P.O. Box 142, Big Valley, Alberta T0J 0G0
Dominion of Canada
Telephone: +1 403 876 2242
| Canadian Northern Society
P.O. Box 142, Big Valley, Alberta T0J 0G0 Dominion of Canada Telephone: +1 403 876 2242 |
The Canadian Northern Society’s annual general meeting will be held on Saturday, April 28. This year the meeting will be at the Meeting Creek station. The meeting begins at 13:00, but eager volunteers are encouraged to arrive early and stay after the meeting to help with spring clean-up and repair at the station and elevator site.
The Canadian Northern Society is pleased to report the following community support through its Mackenzie and Mann Fund in 2000:
The society would like to say “thank you” to:
The Canadian Northern Society has launched its site
on the World-Wide Web, canadiannorthern.ca. The site
contains a basic overview of the society’s people, facilities, and
activities. The site will gradually grow and expand, documenting such
things as the history of the Canadian Northern Railway, its principal
promoters, and the cities, towns, and villages that the railway
founded.
A complete archive of The Canora Chronicle is under development, and we also plan to add more detailed information on the society’s buildings and the other restoration projects we have been involved in. The site is your best source of up-to-date society news and information on upcoming events.
Mr. Keith A. Ewart of Saskatoon, a long-time Canadian Northern Society member, has recently donated a copy of his two-volume historical project entitled Going, Going, Gone: The Rural Railway Station in Saskatchewan to the Canadian Northern Society library and archives.
The two volumes are full of Keith’s own personal colour photographs, which tell the story of his last twenty years of research into railway stations in Saskatchewan. In addition to his work in compiling this excellent photographic record of the remaining depots in the province at the end of the 1990s, Keith has determined the fate of virtually all of the railway station buildings ever constructed in Saskatchewan. This information is contained in a companion document, which he has also kindly provided the society with.
Keith was one of the charter members of the Canadian Northern Society in 1986/7 and has contributed a great deal to our organization over the years, serving as a director in the late 1980s. He is also a member of the Saskatchewan Railway Museum, where he recently served as curator. Keith is retired and together with his wife Fran now lives in Saskatoon. We are honoured to have a copy of Keith’s work as part of the Canadian Northern Society archives for many to enjoy.
The annual Canadian Northern Night banquet in Big Valley was held on February 24, and it was a great success. The pot-luck style supper was veritable cornucopia of traditional prairie dishes and desserts, brought by members from both near and far. Thanks, all you wonderful cooks!
The after-dinner program included an Edmonton-Jasper slide show from Shawn Smith and a review of Camrose’s year by Glenys Smith.
Close to 400 images from one of Canada’s largest privately-owned archival collections are now on line with the launch of Canadian Pacific Railway’s newest web site: cprheritage.com.
The launch on February 16 coincided with the 120th anniversary of CPR’s incorporation.
The railway’s heritage web site is a showcase of some of the best photographs and graphic art from CPR’s archives in Montréal. Among them are an 1877 photograph of the Countess of Dufferin, the first steam locomotive to reach the Canadian Prairies; the world-famous photograph of the driving of the Last Spike in 1885; and a selection of the renowned CPR poster art and graphics throughout history.
“This web site is where the past and the present come together, where Canadian history meets cyberspace,” said Jonathan Hanna, CPR corporate historian.
“CPR has an important and rich heritage, which can now be shared with Canadians from coast to coast and the world at large. The archival web site provides wide access to not only the history of the railway but the history of Canada and its many communities, because the two are so inextricably intertwined.”
Like most web sites, cprheritage.com is considered a work in progress and is expected to evolve with input from those who visit the site and as more images are added in the years to come.
“The site provides a virtual tour of Canadian history. With one click, you’re looking at the Last Spike being driven. Another click and you’re looking at a Mountie in the Rockies during the settlement of the West. Keep clicking and you’ll see the communities, the people, the trains and the art of Canada through time,” said Doug Sephton, the graphic artist and web developer who designed the web site.
