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Caption: A slide taken by my Dad and seeing how old my brothers are here, I will say the time is 1958. The best I can guess on location is in the Edmonton area. Lucky day for my siblings, getting to spend time at work with Dad. I spent a few days there myself in the early 60's when he worked in the coach repair yard located at the City yard in downtown Edmonton. Leaf sprung trucks, upright brake wheel, and a not to easy to use pin lifter, besides various other items not to be found on cars today. I'm surprised the wheels do not have the little fins on the back of them for cooling. I hope you enjoy this small piece of my family's rail history.
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Cool, did your brothers end up being railroaders as well?
You bet.
The oldest spent about a year on the signal gangs (not pictured). The fellows in the picture and myself worked as switchmen/brakemen. The one standing in the picture out did us all by working at CN and CP. The guy on the ladder has the most stories to tell as he worked out of Jasper for a year. He likes to brag as according to him he was on one of the first crews to take the new SD40′s west out of Edmonton. My Dad highly encouraged us all to work at CN as young single men, to earn money for going to school etc. He also advised not to make a career of railroading, when I quit in the 80′s, that closed the chapter on nearly 60 years and 3 generations of my family working there. Does anyone take their kids to work in this day? Unlikely. I do feel like I was born railroading, can’t say I am unhappy about it. A lifetime of enjoyment, even if most of it has been on the sidelines and not in the cab.
Ah, the visions of back in the days when we were all young and carefree…………