My second road trip as “the Engineer” took place in the late 1940’s or early 50’s when I was still in my mid twenties. The train was No. 77 which was called “The Merchandise North” and was due to leave the outskirts of Calgary at 2430 and arrive in Red Deer at 0520. The Fireman that was called for the run was a young fellow that had just recently been promoted from a job wiping in the roundhouse. Our locomotive was a 4-6-2 Pacific class G2s, an oil burner that the C.P.R. built in 1910. This was not a Calgary engine but had just come out of Ogden shop after having had a complete overhaul and new paint job and had to make a few trips to wear in the new bearings and to make sure that everything else was working OK before being sent to its home terminal. When I saw our engine with its shiny paint job I walked all the way back to the locomotive foreman’s office to ask if there was a speed restriction (usually 20 mph for the first 200 miles) on any recently rebuilt loco. The answer was it had already made a trip and that I could run it as fast as track conditions would allow.
There is no way that I can recall just what time we were called for but I do remember that it was very early on a Sunday morning before any transit buses were running, and that I rode my bike the more then five miles to the roundhouse. Nor do I recall what time we left Alyth yard but I do remember that the conductor’s name was Jim Molineux who regularly worked to Red Deer Subdivision.
What I do recall is that the 2592 was an oil burner locomotive and had a Worthington feed water system. Therefore I decided to stop and fill the 8,000 gal. tender at the first water tank which was at Airdrie, just 19 miles from our starting point. This was because I knew that oil burning engines tended to use more water then those burning coal and I also didn’t know how efficient that Worthington feed water system was. I also wanted to check and oil the running gear and add a couple of sticks of grease to the big ends. Once the tank was full I knew that we wouldn’t need to take water again between there and Red Deer. (Photo above of 2592 at Alyth shop track October 1944, photographer unknown)
My careful calculations showed that we would have enough time to get to Carstairs for a meet on a superior southbound passenger train if I didn’t waste any precious minutes getting
this full tonnage train to the top of the grade at Crossfield and if the fireman was able to keep up a full head of steam. He seemed to be doing all right so far. From the Crossfield summit it was down hill the next 10 miles almost to the south switch at Carstairs. When we tipped over the top of the grade I really let that old hog roll, even though the freight train speed was only 35 mph. Better to get caught going too fast then to be nailed for being on short time for a meet on a passenger train. An engineer could get 10 brownies for exceeding the speed limit and at least 20 demerit marks for being on short time - thus there was a gain of 10 points on that deal.
About five miles north of Crossfield the train was going at least 45 or 50 per as we went around a long left hand curve approaching the siding of Wessex when all of a sudden the air went (the train went into emergency). I figured that conductor Molineux didn’t think we had enough time to get to Carstairs and had pulled the emergency cord and that his timing couldn’t have been better. The engine stopped just short of the south switch at Wessex siding.
When I had recovered the air (Pumped up the train line and released the brakes) and was ready to pull ahead into the passing track (there wasn’t time to go to Carstairs now) the fireman called over to say he could see that our caboose was sitting about six cars behind the last car on our train. How the “H” had that happened? Now we had to back up, tie onto the van, then pull into the hole for that meet on the southbound passenger. After we were safely tucked away Molineux walked up to the head end and this was his story. He had figured that we could make it to Carstairs OK but as the train rattled around the curve a mile and a half to the south it was evident that a brake shoe had become dislodged from the tank car right in front of the caboose, and at the speed we were going it hit the ties and bounced back up to hit the coupler operating lever and thus uncoupled his car from the rest of the train. That’s what made the air go.
I was just as happy stay where we were, at Wessex, for the passenger meet because the last half mile into Carstairs was uphill and if I had stopped for the switch it would have been difficult to get the train going again. That high wheeled Pacific locomotive had 70 inch drivers, great for speed but not so good for starting a train. While at Wessex I again oiled the locomotive running gear and checked the rod brasses to make sure they were not overheating.
After the “Wheels” (the southbound passenger train) went by at Wessex it was clear sailing for us to Red Deer or so I thought. The train got rolling along very well down through the next dip and across the fairly level area between the grain elevators and the town of Carstairs and we were able to maintain a good speed up the next grade to the north, then it was 3 ½ miles downhill to Didsbury. I remembered to keep our drag in check down that grade by setting the air brakes as we approached the yard limits and rounded the last curve at the south end of Didsbury until I could see that the main track was clear.