The railway envisions the web site as an electronic museum of its celebrated history, allowing employees, pensioners, and communities to re-establish their link to CPR history. As well, the web site is expected to generate commercial demand from historians, collectors, artists, designers, decorators, and even architects. Licensing agreements and purchases can be negotiated with CPR Archives.
The heritage web site is linked to cprstore.com, a site previously developed to provide links to the railway’s Calgary-based retail operation called Station 29, which markets CPR-related merchandise and memorabilia. These web sites are also linked to the railway’s flagship site, cpr.ca, which contains up-to-date information and news about the railway, its operations and services for employees, customers, the media and the public.
On March 23, 1911 the Canadian Northern
Railway announced to the Dominion that six daily passenger
trains will run coast to coast in 1914. Of course Camrose is
awaiting the completion of its connection with Calgary, via
Drumheller this year.
~ Camrose Canadian
We received the following note from H. Keith Shepherd, a society member from London, Ontario:
Please find enclosed my membership renewal for 2001. I wish to write and let the society know that I thoroughly enjoyed "A Retrospective (Revised)" by Ron Bailey that was carried in the latest issue of the Chronicle. I am really looking forward to the next installment. My father was also a locomotive engineer—working out of Mirror, Alberta, on freight service to Edmonton. Later in the 1940s, he moved to Calgary and ran the Calgary-to-Edmonton passenger train from Calgary to Big Valley. June Webster of Big Valley is a cousin of mine...
We’re glad you enjoyed it and are pleased to present the conclusion in this edition.
by Ron Bailey. Part 1 of Ron’s reminiscences appeared in the last Chronicle. Read the complete article at canadiannorthern.ca.
On January 5, 1934, I acquired a baby brother. In those days there were no daycare institutions to deposit me while Mother was in the hospital. One night during this period Dad got called to fire a midnight freight to Regina. There was no alternative but to take me along. It was a bitterly cold night as we disembarked from the Exhibition streetcar at Nutana Yard. The “hogger” that night was a tough old rounder who looked askance at me when I showed up with my dad. Then the head-end brakeman staggered up to the engine; he was obviously suffering a tremendous hangover, and the conductor had kicked him out of the caboose. He promptly climbed up and occupied the seat in front of the fireman and went to sleep. This was where I was meant to sit. Dad found an old caboose cushion and fixed me a seat on top of the water pail.
Engine 2818 was an ancient old hog with a Southern valve gear and a California cab. Only a canvas gangway curtain would keep out the blowing snow. It promised to be a long cold trip. The “hogger” was known to be a “rapper,” a term used to describe an engineer who never seemed to get the Johnson bar hooked up properly. This was particularly stressful for the fireman, especially on a heavy grade, as there was coming up out of the Blackstrap Ravine on the Hanley Hill.
It was on occasions like this that the head-end brakeman usually got down to give the struggling fireman a hand. Not tonight though. That lazy s.o.b., sound asleep next to the warm backhead didn’t wake up until we arrived at the yard limit at Regina. In the meantime Bill Bailey was down on the deck bailing coal into that hungry monster. I was freezing to death on the top of the water pail, but in the firebox glow I could see a patch of moisture appear on the back of Dad’s overall smock. I knew that the sweat off his back was running down the crack of his ass, but I never heard Dad make a disparaging remark about anybody even in circumstances like this.
We looked forward to the fall of the year and the annual grain rush to the Lakehead. If sufficient work occurred during that period and my father made a few extra runs we might make a train trip to Vancouver. I can recall crawling in between the starched linen sheets of the upper berth in the sleeping car and listening to the exhaust of a Mountain-class locomotive leading us along the canyons of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers.
