many miles before their destination because a train moving 90 kmph builds up a lot of mass from the thousands of tons of grain.
I am the junior checker in seniority so I will catch all the jobs, if there are any more than . But for now it looks like it will be a quiet night with only the grain train on the out-board and no trains coming in on the in-board. As the afternoon crew leaves and the midnight crew takes over there are many wishes for a happy and prosperous new year between the two groups. It will be a quiet night but a long and, for some, a lonely night. This is a night that should have been spent celebrating with family and friends.
I know some of the staff may have sneaked in some mickeys which they will share surreptitiously with friends in the lunchroom or on the sly in the toilet area. As long as they don't over-imbibe and as long as they aren't obvious, the chief clerk will say nothing. But if the general yardmaster should suddenly show up, all bets are off, and anyone caught drinking would be sent home and then have brownie points or demerits assessed against their record. A certain number of those assessed would get you fired!
At about 7:45 a.m. in the morning, the day staff start showing up. Again greetings and well-wishes are exchanged. Some of the staff are obviously hung-over and it will be a long day for them because there will probably be only one or two freight trains scheduled. I head to the bus loop after my relief shows up. I will sleep on the 20 minute ride home and then when I get home, I will wish my mom and dad a Happy New Year and head for bed. My parents and I have pooled our rent money and we share a two bedroom suite on the third flooor of a house on Maryland Street near the Misericordia Hospital. My mom will wake me at 2:00p.m. and I will get ready for the afternoon shift which starts at 4:00p.m. It will be much busier at work as the railway starts to normalize its daily operations.
And thus the start of a New Year in Winnipeg, one year removed from the farm!
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