Caption: Winter 1993-1994 was a tough one for CP on the prairies, with deep cold causing delays due to malfunctioning locomotives, and to address that, mechanical department “riders” were sent to accompany trains to ensure they kept moving. One rider sent to Moose Jaw was me, three weeks in February and March of 1994, and for a west coast kid, it was colder than ever experienced before or since! But the open landscape and mostly clear skies and especially the outstandingly welcoming people made it memorable.

On Thursday 1994-03-03, symbol train 953 from Moose Jaw west to Swift Current (essentially a wayfreight) had a known malperformer, SD40-2 5625, soon discovered to have a mis-set governor causing the engine to be overloaded at full throttle and die. At Mortlach, 25 miles from Moose Jaw, we took the siding to meet 5672 and 5779 east at 1016 CST. Conductor on the ground, engineer still on the engine, PK OK, highball.