But it wasn’t! There was the caboose sitting less then a half mile ahead of my engine. That caboose had a train complete with a large 2300 Pacific locomotive coupled to it and it just sat
there looking at us. Finally after I got my train stopped the brakeman from the train ahead had opened the siding switch and signaled for us to pull ahead up into the track along side of them. I pulled up to beside the locomotive that was on the main line and was greeted by my boss, the “Master Mechanic”. He looked at me suspiciously probably thinking “who let this young inexperienced Hoghead out on the road?”
The story was that the much newer and heavier 2300 locomotive had an air compressor failure and therefore couldn’t move without help from us so both trains were coupled together with my engine on the head end and after everything was pumped up I walked back to ask the other engineer, an older fellow by the name of Earl Calkins, if he would like to trade engines and operate the air brakes the rest of the way to Red Deer. He just told me that the 2592 was my locomotive and that he was sure that I could get us to the terminal OK. He had more confidence in me then I had in myself. He also said that he would work his larger engine hard to get us going but that after that it was up to me to control our speed down the grades and over to Innisfail where we would have to stop for him to fill his tender, he hadn’t stopped and filled at Airdrie like I had.
So I just asked him what was the earliest time that we could arrive at the water tank and when I had that information we were ready to take off northbound from Didsbury. So with the town church bells and the two locomotive bells ringing, and our whistles blowing, the black smoke billowed back over all those good church going people that noisy Sunday morning we charged out of town.
No time was wasted in traveling the twenty-nine miles to the water stop, at Innisfail, where with good luck I managed the air brakes well enough to spot Calkins loco. right under the spout where his fireman only filled the tender half way (enough to get him the 18 miles to Red Deer). Then away we went through a blinding prairie summer rain and thunder storm to arrive at our terminal Red Deer, get the train yarded then put both engines on the shop track.
My fireman and I along with Calkins and his fireman were walking toward the booking-in office at the roundhouse when who should appear but the Master Mechanic. When our two firemen saw him they just took off for the bunk-house (Master Mechanic’s can be scary people). Austin Langdon’s (the MM) first words were to ask if us fellows thought that those engines had wings? It seems that he had left Didsbury in his small English car (a 1949- A40 Austin) and we had left Innisfail before he got there. Then he had driven as fast as he dared, through that rain storm, only to have us beat he and his small car to Red Deer. Then he turned to me and said that he was under the impression that my newly overhauled locomotive was limited to 20 mph. My reply was that I had checked that out before leaving the Alyth roundhouse and also that I had greased the rods at Airdrie and again at Wessex and that the engine was running just great with no overheating whatsoever. With that he bluntly told me to get lost because he wanted to talk to Calkins.
I followed the firemen’s example and headed for the bunkhouse and when Calkins came in I was anxious to hear what Langdon had to ball him out about. Engineer Calkins then told me that the Master Mechanic just wanted to ask him how good, or bad, an engineer he thought I was going to be with a bit more practice and he also told Calkins that he wasn’t to tell me what their conversation was about. Earl said that he told Langdon that in his opinion young Yeats was starting out to be a dam good “Hoghead”. He then said to me that naturally he wouldn’t keep any secrets from a fellow engineer.
I don’t recall the return trip to Calgary but I seem to recall that it was on the same oil burning Pacific locomotive numbered 2592 and that we had managed to keep the train in one piece all the 94 miles to our home terminal.
My second road trip as “the Engineer” took place in the late 1940’s or early 50’s when I was still in my mid twenties. The train was No. 77 which was called “The Merchandise North” and was due to leave the outskirts of Calgary at 2430 and arrive in Red Deer at 0520. The Fireman that was called for the run was a young fellow that had just recently been promoted from a job wiping in the roundhouse. Our locomotive was a 4-6-2 Pacific class G2s, an oil burner that the C.P.R. built in 1910. This was not a Calgary engine but had just come out of Ogden shop after having had a complete overhaul and new paint job and had to make a few trips to wear in the new bearings and to make sure that everything else was working OK before being sent to its home terminal. When I saw our engine with its shiny paint job I walked all the way back to the locomotive foreman’s office to ask if there was a speed restriction (usually 20 mph for the first 200 miles) on any recently rebuilt loco. The answer was it had already made a trip and that I could run it as fast as track conditions would allow.
