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:

Got any pictures?

This 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.

Front

Mvt.

Bezel removed

inside case

Serial# close-up