August 01, 2013, 15:13
Lorne WasylishenBall Hamilton ~ M#999B ~ Variant 2
I've taken to pestering widows, children and grandchildren of former railroaders in hope of documenting some of the watches used on the C.N.R. here in Smithers B.C.
Most recently:
August 01, 2013, 15:54
Lorne WasylishenThis watch belonged to Conductor John T. Wright
Hired on Sept. 22, 1949
Wrote up as a Conductor Sept. 29, 1953
Retired Dec. 31, 1983
John was an old school railroader all the way, no short-cuts when you worked with him.
He wore striped coveralls and smoked a pipe at work. The pipe was rarely lit but he always had it in his mouth, even when we were switching.
I hired out on the mainline where there was very little switching so when I moved up here there was a bit of a learning curve as we had to make up our own train every trip. The curve was a bit steeper when working with John as he was not easy to understand while explaining switching moves with the pipe in his mouth.