CHAPTER 18

First Train Crews

Calgary in the early days before 1900, Calgary did not mean very much as a Railway town. Gleichen and Canmore were the divisional points and trains crews lived in those towns. Calgary was only a coaling station. Through trains coaled up at the location where the Palliser hotel stands today, using a windlass and hand buckets.

In 1896 there was one Railway crew living in Calgary; Joe Barnes, the engineer; and Jimmy Falkner, the fireman.

Early in 1897, Calgary boasted two crews; Joe and Jimmy; and Archie MacLeod and William Nevin.

The C. & E. branch to Edmonton ran 3 mixed trains a week which left Calgary at 8 AM and arrived at Edmonton at 5 PM, and on the MacLeod branch there was also 3 trains a week.

D. J. Young a well-known Calgarian told me of his experiences as a passenger on those early trains to Edmonton. On one summer trip the weeds were so high along the right-of-way (there were no gravel roadbeds as today) that the train crew had to stop to cut the weeds because of wheels of the train were "greasing" the track when running over these weeds and the engine driving wheels just spun around.

I asked him what the passengers were doing. "Oh just out picking flowers, throwing rocks, browsing around"

In 1897 Calgary boasted three train crews; Paulie Elcombe, an engineer and George Monilaws a fireman as well as the other two crews.

In 1898 the year of the Klondike goldrush started, the C. & E. Train did quite a business. Hundreds went overland via Edmonton with their equipment and dog teams, but many never reached Dawson. It was that year the CPR started a daily service to Edmonton.

When the South route was first built, the CPR only went as far as MacLeod. From there to Lethbridge the stagecoach was the only means of public transportation. Before the CPR built the high-level bridge at Lethbridge in 1907, the railroad ran from MacLeod to St. Marys and back to Lethbridge.

Mrs. William Nevin vividly remembers the flood of 1902. She left MacLeod to come to Calgary. How long do you think it took her? Twenty-one days! The main line of the CPR was washed out. The engineer and fireman took a hand car and went from Nanton, where the train was stalled, to High River to get supplies. The boys were able to obtain just one case of beer and 2 dozen eggs in a paper bag.

When they reached the stranded train crew and passengers, most of the beer had disappeared and the boys were in a happy mood. Holding up the bag of eggs, the engineer said, "Look Folks, fresh eggs"

The paper bag by that time was much the worse for wear and the precious eggs dropped to the ground. Incidentally, one of those passengers was a little boy of 9 or 10 years of age. Harold (Torchy) Anderson who was formerly a reporter for the The Calgary Herald and later the editor of The Vancouver Province.

This story is an excerpt out of the book "Tales of the Old Town" written by the Calgary Herald in 1967, and was made up of articles that appeared in the paper.

Larry Buchan