While working at the Canadian National Railways(CNR), I was in my 3 years of employment there always working "off the spareboard". This meant that I never had a steady job. I was always called up hours,or rarely, days before to report to a certain yard to do a certain job at a certain time. This meant I would report and work one shift for which I would receive the pay that a regular person working that job on a full-time basis would receive. The day was split up into 3 parts with shifts starting at 8:00, 16:00 and 24:00 or in layman's terms 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and at midnight.
Because I learned the jobs I was assigned to quickly and performed them well, I was considered to be a great asset to the spare board. I had worked all the jobs that could be worked off the spare board and I had an advantage over some of the other members on the spare board who had more seniority than I did because not all of them could do all the jobs. Thus I was often called ahead of more senior members simply because I could work the shift required and they couldn't because they lacked the expertise.
However there was one job that I could do but I would never receive a call for and that was being a chauffeur. I did not only not have a chauffeur's license, I did not have a regular driver's license. While I could drive any car or truck or van because of my driving experience dating back to when my Dad taught me to drive a car at age 12 and the fact that I had been driving the farm truck and doing farming operations with a tractor since I was 8, legally I could not drive a CNR van because I had never got a driver's license.
The reason for that was my failure at age 16 to pas my driving test on my first and only attempt to get a license back in Saskatchewan in the small city of Yorkton. I was failed on a technicality. The week I was taking my test, new traffic lights had just been installed which had a green arrow for a right turn. I aced my test but at the light where I was to make a right turn on the green arrow, I slowed down, saw that there was no traffic coming from my left, and made my turn.
When we got back to the testing headquarters, my driving tester said he had to check on something with his boss. It turns out that he didn't know either that the new rule for a right turn on a red light with a right turn arrow was that you had to come to a dead stop, see that there was no oncoming traffic, and then proceed to make your turn. He had to check the rule with his boss. After about 15 minutes of discussion it was ruled I had gone through a red light resulting in an automatic fail.
My dad was not amused with this decision. Really? Being failed on a technicality that even the examiner was unsure of. Needless to say he voiced his opinion of the examiner crew chief and that led me to believe that if ever I went back for a re-test here, my chances of success would be slim and none.
I managed to get along without a license quite fine on the farm and when I moved to Winnipeg, getting around in the city was fairly easy and decidedly cheap. Buses ran often and covered lots of territory.
One night when I was working as a car checker in the Local Yard in Symington, I got a call at the Local Tower to contact the chief clerk at the yard office ASAP. With my interest peaked, I did so. The chief was a young man in his early thirties - about 15 years younger than most of the other staff he was supervising. Like me, he, too, was one of the "new wunderkinder".
He advised me that his chauffeur had not showed up for his 20:00 to 04:00 assignment and that he was desperate for a driver to take a train crew from Symington to the Union Depot where they would be crewing the SuperContinental passenger from Winnipeg to Saskatoon. It was already 22:00 hours and they were slated to leave at 22:30. A taxicab could be ordered but the company was loath to guarantee a quick or efficient pickup. Could I drive them was his next question to me.
I replied that I could but that I had no driver's license. He was so desperate that he asked me to quickly run to the yard office which was about a kilometre from the tower I was in. He would lend me his driver's license and the crew would already be in the van. He said that he was desperate and that if we couldn't get the crew there as soon as possible, the company would likely be handing out a lot of demerit points or "brownies" as we referred to them.
I ran as quickly as my 20 year old legs would carry me. Arriving at the van almost completely out of breath, I speechlessly accepted his license and the keys and got almost pushed behind the steering wheel all the while being aware of the crew's "What the heck is going on?" stares.
Accelerating quickly and smoothly I powered the 9-passenger van onto Lagimodiere Boulevard and headed for Marion Street all the while checking my mirrors for signs of Winnipeg's efficient police force. I drove smoothly and at speed limit down Marion Street heading for Main and Broadway. As we crossed the Red River where Marion ran into Main Street, I was passed by a police cruiser in a big hurry. They "blew" by me without a second glance. With a quiet sigh of relief, I turned into the parking lot behind the Depot where the crew disembarked and quickly made their way to the passenger train which was quietly idling on the track in the station awaiting its crew.
Now I had to get back to Symington Yard taking the same route in reverse. Fortunately for me I encountered no police and was not involved in any kind of an accident. The fact that the hour was now late, there was hardly any traffic on the streets of Winnipeg in that year of 1962.
Back at the yard office, I attempted to give the chief clerk his driver's license and the van keys. He said I should hang on to the keys because I was going to be doing the whole shift as a chauffeur but now all my trips would only involve driving in Symington Yard picking up and delivering crews to the various freight trains that were leaving and arriving in the yard. He also said I would be getting 4 of those chauffeur hours at time and a half because i had already worked most of my 16:00 to 24:00 shift as a car checker. Bonus! And I got to drive a van around the yard rather than hoofing it as a car checker often has to. Ah, life was sweet!
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