My dad had an obsession about accepting welfare or relief of any kind. It was for this reason we saw so little of him during the Depression years. Whenever working out of Saskatoon, despite the fact that Mom would make a lunch twice as large as usual, he would oft times return home nearly famished after giving away his lunch to some poor hobo riding on the tender. We would constantly be treated to a succession of poor, wandering souls that Dad would befriend and bring home to share our already meagre rations. He would always insist on finding a task for them so they wouldn’t feel they were taking charity. Usually this work took the form of painting the storm windows. By the time the Depression was over those windows were so heavy I could barely lift them into place in the fall of the year.
The extremity of my universe in those years extended from Port Arthur, Ontario, to Vancouver, B.C. In 1939 the dimensions of that universe expanded considerably and so did the railway business. All of a sudden there was a shortage of locomotive engineers, and the old man who had been on the tramp for the previous decade now found himself on a passenger run. Nos. 5 and 6 ran between Saskatoon and North Battleford. Two locomotives, 5130 and 5140, were assigned to the Regina-to-Edmonton portion of this run. They would remain with him for fifteen years.
In 1942 I joined the Navy. Dad and 5140 arrived in Saskatoon the evening I was to leave for overseas. It was winter on the prairie, and No. 4, the train that would take me to Halifax, was hours late. Mother did not come down to the station in the middle of the night. Dad and I stood on the cold platform as No. 4 whistled for the 33rd Street diamond. He didn’t burden me with any fatherly advice—it was too late for that now.
When I returned at war’s end Dad and 5140 were still together. They remained so until Bill Bailey made his last run in 1955. Shortly thereafter a diesel appeared on the head end of No. 6, and 5140 like a dog without its master disappeared from the prairie forever.
I enrolled in university and with a degree in civil engineering began working for CN myself at the Western Regional headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In 1957, a couple of years after Dad had retired, a railroad friend of mine while vacationing in the Maritimes found 5140 languishing away in a ballast pit near Moncton, New Brunswick, awaiting the scrapper’s torch. Knowing my sentimental attachment, he borrowed a ball-peen hammer and a coal chisel and went out one night and removed the heavy brass number plate. It now occupies a prominent place of repose in the den of my home, a reminder of a great locomotive and the man who ran it. The golden age of steam spawned a particular breed of iron men to whom railroading was not so much an occupation but a whole way of life. I am proud to be an offspring of one of them.
During the time I was concluding my remarks to the Big Valley assembly, the Alberta Prairie engine crew had run around their train and positioned No. 41 for departure north to Stettler. In due course the conductor called out the traditional “all aboard” and my audience entrained accordingly. With two short whistle blasts and a cloud of smoke and steam the train moved slowly from the station. I listened to the laboured exhaust and the mournful wail of the whistle as the excursion train climbed north out of the big valley and disappeared in the distance. I was left alone once again to contemplate a scene reminiscent of a simpler, gentler, kinder time, which regrettably will never ever return.
The Canadian Northern Society is encouraging new and long-time members alike to get involved in the day-to-day activities of the society, and experience the rewards of providing benefits to the community through the preservation of our prairie heritage. We can use your help once per week, month or even once per year!
Do any of the following committees interest you?
Camrose Railway Park (Station, Tea room, and library)
Meeting Creek Railway Station and Grain Elevator/Donalda Station
Big Valley Railway Station and Roundhouse Interpretive Centre
Fund-raising Committee
Canadian Railway Hall of Fame
The Canora Chronicle
Finance and Audit
Special Projects: Hanna Station, etc.
New Members
The society would like to welcome:
Roy Lindridge, George Boos, Norm Tayler and James Handford from Camrose.
Welcome aboard!
In 1901, His Majesty in right of the province of Manitoba purchased two railway lines from the North Pacific and Manitoba Railway, between Winnipeg and Portage La Prairie and between Morris and Hartney. These lines were then leased to the Canadian Northern Railway for 999 years, in exchange for the railway accepting provincial regulation of freight rates between Winnipeg and Port Arthur.
Maintained by Dean Tiegs.